* Pet Bird Chat * NEW

[wlw]

(I think I've been accepted as a member on here 2 times and then taken away?)

Anyways, my budgies love golden peaches and cos lettuce but they just won't eat anything else.
Any tips on how to get them to try something different. I've put kale in their cage but they just don't try new things.

sometimes birds will want to eat a food if they see you eat it first! try eating (or pretending to eat) something in front of them and see if they will take it when you offer it to them :-)

[Magpie•]

(I think I've been accepted as a member on here 2 times and then taken away?)

Anyways, my budgies love golden peaches and cos lettuce but they just won't eat anything else.
Any tips on how to get them to try something different. I've put kale in their cage but they just don't try new things.

sometimes birds will want to eat a food if they see you eat it first! try eating (or pretending to eat) something in front of them and see if they will take it when you offer it to them

yes I have tried that!
Usually Willo will try it and only then will Cloud try it. Cloud is slowing becoming more confident at trying new things. She used to never even touch it but now she'll nibble it a little but she doesn't actually get the kale in her mouth she just gets the water droplet on it. They absolutely love cos lettuce and when you come near the cage with it they will jump around and try and get first dibs. I also put it in water before so theres water droplets on it. Willo occasionally baths himself on the lettuce.
Any other tips?

[awful things]

Username: Acuña
How many birds do you own? ( if applicable ): just one
How long have you had them?: we just got her today!
What brings you to the bird chat?: i thought it would be nice to chat with more experienced bird owners and learn from them <3

[Eyulf]

I now own 3 beautiful budgies

Jangle the Lutino a female, Ollie the light green opaline (green and yellow), and Sky the pied spangle (pale yellow and pale aqua).
In a week Jangle will be a year old she share's my Birthday, and last night Jangle laid her first egg, I don't know if it will hatch as I'm not sure of Ollies gender.
Sky is a recent lil budgie, it's possible Sky is a leap day hatch, I'm not sure if Sky hatched on the 28th or 29th of February.
I've attached a nest box to Jangles cage, she's been in it all afternnoon.

Edit: Jangle laid a second egg today, it's the 2nd of May. This time in her nest box, the first one she laid in her seed dish, she surprised me. She let me move it to the nest box once i had it prepared. She was rather puzzled at how the box is outside her cage but she could get to it when she's in her cage, I watched as she stood looking from the front to the side of the box by her cage door. It's hooked onto the front left side, with the door pegged open, it's where I had her water but I moved that next to her food bowl.
As mentioned I don't know if they'll hatch as I don't know Ollies gender. They're in separate cages at night but have up to 4 hours of out of cage time in the mornings, they have a large room they can fly and play in, around midday they go back into their own cage.
Sky isn't old enough and only goes into the room every few days, for some flight and play time. My Mom took a liking to Sky so that Budgie has a large cage in the living room, and will hop onto my hand when the fluff wants to go play and fly in the room, and Sky's choice seems to be every 3rd day to do that.

[mochi.]

i wish i could have a bird! they seem so lively cute and fun. i just don't know if i could handle the care because of depression. my dog is pretty easy. i feel like birds are much more complicated. they are such beautiful creatures though. i love them.

[Eyulf]

Jangle laid a total of 5 eggs They weren't fertile though.

Then a couple of weeks ago some love bird eggs (4) were brought to me for Jangle to foster and incubate, she did so seamlessly not even phased by my switching out the eggs, I did a slight of hand trick, I had the eggs out of her range of view so she couldn't see the actual swap just me resting the eggs on a torch light to check for any growing chicks, then placing them back in the nest box. One love bird egg clearly had a chick growing, the timing is perfect as her first egg was laid back on the 29th, so the love bird hatching last night is as though it was her first egg hatching.
The chick is sooo tiny and makes a soft pip pip pip sound. She's so proud, but she's going to likely be so confused when the feathers start growing in and the chick gets slightly bigger than her. When the chick is about 3 weeks I'm thinking to take over a feed or two so it isn't a strain on Jangle being a budgie feeding a growing love bird.

[Elliwoods!!]

Hey I could really use a bit of advice here. About 4 weeks ago I got myself my first bird, a really sweet green cheeked conure who I absolutely love! His name is Min! There is just a problem with how my dad reacts to the little fella. You see Min always likes to fly to him whenever he is around, that cool and all but its just my dad is uh, not at all gentle. He ends up shoving his fingers under the poor thing to force him to step up when keep in mind, this guy is only 2 months old and barely knows step up. Sometimes he just strait up grabs Min to yank him off his shoulders too. Min also seems to like to nibble him a ton, I am not sure if its curious nibbling or biting so I am not sure if its an act of aggression or not. If it helps any Min does not seem to nibble me much, it seems to be just my dad he nibbles. So then each time Min nibbles a bit too hard my dad basically by instinct slaps him off his shoulder :( it really makes me sad.. Not to mention its hard to get Min off my dad at times too, he would even just start attacking me as if im also trying to hurt him, then once I finally get him off my dad its like a good minute or two of him barely trusting me and not wanting my hands anywhere near him.
Ive heard a ton about how as a baby you need to be as gentle as possible, im doing good at it but how my dad is treating this fella is strait up making me worry.
I am sorry if this is not really a bird related question but anyone know what I can try doing? I could really use some advice,, maybe I can prevent Min from flying to my dad in the first place, if so then how?

