Skittles the Parakeet

Hi, I just registered at this forum today, and I'd like to share some pictures of my parakeet. I've had him for 6 weeks, and his name is Skittles. My progress in taming him (I got in from a bin at the pet store) is sort of progressing. He'll sit on my finger and sometimes go to sleep, but I can't move him more than 3-5 inches before he turns around and flies back to a perch.


Skittles sitting on his swing having a good time.


A full view of Skittles' cage. He has his hoops, his swing, his two perches, his little bell, his water, his food, his mineral block, and his gravel. What more could a cute little parakeet ask for?

I've had him for 6 weeks...should he be more tame by now? Should he be able to leave his cage? Should he be able to move around on my finger? I don't know, but I'm sure some of you other people on this forum do. Please give a warm welcome to my new parakeet, Skittles!

 

Hey,

Welcome skittles !

well here's what i did when i got my birds. Before i brought them home, i got their wings clipped so it would be easy to tame them. Then after they got used to their surroundings, for the first session of their training, i took them out of their cage. I held them instead of having them come to me. I did this daily and put my finger infront of their chest so that my finger wud touch their chest, and i'd urge them to come up on my finger... now they are totally comfortable coming on to my finger...

So you might want to clip their wings, and u shud try to get him out of his cage, and take him to a different room. This way he wont always go bak to the cage, so it will give him time to get used to your finger, and he'll get used to being outside of his cage.

Good Luck on taming him :y_the_best: !

 

Hi firstly what a beautiful bird from the look he may actually turn out to be a she as he is still very young.

For hand taming a budgie/cockatiel any sort of bird really is to firstly clip the wings if you feel this would be better but training can succeed without this being done.

Once you have him comftable on your finger slowly move your hand out of the cage talking softly and calmly stopping if he turns round. Once he settles again move a little more keep doing this till you can succesfully get him out of the cage.

Once out of the cage sit and hold him at eye level and speak softly and gently stroke his back and chest this helps reinforce trust.
If he has a favourite piece of fruit or veg use this to tempt him to sit in your hand.

Holding any panicking bird which is trying to get away from you can have a heart attack and it can also teach it that hands are scary and you dont want this allow your bird to trust you in its own time.

Also use the up and down command when you want him to get on your finger say up and keep repeating this once he steps up say good boy, when you want him to get back on a perch use the down command.

They soon learn these commands but never rush him to come to you he needs to be calm at all times.

Time and patience is the key.

Mike

 

welcome what a beatuiful bird

 

Eek

This is strange...Skittles has been acting a little strange since a few days ago. When I entered the room he was in the darkest corner of the cage holding onto the grating high up. Was this because the radio was quiet? I usually find him sitting on one of his perches.

Also, he seems to be terrified of my hand now. I didn't do anything though! He watches my hand as I put it in the cage, but if it comes within a 6 inch radius of him, he goes nuts and jumps off the perch. :| Has anyone else experienced this odd behavior when taming a parakeet?

Also Skittles sometimes randomly makes this odd squeaking noise without even opening his mouth. It's really weird, and I'm not sure what to make of it. I really need some help with Skittles now. He won't let me pet him anywhere except his tummy. I've scrounged the internet for answers, but I haven't found any. I need some assistance...

 

As with all birds it takes time for the to trust hands since he will aloow you to scratch his tummy your getting there.

Go slow and allow him to come to you.
Birds can make little noises without opening the beak which is a different noise to what they usually make.
Aslong as he can still hear the radio he will be fine.
As for him sitting in the darkest corner he could either be scared of something or this is where he likes to sit as its quiet and darker.
If he starts sitting there and fluffs up his feathers then he will need to be seen by an avian vet straight away to rule out any infections he may have.

The best place to purchase birds from and i find the safest is from a well known breeder this way you can see how well they were looked after plus see the parents and how they interact with the other birds.

Petshop,markets are not the best place to get a bird as they do not know the history of the bird they dont knwo of any problems the birds have and so on.

Healthy birds will be very inquisitive of there new surroundings and noises they will be alert and bright eye with a good feather plumage.

Mike

 

Another Keet

I found a local breeder that hand-raises and hand-feeds parakeets. They'll be ready to be adopted on November 9th. At first I'll keep Skittles and the new keet in separate rooms, and after a while I'll move both of them into my room (but still in separate cages). Then hopefully I'll have the new keet teach Skittles that humans are his new flock by having the new keet come on my finger and hopefully Skittles will understand that I don't want to hurt him, I just want to be his friend (that's pretty much the best approach I can think of when trying to tame a wild parakeet).

 

I've found some more local places where they have birds. I'm wondering...can Parakeets get along with lovebirds or cockatiels?

I'm getting Skittles a hand-raised partner, and was wondering what would be a good cage size or if I should just get two separate cages.

