I am Sugar's original mom. I brought him home from the pet store in October 2019, and yes, I did my research. I grew up in an animal breeder/groomer home. We always had birds, reptiles, horses and big dogs. My intention with Sugar was to have a long term companion just like everyone else in my family. I wish I knew more about training him and feeding him better. I just did what my grandma did with her birds. I didn't know what I didn't know. Sugar spent his days in my home office with his cage open. He was good at stepping up and spent time on my shoulder or on my desk while I worked (7 days a week). He gave sweet kisses on the cheek. He has such a pretty singing voice and would always respond to my singing/whistling or my kids playing instruments. He tried to sound out a couple words that we were consistent with. My four kids were in and out of my office and verbally engaged with Sugar, but he was not interested in their hands entering his cage. Our situation changed drastically in 2020. We had to sell our home and move in with friends. They happened to have a well-trained budgie that had free reign of the house. Sugar made a great companion for the month we were there. After that, we were able to get into a rental that didn't have a yard for our dog, and that meant she was now 100% inside. She enjoyed Sugar's singing, but it became clear that she would do whatever it takes to make the bird a sweet snack. After ten months in that situation, we had to start looking at another move. This time, we knew we could be homeless for months and very unstable for who knows how long. Almost two years later, we are still very unstable. I could not have foreseen that our perfect white picket fence dream would fall apart and everything would be so difficult for so long. I don't regret trying to be a bird mom, but when it comes down to it, we were not the best home for Sugar anymore. When I contacted Jamie, she was gracious enough to consider Sugar for a family that was already preparing for the perfect bird. My kids and I delivered him a few weeks later. I cried in the car on the way home because I felt like a failure. Because I couldn't live the dream the way I wanted to. I read through the comments, and I was not surprised to see a few judges. It is what it is. But I am so grateful to see how many people follow and learn from this channel because they want to be better. BirdTricks is amazing! I am also so happy for Sugar and his new family.

I always love how bold parakeets are for being such tiny birds.

When I was a kid in the 70's pet stores were everywhere and budgies cost 2 dollars. They were considered "disposable" pets back then, like hamsters or goldfish; give one to the kiddies and be lucky if it lasted a month or two. I guess I never really abandoned that mindset. I'm glad to see that they are treated like the intelligent animals they are these days.

I sell budgies to uneducated individuals at petsmart and always send them to your channel I actually educate people on the reality of keeping a bird. A toddler that screams, makes messes constantly, and needs supervision. I refuse to clip birds wings (I make other employees do it) and educate about the truth about clipping a birds wings. All our birds come in flighted so I always emphasize about the benefits of not clipping your bird.

PS I’ll be heartbroken if this little guy is tamed and knows how to bond but goes back to a home where he isn’t loved or played with. I hope they will love him or re-home him in the end.

I screamed when I saw this! Literally. I’m training someone’s Budgies and have been waiting for 3 years to get this video and a bird training job! 😆

Best news I could wake up to! Another budgie! I personally only have budgies so this is a treat! I wish you lots of luck with Sugar! ❤️💕

This video is so needed! People bring these little treasures home and then the poor things sit and languish when the task of training becomes apparent. People don't know what to do or what to expect. Thanks to Bird Tricks, I learned so much and developed an awesome relationship with my budgie who was the most timid and scared thing ever. I taught her trust and not to fear and even some tricks. It took over six months! But truly a labor of love and one of the accomplishments I'm most proud of.

As someone who is 6 months in to training process of a flighted budgie, this is a great resource to starting that trust and very different content to the Blueberry experience. I want to say that as our bird was new from a breeder, he was fearful of millet spray and would not eat it for about two weeks, even after removing his food. This was disheartening because most videos show this as the first step in developing trust. We found target training with a chopstick with verbal encouragement worked better in the initial weeks. He then moved to eating loose seed from our palm. When our bird started to become interested in the millet spray, training moved a lot quicker. I thought it was worth mentioning to try other things, if some are not working for you. We also stuck to making sure our bird wasn’t without food for more than 2-3 hours. When people are learning how to look after a new bird, times like this should be specified in information videos to keep the bird safe.

For a budgie Millet always has value. I have never been able to get my budgie to eat meals so she always has food but millet or seed always gets a response. It’s refreshing to see that maybe I did train my budgie correctly because I didn’t know what I was doing and when I first got her I did the exact same thing Jamie did with the millet and just having her eat the millet. I always felt like that was the low skill way to do it but apparently it was correct. Either way she’s glued to me now she actually follows me around the house and climbs all over me which is exactly what I wanted.

I adopted a few month old budgie from an abusive home where he had his foot broken by being grabbed and I was able to convince him to hop on my finger today after weeks of working with him! thank you so much for the guidance and helping me keep up confidence working with him even when we had very little progress 😭​​😭​😭​

Sugar reminds me so much of my budgie. I just wanna rave really quick so don't mind me, but we got my budgie onto their natural feeding system awhile ago and he is having a SWELL time. He beeps!! He does these high pitched beeps when eating because he loves it and I love it and I love him. He's a brat baby. But a brat baby who beeps, it's amazing.

