It's been a while since I've updated about Georgie so I guess I will tell you guys what' going on.

I haven't been able to keep up with interacting with him so we've ended up losing a lot of progress. He doesn't step up while in the cage anymore, he doesn't let my hand get close to him and he doesn't even want to get out of the cage by himself. I'm slowly working my way back up there with him again.

One time he insisted on getting away from me, and when I got him out, majority of the session was him attempting to fly (with clipped wings) and me cornering him so he doesn't go hide behind stuff again. At the end of the session when I managed to get him back in his cage, he started chirping at me like he was telling me off. I know he was mad and all but honestly it was kind of cute.

I'm trying a different approach now. When I get him to step up outside of the cage, I don't try and carry him to a place where he might be more comfortable. Instead I stay there and talk to him in a soft voice, telling him it's okay, and gently shushing and all that. At one point he even started to relax.

... Until he heard my dog scratching at the door.

A few times after that I just kind of let him roam by himself. At one point he was on the other side of the room, and I started quietly shushing like I did while he was on my finger. He actually started to approach me. He didn't do THAT before.

So I guess in some ways, we've gained some and lost some.

So hopefully he can eventually learn. If I can get it to where he'll step up for me in and out of the cage without running away, then perhaps I can let him out of the cage around Lucy and Alex. Hopefully that would end up better than the first time when I took Lucy and Alex to him as opposed to the other way around. (I'd be sure they would get used to seeing each other by then)

So I think I'm making progress again... Rather than trying to get away from me when I try to ask him to step up while in the cage, he just holds onto the perch for dear life and refuses to step up. But eventually he does, so that's something.
So this is yet another stubborn bird, it seems.

I broke up a piece of millet spray and put it in his food bowl. He appears to be eating from the little pieces, so he's finally starting to figure it out. If I can eventually get him to eat from a whole spray, then perhaps I can move from that to getting him to eat out of my hand. Got a long ways to go though.

The cockatiels seem curious about him whenever I bring Georgie into the same room as them. When Lucy was eating millet on the table with Georgie's cage on the other end (was hoping that they'd teach Georgie that millet is a treat), Alex couldn't decide if she wanted to inspect the cage, or join Lucy. He just kinda paced in between the two.

Eventually she chose millet over Georgie.

I removed the mirror from his cage temporarily. I remembered it was one of the things that delayed my bonding with Lucy, because she thought that the mirror was another bird. Since Budgies are... Simpler, I think; I wouldn't doubt this to be the case too. So I'm gonna try and use the mirror to appeal to being outside of the cage, so he'd see the experience as enjoyable.

Although he's still making more progress than Lucy did within the same amount of time, it seems. Even with the setback. He's tolerating me petting him again (even though he's not necessarily enjoying it). That's something Lucy wouldn't let me do for the longest time.
And now Lucy tries to get scritches whenever she sees me petting Alex. Honestly, why do I get the birds with the most stubborn personalities?

A mirror can be a very useful reward for birds that like them. Mims isn't very food driven so sometimes I use a look in the mirror as a reward for her instead of a food treat. Most tiel hens don't care for mirrors but she likes them.

It's also a good lure for a bird that doesn't want to come out of the cage. You put the mirror just outside the door and gradually move it further in the direction you want the bird to go. Holding the mirror in one hand and putting the other hand between the mirror and the bird is one way to encourage step ups.

I'm glad you're starting to make progress again. Stubbornly not stepping up is considerably better than trying to get away from you!

I think he probably misunderstands what you're asking from him. He's not making the connection with the action and reward. That's why I particularly enjoy the clicker myself. I 'charge' it. Click and treat. Click and treat. Rinse and repeat over and over in short sessions. Once they anticipate that then you're on your way. You probably already know this but I'm just saying it anyway If you can get him eating from you to start with (just from holding the millet) then that would be fantastic steps forward and then you will probably find he'll step up a lot easier because he'll be like hmmm... right... I need to step on to this fleshy perch to get to the millet. Even if he just puts a foot on you could reward him for that. Baby steps and you'll get there in no time!

By all means, I wouldn't call budgies more simple than cockatiels. With all due respect to my lovely flock of crested poofballs, I find them a little bit lacking compared to my budgies. When I've sat watching both aviaries I can really appreciate the differences. Budgies are a lot less skittish and will hang off things, go inside of things, figure things out etc. whereas my cockatiels would throw a tantrum if they had to fly across the aviary to the feeders I find cockatiels very cautious birds. Budgies seem to have a little bit more of a little man problem. They think they're much bigger than they actually are. They're hilarious though

In my experience with budgies, I have found that the English is a bit more behind than the American style 'parakeet' when it comes to cognitive abilities

I think the fact he's not flying away from you now is so exciting! Honestly, I think he'll tame down in no time for you

Well he still tries to fly away from me while out of the cage. But in the cage he's not so that's better.

