Catching Budgie (Need help ASAP please)

[BlooBloo]

Yeah, I think the issue really comes down to that he probably does not know how to find his way back inside. My girl is out all the time and has no trouble going back on her or when urged to, he on the other hand is much, much less tame and this is the first time he came out though he has had countless opportunities to if he wanted to.

It did not seem to be voluntary as it started in a scuffle and he simply flew out to escape, since then he has seemed pretty disoriented. He was clearly very hungry when I gave him some food as he had been ostensibly without for nearly 16 hours at that point, I have put millet and his food bowl by the cage door in hopes he will go there but he mostly remains sitting on top of the cage.

I probably will consider getting his wings clipped so the next time he comes out won't be such a mess.

Nothing is new around the cage apart from my moving some food to the door in hopes of enticing him over. He has calmed down a lot since last night but shows no signs of finding his way inside despite his cage-mate going in and out throughout the day.

 

[noodles123]

Have you tried moving the cage closer to where he is? Maybe putting food on top of the cage and then leaving the food on the door as well?

 

[BlooBloo]

He is sitting on top of the right now actually. There's food on the door.

 

[noodles123]

Hopefully he will go in on his own then lol. Good luck!

 

[munami]

I've been following this thread! IT looks like you at least made some progress! Good luck for the rest of the way.

 

[BlooBloo]

Finally!

He found the food bowl and made his way inside of the cage, that's such a relief. I probably overreacted a bit but I get concerned about having them outside when I'm not around or have to open the door.

Thanks for the advice everyone. Problem solved.

 

[EllenD]

I'm glad you finally got him back inside...Now you need to really work on some things here so this won't happen again, and more importantly so that you can start earning his trust and bonding with him...And the first step and the main reason why you're not bonding with him at all is because he's only been out of his cage twice in the time you've had him..The female is giving you her trust and bonding with you because you have her out "all the time" with you...I know it's a "Catch-22" with non-handraised Budgies and parrots in-general sometimes, like you can't let them out because you can't get them back in because they aren't hand-tamed, but at the same time if you don't let them out every day and interact with them every day outside of their "territory", which is their cage, then you're never going to earn their trust and bond with them...

I have owned, hand-tamed, bred, and hand-raised both English and American Budgies for 32 years, since I was 6 years-old, when my mom bred and hand-raised a male English Budgie that was to be my very first pet/parrot, and who lived to be just 19 years old...So I feel your pain. It's important that you know two things and keep them in-mind at all times so that you don't get frustrated and give-up on him: #1) What you are going through with your Budgie is extremely common and actually is "The Norm" when it comes to people who bring home non-tame Budgies, and your male Budgie is not at all "a lost case" or in any way abnormal, just the opposite, and then #2) 1-2 months of ownership of a non-tame, non hand-raised Budgie is no time at all, even if he was being let out of his cage every day and interacted with by you every day; the average time it takes to really tame a non-tame Budgie is between 4-6 months, and usually longer if you have more than one Budgie and they live together in the same cage. So it's extremely important that you not get frustrated, lose your patience, and give-up on him, because that is what happens in probably 95% or more of the cases where people buy a non-tame, parent-raised Budgie from a pet store or breeder who doesn't hand-raise...they give-up on them quickly, after only 2-3 months, and then they get re-homed/sold and then that starts a cycle of them going from home to home to home, and is also the reason why most people think that Budgies only have a lifespan in-captivity of between 5-10 years at most, because they die very young of either a horrible, all-junk-seed diet that causes Fatty Liver Disease, and/or they just spend their short lives sitting inside a cage getting no exercise, no stimulation psychologically or emotionally, and they die, when they should easily live to be 15 years-old or longer in-captivity...

