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Hand training
•Provide the appropriate surroundings, which can be vital to a parakeet’s life. Do not put the parakeet(s) in a
dark room that is quiet. If your room is bright and you are interacting with
the parakeet, it will feel comfortable.
•Wait about a week before you start training, so the bird can get acclimated to its new surroundings.
•For the first day of training, slowly open the door and put your hand not in the cage, but on the entrance to the cage.
Don’t move it for awhile, because that might startle the parakeet. Lots
of parakeets may fly around or squawk at you. Do not move, so it can determine
that nothing will happen at this point.
•Do this every day, but each day make a little more progression into going into the cage. The parakeet should realize
after a couple days of your hand being in the cage day after day without a destructive
thing happening (hopefully nothing destructive has happened!) that the hand is
just another daily routine happening.
•Once your hand reaches the perch, do the same thing in steps #4 & #5, but move your hand closer to the parakeet.
The parakeet may scatter, squawk or fly like a crazy bird for awhile, realizing
that this thing, or your hand, might touch it
•When the parakeet is used to having your hand near by, start to touch its foot, or touch it gently. Parakeets typically
find foot rubs soothing. Every parakeet is a little different, so try different
things to make him/her comfortable.
•Try to put your finger under the parakeet's foot, and it should respond by getting off, flying, or being brave and putting
the other foot on. Most parakeets would jump off or fly. Be persistent about
it, and try until he has two feet on without getting off.
•Now that the parakeet can sit on your hand with comfort, learn how to move your finger around without it freaking out.
This may not take as long as other steps. Move your finger slowly around the
cage, and pick it up and drop it off from various perches around the cage.
•Figure out how to get him out of the cage. When getting him out of the cage, put him on your finger, and moves him slowly toward the cage door. Many parakeets may flee from being so close from the outside
of the cage, so work on this continuously and progress day-by-day.
•Once he is out of the cage, keep working on the in and out of cage training to get him comfortable. Now if he is out
of the cage, talk to him and don’t move around a lot. Just keep him on
your finger, let him look around, and chirp.
•Get your bird adjusted to sitting on other parts of your body. Sitting on the hand, shoulder, and head as well an other
surfaces, is an easy training trick because of how the parakeet associates it
with your finger.
•PERCH TRAINING
Your parakeet MUST be used
to your hand being in the cage before you start step two. If your parakeet still flies around when you put your hand in the cage, go Back to Step One - Building the Trust.
•OK, so your parakeet watches your hand when you change the food and water now.
On the day you choose to start this step, play some soft music in the background, and
have the room the parakeet is in quiet and restful. Change her food and water as you
normally would, with her watching you. Now, after you do the food/water, pause for a moment. Quietly use your hand to take a short perch from their cage, preferably one on the opposite site of the cage as the bird
is. Now your hand is in the cage and you are holding the perch loose. The perch you choose
should be small enough that you can move it around the cage without hitting things (especially
the parakeet!!)
•Your budgie already knows that perches are for sitting on. She is not afraid of
a perch! So hold the perch at ... "perch level" - that is, at the same level as the perch
your keet is currently sitting on. That is non-threatening to the bird.
•Now move the perch SLOWLY towards your parakeet, talking quietly to her. She'll
be nervous to see a perch moving, but so far she should trust you, your hand, and the
perch. There is no "new" or "scary" thing in her world.
•
When the perch nears her feet, raise it up a little bit so it is at the level of her legs. If she flies away at this
point, stay still for a little while, and then start quietly moving the perch again,
talking quietly to her. If she flies away four times in a row, tell her she's a good
girl for trying and come back to it tomorrow. It should only take a day or two before she's used to the 'moving perch' and does not mind that it gets close to her.
•When she is at this point, press the perch gently against her legs / lower chest.
Say "UP" in a firm voice (not loud, just encouraging and firm) as you gently press. She
will start to lose her balance backwards and naturally put her foot forwards, onto the
new perch, for balance.
•Note again that this probably won't happen on the first time! Your parakeet may
sit there afraid, not willing to step on the perch. Your keet may just put one foot onto
it but not be willing to "commit" both feet. Again, this is a training process. Keep trying
each day until your bird learns this is not scary and is willing to put both feet onto the perch.
•When your keet does step fully onto the new perch you are holding, hold it very
steady! Your parakeet is trusting you with her life, you literally have her in your hands.
Praise the bird enthusiastically and tell her what a good bird she is. After a short while,
move the perch towards another perch in the cage so she gets off the one you're holding.
•After she gets used to the perch, you'll find she hops onto the perch pretty easily
when she sees it coming towards her. Then it's time to move to the next step.
•When you are ready to begin this step, prepare the room as usual
- have it quiet, soft music playing. Change the food and water as usual. Remove one of
the smaller perches from the cage. This time, however, put your finger on top of the
perch. That is, hold the perch in your hand and stretch your second finger out (the one
you point with) so it lays on top of the perch. Now the "perch" is a thick perch made
up of the wood/plastic below and your finger above.
