Help with alexandrine

[Kylien88]

Hi guys, I’ve had my parakeet for 5 days now. He’s 4 months old and we bought him from a pet shop.. this is our first parakeet and was just wanted abit of advice. He seems very nervous, and moves away whenever I approach his cage. I was told he would need a week to settle in so I’m trying to be quite with slow movements around him but he just seems scared. Is this normal, will he settle down and when do you think putting my hand in to feed him would b approprais? I don’t want to distress him. Also, he sits quietly for long periods of times just staring? Is this normal?

 

[LordTriggs]

have you got toys in his cage? If not get something in there for him to do

if he's nervous go slowly with him sit by the cage and just talk to him, get him used to being there so he can understand you're not there to hurt him. It is a scary time for him and he needs to let himself know not to be scared, you just need to go at his pace which will be glacial right now, his DNA is screaming at him to be afraid of you) there's unfortunately not set time for them to come around, some can be fine within a couple minutes, others can take months to warm up to people.

I would wait to offer food with your hand in the cage and instead offer food through the bars. Try and figure out his favorite food and keep that solely as a treat for him.

side note: we do love pictures here of the fids

 

[clark_conure]

wow you didn't do any research huh?


thats ok....we have an expert bugie/parakeet guy....

Please read this thread....it might take a few days or weeks but you will be buying toys and watching your new bird skateboard and shoot hoops and everything...

http://www.parrotforums.com/budgies-parakeets/72068-taming-bonding-budgerigars-tips-beginners.html

oh and as lord triggs said we need pics! it's uhm scientifically important.
Trust me it's science!


But check that link out it's a posted thread.

 

[Kylien88]

Yeah I did research course I did but I like to hear of people who actually have them and their experiences. He has toys in his cage, I have all the time I. The world for him just wanted advice on other people’s rxperiences with them. Books only tell you so much you only really know as your going along.. I find anyways. I’m not really sure how to uploads pic thou. he is beautiful tho.. thanks for replues

 

[EllenD]

Welcome to the community, and congrats on your new Budgie...

You said that you bought him from a "pet store", can I ask what pet store? The reason I'm asking this is because if you bought him from any big pet store chain, such as Petco, PetSmart, Petland, etc., or even from most small, privately-owned pet shops (unless it's a bird shop that breeds their own Budgies in the store themselves), then your Budgie was most-likely "Parent-Raised", meaning he was fed/raised by the mother and father Budgies up until he was fully-weaned, which for Budgies is usually around 8-10 weeks old, and he probably didn't have much human-contact at all, at least not until he was fully-weaned...And if you don't start handling/petting/directly interacting with baby Budgies every single day from the time they are 2-3 weeks old forward, then they are not very tame, or tame at all.

So what this means is that your Budgie is not going to like people/hands much at all until YOU hand-tame him yourself. The good news is that he/she is still young, and can still easily be hand=tamed if you're willing to work with him every single day, without fail...And you need to keep in-mind that this is going to be a marathon, not a sprint,
and that it usually takes between 6 months to a year to successfully hand-tame a Budgie to the point where they will regularly step-up onto your finger when asked, where they will willingly sit on your shoulder, allow you to touch them or handle them or give the head/neck scratches, fly to you, etc. So this is going to require a lot of patience and time from you every single day, and it's extremely important that you NEVER try to "Force" him to do anything at all, you must do everything at HIS PACE, not ever at your pace, because the second you try to force him to do anything at all, you will lose any of his trust that you've gained...And that's the goal, you have to "earn his/her trust" fully before he/she is going to start acting like the pet parrot you eventually want to have.

