BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Birds Budgie Untouchable

I have a little male budgie who is about 1 1/2-2 yrs old. After we purchased him we found that his wing feathers had been over clipped, and he was very shy. He has succesfully learned 'up', and kisses, and has formed a strong bond with my husband as well. Unfortunatly he will not accept any sort of touching him. It seems to frighten him to be pet by anyone. We have been patient with him and attempted to gradually ease his fears to no avail, he remains frightend. We could probably handle this remaining a fact of life if it wasn't for the baby budgie we recently purchased. When we purchased it, it was a sweet and trusting baby, but has become skittish under our older budgie's influence. The baby budgie will still allow cuddles as long as it's covered up and held close, but denies any other form of touching.

Are there any taming tactics you can recommend to help our older bird and help our baby not to retain this fear? We cannot seperate them as they have developed a very strong bond and refuse to be seperated for any length of time without a catastrophic fit.

Its not uncommon for budgies to resist petting. Even handfed budgies soon outgrow wanting to be touched much. They will still enjoy being on your shoulder, and playing with you, but may prefer it if you don't pet them on their back. They just happen to be very independent birds and most prefer to set their own terms with their humans.

Continue to enjoy each bird for his place in the family and his personality. They are wonderful little birds.

Yep, that sounds rather normal to me. Most of the ones Ive had did not liked to be touched.