Question for the Bird people

[Bottomfeeder]

Hey Bird people...

So I have a pair of female Budgies in a large flight cage in my great-grandma's house, on the floor below mine. Her and her caretaker take care of them as well as my mom, and whistle/talk to them, and since the cage is in the dining room, the Birds get a lot of mental and verbal stimulation. However, in a few months my great-grandma may move out, and with it her caretaker, so the only attention the Birds will recieve is once a day, at night, when my mom changes the newspaper, food, and water. I know Parrots and Parrakeets are prone to depression, which can be fatal, so I wanted to move the cage upstairs, but my dad won't let me. I mentioned that they may die, and he seemed indifferent. What do you guys think? My eventual intention will probably be to send him here to read the thread, if I am correct about them becoming depressed.

 

[Sylvias]

Because there is two of them they will probably just focus more on each other and be fine. If it was just one then you would definitely want to move it somewhere with more interaction but with two they really shouldn't suffer that much....

 

[crayfishguy]

but you could have your mom hand tame them (grab them,wait till they stop biting then slowly open your hand this whole time talking to them in a soothing voice, eventually they will realize you are a friend and will step up onto your finger when you touch it to their belly for more help tell me on the thread my new budgie

 

[Saterus]

Yeah, if they're together they should be fine, just make sure they have plenty of toys.
You could put a radio down there though. Some birds definitely enjoy it. My quaker likes to sing with movies and radios.

 

[coura]

I would get them a few more girl friends for chat as well as toys, new brances and enriching foods. Allot of bird people I know grow their own corn and when it gets big and tall, put it in the bird cage and the critters amuse themselfes eating the plant.

 

[Red Devil]

add more toys.. play a radio softly when no one is around... and just keep an eye on them for plucking feathers or loss of appetite..but i think because they have each other they will be okay...

 

[Sylvias]

but you could have your mom hand tame them (grab them,wait till they stop biting then slowly open your hand this whole time talking to them in a soothing voice, eventually they will realize you are a friend and will step up onto your finger when you touch it to their belly for more help tell me on the thread my new budgie

That is a horrible, stressful way to tame down any animal and in most cases does way more harm than good... not to mention it hurts you as well.

if you wanted to go the rout of getting them hand tame, if they aren't already, then you would have to put the time in to slowly acclimate them to you and your presence. Place your hand in the cage and just leave it there.... don't move..just sit with hand in the cage for 5-10 minutes every day till it doesn't bother them so much. then start holding a treat in that hand, eventually they will get curious and come to get the treat. keep doing that till they are comfortable with your hand... not moving at all..and then you can slowly move your hand out...depending on how they react you may be able to take them out right away or work up to it. during the entire process make sure they can see the rest of you though and talk calmly to them. it takes time and patience and some birds take much longer than others but it is worth it in the end if that is what your going for.

 

[Bottomfeeder]

No taming. These Birds are a bit old for that, 4 or 5 years old, to be exact. And no one ever attempted to train them because I stupidly got them when I was in 4th grade... hence the flight cage

 

[Sylvias]

Thats not a problem either. in that case as said before, they should be fine, if they accept other birds into the cage then no harm in adding one or two more. Just be careful because birds can sometimes be highly aggressive towards others if they are already happy and stable with who they have.... As far as I know this is less likely to happen with budgies though and you should be alright.

 

[crayfishguy]

That is a horrible, stressful way to tame down any animal and in most cases does way more harm than good... not to mention it hurts you as well.

if you wanted to go the rout of getting them hand tame, if they aren't already, then you would have to put the time in to slowly acclimate them to you and your presence. Place your hand in the cage and just leave it there.... don't move..just sit with hand in the cage for 5-10 minutes every day till it doesn't bother them so much. then start holding a treat in that hand, eventually they will get curious and come to get the treat. keep doing that till they are comfortable with your hand... not moving at all..and then you can slowly move your hand out...depending on how they react you may be able to take them out right away or work up to it. during the entire process make sure they can see the rest of you though and talk calmly to them. it takes time and patience and some birds take much longer than others but it is worth it in the end if that is what your going for.

tried that for 2 years no luck tried my way and they ENJOY being out of the cage they will step ont your finger when you put it in the cage and come out and sit on your shoulder