[Absentminded]

Short question. Is it even possible to tame a pet store bird raised by birds like a hand fed budgie?

I had to raise 4 from day 1 after hatching. These birds adore us. When we get home, they swarm us like a scene from a Hitchcock movie, except it is death by budgie love and kisses. Their preferred perch is a human.
Our pet store birds watch this play out in horror. No more than stepping up achieved in two years. Is this par for the course?

 

[Therm]

If the pet shop bought budgie was not as well socialised with human contact when younger it can make a difference but the majority of my birds come from pet shops and they level of tameness is different with each one. Some don't have anything to do with me, others will step up (I have done no real training to make them tame either). Personality plays a huge part. Some budgies prefer their own space.

 

[FaeryBee]

Each budgie is a unique individual. A lot depends on how much time you spend with the individual bird on a regular and consistent basis.
However, as Them indicated, some budgies are people oriented and others are not.

Edit to Add:
By the way, Co-parenting rather than Hand Feeding is best when it comes to breeding and raising budgies.
Budgies need to have the interaction with their own species to learn how to "be budgies".
That socialization process is lost when breeders pull the chicks at 3 1/2 weeks for hand feeding.

http://talkbudgies.com/articles-budgie-breeding/336209-planned-co-parenting-raising-tame-chicks.html

 

[BooksBudgies]

I agree that a lot has to do with the Budgie's temperament. It does help if they are socialized when they are younger, but I think personality is the major factor. Hermes loves interacting with people and I got him from a bird store when he was about 8 weeks old (don't believe he was hand-fed). Izzy likes her own space and I got her from a pet store when she was a few months old. Yes, Izzy was a little older when I got her, but not by much. She is just a flightier bird and doesn't care for humans as much.

By the way, it's so sweet that your budgies care for you so much! That sounds like a great way to be greeted when coming home

 

[RavensGryf]

Yep. What others have said. I've noticed too, that some budgies will tame down quite easily with little work, and others remain basically wild no matter what. This holds true for both parent raised birds as well as ones co-parented with humans (hand fed). Depends on the individual.

 

[SmolBirb]

Yes definitely depends on the personality of each individual bird.

My budgie Smol is from a pet store and he's making fantastic progress in the taming department! You just need to have patience and work together with your budgie. But yeah like any pet, personality will ultimately decide how progressive taming will go. For instance, I've had dogs my entire life, and each one was different in how much they wanted to be touched or cuddled.

So I think what it really boils down to is respecting each animal's certain traits, and working together with those traits to train them in the way that their personality coincides with.