Progress!

I've been trying to get my budgies used to my hand in their cage: talking softly to them, moving slowly and deliberately, not reacting when they freak out. The ultimate goal, of course, is to hand-train them to step up onto my finger so I can take them out for free flight and return them safely to their cage.

Today, I took a little millet spray (their favorite treat) on a string and held the string between my fingers so they could kind of reach the millet, but it wasn't very comfortable from the perch. Kiwi, in particular, just couldn't contain himself; he had to have that millet! Pretty soon he was perched happily on my finger, flinging millet everywhere. Calypso couldn't handle being left out. He (she?--not sure yet!) tried to move onto a little branch jutting from the perch, but I slowly moved my hand until he had to step up if he wanted to keep eating too.

So, after only a week, I had two budgies perching obliviously on my hand, devouring millet like there was no tomorrow. Woo-hoo! The picture above shows the hungry birds. I'm sorry about the quality; it is a tiny portion of a picture Amy took from about six feet away.

Unfortunately, toward the end of this session, the perch I was partly leaning my hand on shifted, and they freaked out a bit. Still, I think we made definite progress tonight. It won't be long before I can let them out to poop on the rest of our bedroom.