Yeah, I enjoy recording my progress. it's nice to look back on it in a year or so and see how far you've gone. In Lucy's case it's really far, and in Joey's case, that isn't really far at all (although putting Joey in the cage with Lucy and Alex isn't an option).

Well day 2 seems to be a bit of a rough start. Georgie has claimed the largest perch in the cage as his territory and doesn't let either of the cockatiels near it. He yells at Alex when she gets near it but doesn't seem to have a problem with Lucy. So what I'm trying to do is sit each of the birds on the same perch and have them share millet. Been successful sitting Lucy on the perch, although Alex is afraid to even get on the perch.

At one point I had Georgie eating millet by himself and Lucy snuck onto the perch by herself. She was trying to do exactly what Alex did the other day, which was peck at Georgie to move. I tell Lucy to "be nice" and she stops and just sits on the perch to wait her turn for the millet. Then Georgie noticed her there and chased her of the perch. He didn't even make any noise... He just walked towards her and she got off quickly.

It appears that Georgie is well aware of them both being scared of him, and he's taking advantage of that. I worry for the day the cockatiels realize they're twice his size and try to retaliate. That'll be when things get ugly.
But for now I'm just trying to make sure they get along before that happens.

On the bright side, Georgie is eating millet from my hand now. He's not willing to step up yet, but at this rate it won't be long. If they don't get along and I have to separate them again, hopefully I can get him to step up for me both in and out of the cage beforehand.

But since he's accepting millet now, that means I can probably start clicker training soon. If Lucy still remembers it, chances are I can do some quick demos with her and Georgie will catch on. She seems to be the best at setting an example for other birds. Alex on the other hand... Not so much.

So a quick follow-up: He's not yelling as much about the cockatiels being too close to his perch. Also if he's on a different perch and the cockatiels get on "his" perch, he doesn't go back to chase them off anymore.

It appears that he gets along better with Lucy than he does Alex. This could be because Lucy's too stubborn to let a bird half her size boss her around, and when Georgie realizes that, he backs off. Either that or their personalities just go well together. I caught them sleeping on the same perch just too nights ago (with Alex on a different perch because Georgie took her spot). Either way, he's fine sharing a perch with her, whereas he'll try to chase Alex away.

He came out of the cage today. Granted he tried flying and ended up on the floor, which freaked the cockatiels out and caused them to fly around the room, but it's still something. I managed to corner him without him getting behind too many things and put him on top of the cage, under the playstand, where he ate from a millet spray with Alex (probably the only time he ever tolerates her being near him). Then I got fresh food to put in the bowls on the playstand and that freaked him out and caused him to fly, which freaked out Lucy and Alex again, causing them to fly. I coraled Georgie into a corner again and got him to step up, and then put him on top of the playstand this time, where he was happy to overlook his world.

In the end, I managed to get him to step up WITHOUT trying to run away from me, and put him back in the cage, followed by Lucy and Alex.

So we're making some progress it seems, which is preceeded by a lot of chaos. I can hope they grow comfortable with each other and Georgie eventually gets used to me.

Although I do worry about letting him become fully flighted, because he doesn't seem to yet understand that he can't go through windows despite hitting them multiple times (thank goodness he can't fly fast enough to hurt himself right now).

Funny enough, each of the birds are very different when it comes to Windows. Lucy has hit a window once and never flew into one since then. In fact, when she wants to, she'll land on the windowsill. Alex for he most part knows that she can't, but occasionally forgets. She still cannot fly fast enough to hurt herself right now though. Georgie still doesn't get it, and if he never does, I'll have to see if I can talk my mom into letting me temporarily undo the fancy way she has the curtains tied in order to cover the Windows every time I let them out of the cage, before he molts.

Things seem to be coming on in leaps and bounds now! I don't think there will be an issue housing them together eventually. It's all so new and fresh for everybody and the cockatiels probably have no idea what he is right now. Once they establish their relationships they'll be fine. Budgies can be such bullies sometimes haha!

Today has been interesting.

Because I've been busy, I haven't been on top of working with Georgie as I should be. So I let the birds out for the first time in a few days.

I've started to try and get Georgie out more so he'd be used to coming out of the cage, because it's really hard to work with him when he refuses to come out of the cage.

Usually he has the tendency to fly out himself as an attempt to get away from me. Them with his clipped wings he'll fly into the kitchen, and run as fast as his tiny bird feet can take him (which isn't really that fast), and I try to get him to step up. Then I eventually do, and I go back and put him on the top of the playstand. Today was no different in that aspect... Although I did decide to put him on the swing at the top instead to see how he'd react. He didn't seem very sure of himself at all, and when I offered for him to step up, he willingly stepped up to get off the swing.

He seems to be getting used to being on the playstand though. I caught him eating out of one of the two bowls up there, and also playing with one of the toys (granted that toy is also a mirror, but it's something). He also hopped on the same swing I put him on earlier for a few seconds. I've even heard him chirp a few times while he was out of the cage.
Lucy climbed up there and started eating out of one of the food bowls, and Georgie decided to try and join her (or push her away; it's hard to tell). But of course, instead of eating out of the other bowl that has the same exact food, he wanted to eat out of the bowl Lucy was eating out of. This threw Lucy off and she decided to go back to the bottom of the playstand where Alex was.

