My Parakeet is Still Skittish

User Question
We've had 2 parakeets (Sonny and Louie) for about 2 years now. We got them at a bin-o-budgies place like you say, and they've never learned to trust us. Louie has always been very skittish; as soon as we go near the cage, he just starts flying around crazily to this day! Sonny was a bit less skittish; I began training him to sit on my finger in the way you described, and he learned to do this while in the cage (he started doing this about 1.5 years ago). I've never been able to get him out of the cage while sitting on my finger, but they are very comfortable flying around our house (We let them out about every other day and they go back on their own after about an hour). We feel like Sonny might have eventually trusted us if Louie wasn't being so skittish. Is this true? Is there anything we can do to get the birds to trust us enough to sit on us outside the cage? Or is it just too late? :( Any help would be appreciated greatly!

Lisa's Answer
I really would STRONGLY advise not letting your keets out if they are not finger trained. What if there was an emergency - what if someone knocked on the door and you had to open it, what if something in the kitchen caught on fire? What if the phone rang and you had to leave the house right away? If your keets are not finger trained, you have no control of getting them into the cage when you need to. And if that's true, they could literally die because they were flying around in an emergency situation and you couldn't get them to do what you wanted.

If you put your finger at their chest and say "UP" they should get on your finger. If they won't do that, they really need to learn that before you let them loose.

It's never too late to finger train your parakeets, and it just takes daily practice and time. It's very strange that after 2 years Louie flaps around, that he still doesn't trust you. Do you keep the cage in the room you are in most of the time, and talk to them regularly? They really should have learned to trust you by now, that you are the bringer of food and water, that you are part of their flock. It might be time to relocate their cage to a room you're in all the time, and to spend 1/2 hour a day with them for a few weeks to work on this with them. It's well worth it!

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