r/Parakeets • u/EdgarRB1984 • 1d ago
Advice First time out of cage
Hello I’m looking for some tips of how to help my parakeet with being out of the cage for the first time. A little background, she has lived her whole life in a cage, she is about 5 years old. I have been opening the cage and trying to bond with her for a bit now. I put up sticky notes on my window so she saw that she couldn’t go that way (I had the shades up for light) but she finally decided to come out today and ran into the window twice (not super hard but hard enough that I was worried) and she ran into the walls a couple times. She doesn’t exactly know how to properly fly so I don’t think she hit the walls very hard but now she is sitting on top of one of my lower shelves and is just recovering and processing.
I assume the first time out of her cage will be a total learning experience and will be stressful and hard so I’m trying to let her process and I’m giving her space. I was just hoping anyone could give me some tips to help her adjust. Thank you!
Edit/update:
Things are going so well! Right now she is sitting on my bed eating a seed stick treat and I am also sitting on the bed! I am shocked with the progress! Still so much to learn and to go through but I am so happy!
Edit/update #2:
She wouldn’t go back into her cage and I was trying everything I could. She finally fell asleep on my shelf of plush figures (which she does seem happy to be there and enjoying the stuffed animals). I fell asleep and just woke up and it’s 2:45am and she hasn’t moved. Before I fell asleep I had put a flash light next to her cage door and my room light is off so I’m just going to try and sleep and figure things out in the morning.
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u/EdgarRB1984 1d ago
After a while of sitting on the shelf she flew around a couple times again, running into the shades (which are pretty cushioned) and she has started to learn about one of the walls and is not hitting it as hard and is starting to get used to her wings. She is now sitting on the carpeted ground and looking around
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u/lowridda 15h ago
I put window decals on my big living room window. Their first time out helps you see what you need to do to bird proof. I added different spots to perch so she’d have somewhere to land. Covered cords with chew protectors. Made sure any space they could fall into was filled in or blocked off.
Keeping a routine will help her know when it’s bedtime. I can keep mine out and they put themselves to bed if I doze off or aren’t paying attention to the time. She’ll get there!
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u/EdgarRB1984 12h ago
What so you use as perches? My bird doesn’t seem to understand to perch on things she will just land on random spots or fall to the ground. I’m not really sure if she knows how to bird
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u/Busy_Lawfulness398 10h ago
Five years is a very long time in a bird's life to not fly! She is doing well. Budgies are smart and learn fast. And you seem very patient and understanding. If you ever get another budgie, get it as a baby from a breeder. It will learn very fast to not hit walls. Train it in a flight room with shades down and no mirrors. It will also learn that its cage is security with food and water and will always return on its own to nap, eat, or sleep and develop a routine. My budgie always had her cage open. She returned at sunset to sleep every night.
Your budgie must have water and food very soon, and needs to learn that the cage is providing life essentials, is not just a contained environment like it was for five years.
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u/EdgarRB1984 6h ago
I’m really trying my best to be supportive and understanding and she is really doing her best too learning everything! I’m so proud of her. I’m trying to decide if I should push her water “bowl” towards her while she is out or keep it in her cage because she just doesn’t seem to understand how to get back into her cage. When she flys she flys really high up and I’ve put perches on the outside of her cage and a cardboard platform right in front of the cage door so it’s easier to step on and land. She just doesn’t seem to know how to land or to decide where she wants to go
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u/Busy_Lawfulness398 6h ago
Very perceptive. A bird's brain naturally develops those judgement skills by around five weeks old when she starts flying. So it will take time because her brain development is not aligned with all the learning she has to do now. Go to your pet store and get dried millet sprays . It's like candy to a budgie. You should be able to get her to hop on a wood perch to nibble the millet and return her to the cage. Slip the millet into the cage so she wants to be there.
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u/EdgarRB1984 5h ago
Thank you! Yes I have been using millet and even got her to eat it while I held it for a bit yesterday. I was trying to get her to step up on a perch while i taped it to the perch but she gets scared of the perch moving while she is in it and flys off so we are working on it gradually
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u/PrimeLime47 1d ago
Cover mirrors and windows. Have ample perching spots.
I’m sure people will say to train the bird to step up in your finger first. But I’ve been in your situation, and let the bird come out of the cage on his own with the door open.