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Recall with multiple birds?

GreenThing

Jogging around the block
Joined
5/24/21
Messages
722
Location
South Florida
Real Name
Kat
I have been trying to recall Percy and Merlin to me using their individual names, but I'm not sure if the signal I'm giving and the way that I'm rewarding are making sense to the budgies.

While working on taming Percy, I would reward both birds semi-consistently for trying something new and scary-- leaving the cage, walking close to me, landing on their playstand-- as well as for stepping up and flying to me. Now that both are more comfortable with me and the new apartment, I only give treats when I have prompted the behavior. There was some initial squawking about this (what do you MEAN there is not millet on the bed at all times?), but they understand that they can't squawk the millet out of me!

Over the past two weeks, I've started 1) holding up one hand (two fingers), 2) having a treat visible in the other, and 3) calling "Merlin!" or "Percy!" with distinct intonation. I make sure I'm facing the bird I want to fly to me.

If the bird being called doesn't come (or get in take-off position-- sometimes they are poised but distracted by a car or figuring out a sound, and then I will wait for them) after two calls/five or so seconds, I will lower my hand, wait a beat, and then try calling the other bird. If the "wrong" bird comes, I will say something like, "oops!" and place them on the bed without a treat. If a bird (PERCY, IT'S PERCY) tries to land on my hand and push the other bird away as he is receiving his treat, I will let them both fly back to the cage and then call the bird who was supposed to get the treat again.

I think my body language alone has been working, because this will usually work twice for both of them... before the other bird gets impatient and I start getting two birds on my hand. I caught on to this today, and stopped as soon as this started happening and switched to playing with both of them.

My concern is that the vocal cue is not clicking, and they see this more as a "sometimes I am getting the treat sometimes I am not" game. They are definitely connecting the reward to landing on my hand and stepping up, but I'm not sure I am making them aware that the vocal cue is part of the whole thing. I'm wondering if I should call both together and reward both together OR shorten the sessions (stop as soon as one of them gets pushy) but keep trying.

Looking at the steps I'm trying to follow-- do you think that withholding a treat when the "wrong" bird comes to me makes sense to the bird, or is it just frustrating? Budgies seem to be hardwired with FOMO, and I'm not sure if it is fair to expect one to sit and wait his turn, the way a dog might. I'm worried that if I start with always calling both and rewarding both at the same time it will be confusing to start calling them individually.

I have also tried giving one their treat AND setting them down to finish it while I call the other bird, but this is tricky timing and ends up with them getting a lot of millet (and I wonder if it makes it less clear what behavior is being rewarded).
 

Stars

Strolling the yard
Joined
8/29/21
Messages
92
This is interesting to me as I am in the middle of recall training for two budgies as well. For now one is more adventurous than the other so I am working with her mostly hoping the other one will catch up. Regarding the last sentence, you can try breaking off a couple of millet seeds and putting that down near where they are instead of leaving them with the whole stick.
 

Tazlima

Jogging around the block
Avenue Veteran
Joined
3/7/19
Messages
623
You can definitely train them to recognize their names and take turns recalling, but it's much easier if they practice separately first. Can you shut one in the cage while you work with the other, then switch? They'll not only get separate practice with their own name, but observe from the sidelines that you use a different command with the other bird.

That's 2/3 of the battle right there.
 
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