Now you are probably desperate to start taming your budgie as soon as you get it home. But leave it a few days and let the budgie settle in. Once it has settled in, the taming can begin.

Start off by simply winking at your budgie(s) for short periods of times. So maybe sit/stand close to the cage and look into the birds eyes and wink and hold the wink for 5 or 6 seconds then open your eyes. Do this with your right and left eye if you can. If you find it hard to wink, then hold closed both your eyes for the same period of time. Continue this daily until you begin to recieve a response from your budgie and it will begin to wink back at you. It will watch what you do with your eyes and then begin to do the same. This is an important stage in trust with your budgie.

After you have mastered the first stage above, the next stage is to put your hand in the cage and start to begin to handle your budgie. Put your hand in the cage and if your budgie immediately begins to flap about, keep your hand in the cage until it stops. You’ll need to do this several times until it doesnt flap about and stays still. This is when it begins to not fear your hand. The next step is to put your hand closer and closer to the budgie until it stays still and with just 1 finger rub its stomach or ontop of its head. While you do this, you may need to keep winking inbetween so as the budgie can keep reminding itself it trusts you. Once you have mastered that, and your budgie no longer fears you or your hand, its onto the next step.

Step up – ‘Step Up’ is a simple command for your budgie to step up onto your finger. Hold your finger just above and infront of its feet. Now your budgie doesnt come pre-programmed with the step up command, you have to teach it what it means by constantly holding your finger in that position and rubbing the bottom of his stomach and lightly nudging him onto your finger. Keep repeating it again and again until he steps up. Now once he steps up onto your finger, just hold that position, if you try to move the budgie out of the cage or away from the perch he may get frightened and jump off, so hold that position and then put it back on the perch by lowering your finger and moving it closer to the perch so he climbs back up onto the perch. Keep getting it to step up and step down and ensure you are constantly using the step up phrase again and again.