This is so great! Budgies need us humans to see this! This was my experience, with my flighted, baby budgie. I did it without anyone helping and I can see so many benefits to having the whole family involved. Younger siblings (anyone) can sit next to the cage and read or eat or any quiet project. The time and patience at this starting point pays off! So excited to see his progression and the first "trick" training session! Have fun, Capri!

This was so cool to watch! I have a budgie who mostly stays in her cage (although I keep it open almost all day) and it's so interesting to see how similar Sugar's body language is to her's.

The voice you use to speak to birds is so soothing. 😌

thats amazing...its cute how ur daughter didnt want to leave his side...sugar is now getting the life he deserves....

Insane talent you have taming these budgies. WOW Once they fully understand that you are ZERO threat to them is the key. After that they give SO much in return, it is worth the patience.

Got my 2 budgies because of you 😉 Huge fan of your channel. Have them on your diet and trick training them. It is challenging because I have to do it with both at the same time. Tried separately but then they start calling each other and get distracted. They are tame, fly free the whole day. But you were right, they are not the best beginner birds. But I love them and training them is so much fun! ❤ from Germany

And Capri OMG she is too adorable ❤️ and she is soo good with birds and I love all your birds

I’m starting my bird training with my new galah tonight! Got my treats, got my clicker, got my patience!

I have always had parakeets. One called Pied breed, which I knew nothing about at the time. I also had ceiling fans, which one ALWAYS have to have OFF. I did the same thing and limit the room space. My parakeets would steal spaghetti noodles off my plate, liked it was worms, run around the table eating it.. Lol and they equally LOVED Strawberry season. A nice balance of fruits and quality seed mix is what I did. Like others, I would get “special treats” along the way. With toys, mine loved mirrors everywhere, chew toys with bells, and anything he could chew on that had something toy like for them. Parakeets love baths too. Mine also had a “fountain” aka me with a water bottle sprays. Everything parrots do, a parakeet does, just on a smaller scale. They are Little Disney Birdies with a Biker attitude. LOL 😂😂🐦💙💚🤍💛❤️ I don’t doubt your ability with them. You love your birdies and home is always home with you too.

Before I knew anything about birds and was maybe 10 years old? I used that exact cage for my cockatiel. Once I had a laptop and access to information, he got upgraded to a huge cage! I'm sure sugar will be thankful when she has the same thing happen

I just brought home two parakeets that were rescued on Friday evening. They have never been out of their cage. They have always been in. Something super tiny, even smaller than what you have here… they can’t even successfully really fly in their cage. I ordered a new one and it will be here tomorrow . They have no idea what treats are, and they have no idea even what slight toys are, this video is super helpful for people like me so that they become better acquainted with us and trust us. My mom let me stick my hand in the cage, but the moment I get close to them, they fly around and freak out. I’ve been just talking to them in the softest voice that I can and sitting in the same room so they get used to me and my voice😊. Thank you so much for your video. I really appreciate you. I forgot to mention that they said they were about a year old >

I was so excited to see more budgie content get published today! I love my little budgie and I love the way you show how they have so much potential to be a rewarding companion pet. ☺️ (Also I'm glad I'm not the only one who talks to my budgie in a squeaky voice!)

I have two budgies and it worked for me training two at the same time because the braver one was more receptive and the other one followed

i will pray for sugar to live longer life

I’ve had my 2 for about a week now, they eat out of my hand as well as sit on my hand and eat out of it. But they don’t let me touch them otherwise 😢 I honestly feel like they have gotten more scared of me but I’m not giving up on them obviously, you’re videos are so helpful. 😊

All BirdTricks video have greatly educated me. I wish a Federal Law could be passed that make pet stores give info upon purchase that they would have 24 hours before they can pickup their bird that would educate them on their needs and if they really had the time to incorporate them into their families.

Oh my good fricken goodness, Capri's immediate enthusiasm and love for Sugar honestly brought tears to my eyes!! That's sweet beyond words, seriously!!

Love the video! I've had one flighted baby(from ebay) and one clipped baby (from highly-rated breeder). And my flighted one actually warmed up to me faster and would fly to me on his own about a month in, despite never being socialized by his original owner. I got my clipped budgie a month later, and she knew I wasn't a threat, but she was never confident enough to interact with me, despite me working from home and interacting with them, until 5 months later when her feathers grew in and she had more autonomy over where she wanted to go. Now, they both come out to play as soon as I open the cage in the morning, and they'll fly to me nibble my hair, play with my watch, drink water from my cup lol (owner's water MUST be tastier than water in cage right?), etc.. I was almost convinced that my second budgie would forever only want to play with my first budgie and not with me since I didn't have room to get a separate cage but it all worked out. I remember Jamie talking about how clipping a bird can give them low self-confidence and now I can say I've seen it first-hand!

Omg I have a flighted budgie that I haven’t been able to train! I love this and I’m so excited!

