Parenting and training are complex processes that require maximum consistency and patience. Moreover, it does not matter who will be brought up: a child, a puppy or a parrot. When buying a wavy chick, you just need to make sure that you are not selling an adult or an old parrot, the rest is a matter of technology.
Getting to know the bird
As a rule , shoppers begin to ask how to train a budgie in the hands of a store. But you don’t need to rush immediately upon arrival to fulfill all the recommendations. Wait! The parrot experienced a lot of stress when it was caught from the common cage where it lived with relatives, suffered a painful move, and finally found itself in an unknown place. Well, when the breeder accustomed the chicks to his hands, worked with them, if not, then you are for the parrot only terrible monsters.
Tip number 1. The cage should be prepared in advance, filled with feeders and drinking bowls. Having launched the parrot, cover it with a light, translucent fabric, so that he has time to understand that it is safe here, there is food, and adapt to smells. After a few hours, the fabric can be removed, giving the bird the opportunity to observe what is happening.
Tip # 2. The best way to train a budgie is to let the process go as naturally as possible. The first few weeks do not need to clean the cage and create unnecessary noise when filling the feeder or drinker. Passing by, talk with a parrot, observe its behavior. As soon as he stopped running to the far end of the perch at the sight of your approach, you can move on. Now you can stay for a long time near the cell. If the bird is already pecking food, regardless of your presence nearby, try to offer a treat through the bars, and after successful feeding - and from the hand.
Tip number 3. Do not pick up a bird in your hands when it is clearly protesting and scared by such an action. When the parrot recognizes enough of you, he himself will begin to flutter on his hand and look for the delicacy in the palm of his hand. Any violence pushes the upbringing process far back, and since these birds are vindictive, your dream of a tame handsome man may never come true.
We continue to communicate in the wild
The taming of the parrot to his hands can be considered complete when the bird calmly sits on the hand outstretched into the cage, even if there are no treats on it. Now you can try to carefully remove the limb from the cage. A parrot may remain sitting on it, flipping on a perch or flying away on its first walk around the room. Any behavior in this situation will indicate the degree of adaptation.
Now even more opportunities are opening up on how to train the budgerigar. During a walk, he will be more actively interested in you, try to sit on your shoulder or head, tickle your ears or pull your hair. Another favorite form of interaction is the game, which consists in pulling something hidden in a fist with your beak, or pulling a ribbon. You and your pet can come up with a ton of opportunities to have a good time. The most important thing is not to force things. Give the parrot time to explore the room and start returning home. Do not be scared when he dares to sit on his shoulder for the first time; you still have time to stroke him on the back. Patience here is the best helper.
How long will this adaptation take
The transformation of a wild bird into a completely manual one, which confidentially dives into the hands of the owner, freely flying around the room, depends on the age of the parrot and its past experience. A nestling, fed by a person, can willingly go up in the first days after purchase. An adult bird growing in a common cage with others, where the host function was to replace the feeder, may remain wild for months, if not years. An injured parrot who has a negative experience with a person behind him (caught, despite fierce resistance, hurt) may never trust you.
We pass to water procedures
Probably everyone saw a funny video about how a wavy parrot splashes fun in the water. How to teach your pet to swim?
This is nothing complicated - almost all birds love warm water, remember the sparrows and pigeons in puddles after rain. You are required to provide the parrot with the opportunity and the chance to make a choice on their own and to decide whether he wants to swim or not. What are the options?
- Special bathing suit. It is installed in a cage, it is a plastic structure, into which water is poured. Usually bathing is quite tight, so not all birds like it.
- An ordinary cat tray that you can place next to the cage or even on the cage itself. There is plenty to splash around here.
- Imitation of a pool with plants. If the bird categorically ignores all the suggested ways to take a bath, put in it a bowl with slightly recessed lettuce.
- The addition of various goodies, berries and fruits to the baths also stimulates interest in the first stage.
- Some birds like to take a shower - try spraying a parrot from a spray bottle. Necessarily water should be very warm. But if your pet displeases, then this is not his option.
Do not forget a few rules. The water in the bathing room should be clean and warm. When you provide the bird with the opportunity to take a bath, check for drafts and stop bathing if the room is cold.
One word, two word - teach a parrot to speak
The sequence should be just like this: first adaptation and trusting relationships, then training. It is unlikely that one could imagine that a parrot is able to learn something, dodging horror at the sight of its owner. How to train a budgie to speak? This applies more to our pedagogical abilities than to the talent of the bird itself. The result will depend on how you are committed to success, how much time per day you are willing to devote to training a feathered friend. The learning process itself is based on a mechanical repetition of the same phrase with the same intonation, each word should be "chopped off", otherwise the parrot will remember the whole phrase in a single, illegible word.
A daily lesson of 20 minutes in the early morning and evening (at this time, parrots are more susceptible to learning) will certainly give results. If you notice that during training the bird freezes and starts yawning, then you are close to success. The emotional coloring of your words is important, while the meaning and content have no meaning. The owners of a pair of birds also often have the question of how to teach budgies to talk, but usually, being in a society of their own kind, they only communicate in bird language.
Brief conclusions
You do not need any special techniques to master the knowledge of how to train the budgerigar. All your tools are patience and affection. Do not run ahead, give the bird a chance to believe you. Repeating the result already achieved will allow us to consolidate it and create a platform for the next step.