•Once again, move this perch slowly towards your parakeet. Your parakeet
is by now used to this and doesn't really think much of the fact that the perch has an
extra bit of thickness to it. When you say UP to your keet, she should step onto the
"perch", which is now your finger and the wood/plastic. Maybe the keet is on the perch
part, maybe she's on the finger part, maybe she's half and half. Either way is OK.
•Stay very still and praise her! She has gotten onto the offered perch
without a problem. If she balks, go back to just the perch until she is comfortable with
that, and then try again.
•Do this exercise a few times a day for a few days until she learns
that the finger-perch is a quite reasonable place to sit. If she keeps sitting on the
perch part and not your finger part, try finding a shorter perch so that the perch length
IS your finger length and she doesn't really have a choice.
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Finger Training
•You can probably guess what the next step is here. Go through your normal morning routine - soft music, quiet room. Change the food and water. This time do NOT take the perch from the side of the cage.
Just move your hand over TO that perch and slowly stick your finger out over the perch.
•Slowly move your hand with the stuck-out finger towards your parakeet. Your keet should be very comfortable with a moving hand and a sticking-out perch like thing at this point and not think anything of it. Press your finger softly against the leg / lower chest area of your parakeet, saying "UP" quietly
but firmly. Your parakeet should step up onto your finger!
•Note that parakeets LIKE sitting on fingers, from a sensory point of view. They have soft little feet! Wood and plastic is hard on them, and it's not like they can wear socks or lie down. The have to be sitting
on their feet ALL DAY and ALL NIGHT. Your nice, soft finger is like a heavenly bed to
them! It's warm, gentle on the tender feet, soft, just what every parakeet would dream
about sitting on.
•Praise your parakeet for sitting on your finger. Don't move your hand around! Let your keet get used to sitting on the finger, just relaxing there. Some parakeets will even fall asleep on the finger because
it's so comfortable. When you are done, move your finger slowly to another perch so she
can hop off.
•This is a CRITICAL step in finger training, so spend a lot of time on it. Your parakeet needs to learn that your finger is a safe spot, a DESIRED spot to sit on. Any time your parakeet gets out of the cage,
you need to be able to get her back IN her cage in case of emergency. So she needs to
promptly get onto your finger if you ask her to, so you can move her to safety.
•OUT-OF-CAGE FINGER TRAINING
•You MUST have your parakeet hand trained before you can bring her out of the cage.
There are SO many emergency situations that can arise that require you getting your keet
into its cage quickly for safety. A fire could break out, someone could put a Teflon
pan on the stove, someone could open the doors so there is a clear path to the outside
world. You need to get your parakeet on your hand and into the cage. Be sure to Finger
Train Your Parakeet before attempting this next
step.
•Once your parakeet is fully finger / hand trained, it is time to consider letting
her out of her cage. Parakeets are EXTREMELY intelligent creatures and if you leave her
locked in her cage for her entire life, she will go stir crazy! She wants to explore
at least the room she's in, climb around, fly if she can, look down at the room from the curtain rods. She'll enjoy a play gym, or just hanging out on your shoulders.
•
Pinto and Nazo hang out on Bob's shoulders
•So go through your morning routine. Quiet music, quiet talking. Seal ALL doors
to this room though and put signs on them so people know not to come in.
•When you're ready, move your hand towards your parakeet. Say "UP" and get your
parakeet on your hand. Now SLOWLY bring the hand towards the opening in the cage. Your
parakeet may be nervous! Up until now, your parakeet has thought of her cage as the location
of safety and comfort. You're trying to bring her out of this safe area! It can really
help to hold a stick of millet in your other hand, just by the cage door. Bring the parakeet just to the cage door area, not "out into the scary world". Let her sit there and eat millet. When she's done, put her back
onto a perch.
•The next day, bring her a bit further out, so she's at the entry-way to her cage.
My parakeets love to sit on their "front porch" and just survey their world, even sleeping
there. If you have a drawbridge-style entrance this is IDEAL, it can sit open and they
can sit there or land there. If you don't have a drawbridge, it might be wise to make one
by putting a rope perch or something else at the entry area (on the outside of the cage) so your keets have somewhere to sit.
•If your keet starts flying or hopping around, don't panic. Let them settle down
and explore. When they are quiet, you can always get them back onto your hand with "UP"
and bring them back to the cage. If they can fly, they will fly back to their cage on
their own when they are ready to take a nap. Their cage is their home.
•Find ways to encourage your parakeet to enjoy the room. Most parakeets love curtain-rod
sitting. I'd advise putting some paper towels beneath the rods if you do this, their
poops are easier to clean up that way. I put the parakeets' bathtubs on top of their
cage - that way when they come out they can take their baths, and their bathtubs are always
fresh and clean. I also have a parakeet play gym at the cage's side, so they can go back and forth from the play gym to the cage as they wish.
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•Do NOT let your parakeets just roam around without you being there. Keets are
very curious and can easily get themselves into trouble. They can wedge themselves behind
bookcases or under couches. You need to be there and aware, so you can rescue them. You
don't have to watch them every second - I work on my computer while they
fly and hop around me. But I do check every 10 minutes or so to make sure there are still 3 of them in sight :)
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