Budgie Tricks

It's always fun to teach your dog to sit and to fetch, but what most people don't know is that you are able to teach your Budgie Tricks as well! As I've mentioned numerous times around this website, Budgies are very intelligent birds and they are able to learn a wide variety of things through repetition and reward training techniques. Before you attempt to teach your Budgie any tricks it is best to work on hand taming your budgerigar so you are already both familiar and comfortable with each other, I like to think of teaching your budgie tricks as a form of advanced hand training so it's always a good idea to get the basics out of the way first.

Performing Budgies

Where to start? Before you start throwing sticks and demanding your budgie fetches them, it's probably a better idea to start off a little smaller and less complicated. As mentioned in our hand training budgies page a good place to start is by placing your finger at the base of your Budgies feet and saying "up" or "step up" to coax your budgie into stepping onto your finger.

From there work with your budgie so you can have them fly over to you and land on your shoulder/hand. Try holding some millet in your hand whilst whistling/calling to your budgie, remembering to stay calm and always be supportive to your little friend. I have also found that some budgies will respond well if you tap where you want them to land, but this is personality dependent, most budgies don't like quick movements.

Calm, Patience and short training sessions: As with any interactions with your parakeet/budgerigar make sure you have a calm demeanor; Erratic and fast movements can spook your feathered friend so make sure you make slow steady movements around them.

Short training sessions are usually best, as your budgie (and yourself most likely) will get tired and cranky; Instead of spending 2 hours a day solidly training your budgie, work in short 10-15 minute sessions (Or whatever works best for you and your budgie).

Food rewards: If your budgie performs a trick or action that you wanted, encourage them! Millet is usually given as a food reward for Budgies, but experiment to find out what your own budgie enjoys most.

Budgie Trick ideas: Depending on your Budgies personality there are lots of different tricks you can teach your parakeet. Climbing ladders, fetching items, high-fiving, whistling tunes, waving and even playing soccer are just a few parakeet trick ideas for you to experiment with!

Budgie Fetching