Introducing My Two Parakeets, Sexing, & Taming

[❤ Rosette ❤]

Jewel - A rather flat, lightly-tinted blue cere covered in a tan-esque skin, with a few loose flakes of tan here and there. They're a very standard-patterned budgie with aquamarine blue.

Lyra - A quite bulbous, fleshy-colored cere with somewhat pink tones. There is no hint of either brown or blue. Their feathers are patterned in a piebald/pied fashion, with light, powdery blue splotches.

Jewel was found, however improbably this may seem, outside in our yard a year or so ago. (I assume they escaped from an over-crowded petstore or perhaps an inexperienced owner.) Jewel was, and still is, completely untamed and is very frightened of people. He/she really likes fresh treats, though, so I serve apple, cucumber, and orange pieces on a regular basis.

Lyra was bought to ease Jewel's nervous ticks and make him/her more comfortable. Lyra has since became very attached to Jewel and is almost always climbing around the side of the cage that touches Jewel's. They chatter sometimes, and Jewel is definitely better off with a friend.

I've tried taming them but it is a very slow process, and because they've bonded, I find it more difficult than ever. I want them to spend time outside of their cages but they're just so wild and flinch away whenever someone walks past their cages. I feel ridiculously guilt for playing with my quaker parrot, and not with them, but they hate human contact and my presence is really just incredibly stressful to them.

I'd love to introduce them in a single cage so that they can enjoy each other's company, but I am unsure if I should for the following reasons:
- I do not want baby parakeets on my hands -
- Both parakeets are untamed, their wings are unclipped, and I don't want them to fly off somewhere else in the house as I introduce them -

Does anybody have any advice for this situations?
What genders are they?
How can I manage to tame them, at least a little?​

 

[Sylvi_]

Welcome to AA, I hope you enjoy the forum!

Could you share some photo's of your budgies - so some of our more mutation experienced members can get a better idea of their genders?

 

[ZoeyFredrik]

Without a picture, from the descriptions, it sounds like a girl and boy. If you could introduce them on neutral territory, I would. But it does sound like they want to be together, so you can introduce them for short periods and watch their behavior. If they seem happy and are not trying to attack each other, let them be together for longer periods until they are fully together. In my experience a lot of budgies prefer the company of other budgies to that of humans when given the option. Even though I can handle my five, they would much rather be hanging out with each other. I personally don't mind. I love watching them interact with each other. They are so cute and funny.
But to let them know you are their friend, take it slow. Budgies are pretty high strung and can be very nervous about new situations. Oh, and please if you can, pictures, pictures, pictures! We LOVE pictures!

 

[Reggie]

Don't introduce your budgies by placing one in the other's cage! Like @ZoeyFredrik said, budgies are pretty high strung and should be introduced in neutral territory. There's a very good chance that the skittish one may try to fly off, so here are some tips on how to Budgie-Proof a room. I wouldn't be introducing them or have them out of the cage until they're more used to their surroundings, because we wouldn't want to increase their stress levels and have them hurt themselves or become overly stressed! As for the fear of them breeding (even though we don't know their genders) it takes a bit of effort and meticulous scheduling/planning to get budgies into breeding condition, and even then it can't happen until they're closer to a year old.
We'd need pictures to see for certain what gender/mutation they each are, and how old they are! And I personally love seeing pictures of budgies!
I hope this helped!

 

[WendyN]

 

[❤ Rosette ❤]

Here are some pictures I took of them, sorry about the low-quality.
I wasn't able to take a close photo of them because of how sheepish they happened to be. I encourage you to zoom or make the image larger because it's kind of hard to see as-is.

@Sylvi_ - Thank you for the help! And I appreciate the warm welcome, this community is remarkably lovely. ~
@ZoeyFredrik - Yeah, I think they rather like each other. Thanks so much for the advice! (I've also uploaded some pictures, if you'd like to asses their ceres.)
@Reggie - Do you reckon a new, unused cage would be seen as neutral territory? I've noticed Jewel sometimes raises her wings in territorial aggression whenever my quaker Maui is nearby, so I think it's definitely a safer bet to let them interact somewhere safer.
I've had Jewel for around two years now, and Lyra for perhaps around one?
@WendyN - Thank you, Wendy! ; v ;

​

 

[karen256]

It's hard to tell from the photos, but for your description, it sounds like Jewel may be a female and Lyra a male.
While breeding is a possibility if you let them share a cage, often times a single pair won't even try to breed, they really are colony nesters. Of course you would also want to remove any nest-like items from the cage such as beds or tunnels.

I think putting them into a larger cage like a flight cage is the best thing possible you could do for them. If they aren't tame and able to be let out, they really need a cage with room to fly. Budgies are incredibly active birds. A larger cage may also help with taming as it gives them more room to retreat from you when you service the cage, making this less stressful for them. You become the person who brings treats, not the scary hand that reaches in.
There are many flight cage options, if budget is a problem, you can often find the smaller prevue flight cage for $100 or less including shipping.

Also, budgies are social and love each others' company. It is fairly unusual for them to not get along (two females are most likely to not get along). That said, they still need more space if you keep them together, just for normal activity and so they can move away from each other if there happens to be a squabble. An extra food dish is also a good idea.

 

[❤ Rosette ❤]

Upon introducing them in a larger, unused cage, the parakeets at first took a while to get used to their surroundings and each other. It was going well, despite the fact that they were stressed, and I'd thought that they'd get along.
Which wasn't the case. My budgie, Jewel, soon resorted to bickering and I recall her eyes being narrowed into tiny pinpricks of black as she snapped at Lyra, lifted her wings aggressively and chattered angrily. Lyra snapped back defensively, and the two soon became very arguable and squabbled frequently.
I was alarmed by this, and after seeing that they refuse to quiet down, I caught them with my hands and gently placed them back into their original cages.
Unfortunately, I don't think Jewel is compatible with other parakeets because of her dominance issues. The two had known each other for a long time, and I am surprised, and saddened, to see them not becoming friends. ​

 

[Monica]

I wouldn't say that Jewel is dominant... maybe just doesn't know how to "play well with others", as the saying goes....

As far as taming goes.... I worked with 5 adult, flighted budgies. 3 were adult rehomes, 2 were from a breeder, bought at an adult age. My end goal wasn't to really tame them, just see how comfortable I could get them be with me. All I did was feed them once a day by hand, first thing in the morning, prior to refreshing their food dishes.

I've also done this (unintentionally) with cockatiels and was able to get a very skittish, older male cockatiel to be far less skittish of humans. Although I wasn't trying to tame him, he's actually become one of the more confident birds when I offer food by hand. This is interesting to note because two others who are more accustomed to humans are less inclined to come to my hand like he is. Not to say that they wont, they just take more time.