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budgie training
hi. well i have three budgies and decided to start training them. so today, i put my hand in the cage and i was holding millet spray. and after a while, they came and sat on my hand and ate away, and i was overjoyed, thinking that they were trained in just a few minutes. but then i decided to stop for the day. after 20 minutes maybe, i went to the cage and put my hand on the cage, and they go from one perch to another. why did they forget that they can trust me? is this normal or not? please answer ill rate 5's :)
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Maybe give some free advice about: Pets?
It takes quite a while for birds to trust you. You can't give them food once and then they like you, they still don't trust you. Over time if you keep feeding them, and not forcefully picking them up against their will, you will gain their trust. It just takes a lot of time and patience. :)
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I believe that the trust issue is more a hardwired survival instinct within your bird. They have evolved over many hundreds of thousands of years to distrust potential “predators”. It will take a little time to get through all of this instinctual drive and become friends with your Bungee. It sounds like you are off to a good start, lots of patience and respect will go a long way here. I also found a great web site that gives some pointers. I am going to copy and paste some of the first page, but you should go to the site and read some of the additional information there:
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
Basic Training
Training pet parrots has benefits that extend well beyond the entertainment value of a parrot that can talk and do tricks. Training will strengthen the bond you have with your parrot, who will look forward to the one-on-one attention involved in training sessions, especially when success means lots of praise and attention along with favorite treats. In addition, teaching some simple commands will make handling your parrot easier.
Keep it Positive
The key to training your parrot is to keep the interaction positive. Three concepts provide the basis for parrot training:
1. Parrot does something good --> give a reward
2. Parrot does something undesirable --> ignore it
3. Never punish your parrot
Obviously, this is a bit simplistic, but your goal is to shape your bird's behavior into what you want by a giving a reward for good things and ignoring (no reward, no reaction) for bad things. The reward can be a favorite food treat, but simple praise or a play session with a treasured toy can be good motivation for some birds. If your bird is doing something undesirable, you must simply ignore the bird (your bird will not respond to punishment). A negative reaction can turn into a reward if your bird is looking for attention (negative attention is better than no attention), so you must be careful not to unintentionally cause some undesirable behaviors to increase due to your reaction. Ignoring behavior might first cause it to intensify, but eventually the undesirable behavior will most likely stop. How you approach training can help keep training positive:
* Train only when you are relaxed. Positive training does take patience!
* Pick a time when your bird is attentive and not distracted by eating, preening, or household activity.
* Frequent, but short, training sessions are generally more effective. A few minutes at a time, several times a day, works well.
* Pick a favorite reward (but don't overdo it if it is food).
* Once your bird catches on to something, don't give a treat every time (switch to praise part of the time) or your bird may only do the behavior if he/she knows you have a treat handy.
* End each session on a positive note. Wait for a successful attempt or at least a good try at whatever you are training, give a treat, and move on to something else.
* Keep training sessions upbeat and fun for your bird.
Very Basic Training: Step Up and Step Down
If you had to choose only two things to teach your parrot, these would be then ones to pick. This means training your parrot to step up onto your finger or wrist (or hand-held perch) on command, and then step back off again. These are relatively easy and extremely important skills to teach. Stepping up is quite a natural movement for a bird so it is generally easy to train this on command (stepping down is a bit trickier to teach). Getting your bird to step up and step down on command makes handling much easier and helps you to set some boundaries for your bird (for example, you can more easily remove your bird from areas of you home that are not bird-proofed, return a bird back to his or her playgym or cage, etc.). If you have a baby bird, he or she is probably pretty cooperative but starting early with the step up and step down commands is still a good idea. Not only does training a cooperative baby allows you to give lots of positive reinforcement, it sets a good foundation for training more skills to your bird in the future.
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Oh it takes a while for them to trust, they were familiar with you for a little while, then they must've forgot.
Try feeding them everyday, at the same time, or taking them out to feed them a lot so they get familiar with you.
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