Ask Lafeber

Single budgie

I haved 2 budgie, male and female, and the male died. I let the female out of the cage to play with my other two handfeed (the female budgie is not) female young cockatiels (they look adult, so i tink they are young adults). She is now good friends with the cockatiels, folowing them everywere. She was really really wild at first (like she was really scared of me), after some times seeing the cockatiels staiyng on me and playing, she let me aproach my finger like 3 cm far from her. Then she flyed away. When my cockatiels stay on my head, she tries too, but fly close, stay 3 seconds in place, and fly away… How i can show her love and protection, to make her more friendly? And how to put her in cage without to affect the bond? My family think to give her to one of our friends that have a really friendly male…. What i can do?

PS: Sorry for the long question….

Hi,

The best thing to do is give her time and be patient. She may or may not become more tame, but you can’t force her to be tame. Be careful not to ever grab or reach for her. Budgies and Cockatiels are prey animals so if you try to grab them, they think a predator is trying to catch them. Let her approach you if she chooses. Offer her treats from you hand but let her come to you. As for going back in the cage, put a treat in the cage and this generally works. As for giving her away – if your friend’s bird is tame, he may not accept her. And if he does, he will end up bonding with her and not want to be a tame pet anymore. So unless they want to lose their bird as a pet, I would not advise giving them your female. I’ll give you the links to our behavior and training pages to give you more help.

Pet Bird and Parrot Behavior

Teaching Your Bird

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda