Old Shy Parakeet is Interfering with New Bird

User Question
hey lisa, i really love your parakeet pages and i find them VERY informative and helpful but i have a question. i bought a budgie from a bin-o-budgies or something close to it and he never really let me handle him. elvis (the budgie) was skiddish from the day i got him in october and after 6 months he still won't let me handle him but now he doesn't fly away when i go near him or feed him.

recently, 3 days ago actually, i got another bird- seabiscuit. the biscuit is just a baby and was handled from his birth and he's let me hold him on my finger and pet him since i got him. but now that he and elvis are getting along well and are friendly, seabiscuit seems to be shying away from me. i feel like maybe he is learning from elvis because elvis won't get very close to me. i don't want this to continue, i loved being able to hold the biscuit but now he tries to get away when i handle him. i figured since i've only had him for three days i can still do something about this and i need your help. do you have any suggestions? thanks so much for your time!

Lisa's Answer
Hmmm an interesting riddle. It's more likely that the new bird is in a strange place and looking for someone safe to latch on to, and he spends far more time with the other bird than he does with you. I really doubt the other bird is tainting his reactions as much as the new bird just wants to be with the old bird because they're both birds.

I would keep working on training both of them together, and if anything, the new bird will help the old one see that fingers are friends. The birds will always want to be with each other, that's part of having two birds- they are friends. But you will be a happy part of that flock, once you get them trained :)

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