Poppy comes to the front when he wants to come out. And he really loves my teeth. Whenever I talk to him he'll come up to the front. Beck will still eat when I walk up to him if he's at his food dish.

That's pretty much our progress. Now I have a series of questions:

-Do I need to separate them?
Beck and Poppy are not very bonded. They quibble a lot and don't eat at the food dish together. They are nothing more than roommates, but the do have a flock bond. I remember when I had Beck before Poppy, he would come up to see me. When I had Poppy alone, he would step up on a stick. Neither do either of those things now...

-Why don't they like each other?
Beck and Poppy do not have a healthy relationship. Beck only likes the cockatiels, who hate him. Very much so. But he's really only happy when he's with them. Whenever he flies out he's on their cage. Poppy flies back to their cage. Then will go inside and eat. They sort of stick to their own side of the cage. But, do sit on the same branch sometimes.

I'll add more questions later as some get answered.

They're filling a need for each other so I wouldn't separate them. If Beck isn't coming to greet you any more, I take that as a sign that he was lonely before and isn't lonely now. You just need to spend time with them and make it fun enough for them that they will want to be with you. Food treats are a good way to buy their friendship, and if they're not very food-driven then you need to find some other kind of entertainment that they can only get from you. Steal Beck's star toy and let him play with it when he's out of the cage with you, or something like that.

They like being in each other's company, but I literally just saw something... Beck has naked wing pits. He's plucking. Is Poppy stressing him out? I'm actually very upset now that it took me that long to notice that in him...

Are you sure that he's really plucking? It's normal for the feathers to be kind of sparse in the wingpit area. If he IS plucking, it's possible that it's medical not stress. Even if it's stress it might be related to the AGY not to Poppy.

I don't remember if they live in separate cages or the same cage. If they're currently in the same cage, one option is to keep them side by side in separate cages. They'll have each other's company but won't have much scope for fighting.

It's funny about budgies and cockatiels. Both of my budgies love Emma. They are always in her face and flirting with her. Snowy also loves Silver and spends lots of time chattering to him.

All my birds are in the same flight cage. It's been very slow taming the budgies. I've had them for about nine months. But, they are gradually coming around. I hand out shelled sunflower seeds when I open the cage and they all come out. The budgies used to grab the seed and fly off with it. Now they stay for a little bit and we talk to each other.

Except for Silver, all my birds prefer bird company to me. However, I don't think progress has come to a standstill. It's just s l o w.

It takes longer when you have several birds. They're not as reliant on you for companionship so you have to work harder to win them over. Taming has been a multi-year process with some of my birds but we're still making gradual progress.

Huh. I thought all your birds were tame Carolyn. So it still can take years eh? Oh well, I would feel bad if I separate if they don't need to be, but to answer your previous question, actually, yes, Beck is plucking slightly, but now I see he's also molting. Could that be stressing him out?

Mims has always been pretty shy and I think she was handled roughly as a baby. She doesn't really like to step up but she'll do it if I corner her. Ditto for Elvis and Azazel. They were wild adults when they were given to me, and Azazel in particular would freak out if I just looked at him. Priscilla was a parent-raised aviary bird so she's not super keen on humans and step-ups either. I think all of them would be a lot tamer if they weren't in a big flock, but they'll all step up on a stick without too much fuss in the house, and occasionally on my finger. They'll all step up on my finger in the aviary - for some reason the finger is more acceptable outdoors.

Yes, molting causes stress. Growing new feathers puts extra demands on the bird's physical resources, and pinfeathers can be uncomfortable.

Now, are training diets bad? I know how they work, but in general, are they a bad idea? I will stick with it this summer, after Beck's molt of course since it's really bothering him this time.

Oh and Beck is crazy distracted by the cockatiels. Do I need to move the budgie cage away from the tiels?