Oh yeah hey, id also like to join,,!
Username: Elliwoods!!
How many birds do you own? ( if applicable ): 1 Green cheeked conure
How long have you had them?: A little over 4 weeks now
What brings you to the bird chat?: Mostly here for advice, as for I dont know where else to go if something happens or if I need advice, plus id love to see everyone elses feathered friends!

[venti]

Hey I could really use a bit of advice here. About 4 weeks ago I got myself my first bird, a really sweet green cheeked conure who I absolutely love! His name is Min! There is just a problem with how my dad reacts to the little fella. You see Min always likes to fly to him whenever he is around, that cool and all but its just my dad is uh, not at all gentle. He ends up shoving his fingers under the poor thing to force him to step up when keep in mind, this guy is only 2 months old and barely knows step up. Sometimes he just strait up grabs Min to yank him off his shoulders too. Min also seems to like to nibble him a ton, I am not sure if its curious nibbling or biting so I am not sure if its an act of aggression or not. If it helps any Min does not seem to nibble me much, it seems to be just my dad he nibbles. So then each time Min nibbles a bit too hard my dad basically by instinct slaps him off his shoulder it really makes me sad.. Not to mention its hard to get Min off my dad at times too, he would even just start attacking me as if im also trying to hurt him, then once I finally get him off my dad its like a good minute or two of him barely trusting me and not wanting my hands anywhere near him.
Ive heard a ton about how as a baby you need to be as gentle as possible, im doing good at it but how my dad is treating this fella is strait up making me worry.
I am sorry if this is not really a bird related question but anyone know what I can try doing? I could really use some advice,, maybe I can prevent Min from flying to my dad in the first place, if so then how?

I am not a owner of a bird, not even a pet. But I think I could give good advice. So, if you want Min to get off your dad, have you tried food? Tried like telling your dad that Min means no harm?

[bluebudgie]

Hey I could really use a bit of advice here. About 4 weeks ago I got myself my first bird, a really sweet green cheeked conure who I absolutely love! His name is Min! There is just a problem with how my dad reacts to the little fella. You see Min always likes to fly to him whenever he is around, that cool and all but its just my dad is uh, not at all gentle. He ends up shoving his fingers under the poor thing to force him to step up when keep in mind, this guy is only 2 months old and barely knows step up. Sometimes he just strait up grabs Min to yank him off his shoulders too. Min also seems to like to nibble him a ton, I am not sure if its curious nibbling or biting so I am not sure if its an act of aggression or not. If it helps any Min does not seem to nibble me much, it seems to be just my dad he nibbles. So then each time Min nibbles a bit too hard my dad basically by instinct slaps him off his shoulder it really makes me sad.. Not to mention its hard to get Min off my dad at times too, he would even just start attacking me as if im also trying to hurt him, then once I finally get him off my dad its like a good minute or two of him barely trusting me and not wanting my hands anywhere near him.
Ive heard a ton about how as a baby you need to be as gentle as possible, im doing good at it but how my dad is treating this fella is strait up making me worry.
-snip-

I don’t have much advice, but for your problem of getting your bird off your dad’s shoulder, you might want to try target training. It’s rather simple, you teach your bird to touch the end of a stick, and by doing this, you can persuade your bird to willingly go anywhere. It’s very helpful for getting birds off shoulders or into pet carriers when they don’t want to. If you do a quick search on the internet, and you’ll find many sources on how to target train your bird.

[Eyulf]

I'm by no means an expert, I've a small bit of experience as I've handraised budgies and have 3 lil cuties.

Find a food your bird likes as a treat and only use it as a treat for training.
Keep your bird in the cage or take it to a quiet room or space, gently put your finger to the birds belly and ask if it wants to step up, if it does offer the treat and say "Good bird." Or if you have one use a clicker or something that clicks (I use the button of an old torch).
Repeat the training to step up, then both you and your Dad can get the bird off the shoulder with ease.

After step up or to change things up in training your bird, try target training.
Get a chopstick or something similar and do as mentioned above praise and or click and reward, when your bird touches the end of the chopstick when you offer the tip and say "Touch." You won't need to say it once your bird gets the idea to touch the chopstick and get a reward.

Step up and target training, open communication with your bird, and steadily you and your family will be able to move the bird to where they'd like it to be.

If your Dad keeps whacking at the lil fluff it'll keep biting and do it harder in it's defense.

My lutino female budgie territorial bites as she's laid eggs, it hurts like heck so now I try to attend to her cage when she's out playing.

The other day she and my other female budgie were taking turns landing on my head, Me: "Ok who's on my head?' peck pek bite "Oh hey there Jangle."

Ah I was beaten to a reply. I'm slow on my phone.