Taming your Budgie

You can easily make your baby budgies tame. Even if you are not interested in tame birds, consider this:

1. The demand for tame pet budgies is enormous.
2. People are willing to pay more for a tame budgie.
3. A budgie who is used to being handled will be less likely to be traumatized by vet visits, etc.

Friendly pet budgies are more likely to make their owners happy, resulting in a happier life for both budgie and owner .

Baby budgies who are handled daily in the nest turn out as tame as the hand-fed ones. This has been my personal experience, having done both handling and hand-feeding. It takes about 20 to 30 minutes of handling daily to get tame baby budgies.

• Start when they are about two and a half to 3 weeks old. Simply remove the baby or babies from the nest for handling, and return them to the nest box after each handling. Several budgies may be handled at once. At first, just pet them and let them snuggle in your hand.
• As they feather out (week 3 or 4), begin to gently rub their cheek, jaw, neck and head feathers to get them used to this sort of petting.
• When they are able to perch on your finger (week 4 or 5), teach them to step from finger to finger so that they readily step up onto your finger.
• Then they are steady enough to balance on your shoulder (week 5 or 6), accustom them to staying on your shoulder while you walk around or do housework (I have baby budgies on my shoulder right now, for example). The best part is that you can skip a day here and there and the birds will still be tame.

Editor's Note: I'm sure this will be one of the most popular tips we have yet seen - thanks again Nancy.

Copyright: Nancy Carr 1999

Back to Budgie Tips