I'll definitely be sure to get into clicker training once he knows to eat from a millet spray, and also be willing to eat from my hand.
But right now, I'm not sure how I'd teach him that click means reward, when he doesn't even know that the reward is a reward.

I managed to stick a piece of millet in the cage bars and have Lucy eat on the outside, to see if he'll eat it from the inside. He kept hopping from the perch it was near and another one, making budgie noises.

So I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing to be honest. Guess he was excited that Lucy was near him or something? Either that or he was trying to scare her off. After a few minutes though, Lucy just kind of ignored him and continued eating from the millet (after watching him with much confusion, of course).

If I can get him to eat from a whole piece of millet, then I'll move on to getting him to eat from my hand, and then clicker training.

I could probably use a mirror though, instead of millet... He knows what a mirror is already.

He doesn't actually have to eat the millet from your hand - if you can just put it close to him and move your hand away, he'll know that he's being rewarded. But it's essential for him to know that millet is delicious first.

He already knows that he likes mirrors, so you can work with that right now. You can show it to him at random moments to get him used to seeing it in your hand. Once he's comfortable with it, you can add the clicker to teach him that the click means he's about to see the mirror.

Sorry I should have made that more clear! I'd work on getting him to eat the millet from your hand (ie you holding it but not necessarily out of your hand like tielfan said) and then try the clicker training. Once he has the reward part down the rest will come quickly I think

So I decided to do something rather risky today...

Georgie and the cockatiels have seen each other enough times to recognize each other. In addition, Georgie is healthy and so are the tiels. I sometimes don't have the time to work with Georgie alone and let the tiels have out of cage time in the same day, and Georgie has learned faster by watching them than he ever has with me having one-on-one time with him.

So, I decided to try moving Georgie in with the tiels. The cage itself looks to be big enough to fit 4 cockatiels and maybe five budgies (or at least five of the smaller parakeets). I'll be keeping a close eye on them for about a week or two. If they end up not getting along, I'll put Georgie back in his little cage and possibly keep him in the same room as them so he'd at least be around other birds and not feel lonely when I'm away in college. He would also be around me more often and I'd be able to interact with him while I interact with the cockatiels.

So far they seem to be doing okay today. I put a piece of millet spray near where Georgie was sitting, and Lucy started eating from it. Then Alex tried to get to it, but as soon as Georgie started going towards the millet, they both got out of the way quickly.
Then Georgie started eating the millet (FINALLY he learns that the millet is food), and both Lucy and Alex were trying to figure out how to sneak some bites. The piece itself was a little too small to share so I decided to put a bigger piece in there and put it in the middle of the ladder so there was enough room for each of them to eat from it while staying a safe distance from each other. Lucy was the first one willing to eat with Georgie.

I left the room for a bit to see if they'd behave while I was gone. From the sound of it it seemed peaceful. Then there was some big noise; I think someone tipped the foodbowl on the bottom (I put Georgie's food bowl on the bottom because I can't hook it to the walls of the cage because of the design of the cup), but I go in there, and Alex and Georgie were both near the millet, so I think they were sharing the millet at that time too.

The only problems they ran into was between Georgie and Alex. At some point Alex was pecking at Georgie. Georgie didn't notice at first since Alex was trying to do it from a distance, but when Alex did manage to actually touch him, Georgie retaliated. Now he doesn't let Alex get close to him.

Granted, this was exactly what Alex did when she and Lucy started sharing a cage. Alex would peck at Lucy to move, but Lucy would be too stubborn to move and would peck back, and they'd have a disagreement. It would only last a few seconds though and then they would get over it. Their disagreements don't happen as often now, so I hope this ends up being the case with Georgie. If it escalates, I'll have to separate them.

They had a night fright when I was going to get something in the dark, but after turning on the lights, sitting there next to the cage, humming the cockatiels' favorite tune and just generally telling them it's okay, they went back to their respective perches.

Here's hoping this goes well.

It sounds like it's going well!

When you need to move around in the dark, I find that talking to the birds helps prevent night frights. I usually say something like "Don't worry, it's me", and they really do seem to understand that it is just me and there's nothing weird moving around in the room. If I don't speak they're likely to freak out.

I like how you write things down! And it sounds like you'll get there!

Anyway, thanks for making this, in my mind I've already decided that when my wife ever lets one of the kids have a bird indoors I'll put up something similar.