Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 9/1/2007

Question
Hi, I adopted a little female light green pied budgie about a month ago. Long story short: she HATES being handled. Every time she sees me she goes crazy. On the 1st day she lived with me she freaked out when I put my hand in the cage to change her food she hit her wing on the cage and she broke a blood feather. Now she can't fly, since whenever she freaks she breaks one and she had lost most of her primary flying feathers. She is starting to trust me, but whenever i get her out of the cage she tries to fly away, and hits the floor. she tries to hop away and when i put my hand down for her to climb onto it she squawks and freaks out even more. How do I get her to calm her down (better yet, how do I tame her?) and how do I stop her broken blood feathers from bleeding?

Answer
Hi, Brandi,

Obviously, your budgie is not tame.  Therefore, don't try working with her right now until she settles down some.  Also, since you just got this bird, you need to give her time to settle down in your home and get used to you before you handle her.

Start all over again.  Keep her in her cage for a couple of weeks and allow her to get used to things.  Only open the cage door to service the cage.  After a couple of weeks, open the cage door and allow the bird to come out of the cage on her own free will.  Do not attempt to bring her out by hand.  Take things slowly and gradually.  You are actually scaring your bird more by trying to work with her too quickly.  You need to build trust with your bird.  

Broken blood feathers must be pulled out completely in order to stop bleeding.  You have to find that particular feather that is bleeding and pull it completely out.  You may need to use needle nosed pliers or a hemostat in order to be sure you pull the feather out completely.  A blood feather is a feather that still has a blood supply to it (it is still growing).  This is why they bleed when broken.  A fully grown in feather has no blood supply.  If your bird has lost most of her primary flight feathers, this is why she cannot fly.  Allow them to grow back before letting her out of her cage or she could hurt herself when she hits the floor.  

Taming is a long process that takes much time and patience.  Start with the above and see how things go.  Come back when the bird has calmed down, feathers have grown in, etc., and we'll go from there (one step at a time).

Chrys