buttonsbob
Sitting on the front steps
- Joined
- 3/3/21
- Messages
- 16
Hi everyone, i'm new to this forum and this is my first post here! I brought home a four month old male budgie two months ago. I have a 2 year old male lovebird at home and despite the risks of having a lovebird and a budgie together, our birds have gotten along together quite well thankfully. My budgie had his wings clipped before we brought him home which I was unaware of but I guess that's how new birds are taken home? We kept our two birds separated from each other and I went by the textbook on how to bring home a new bird and make it feel welcome. My budgie is still very timid and it's been two months. I've given him space for the first few days, he didn't even know what spray millet was but once he had a taste he seemed to enjoy. I've held my hand in the cage with the treat and he refuses to come on my hand. I'll feed him millet on the stick, and he takes millet from my fingers but once i put the treat in the palm of my hand, he REFUSES to come on my hands and would rather eat the crumbs of the millet on his perch and then walks away. I sit and talk with him, play music and do all that. He also will only come out if our other bird is with us or else he doesn't like humans. I think my mistake was that we introduced our birds too soon (it was an accident) and since then our budgie has grown to love our lovebird and bonded with him. He comes on our arms only when our lovebird is on us. His personality is quite strange but sooo adorable. He rarely bites unless pushed to his limits, he's quiet but chirpy when there's music or background noise, and he's been handheld since birth so he's not scared of hands but still scared of my hand which is understandable.
My main issue: Our budgie has clipped wings and when he flies he falls to the ground. I think he is terrified of flying because every time he's flown, he ends up on the ground and not where he wants to go. He flies once and immediately goes back to his cage and stays there. That's his safe space. We've had him for two months but he only enjoys being in his cage. His cage is filled with many toys and he's always playing with them and never seems bored (Which is good!! I love that he's mentally stimulated and happy). But he doesn't want to come out. I've put sooo many toys out in a small room in hopes he would fly around and explore but he simply refuses to step out. He is so scared of the outside world apart from his cage and i don't know what to do. Our other bird is SUPER active and always flying and i can tell the budgie wants to play with him but he simply doesn't try. I don't know what to do. I'm at a loss of how to fix this. Last week he used to attempt to fly with my other bird but revert back to his cage. This week he barely wants to come on top of his cage and enjoys time in his cage only. He also doesn't want to spend time with us humans and i can understand his fear because we're so much bigger than him and this poor baby can't even fly well!
Things I've attempted:
1. Bribe him with treats: I've tried luring him out the cage with treats but I feel like he's not THAT crazy for spray millet so he doesn't care.
2. I've taken out all the toys in his cage and put them on display in a small room - I even placed them at his level so he can comfortably fly there since it's lower
3. My lovebird enjoys flying around and I can see my budgie gets so inspired and wants to join him (he sometimes does but ends up on the ground and flies back to his cage)
4. My lovebird also plays with the toys I put on display for the budgie so he knows he can play with them too
5. I've taken his cage out of the room for FIVE MINUTES while he was out but it only stressed him out more!! I brought the cage back in the room and he was so relieved.
What do I do??? He doesn't even trust me enough but sometimes I'll talk to him and he talks back. He only seems to be interested in his cage and my other bird and I guess he has no interest in creating bonds with us humans. I really love him and I want him to feel comfortable. I feel like he feels SUPER discouraged to come out his cage because he knows he wouldn't be able to fly but he hasn't even tried going on the mini toy section I made him please help me.
Another thing, he randomly starts twitching his head and then jumps around? For like thirty seconds and stops. Is this normal behaviour? I know head twitching in budgies is normal but google is telling me he's having seizures. Also I feel like he's traumatized of coming out now because of his constant banging into walls which makes me so sad because I cover up my mirrors and such but he can't reach the destination he's going to that he ends up crashing. Should I get him checked by a vet to see if he has a concussion or anything because He's crashed many times before and gets up and acts like nothing happened.
My main issue: Our budgie has clipped wings and when he flies he falls to the ground. I think he is terrified of flying because every time he's flown, he ends up on the ground and not where he wants to go. He flies once and immediately goes back to his cage and stays there. That's his safe space. We've had him for two months but he only enjoys being in his cage. His cage is filled with many toys and he's always playing with them and never seems bored (Which is good!! I love that he's mentally stimulated and happy). But he doesn't want to come out. I've put sooo many toys out in a small room in hopes he would fly around and explore but he simply refuses to step out. He is so scared of the outside world apart from his cage and i don't know what to do. Our other bird is SUPER active and always flying and i can tell the budgie wants to play with him but he simply doesn't try. I don't know what to do. I'm at a loss of how to fix this. Last week he used to attempt to fly with my other bird but revert back to his cage. This week he barely wants to come on top of his cage and enjoys time in his cage only. He also doesn't want to spend time with us humans and i can understand his fear because we're so much bigger than him and this poor baby can't even fly well!
Things I've attempted:
1. Bribe him with treats: I've tried luring him out the cage with treats but I feel like he's not THAT crazy for spray millet so he doesn't care.
2. I've taken out all the toys in his cage and put them on display in a small room - I even placed them at his level so he can comfortably fly there since it's lower
3. My lovebird enjoys flying around and I can see my budgie gets so inspired and wants to join him (he sometimes does but ends up on the ground and flies back to his cage)
4. My lovebird also plays with the toys I put on display for the budgie so he knows he can play with them too
5. I've taken his cage out of the room for FIVE MINUTES while he was out but it only stressed him out more!! I brought the cage back in the room and he was so relieved.
What do I do??? He doesn't even trust me enough but sometimes I'll talk to him and he talks back. He only seems to be interested in his cage and my other bird and I guess he has no interest in creating bonds with us humans. I really love him and I want him to feel comfortable. I feel like he feels SUPER discouraged to come out his cage because he knows he wouldn't be able to fly but he hasn't even tried going on the mini toy section I made him
please help me. Another thing, he randomly starts twitching his head and then jumps around? For like thirty seconds and stops. Is this normal behaviour? I know head twitching in budgies is normal but google is telling me he's having seizures. Also I feel like he's traumatized of coming out now because of his constant banging into walls which makes me so sad because I cover up my mirrors and such but he can't reach the destination he's going to that he ends up crashing. Should I get him checked by a vet to see if he has a concussion or anything because He's crashed many times before and gets up and acts like nothing happened.
(for visibility)
