Hi! I got my budgie about 2 weeks ago. I am in the process of taming mine. I am new to them, but what I am doing so far is working. He is eating from my hand. Not the little seeds themselves. But I am within about 2" from the end of the millet spray. And he has ran across my hand. Nibbled at my hand. Landed on my arm by accident. I feel I am making great progress with mine.
I started by just putting my hand in the cage and not even trying to get close. I talk to him the whole time. I got a video from the internet and it talked about the Power Pause - what that is is that you stop coming closer the very second his body starts to tense up. And he is about to move away. The trainer called it working at the edge of the fear zone. By stopping there, until he relaxes, starts to preen, then you back off. The reward he wants at that moment is for you to back off, so you are rewarding the relaxed state. What you reward is the behavior that you want, not the one that you don't.
Then once he was fine with me just putting my hand in there - for about 5 minutes -10 minutes at a time. I began to put my hand on the perch that he was sitting on. Again watching his body movements. One person on here said remember this is a lifetime relationship you are building so there is nothing to rush. I keep that wonderful advice in mind. I would reach very far from him on the perch, touch it, and say "see nothing to be scared of" then back off to a further from him perch. Then I went close to his perch, then backed up again.
While I was making these empty handed attempts at friendship, I was trying to get him to try millet. Which he had NO IDEA what it was. It took him a good week -10 days to try it. I finally hung a 2" piece from a treat holder. After he got the confidence to go inside his happy hut for the first time, he got brave enough to try the millet. He had the look of pure bliss on his face.
The next day, he got another piece about the same size. A small piece does not hang very well and had to be put back up repeatedly. He was good about me doing the food and water and even cleaning his cage and covering him at night.
Then, after watching more of the bird training video, I was learning about clicker training and target training for birds. So, I decided okay. I need to condition you to the clicker. Now that you know that millet is yummy and like it. So, Vanya only gets millet from me. I started with a whole long piece and held it from far away and clicked and let him have some. He got more worried about me keeping pulling away the millet and clicking than my hand and I don't think he noticed that I inched my hand forward as I did it.
Today was day 2 with the clicker and millet. He is still not sure about the clicker sound. But he will get used to it. I saw in a video about clicker training that a stick, like a chopstick is effective for target training. Vanya does not know what his toys are. He is a pet store baby. He is very young and that is to my advantage. The one video said he could learn about toys with target training from the stick, that the clicker and stick are a bridge to communicate with him. Also that it changes to him what we are doing. That he can go past or onto a "scary hand" in order to reach the target to get the treat. Click equals treat. Now and forever more.
I did introduce the stick to him and he bit it and stepped on it. And he got millet for it. But, the next session, we went back to straight conditioning so that he learns that click equals treat. Each taming session goes a little differently.
I watch some really cool videos of budgies that are pets that are having a blast in their owner's home and with their owners. I want that life for my Vanya. He watches these videos too. He likes them. One video I play for him, that I find hilarious, is a budgie chasing his owner's hand as she is wiping up the kitchen table. The budgie talks and he says "Hey person! Come here! Oi Oi Oi! I want to sleep! Come here!" Then she pauses for a moment, and then starts again, and he says exaggeratedly, "again! Come here!" And all kind of other words in that budgie's vocabulary. It is in Russian, which is what I am speaking to Vanya in. So, often after I click to return the millet spray, I put it somewhere else, like a little bit away from him, so he has to move toward it. And I will say, "come here" I think I can post a link to it. Even if you don't understand the language, it is hilarious.
You see, I want him to be able to come out of the cage and fly around. I want him to be able to play on his new skateboard that he is getting for Christmas. And to be able to play with his toy balls, and hide them under stacking cups for him to find.
You might try whatever their favorite thing is. The one budgie I watch - his favorite thing is a ball. His people get him to try new things, and do all kind of stuff to get that ball. Do your budgies have a toy they love?
I am learning too. I just thought of something you could try. Can you put both hands kind of flat on a perch and hold a treat in the middle. so they have to cross your hands to get to it? And do it when they are hungry. Or, since you already let them out, you could sit and watch something on TV and hold a treat out to the side, and rest it on the arm of the sofa. You might have to stay there a while. But I would think eventually, they would come over to see what it is. Especially, if they can ONLY get it from you. That is what I am doing with the millet - if he wants millet, he has to come to me.