Taming when the bird just wants the treat

Start from scratch with a millet spray. Try and use the same procedure and hand each time. Slowly reach your hand into his cage with the millet between your thumb and forefinger and let him start to munch on it. As he's pulling seeds off the spray, talk to him in a calm, quiet voice. Do this for a couple of days and make sure he does not cower when your hand and the millet enter his cage. Move onto holding millet between your first and second finger when you feed / train him. Make the piece smaller, maybe and inch long or so. Move slowly and he will eventually reach over your index finger to reach the millet. Have your palm facing up. After he's comfortable with this, move the millet to between your ring finger and middle finger and have him reach for it. He won't be able to resist and while he's reaching he will put one foot on your index finger to access the millet easier. A few days of this and he'll be stepping on your hand before you know it. The key is to work with your budgie regularly, you can't do it once or twice a week etc. and expect him to learn. After he learns to eat millet from you hand you can become creative and feed him seeds or pellets one at a time by hand if you like. You want him to associate you with food and treats. Be careful to go easy on the millet- it has a high fat content and is not very nutritious. Make sure his main food dish is pellets, NOT seeds! An all seed diet is to be avoided. Good luck and I hope this helps!

sky__1y said:

Ok I just tried this and he has zero issue stepping up on my finger as long as I have millet. He only is scared of my hands when I don't have any food

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That's great! Your well on you way to gaining his confidence! Most important is to keep up this type of training and give him as much attention and praise as you can. Before you know it you won't be able to leave the room without him following you and landing on your shoulder! Make sure you talk to him reassuringly when doing the finger training with millet. For the time being, don't give him ANY millet unless it's during this training. Jeffery (my budgie) learned this was in only a few days and slowly gained the courage to explore his surroundings and determine they and me were safe. You can modify this rule after he's tamed. I use Zupreme pellets for small birds (not the fruit variation because of all the food coloring) as his regular food and feed him dried greens because he would never eat vegetables. Make sure your guy always has access to clean water. Bottled water is better than tap water. I only give Jeffery about two very small (3/4" - 1") pieces of millet a day in oneof his bottle caps that he considers 'toys' to make sure he stays hungry enough to eat his pellets and not relapse back to the seed diet pet stores keep their birds on. Also while your doing your millet training you can pick out a short two or three word phrase and repeat it while he's eating and there's a very good chance he will start to mimic you after a while but sadly there is no guarantee. The most important thing to remember is to pay as much attention as possible and spend as much time as possible with your budgie to change him from an ornamental bird into a tame, bonded wonderful pet. You might consider getting him a small playgym (very inexpensive online) so he has a reason to come out of his cage which will invite interaction with you and provide him with exercise both mentally and physically.

Also, I'm assuming you have only one bird so it's imperative that you DO NOT put a mirror in his cage! Single budgies will make friends and mate with the 'budgie in the mirror' and you will be hard pressed to make any progress at all in trying to tame him. Once again, he has to learn that you are his source of tasty food and mental stimulation. You can have some shiny surfaces on his toys that you keep in his playgym OUTSIDE of his cage. After he's bonded with you and comes out of his cage to play with his toys, you, etc. seeing another bird in a small mirrored toy will not cause a relapse. Best of luck and keep up the good work!