I need help training my Budgie and Cockatiel

[DrDivine]

I love them both, their great pets, but I feel like even after a year no real bond has been made. My Budgie Jupiter and my cockatiel Sparky like to pay attention to everyday things I do around the house, vocal and happy, and let me pet them and such, and have never bitten me, but handling their pretty skittish.
I don't want to make this sound like I'm a bad person, but I want them to love me back and I feel like no matter what I do, it never changed. Their behavior confuses me on a few levels, while it seems like their scared of me at times since they dont like to be held, other times they want me to watch them fly around or play with each other for some reason. I feel like I havent done enough to maintain a proper bond like most people do with parrot breeds, I always seem them as all friendly and holdable. Any advice?

[Greycloud]

The first thing I think of when reading your post is, the two birds are bonded with eachother and not you. You are alowed into their world to a certain degree but they prefer eachother. In order to build a bond and for the bird to trust you, you are going to have to work with them separately. Only take one bird out at a time. Take it to a room away from the other bird. Sit and talk and sing to it. Offer favored treats from your finger. As the bird learns you are not going to harm it and it gets good stuff from you, it's trust will build. Soon you will be able to teach stepping up. Put that bird away and do the same thing with the other bird. At the end of bonding time, both birds can again share out of cage time together. Each session should just start out at 15 mins or so.
You do own parrots, they are just small parrots. Both budgies and tiels can really be tamed pretty well. So remember, as long as they have eachother to play with, they really don't prefer you till you bond with them, gain their trust and have lots of patience.

[DrDivine]

I guess I haven't really thought of it that way, thank you for the advice.

They love to fly and I dont like clipping them, I mean Sparky and Jupiter will perch on my finger to an extent, Sparky is much better than Jupiter is when it comes to perching. However it seems like Jupiter has more confidence.

[Monica]

It's possible to have tamed flighted parrots.

My concern though, and I don't mean to sound harsh, if you feel as if you can't handle your cockatiel and budgie, who's to say a quaker will be any easier? Granted, quakers are handraised and most often prefer human interaction, but there will come a time that the quaker will refuse to come out of it's cage, and will bite profusely. Will you be able to handle that? Will you be able to work through it?


If you are serious about the quaker, then I would suggest working with the birds you already have before getting a bird that is more complicated.

[DrDivine]

Yeah, I understand what your saying and I actually have been thinking about that. I've tried countless of these training techniques I learned from these local breeders and such, but they seem to rebel against every tactic.

It's not that their mean birds or anything, I just wish there was something I could do where they would like me too, they don't care if I put my hand i nthe cage, however my cockatiel does get a little skittish sometimes.

I feel bad though, because I wanted to have birds so I could interact with them like a good friend, I take really good care of both and they have alot of free space, but I feel like im just another enemy or soomething

[Chicklette]

Don’t take it personally, they are bonded with each other. What you can do is just try to enjoy them bonding with each other and that they are happy and healthy. You can take one bird out at a time and work with them that way but I would also let them have their play times together as well. I have an IRN, Chiquita and IRN’s are not known to be cuddly, Chiquita is independent and has an extremely strong bond with me BUT she also likes “her” time when she is out of the cage. I just enjoy her, watching her fly around and be happy.

What you can do is put your hands in the cage more and be very still. Interact with them individually more.