***The most important thing you need to make sure of is that you have his cage located in the "main room" of your home, meaning whatever room in your home that you and anyone else who lives with you spend your time when you're at home; even if you're not directly interacting with your Budgie, it's extremely important that his cage is with his new "Flock" whenever you're at home. And that's just it, parrots are "flock animals", they travel in flocks, they eat in their flock, they sleep in their flock. And you and whoever else lives with you are his "flock"...A lot of people make the horrible mistake of putting their new parrot's cage in a spare-bedroom or some other room that they designate "The bird room", and this causes all kinds of problems, the first one is usually continual screaming from the bird because they can hear/sense whenever someone is at home, but if they can't see them and aren't with them then they become very distressed and anxious because they aren't with their flock...Also, if you want a tame, friendly, loving parrot, then it's obviously imperative that he is with you, or at least "in your presence" whenever you're at home. So whatever room you and your family do things when you're home like watching TV, reading, talking, playing games, eating meals, etc., and the room where visitors to your home are usually at, that's the room his cage needs to be located in...Usually this is the living room, family room, TV room, den, etc. It's the room with the most traffic, and the more people even just walk back and forth past his cage every day, saying "hello" to him when they do pass by him, the more socialized he/she will become. There is a lot to be said for "Passive Interaction", and you have no idea what a difference just having him in the room with you while you're watching TV will make in earning his trust and building a bond with him, even though you're not directly interacting with him...****The other thing this does is that it makes your bird feel much more secure, safe, content, and comfortable because he is among his flock, and this usually results in them learning to enjoy entertaining themselves inside of their cages with their toys...Whenever they are kept in a bedroom or some other area away from where their people usually are, they typically just sit there and either scream all day long, or they are completely silent, either way they usually don't entertain themselves at all with their toys, because all they know is that people are home but they aren't with them...

Now I don't know if his wings are clipped or not right now, but if they are already clipped, then it will be a lot easier for you to work with him every day. The worst thing you can do when you're trying to hand-tame a Budgie is to have him flying all around the room with you chasing him with a towel from window to window, trying to catch him...That leads nowhere good at all and makes things much much worse...I've hand-tamed many, many non-tame Budgies, and though it's controversial, I have had excellent success doing so by first doing a very light, conservative wing clip, so that they can safely glide to the ground, and usually can glide across a room, they simply can't get any altitude at all...You'll get all kinds of opinions on doing this, and that's fine, it's a personal choice that the bird's owner has to make, but if he's already clipped then this is the time to start working with him one-on-one every single day for at least 15-20 minutes directly, in addition to sitting near his cage and talking to him, and then just having him in the room with you whenever you and your family are home for indirect/passive interaction...

***If you do decide to clip your Budgie's wings, you want to make sure that you ONLY get them clipped by either a Certified Avian Vet or Avian Specialist Vet, or an experienced bird breeder from a bird shop, someone who does it all the time and knows what they are doing...But it's going to be on-you to REQUEST/DEMAND that whomever does clip his wings clips BOTH WINGS, don't ever clip just one wing, no matter what anyone tells you, they lose all balance and it causes spinal damage, and then it's extremely important that they ONLY clip the "outermost 5-6 Primary Flight-Feathers on BOTH wings and that's it". Never allow anyone to clip more than that, they should never clip all of the primaries or go into the secondary flight-feathers, as they will drop like a stone to the ground and have no control...And also, if you only have the outermost 5-6 Primary Flight-Feathers clipped on both wings, then that will allow them to grow back in fully in about 2 months or so...So if you do decide to have your bird's wings clipped for hand-taming/training purposes, your goal is to take advantage of every day of that period when they can't fly, which will be about 2 months or so, so that by the time their feathers grow back-in and they can fly again, that they will at least be regularly stepping-up for you, so that you aren't having to chase them at all to get them back. Then at that point you can work on "Recall-Training", which means that they will fly to you when you ask them to/call them. But you have to take full-advantage of the 2 or so months that they are clipped...

I always advise people that when you're doing hand-taming/training sessions, that you take the bird to a room with a door that you can latch, where it's just you and the bird, and you want to get the bird out of their cage inside of that room and then REMOVE THE CAGE from that room while you're working with the bird! This is also extremely important, because that cage is your bird's only territory in it's new home, it's his only "safe-space" right now, and if you attempt to work with him in-sight of his cage, all that is going to happen is that he's going to totally ignore you, ignore the treats, ignore everything but trying to get back inside his cage! It's impossible to start hand-taming a parrot with their cage in-sight of them, and that's why you're getting the reactions you're getting from him now while he's inside his cage, because he's not happy at all that your hands are inside of "his territory/safe-space". So you have to remove the cage from the equation...So take his cage into the room you're going to work with him in, open the door and allow him to come out into the room and then remove the cage from the room...You will want to buy/build some kind of small, portable T-Stand or mobile perch for him to be on during training/taming sessions, or I've also simply worked with the Budgie on a carpeted floor (they lose all sense of dominance when they are on the floor, in contrast if they are up high, like on top of their cage or on your shoulder, they have total dominance)...And then it's all about finding out what his favorite treat is, whether it's millet spray, some dark, leafy greens like Romaine Lettuce, Bok Choi, Mustard Greens, etc., little pieces of Egg-Food (you can buy bags of Qwiko brand Egg-Food at any Petco for $9.99, Budgies love it and it's broken into tiny little pieces that are great to use as Budgie training treats, as whatever you use needs to be very tiny and easy for them to eat quickly)...