***Even though my opinion on hand-taming/earning the trust of/bonding with non-tame, non hand-raised Budgies is not the popular opinion, I'm sticking with it because #1) I've done it dozens of times with non-tame Budgies and it has ALWAYS worked, and then more-importantly #2) If it keeps people from re-homing their Budgies and starting the endless-cycle of "Re-Homing Hell" that most non-tame Budgie go through for their entire (and too-short) lives, then it's well-worth doing, especially since it doesn't hurt them at all, is completely temporary, and will absolutely result in positive-results in a shorter period of time than anything else does...I absolutely would get your male Budgie's wings clipped ASAP, of course by someone who knows what they are doing, like your Certified Avian Vet, a Breeder, a Bird Shop employee who does it all the time, etc., under the condition that you REQUEST/DEMAND that they only clip the outermost 5-6 Primary Flight-Feathers on BOTH wings and that's it, no more. You do not want anyone who doesn't know what they are doing clipping his wings, nor do you want them to clip anymore than the outer 5-6 Primary Flight-Feathers, and they must clip BOTH WINGS EQUALLY...Some people still insist on clipping only one wing, which they used to do up until the late-80's/early-90's when they finally wised-up and realized that it was causing severe Spinal-damage, muscle-weakness on the entire side of the bird's body that isn't clipped, and oh yeah, they fall to the ground like a rock, but not before they crash into all kinds of things first because they have no control at all, lol...So BOTH WINGS must be clipped equally, and they should not ever go into the Secondaries, nor clip anymore than the outer 5-6 Primaries on each wing...If you request/demand that this conservative clip is done, then that will give you about 2 months or so before they grow back-in and he can fly again to work with him and get him to the point where you are letting him out of his cage every single day, interacting with him every single day, getting him to learn how to come out of his cage whenever you open up the door and take a step back, and then also how to go back into the cage when it's time to go back in, etc. Basically it's time for you to earn his trust and allow him to start living life outside of his cage and actually becoming a flockmate and family member. I do not at all advise keeping your bird's wings clipped indefinitely/forever unless there is some kind of situation with you or someone in your house that creates a potential safety-issue for the bird, such as a disability or something similar, or some other valid reason to do so. But I certainly do not think it's at all a bad thing to clip their wings temporarily in-order for them to be able to come out of their cages every day for the hours that they should be able to, to earn their trust and be able to work with them every day, which is often impossible to do while they are inside of their "territory", meaning their cages, because they often don't want your hands inside of their cages and that's all they focus on and will never trust you as long as you're doing it.

The worst thing you can do as far as ruining your relationship with your Budgie or losing any trust that you have earned from him is to chase him around the room/the house trying to get him to go back into his cage, especially with a towel or something similar. Every time you do this it moves you further and further backwards with him...But it's also terrible to not let him outside of his cage every single day or to never interact with him. So temporarily clipping his wings is a solution that works, but only if you take full-advantage of every single day you have while he can't fly, which again should only be about 2 months or so. I also advise that if you haven't already done so, that you move his/their cage into the main-room of your home, or the room that you and the rest of the humans in your home spend most of their time whenever they are home...Usually this is the living-room, family-room, TV-room, etc. This helps tremendously in the process of earning their trust, simply by having them be around you all the time, have people walking past their cage, hearing you talk all the time, etc., even when you're not directly-interacting with them, you're passively-interacting with them. Plus, they are extremely social "Flock-Animals" who in the wild do the same thing, they are always in the same area as the rest of their Flockmates even if they are talking to them or sitting right next to them, they are always near them/among them and close enough to always hear them and usually see them...So putting your bird's cage in some spare-bedroom or "bird-room", at least when you first bring them home, especially a non-tame bird, works against you...

***Also, if you are certain that you have a male and a female Budgie, you need to think about separating them into their own, individual cages...I don't know how old they both are, but if they are at least a year-old and have already gone through puberty/are sexually-mature, then it's only a matter of time before they either start mating and the female starts laying fertile-eggs, they don't mate but the female starts laying infertile-eggs due to being housed with a male, or the opposite happens, they start becoming aggressive with each other...The other issue is what Noodles already mentioned...If they are not yet at least a year-old and have not yet gone through puberty, then their relationship with each other and with you are both going to change DRASTICALLY once they do go through puberty...And what that means is you'll probably end-up with either fertile-eggs being laid, which is horrible for the health of your female and a pain for you because you'll have to remove them each to boil them, then put them back and allow her to lay on the clutch for as long as she wants to, then when she stops throw them out and hope she stops, etc. or you'll end-up with two Budgies who fight and hurt each other, or even kill each other eventually...And as Noodles mentioned, if they bond-closely with each other after they go through puberty, then the chances are that neither of them are going to want anything to do with you at all, regardless of what their relationship with you is right now prior to sexual-maturity.

 

[Shrub]

I dunno if this would help. When I first got my parakeet, she wasn't tamed at all. She got out and would find high places to perch/hide and new area, new cage she didn't know where to go and would often sit on top of the fridge (highest place) think for safety so she could see the area. My husband would have to use a towel to catch her and gently hold her and take her back to the cage in the towel. We used a green towel, it was her towel. (So we didn't use for other things and it was always available when needed) until we didn't need it any more.

 

[BlooBloo]

Thanks again for the advice, everyone! I'm a little with the responses here because it's been super busy but I totally appreciate all the advice, I am looking into finding some place I could clip his wings but I worry a little because he seems to disinterested to come out in general. He only came outside this time because he was accidentally chased out during a scuffle with the girl. Their names are Tyr and Svea.

Svea is very active and social, she likes having my attention and will hop on my finger while inside the cage but usually just as a springboard unless I happen to have a treat for her. While outside she won't come on my finger though, but she likes to be close, like sitting on the monitor if I'm on my PC.

I've managed to get Tyr on my finger more consistently now in the past few days while I got treats and he's much more tolerant of my hand coming near the cage. I'm happy for the progress I've made so far although it sometimes feels like things aren't coming along past a certain point. But I know it can take a while, I had a pair of birds a few years ago and they bonded with me very well.