If Skittles and the new parakeet want to breed, what should I do?

If eggs are lain in the nest box, what should I do? How big should a nest box be? What should it be made out of?

Thanks,
Lithium Kraft

 

Oh yeah, I forgot one more thing.
Do any of you know anything about the color genes and mixing them? I really want an albino parakeet baby, but I don't know how to breed them.

 

You will need to breed an albino to albino or abino to lutino.
The only way you will get a true pair is by buying a true pair from a breeder.

All budgies are split so you will never know the colour of the chicks its sort of hit and miss so to speak.

You need to know the genetics of both parents this will help determine the genetics passed down to the chicks.
Males usually pass his genes to the females and the female passes them down to the males birds So without knowing there bloodline it may be very hard to get albino's

Is this the reason your wanting to breed.
What are your reason for wanting to breed?

Mike

 

My real reason is because I want the parakeets to be truly happy and feel like they can fufill every thing they want to do in their lifespan. I'd hate to have parakeets be unable to do things that they were programmed to do because we're bigger and can control them.

 

What happened to Skittles? I just noticed that one wing is fully grown and the other is not. When I look at the one that is not grown I can see through the wing (and see the flight cartiledge which looks like lots of tan lines and weird tan balls). This has me worried sick and has been going on for more than a month. His wing isn't growing back.

 

Hi i would have him checked by an Avian Vet just to make sure all is well.

A birds moult can last a coule of weeks or even a couple of months it depends on the time of yearthe bird hatched and how soon it when through its first molt.

But if there is any problems with the fether shaft the vet may be able to do something to sort it out..

The reason we have control over which birds we breed and which we dont is because we know all about this breed we know the background of the birds we are breeding.
Breeding them because this is what they would do out in the wild is not a good enough reason to breed them.
Breeding them does have its problems, Egg Binding being one of them and calcium deficiency being another which are both fatal.


Mike

 

New birdy

Woo! I got the hand-raised parakeet on Veteran's Day. The person there had around 50 birds. WWOWWW!!!! They had lots of lovebirds, parakeets, ringnecks, amazons, some other bird, quakers, and more that I couldn't name. I also got to see 3 baby parakeets that hatched recently (they had no feathers).

My parakeet is a violet-blue-turquoise and is about a month old. He sits in the collar of my shirt with just his head poking out. It's really cute.

We're thinking of naming him Rainbow or Sparkles. I couldn't bring in any pictures because the digital camera is at work.

The place I went to is C & M Exotic Birds (it's an in-home business, so when you go there, you basically walk into the house). It's a great place to go and I'd go back anyday. The information is at BirdsNWays.com.

 

Hi do you have to carry on hand feeding this bird as at 4weeks old he/she will not be fully weaned yet they are not fully weaned until around 6-8weeks of age so should not really leave there parents until then.

Mike

 

well get the camera home & take pictures of this new friend I want to see
kathy

 

Rainbow and Skittles..or Rainbow Skittles either way works

Today Rainbow (yes, we decided Skittles and Sparkles were too close and the parakeets could mix them up) and Skittles were making squeaking sounds on the playgym we built and were going back and forth on a perch touching beaks and preening each other. I'm not sure what it means. But now we have Skittles and Rainbow sleeping in the same cage together because we were cleaning out Skittles' cage. I'll have pictures as soon as possible, I promise!

It looked like courtship without actually feeding. I might go to work today and grab the camera, but if it doesn't happen I'll go tomorrow.

 

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
*sigh* I guess I can wait
hehe
kathy

 

Hiya because your new bird is still very young it thinks the older bird is its parent and is wanting it to feed him/her.

How well is the new bird feeding and drinking for itself?

Mike

 

Pictures are in!!!

Yay! The pictures are in!!!


Skittles and Rainbow on their super duper playgym. You can't really see Skittles in this picture. But, the next picture gets both of them at a GREAT angle!


Awwww!! They're so cute! Rainbow, the new parakeet, is on the left, and Skittles, the first parakeet, is on the right.

Rainbow eats and drinks and often wants me to hold 1 millet spray seed in my finger and have him pluck it out and eat it. He only eats one millet seed at a time (which is odd, Skittles eats like 16 at a time). They still continue to want to go in the same cage (they have separate cages) and sit on the same perch and do what looks like "feeding eachother".

I don't have to handfeed him as he has already been weaned. Also, Rainbow hatched on my mom's birthday :shock: How weird is that?

Both parakeets are happy and well, and I am glad that when me or another family member is not there to play with them, they have each other. They also accept each other as a "flock member" because they both eat at the same time, sleep at the same time (like put one leg up to their body at the very same time which is strange), and...well...poop at the same time.


we're one happy family!