 

[EllenD]

I just realized this isn't a Budgie but rather an Alex, lol...Sorry, I've not had enough coffee yet today and had no idea what forum I was in, you just said "your parakeet" and I ran with it...It's okay though, because everything I said is completely applicable to your Alex, just remove the word "Budgie" everywhere and replace it with "Alex"...All the same...

 

[Kylien88]

Thank you so much

 

[Betrisher]

Hi Kylie,

Congratulations on your new Alexandrine! They're my favourite parrot and mine have brought me many hours of pleasure and companionship over the years.

Do you know much about your bird's background? For example, do you know whether he was hand-raised or simply removed from the parents and put into the pet shop? That can have some bearing on the way you proceed. If he's showing fear as you approach his cage, then you'll want to start with that. Make sure his cage is in or near the living area of your house so he can see and get accustomed to people coming and going. Spend as much time as you can near his cage, either speaking or singing or even reading to him. The more time he's with you, the quicker he'll become used to your voice and presence.

You can try adding toys to his cage, but be sensitive and watch his reaction. Some Alexes will be absolutely petrified of the silliest things! You might begin with one of those little whiffle balls (ball with holes in it). You could stick a few sunflower seeds inside or maybe squish in some broccoli or other tasty food item. Be patient. If your bird is afraid, he might take quite a while to even think about playing. Another thing you could try is introducing something for him to chew on. Alexes *adore* chewing things (notably the architraves round your windows or the handle on your broom). I'd begin with a twig or small branch of something safe (check for 'safe timbers for birds'). I live in Australia, so anything the wild parrots eat is fine for my flock. Eucalyptus, Callistemon, Melaleuca, Angophora are all fine. You'll need to check for your area. Right now, the gum trees are in blossom and my Beaks and Corella are feasting on the flowers and enjoying stripping the leaves off twigs. It's especially good if you remove dowel perches from the cage and use a safe timber branch instead. That gives birdie the added bonuses of foot exercise *and* chewing. Be prepared to replace chew toys all the time.

At six months, my Alexes were hand-tame but very unruly. They were not in the least bit nervous and tended to flollop about aimlessly until I began working with them in earnest. So I guess I'm saying 'don't expect too much at first'. You'll need to spend a great deal of time with your bird, especially at first as he gets to know you. Trick training (especially target training - see stickies in the forums) is invaluable. It gives your bird something to think about and encourages him to seek your approval in the form of a treat.

A good start would be to offer him treats through the cage bars. Choose something long like a spray of millet or a long carrot stick: something he doesn't have to get too close to take from you. Of course, over time, you can shorten the treat until he's taking it from your fingers. This might take days or weeks. It just depends on your bird and how he's feeling.

When you reckon he's quite confident to have you nearby, you can try opening the cage and offering a long treat through the doorway. Don't shove your hand right in at first. Be guided by how comfortable your bird is as you approach him. If he's very frightened, then back off and start again.

A number of Alex owners (me included) report that these birds aren't fussed on being touched on the head or body. Others (Amanda? You there, dear?) have very cuddly Alexes that will enjoy being scratched and handled. You won't know which your bird prefers until he tells you, but if he's the standoffish sort, then don't force him to be stroked or petted. Those Alexes who dislike that *really* dislike it!

If you check out our training section, there's quite a few articles on target training and clicker training. Those are an excellent place to start and you'll find your Alex catches on very quickly (they're *highly* intelligent). Having said that, though, four months is still a young baby, so remember not to push him harder than he's willing to go. Hand tameness and then 'step up' are probably your main aims right now.

Don't be shy to ask questions. There's lots of help to be had here and you'll be surprised how quickly you and your bird learn together.

Best of luck!

Betrisher