Hi everyone! As you may have seen on a recent Facebook post, we added a couple new feathered friends to our homeschool room!
So today I’d like you to introduce you to Kiwi and Remi!
We’ve had them for about 2 weeks now and they’re doing great. Kiwi was definitely more hesitant with us at first, but his love for millet won out over his fear of us.
We’re working on the “Step Up” technique. This comes in especially handy if one takes off, and you have to get them back to their cage. if they don’t trust you and are not used to stepping up onto your finger it can be very difficult to get them back into their cage!
Watch a video of Remi & Kiwi practicing the “Step Up” technique!
Here is their cage. Since we got two birds (they keep each other company) we went with a big larger cage. It gives them more room to cruise around and as you can see, my husband went a little crazy with the toys for them.
We purchased the Vision Bird Cage L12. It’s a great size for them and the clear plastic seed catcher has kept any mess that normally accompanies birdies to a minimum!
Also having two birds means it takes a bit longer for them to bond with you because they have each other. But don’t give up, they love each other now, and get excited to see us as well!
Here they are on their little play gym. They don’t really play on it yet, but we’re still working with them. They’ve recently been hanging out on the gym while I work in there and talk to them.
We’re taking it slow so they know it’s okay to come out of their cage, and that they aren’t going to die or anything crazy.
As you can see, they just kind of hang out while I work in the background. They’ve moved clear over to the edge because they don’t love the camera. Actually I’m amazed that I was able to get this many pictures of them. Usually the “click” freaks them out and they go flying back to the safety of their cage.
We’ve been working with them daily on hand taming them. It’s a slow process with these little guys, but like I said, their love of millet has helped tremendously.
On day one we just stood by the cage frequently and talked to them. Then day two we started placing just our hand in the cage and leaving it there to get them more familiar with us.
On day three we started feeding them millet from our hand. They were a little reluctant at first, but they LOVE millet, so their desire for yummy food won out over their fear.
We started the hand-feeding in their cage, then slowly moved them further and farther outside the cage until they were comfortable enough to get on their play gym.
After about 2 weeks we started taking them out of the cage and placing them on their play gym for their snack time. This was a slow process, but we kept at it and now they hang out on their gym all of the time. (And yes, it has a nice little base that catches any birdie doo-doo!
Now we’re in full swing of our “Hand Taming”. That is just getting them used to us, and our hands. Birds are pretty skittish, so if they see a large hand coming towards them, their normal “flight” response kicks in.
And here they are, back in the safety of their cage swinging together just like BFFs.
I hope you enjoyed meeting our new friends! We’re having a great time with them!
So adorable! Are they super loud though?
Hi Tiffany,
No they’re actually not that loud. They tweet here and there, and every now and then they’ll squawk at each other. But they’re on the whole fairly quiet. So far anyway.
HI…I have a question. Do you find that Vision Bird Cage model to be too wide, as far as the cage bars go? I bought a Budgie today and also bought this cage, but I feel like the budgie can maybe get through it. Am I being paranoid?
Nope, we haven’t had any issues with it. I was worried about that at first too, but they’ve be fine.
Thanks for the fun post introducing Kiwi and Remi. They are so pretty
Cuties! Our budgie “Fancy Bird” still isn’t completely hand tamed … and yet he (Peanut must insist that he is a she) does sing to us often and enjoys Johnny Cash. His favorite song is “Ring of Fire”. Perhaps I should play his song and hold some millet while I have my hand in his cage to get him to stay on my finger a bit longer….
They look just like our budgies their names are Homer and Tornado:) My kids named them and helps teach them responsibility of taking care of a pet. They are so fun to watch:)
Where did you get the play gym? Our birds are downstairs but would love to bring them into the schoolroom with us.
What a fun way to add some fun and learning about animals to your homeschooling! I took my kiddies to the pet store the other day, and they fell in love with the parakeets! My only concern was that they may be noisy and interrupt nap time, which this mama needs!lol…are yours pretty quiet? 🙂 Blessings, Lauren, lholmes79.wordpress.com
Yes actually I was worried about having two of them being loud as well. But so far they’re relatively quiet. They have sweet little tweets that they do, then every now and then they’ll kind of play and squawk a little bit with each other. But it’s really not that much. Mostly they’re fluttering around playing with the toys in their cage, or we bring them out and let them sit on a perch while we do school.
It’s helped my kids focus b/c you can’t be too loud or fast around them without scaring them still, so everyone works better LOL!
But anyway, no, they’re really not that loud at all!
Oh OK that sounds good! 🙂 I think I might get some in the future when the kids are a little older and can help with cleaning the cage and things like that!lol…thanks again for sharing, and good point about the kids and the parakeets helping them to focus! That would help my two and three year old a lot! 🙂 Continued blessings! Lauren, lholmes79.wordpress.com
Im assuming they are clipped…does the vet do that or will u be clipping them yourselves?
They are very cute! My dd has been begging for a parakeet and I am finally giving in. We are waiting until the end of April, so she has time to read up on how to care for and train her new pet and we can get a place set up for him. I’d like to hear more on how it’s going having them in your school room.
I loved this! Kiwi and Remi are so adorable! They look just like my two 🙂 You are very good budgie parents. You seem to know what you are doing! I just wanted to say something about the cage. 1. I love it. I have the same brand but mine is L01. I noticed yours is L12. The height and everything is great but if I’m not mistaken the bar spacing is larger than 1/2 an inch. This means that if they ever got it into their little heads they could squeeze through the cage bars and be free! The L02 is the same cage but just with smaller bar spacing. Just a thought.
Can we have an update on Kiwi and Remi please? Do you still have them? They are adorable. We have a few of these- parakeets- but they can get pretty noise so was curious about how yours were doing in the school room.
Blessings.