My parakeet is out of his cage.

[Boywithbird]

Today I was cleaning out my parakeet cage. He is very shy and is not bonnded to anyone. Today he flew out of his cage and I can't get him to go back in he has been out for 4+ hours. He won't eat or drink and he is very stressed out. He never comes out of his cage so his wings are not clipped so I'm scared he might hurt himself. How do I get him SAFELY back into his cage so that he can calm down and be able to get to his food and water?

 

[Laurasea]

Turn off all the lights in the house close the blinds and curtains. But put a bright light by the cage. Should go back. Don't chase just give him time. Budgies don't need to drink that often( always have fresh water in cage though ) and is ok he hasn't eaten in a few hours. Good luck!

 

[EllenD]

I'm assuming that the Budgie is now back in their cage, if not then it's been a stressful few days, lol...

I wanted to make a suggestion to you...I don't know how long you've had your Budgie, how old it is, or why you haven't hand-tamed it, but I do want to say that just letting a non-tame Budgie sit inside a cage 24 hours a day, every single day of it's life is not at all healthy for the bird physically or psychologically. It's extremely important that your Budgie gets time out of their cage to fly around or at least walk around and be able to stretch their wings and legs every single day for at least a couple of hours. Otherwise he is just going to develop Fatty Liver Disease, among other physical and mental health issues, and die very young...American and English Budgies should live in captivity as pets into their mid-to-late teens, 14-15 should be a minimum, but the reason most of them don't is because they just spend their lives sitting inside a cage all day long, every day...

And if this Budgie was a parent-raised Budgie that was not hand-tamed when you brought it home, then the reason he is not "bonded" to anyone is because you're not working with him every day outside of the cage. You can easily have your Budgie hand-tamed and closelly bonded to you in a matter of months if you start getting him out of the cage every day for a few hours and start spending time with him and working with him on things like stepping-up onto your finger and just sitting on your shoulder. I highly suggest that you take your Budgie to either an Avian Vet, a bird shop, or a pet shop that sells parrots and get his both of his wings clipped so that you can easily start getting him out of his cage every single day...

You only want whomever clips his wings to "Clip only the outermost 5-6 Primary Flight-Feathers on BOTH Wings"...That's what you need to tell them to do, you don't want them to clip anymore than the outermost 5-6 Primary Flight-Feathers, and they must clip both wings...If done this way, your bird will be able to gently glide to the floor with full-control, and also their wings will fully grow back-in in about 2 months time...So that will give you two months to spend every day with him outside of his cage hand-taming and training him, and bonding with him. So by the time his wings grow back in you will no longer have to chase him around the room with a towel, you will be able to simply open up the cage door, he'll come out on his own, and he'll willingly step-up for you and want to be with you...

You need to find something that your Budgie can perch on away from it's cage so that you can work with him once you get his wings clipped, something like a portable little perch, or just something that is not near his cage and that is easy for him to perch on, and that's what you want to put him on whenever you get him out of his cage...He will not concentrate on hand-taming or training if he is allowed to sit on or near his cage, as that is his "territory" or "safe space', and once he's clipped and he can't fly away from you constantly, he needs to be taken away from his territory and his safe space in order for him to concentrate on you...

***I really hope that you'll take my advice and get your Budgie's wings clipped and start letting him out of his cage every single day for at least 2-3 hours a day to work with you and eventually just sit and be with you, if not longer each day...Budgies have the intelligence of a 2-3 year-old human toddler!!! They are extremely intelligent, and they are birds, they are meant to be flying all day long for miles and miles...Most importantly they are "Flock Animales" that are highly social, and they need to be not only active and not locked inside a cage all day long every day, but they also need to form relationships and be with their flock, which should be you. I'm not trying to criticize you or be rude to you, but am only trying to help your Budgie, and you for that matter, because you're missing-out on what it's like to have a close-relationship and bond with a parrot, and to have your parrot be an actual part of your life...And if I'm being completely honest with you, it is actually very cruel to have a pet parrot of any species that does nothing but sit inside of a cage 24/7 every single day of their lives...It only leads to serious physical health/medical issues like Obesity, Fatty Liver Disease, Kidney Disease, muscle atrophy, etc., as well as even more serious mental/psychological issues due to the severe boredom they experienced being so very intelligent; usually they will eventually start to over-preen themselves, which will then turn into them plucking themselves, which then turns into self-mutiation, infection, and death. Imagine putting a 2 year-old human toddler inside of a cage all day long, every single day with no interaction with any other living thing...No one would even think about doing that to a 2-3 year-old human toddler, but that is essentially exactly what your Budgie is experiencing every single day....

And again, I'm only trying to help you do what is best for your Budgie, but if you don't have enough time to spend a few hours a day with him while he's out of his cage, or you just don't have the desire to take him to get his wings clipped and to have to let him out of his cage every day, then that's fine, but if that's the case then it would be much better for your Budgie if you were to either surrender him to an Avian Rescue who can rehab him and then find him a person or family that can, or if you re-home him to a person or family yourself through Craigslist or by advertising somewhere else.

 

[rhymeteach705]

If your bird wont't go back into his cage just leave the cage door open and eventually he'll go back inside when he gets good and ready.

Believe me, i know this all too well because my boy parakeet sky has been that way ever since i got him. If he sees me sitting on the sofa watching tv and he's all locked up in his cage, he will scream really loud. And if that doesn't get me to unlock his cage then his little *** will slam his whole body into the cage until i jump up and open the cage door and leave it open. Don't worry, when he gets tired my sky will go back inside the cage. Although, he's so stubborn that a few times he just refused to go back inside his cage and so he just climbed to the top of the cage to go to sleep for the night.( my boy parakeet is very old so he is very stubborn.)
he gets his own way around my house a lot.