Gaining Budgies' Trust?

[Starloid]

Well my two birds have been with me for almost a year, and they still don't trust me. I'll admit, though, I haven't committed to them very much, which upsets me and I know it basically makes me a terrible person.
I was just wondering if there were any tips I could get from anyone experienced with parakeets? I feel like I've given up yet at the same time I don't want to.

 

[Reggie]

Hey, not committing to training doesn't make you terrible it just gives you something to work on!
I have three parakeets and at one point they were all hand tamed. The biggest advice I can give you is (1) to find a treat that they find irresistible, (2) invest in a dog-training clicker for positive reinforcement training, (3) constantly have your hands around or in the cage (move them around some) so they get used to you, and (4) set aside time at least 5 times a week to interact with/talk to/sing to/hang out with them. It took me a little more than three months to get them all recall flight training.
It's also important to build off of the things that you try - i.e. when I was training them to fly to me, I then moved on to training them to "go home" or fly back to their cage. Just make sure you're moving the training along and don't get stuck - it's really easy to get stuck!

 

[Starloid]

Thanks for the encouragement.
I actually did start training them when I first got them, but stress, it seems, has made me start to neglect them. So far I've figured out that their favorite treat is millet (which I know is a common treat). And I suppose putting my hands in is necessary for them to not be scared eventually.
I guess what happened was I got frustrated from trying to bond that I stopped trying. But a little part of me wants to have these two on equal standing with my other pets (two dogs).
One question: Is a clicker totally necessary? Before when I trained them I made a clicking sound with my mouth to indicate a good action. Does that not have the same effect?

 

[GCC_Quijote]

We've had our budgie for two years and she is just now warming up to us. She was completely wild and fearful of humans when we got her. She still isn't hand tamed, but she'll fly to us and perch on us now, and she'll eat from our hands.

Honestly, we stopped trying like you say you did. We let her out, and took care of her, but stopped trying to make her like us. Probably, if we'd kept at it, it wouldn't have taken as long.

Still, all we did was go around her regularly and never eat or attack her and she eventually liked us.