Hand Training Multiple Keets

User Question
I have 2 parakeets. I didnt buy them, my cousin bought them and then decided they were too much for her to handle. I have had them for about a month and a half. They never really liked me. (I never tried the training thing) Yesterday one of them managed to get a piece of string from the pillow case I use to cover them at night wrapped around his neck. I tried to grab him to take it out but being that they really are not used to me he came loose and flew around the house. He smacked into 2 walls head on. I finally got him and rused him over to my aunts house. She is a pro with birds and got the string off for me. After that tramatic night Im sure they think I am some type of beast out to get them

I basically have 2 questions

1 - I want to train them and I see all your training methods but I noticed they all specify 1 bird. Since I have 2 would I focus on one till its trained and then the other? (One is more afraid of me than the other)

2 - I have been putting newspaper and special paper towels in the tray UNDER the cage. This is how I got them and everything is going fine. But my aunt says I should be putting paper IN the cage. She says the bars on the bottom may hurt the feet. She then said it can end up breaking the leg if it slips in and panics. Is this true?

By the way....I have bookmarked this webpage. I am an animal lover and refuse to let them die due to ignorance and will be researching this page for everything.

Lisa's Answer
Hand training multiple keets is fine - in fact the more afraid bird may see the other bird being with you, get jealous and want to be with you too. So it may help out a lot.

Liners should go under the cage because you want to keep the poops down under where the keets can get to. That's why it's set up that way. If you're going to be paranoid about bars breaking things, then the bars all around the cage could break a keet's leg or wing if they panic :) That really doesn't happen though. Keets feet are very used to bars, they aren't hurt by them. It's nice to give them a variety of perches too, though, so the feet aren't always in the exact same bar-holding position.

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