Hello, I've just joined. I posted an introduction a couple minutes ago, but I'd really like to get down to the stuff I need so I can start helping my two new babies as soon as I can.

A couple months ago I babysat a pair of parakeets from my neighbor, who is terrified of all animals so she takes horrible care of them. I was reluctant to give them back, but ultimately it wasn't my decision as I wasn't an adult at the time and I live with my parents. Well, today, she finally agreed to give them to be because she realized she cannot care for them and they deserve a much better life.

My biggest questions right now (until I think of more) are;
1) Currently, they are being very aggressive towards each other, and my mother and I believe that is because they have been fighting for food the past while since my neighbor was afraid to feed them, so would wait as long as she could. When I babysat them however, they were very affectionate and never fought. I'm wondering, with proper feeding and a good environment, will they grow back to being relaxed and not fighting, especially over food?

2) They were never really introduced to new, rich foods such as fruits, they've only been on seed. When I babysat them, I tried to introduce them to some fruits like melon and such (and they actually liked the carrots I gave them, but not so much anything else). Eventually, with slow introduction to different goodies, will they be more willing to experiment and try new things? They won't right now, and I'm curious if that is because they've been very neglected.

3) One of the things I'm most excited for is being able to handle them, and have them run around my desk and play around :3 How can I build them up to trusting me until I can take them out of the cage and play with them? I read somewhere they need at least two weeks to get acclimated and comfortable to a new environment, but what steps should I take towards handling?

Thank you so much for your replies and taking the time to read this.

Our main website has several articles that can help you out and I'll include several links in this post.

If they're fighting over food, you can add more food cups or hang up millet spray in a couple of different places in the cage so each bird can eat separately. Another possible cause for the aggression is that they're hormonal right now and both want sole possession of the cage. There are hormone control techniques that can help with this: http://www.littlefeatheredbuddies.com/i ... mones.html The article was written for cockatiels but will apply to budgies too.

Yes, you can teach them to eat new foods but it might take a long time because birds are very cautious about things like this. Here's an article with tips on how to do it: http://www.littlefeatheredbuddies.com/i ... rsion.html Vegetables are actually more nutritious than fruit so you might want to focus on those at first. Cockatiels and budgies come from the same natural habitat and have similar diets; but cockatiels usually don't like fruit and budgies apparently do!

Food bribery is a very useful way to teach trust and win affection: http://www.littlefeatheredbuddies.com/i ... ibery.html

Do you let them out of the cage? If you do, try put a plate of mixed stuff you want them to eat near you. You either eat from that plate or one near it.
They get very curious and should come near the plate and you to investigate.
It usually works with mines, breakfast together is when they eat anything I give them because they see me eating and for some reason they want to do what I do.

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Ah these all make a lot of sense. I probably should have tried the website first but I got a little caught up, haha. Thank you for your responses :3

And currently I don't let them out of the cage just because they're nervous about me, so I don't want them to freak out too much and not be able to get them back in the cage. But once I can let them out, I'll be sure to try that.

Good luck on the training!

Ditto

If they're fully flighted, it will be helpful to let them out of the cage in a fairly small room where they can't get into too much trouble and where they can't lead you on too much of a chase when you're trying to get them back in the cage. If the cage is relatively small and easy to move, you can put it close to them with a tasty treat (like millet spray) inside, and if you're lucky they'll go in.

On the other hand, if the cage is TOO small that might be the reason they're fighting. A bigger cage lets the birds put more space between themselves which usually results in less arguing.