I've been trying to get him used to being pet by using the cockatiels as an example, because he pays attention to how relaxed they are when I'm giving them scritches, and relaxes himself. So I'll scritch one cockatiel, then the other (because usually after I pet one of them, the other wants some), then I try petting Georgie near the beak like how budgies may preen each other.
He's starting to get used to it. He may lean his head back or turn away sometimes, but for the most part he sits there and let me do it.

Although interestingly enough, I notice that his eyes pin when my finger's near him. Birds with light-colored irises may have their pupils grow or shrink based on their mood, which is called "pinning". Even though some budgies do have light-colored irises (Georgie being one of them), I didn't expect budgies to be able to do that.

When it was finally time for them to go back in their cages, I put the cockatiels in first. Then I managed to get Georgie to step up (after he stubbornly held onto the playstand for a few seconds, not wanting to step up), and tried to put him back. Well, I guess he wasn't ready to, so he hopped onto the door of the cage and climbed back up. Meanwhile, Lucy also decided she wasn't done and was also climbing out. They both flew, with Georgie landing on the floor and Lucy back on top the cage like usual. I put Lucy back in the cage, and then saw Georgie right next to the cage, looking up as if he were trying to figure out how to get back up. I put my hand down there and he willingly stepped up for me, and let me put him back in the cage.

So he does know how to step up; he just chooses not to most of the time. Not the first time I've handled a bird like that though. Lucy was the same way when I first got her. Now she flies to me, usually when I least want her to.

Another update:

It appears that Georgie is more compliant to stepping up when I actually say: "step up?" Instead of just putting my finger in front of him. Ironic because birds tend to be a little more visual and respond better to visual commands than verbal. At least half of their communication is based on body language after all. I guess I'm a little too used to Lucy and Alex who will step up automatically when I put my finger in front of them, at least 50% of the time. The other 50% involves them either wanting scritches instead, or just too busy doing something else.

But if he gets a fright and ends up on the floor, he will automatically step up for me. Guess he likes to step up when it's most convenient for him. He's really not that much different from Lucy it seems.


He's doing pretty well overall. He's quite relaxed when he's out of the cage, and is starting to play with the toys on the playstand. He also seems to appreciate that he's high up and gets to see everything.

I think he likes having Lucy next to him though. Ever since that one time he tried to eat out the same bowl as her on the playstand and unintentionally drove her away, he now eats out of the other bowl whenever Lucy eats up there with him. So it's quite possible that he enjoy's Lucy's company, but with how pushy Budgies tend to be (have you seen their courtship behavior?), there's a bit of a communication barrier. Additionally Lucy's still not entirely used to him yet, so she's still rather unsure of him. He's learning though. They both are actually, and it's actually kinda cute to watch them learn from each other.

Although despite this, he still has a temper tantrum whenever either Lucy or Alex are on his favorite perch (which is now the one in the top corner that Lucy and Alex always liked to roost on), so that's a thing. I wonder if he'll ever stop that.
He makes his tantrum noises while unprovoked too sometimes when the cockatiels are relaxed, so I wonder if he does it just for fun.

Still, nobody's getting hurt, so that's good. He tends to pick on Alex more because she's a bit more skittish and is more of a pushover than Lucy is, but he's not as bad about it as he originally was. Plus he's not guarding the food or water from them, so for the most part they seem fine.
Despite some of that, Georgie seems to really enjoy being with the cockatiels now. He chatters much more often (not including the tantrum noises), and seems very relaxed. Even though it's not his budgie-buddies that he grew up with, he enjoys being with other birds as opposed to being alone.

They'll all see each other as flockmates eventually, whether they actually like each other or not!

I think he finally sees you as something that he needs to get from A to B and that you aren't actually going to eat him haha! It's great to hear that you're making progress with him. I find it so funny when budgies pin their eyes. My guys always do it when they're flirting

Well I was way off when I thought that he liked Lucy. Just the other day, Alex was eating out of one of the food bowls and Georgie was trying to eat out of it with her. Alex tries to scare him away but he completely ignores her. Then when Lucy goes to eat out of the bowl, they both get away quickly.

So as usual, it seems that Lucy is in charge. And I guess she put Georgie in his place at some point too.

However today, I heard Georgie quietly chattering while I was having dinner. Then I look over when he stops, and notice that he and Alex were doing something rather unusual with their beaks. Took me a few minutes of watching to realize that Alex was preening his face! Alex, the same bird that Georgie typically pushes around, who can't scare either of the other two birds for the life of her, and the same bird who will use her foot to slowly scratch the side of her of her head when Lucy asks to be preened by her. She was preening Georgie.

Then after a while, Georgie got tired of being preened and peck Alex on the head a few times, and everything seemed to go back to normal.

These birds are so weird.