Budgie will not tame! Ive tried everything! Ive been patient! Help!

[Jessica.jo2286]

Help! I don't know what else to do. I have had my male parakeet, yoshi, for a little over three months. I was told he was about 2 or 3 months old when I got him from the pet store (no breeders in the area). He is in our living room in a large cage with toys and several perches. He gets lots of gentle happy attention every day and we talk to him all the time. I have been trying to hand train him consistently for three months now and he is PETRIFIED of hands. He's eaten millet out Of my hand once or twice, but only when I hold a long one so he doesn't have to be near my hand. When I try to get closer he runs away. A few times he has even freaked out so much he's flown out of the cage which resulted in me having to towel him after an hour to get him back in. I am consistent, gentle, and persistent in trying to he him to trust me but he just WON'T. I've tried everything suggested in books and every website on the Internet lol. He doesn't play with toys or use his cuttlebone, and has no interest in fruits veggies or anything other than his seed mix. Believe me, I've tried EVERYTHING to get him to 'come out of his shell' but he just has no interest. I desperately want my little yoshi to be able to hang out and play like normal parakeets, but I dot know if he has it in him. It's gotten to the point where I almost want to adopt him out and get another one that appears friendlier or more curious, which would make me feel horrible because i do love him so much and I would feel *like i failed him. The only signal he gives me that he is happy is that he chirps for intervals of 10 minutes several times a day. He's got a great setup and *very loving/caring/patient owners but I just don't know what else to do. I long for his companionship i see all these videos of people playing with their budgies on YouTube and it breaks my heart because yoshi hates me *is it normal for a budgie to have made NO progress after 3 months of consistent training? Is something wrong? please someone help!!!! One other thing- he has a short tail feather that the people at the store said would grow back but it hasn't.

[notredamebird]

Hi, I know this post is almost a month old, but I want to chime in and say you shouldn't feel bad that he hasn't tamed down. Keep trying--and realize that he might not come around. In theory any bird is tamable. However, if he's not been socialized before and is set in his ways (he might not be a baby bird) he may be very resistant. If so, you might be able to give him a nice cage with a lot of things to do (even if he seems not be taking advantage of them). Then, if you are ready for the responsibility, you could try getting a second budgie. Make sure this one is tame and will hang out with you, and when he's not with you, he might be able to provide some companionship for the untame bird.

I did this with my tiels. Two came to me as rescues that were totally untame (terrified of me). They now allow my hands near them but basically don't want to interact other than to see what I put in the food bowel! The second two came to me as extremely tame rescues. They live together, so I get to play with the tame birds, but the untame cockatiels have a flock to keep them happy.

[Birdmanca]

Some budgies are never going to be tame and become your buddy no matter how long you have the. Just ty to observe a bird closely and try to see if the bird responds to you before you buy and bring the bird home. It feels lousy to feed a bird and do every thing else, and get no vibes from them.