Hand Taming

[Billie]

I have two young budgies in a cage together, Harry happily takes food offered from my hand and yesterday stepped onto my offered finger, instead of what I expected which was for him to leap off horrified he walked along my hand and was mouthing me to compaire my skin to the perch.

Harry would sit there standing on me,look at my hand/arm them pounce like a cat does after a mouse and 'play bite'. He didn't break the skin so I think it was just testing. The same thing happened this morning ate broccoli from my hand fine, then started walking on me and pouncing.

My question basically is, should I ignore the nipping as a birds learning curve or will this encourage him to bite.

[Admin]

the best thing to do is to try and ignore it, if they get a reaction it will turn into a game and eventually the nipping will turn into a full blown bite #shocked#

sounds like harry is coming along in leaps and bounds well done you

[Billie]

Yep, Harry has been known to both leap and bound, if he's in a particularly mad mood he'll try to do both and fall over.

Harry is my star pupil, I chose him because he was bold as well as pretty. He was the first to have a bath, try veg and eat from my hand and now is first to stand on my hand. .
So far when he's on my hand I stay quiet and don't move even if he nips. Yesterday after he had sat on me then wandered off I got a piece of millet and I held it in a way that was easy for him to get to as a reward, is this a good plan or is it rewarding nipping.

This is great as in the cage next to him are two very young babies about 6 weeks old and they were hanging off the bars of their cage whilst he sat on me. When I offered them a piece of broccoli held in such a way that they had to reach over my fingers to get it Minty tried for a while then put a foot on my finger to make it easier to get at, then ended up sitting on my hand to eat.

Its been a bit of a week of firsts Sky has had her first bath and Minty decided to join her in there today. You can get two budgies into a bath that hangs on the cage if they're dead small. It's the pair in the seed pot mining pictures that did it.

[Scully]

they can get to know what the word 'no' is, by blowing on them.

most of the time i think they react to your rection, if you can ignore it, they do think what they are doing makes no difference.

[Angela]

That's interesting ... don't they like to be blown upon?

I often blow on Chill .... to me it is a sign of affection ... I used to do it to my babies.

[Billie]

I blew on Harry and he lept off my hand and although he has been on since he is definately more wary . I have used this in the past on other birds if they were being naughty and it worked ok.

I think I will stick to ignoring it for a while and see how it goes. They moved into a large comunity cage on Thursday so not expecting much although Harry did take carrot from my hand today .

[Berserka]

Way to go Harry!

I blew on Boris a couple of times, it really seemed to turn her on when I did it so I stopped doing it!

[silvercloud]

LOL but we know Boris is a tart. #wink#

[Scully]

Blowing gently to ruffle thier feathers they love it, BOBBI thought it was almost better than millet, he used to turn his head around to make the most of it

[Berserka]

silvercloud said:

LOL but we know Boris is a tart. #wink#

Ain't that the truth!

[Billie]

Hand taming in the community cage is going really well. All my birds LOVE broccoli, so when I put the pot of veg in I hold a piece up to the perch and they go nuts for it. Harry put one foot on the broccoli and one on my hand, then put both feet on me when I moved the broccoli out of easy reach.

The babies Sky and Minty both ate from my hand but only perch briefly and almost by mistake on my fingers. They all do budgies shuffle for the broccoli, when its in easy reach and fight each other for a turn. Even Blue who is normally grumpy and ignores me flies to and fro over my hand and actually landed on me yesterday, although she flew off like her feet hand been burn on contact!

[Billie]

Minty flew to and sat on my thumb to eat broccoli today, mainly coz Harry kept attacking him if he tried to shove Harry out of the way to get to it from the tree.

Blue my silent and sometimes stroppy budge actually came down the tree to eat broccoli from me, avoiding my hand but its still a first .

I've cut veg into pieces and they are hysterical, Minty grabs a piece and flies up to the tree, at which point every body wants to be his friend and starts following him then he drops it. Will post pictures in budge photo section.

[lin]

Sounds like fun *waits impatiently for pics*