I adopted the beautiful dominant pied budgie named Jellybean, he is untamed and quite fearful of the hands. Id like to hear about your experiences with untamed budgies.
In last June When I was working at an animal shelter and heard that someone found Jellybean and brought it to the shelter. He was found on the street and got brought to the shelter. The owners didn't show up at all. Then I checked on him and fell in love with him, adopted him few days later. When I was filling up the application to adopt Jellybean and waited for the person to bring him to me. But I saw that he used the net and tried to catch Jellybean as he was flying frantically. I got very upset and wanted to say something but I couldn't because of my job at the shelter. Then I brought him home, he got so scared as I gently opened the cage door and he flew into the wall few times, and I had to be calm and scooped him then he bit my finger as he went in the cage. He was very timid and refused to get close to the hands. As my mom and I sometimes put our hands very slowly and gently to put the food and water dish in the cage. Jellybean got spooked few times. It took a month and half to earn his trust to be close to the hands. I sometimes put the millet on my hand and he actually picked it and ate but didn't sit on my hand or my moms. Other time, brought him to the bedroom where it was more safe for him to fly around and wouldn't get hurt. He got spooked but flew up and hung on the bedroom door frame then flew around for 4 or 5 hours. We didn't want to force him to go in the cage, let him do on his own and he did on his own! But he is still scared of hands. My mom and I had our suspicions that the previous owners might be too rough with Jellybean, like they might have kept grabbing him as his wings aren't clipped. I am still working to earn his trust to overcome the fear of hands. I used to own few budgies, lineolated parakeet, green cheek conure, black headed caique and white ringneck dove. They weren't really scared of my hands easily. I was wondering if you ever had experiences to handle untamed budgies that was fearful of hands for a long time. I'd love to hear about your experiences and suggestions to earn the trust of the fearful budgie.