Help!

[Tak]

I got a new budgie 5 days ago and I’m new to owning birds. I’ve been keeping him on my desk, constantly showing him my hands and talking to him and talking to him while I clean/ refill his cage needs... I have two problems. He won’t take treats out of my hand or even stand on it, and he has a little food tray with a step he constantly bites for about an hour at a time for a few hours a day even though it’s full of fresh food every day. How can I get him to be less stressed out and tame with me and why is he biting his food tray so much?

 

[wrench13]

Slow down. It takes time for new parrots and budgies to get comfortable in the new home. Let him open up at his own pace, could be days, weeks or months. Trying to force this will only result in a loss of what ever trust you have built. Budgies are particularly shy of hands and fingers, so go slow with the hand feeding.

Remember - always proceed at your parrots pace and not the pace of your expectations.

Provide your budgie with lots of size appropriate toys to play with, chew on and destroy, which all parrots like to do.

 

[Laurasea]

Welcome to the forum. What's your new parakeet name?

It can take a lot of time to become friends.
I'm going to link some stuff for you.

This is from bird tricks you tube, she talks about escape, but also training. She has budgie training video and otger stuff to yiu can search.
[ame="https://youtu.be/7byB6co4UCM"]BLUEBERRY ESCAPED! | My Budgie FLEW OUTSIDE From an Open Door! - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Laurasea]

These are 2 great articles worth a read
https://lafeber.com/pet-birds/stress-reduction-for-parrot-companions/

https://lafeber.com/pet-birds/bird-behavior/

Also many times they sell cages way to small for parakeets. A small cage will increase stress, because they can't retreat and move around enough.

Also budgies need fresh veggies and leafy greens just like other parrots. Offer on a plate or shallow dish. It may take time for tgem to try, or tgey might dig in the first day. Hanging a whole leaf of romaine, or weave it in tge csfe bars, budgies really love leafy green lettuces and will often nibble on them right away.

 

[bug_n_flock]

Kale(whole or chopped) and broccoli are usual favorites. In my experience budgies don't usually take right away to fruit, tho apples are often taken. Bell pepper(and hot hot hot spicy types) of pepper are often favorites, especially bright red varieties. Carrots are another favorite(they are so cute with carrot stained faces!) And sweet potato is pretty universally loved.



Sometimes birds have odd quirks about their fresh foods. You could try drying some kale to offer, some like it crispy. One of my tiels will ignore fresh sweet corn, but if you chunk it and put it in the dehydrator until shriveled, he will gobble it down greedily.



Another pretty universal favorite food is whatever you are eating in front of them, *especially* if you pretend like you don't want them to have any! Just don't share anything that has actually been in your mouth, birds are sensitive to some types of bacteria commonly found in human mouths.

 

[CharlieChick]

It's important to note that birds take a lot of time to get bonded to you, one of my lovebird took A VERY LONG time (nearly 3 months) to be tamed.

Here's what you can do-

Take treats in your hand and give your bird the treat, like when you have to give your bird when it is in the cage, don't put it into your palm, it's scary for inexperienced or new birbs. Give it using two fingers, just like you hold a needle. Your bird may be scared at first, but he or she will come around.

After your bird is comfortable taking treats out of your hand when you give it using two fingers, now you can put treats ON your index and middle finger and offer your hand to the bird, now your hand is horizontal, you aren't HOLDING the treat, you have just put the treat on your hand. While before you were holding the treat.

After that you can start to unfold one finger at a time... and slowly, slowly. All your fingers will be unfolded (REMEMBER TO ONLY PUT THE TREAT AT THE CORNER/EDGE OF YOUR FINGERS)

Then you can just start to move the treat backwards, towards your palm and within days, your bird should be eating it out of your hand.

Keep in mind that this process can take from a week to a month. So be patient

When it comes to teaching your bird to step up onto your hand, just take a treat and put it near your finger (make sure your finger is horizontally positioned so that it looks like a perch) your bird will resist but keep trying. At first whenever he/she keeps one of his feet on your finger give him the treat, later try encouraging him to keep both his feet and double the reward (like if you were giving him/her 1 wheat berry on keeping his one foot, now give him/her 2 wheat berries for keeping both the feet.)


Again, this process can take from weeks to months... I hope your bird comes around to this idea soon.

I don't have a lot to say about the food tray one, is the food tray made of wood?
If yes, then he may be biting it because he likes to shred wood. Make sure he has enough wooden toys to satisfy his crave, but sometimes, birds just prefer one thing over the other!
If the food tray is made of plastic, then you need to remove it immediately and put his food into another bowl (stainless steel preferably)