Budgie Flight Training!

 

As someone who shares their budgies taming processes with the internet, I received a lot of criticism from people because I was allowing my budgies to initiate flight/recall training before step up training.

Let’s talk about why I encouraged this and how you can start flight training your budgies.

My more confident budgie Pekoe (yellow) one day was standing on the perch on top of their cage and looked like he wanted to fly to me while I was working not far away, so I walked over leaving 2 feet from him to myself and he proceeded to fly to me when I put my hand up I gave him plenty of treats (to the internets disgust) why? because at that point in time Pekoe was VERY nervous of hands and he decided to stand on my hand, whether he flew to me or stepped up I didn’t care because ultimately he made the correct decision.

Species like budgies and cockatiels tend to be more inclined to fly to you than to step up because it is entirely their choice and they are a generally hand phobic species by nature. More often than not it will be easier to teach your budgie to fly to you than to step up.

Where to Start!

Step 1) having your budgie on a proper diet is essential, if your budgie is being fed treats all the time than why would they fly to you to get treats when they know they get fed the “treats” in a bowl in their cage. Basics of a Small Parrot Diet

Step 2) know your budgies favourite treats some prefer spray millet mine preferred loose millet in my hand.

Step 3) offer them the treat in your hand but they have to hop from a perch to your hand, (clicker train your bird first – The Foundation Of Trick Training For Parrots! ) click and give them a bunch of treats! the first time they do this will be the hardest for them so make sure they know that they made the right decision!

slowly build the distance between you and the perch.

Don’t forget to give your bird a treat for flying back to the perch otherwise you may create a clingy bird (its not as cute as it sounds)