Can you do a lovebird -not tame -scared -older than 5 months -bites kinda hard It would help me tame my birds im trying to tame them but 1 keeps biting me and the other on steps up with one feet

I have a male that was purchased, winged and parent raised, but young. I wound up quickly getting him on pellets from commercial seed. Due to the overall stress of the move/lack of bird buddies - his immune system bottomed out, and allowed mites to attack his feet and around his beak. Got him to a vet, and got that under control. At about the time he became sick, he refused to eat pellets, now only willing to eat seeds (his comfort food). He has been well, though admittedly underweight (no apparent reason to the vet) for the last year, and prefers only canary seed. This bird has never had any sort of inclination to, play, eat millet spray, or come out of the cage. I wound up being able to get him learn to step up, but that’s about it. He refuses to go back to pellets, and now his weight seems almost normal (if he’s able to have access to an unlimited supply of fresh seed mix daily, so that he can pick out his canary seed), compared to my other hand-raised pellet-eating male (which will eat anything/everything, step up, willingly comes out to spend time with me, speaks, and loves to play/demolish toys). Should have named them night and day, as they’re so different in personality. Considering starting over with the training/food intro to see if I can lengthen his life, and enable him to be a happier pet. I miss your toucan, btw. Just love those birds, along with Major Mitchell’s :)

I just got a new bird yesterday, and I already have 1 parakeet by the age of 2. And I have the new baby in quarantine. I like to open the cage and leave millet on the little platform. And she only comes out if she wants to, she seams to be very calm!

Hey, just wanted to say that Sugar is definitely a boy. He is a recessive pied which means that his cere will be pink his whole life. Baby budgies have pink ceres if boy and white or tan ceres as girls. Adults will have tan to dark brown if females and blue or in some cases such as this one, pink ceres depending on mutation. Recessive pieds, DEC and inos will have pink ceres their whole life or sometimes pink and blue mix and dominant pieds will have pink and blue mixed or blue ceres.

I love your show. I want to learn everything I can so I can get a bird. I've never ever gotten an animal without education I can get. You are the best!

Oh how cute! My budgie's name is Sokkar which means Sugar in Arabic!

I traumatized my parrottlet while trying to move him to a temp cage so I could fix his permanent cage. I failed miserably. Now he won't come out of his cage and is terrified of me. To make matters worse, his companion lovebird, Dani died of old age. Extremely sad. I don't think this little guy has a good life right now.

I'm so excited for this new project bird!!😊🥰

Your patience and understanding especially on these first day videos is really impressive.

Thank you so much for doing this! I’ve been working with my budgie for months and she still is so skittish

It's quite relaxing to watch this because of how calm you are and your calm voice when you think out loud about what you should do👌

Love this! Very relatable for the many people looking to adopt a parakeet that hasn’t been socialized as much. Thank you!! :)

This is the perfect new video series! My significant other and I have been preparing for weeks to get a budgie, and I think this new budgie could help us learn how to deal with a potentially fearful bird. Your videos along with ElleAndTheBirds and Flying Fids have been incredibly helpful!

I've had my Budgie Lucky for a year Xmas and he's pretty much trained and he listens to my voice and hand motions and seems to understand me, I love him very much 😍💗 My mom had a Budgie Lucky when I was little and she clipped his wings and he would fly to her shoulder and let him kiss 💋 her until she bled but never really trained a lot and she kept him covered up most of the time,I let my Budgie out of his cage all day in my room and even when the door is open he won't fly out of my room and he puts in his cage at night 🌉 when he is sleepy then I cover him until morning and he loved KZfaq birds and watching flocks ❤😂😮

Nice Video! Waitng for day two

Thank you for your new budgie project. I received a rescue budgie in January. Third home is a charm. Sky was also flighted when I got her. I bird proofed a bathroom and let her come out without big scary humans around. I put a bird video in with her for company and to tempt her out of the cage. She took very short flights as her muscles weren't very strong. Her cage was small but we've kept it her sanctuary and it's her favorite perch during open cage time. Hope to advance to how well Sugar is doing.

I tamed a fully flighted budgie myself😌 An amazing experience! And much better for the bird to not be clipped and have the choice to fly away!

I always enjoy your interactions with your bird family. I’m a senior who loves parrots and I wish I had one growing up. I watch the birds outside my home in California. They always act differently on days we have earthquakes. Our seagulls seem to all go in hiding. Others are simply not around for that whole day. For me they are predictors of earthquakes.

honestly our parakeet was found under my car last summer in 2020, we dont know fully where he came from but we're assuming he was from a petstore or got loose from someones home, we looked around for a few weeks to see if anyone lost him but there was no luck so we kept him, we change out his toys regularly and make sure to keep one or two that he really likes in there to keep him calm, he loves coming out of his cage and im glad i was able to educate my parents on him since they didnt know parakeets need daily outside time since we have dogs it makes it hard for us to take him out but he always gets atleast an hour outside to play and relax with us so he can be happy and social

After sugar’s quarantine, will you make a video on introducing sugar and blueberry? I’ve seen a few vids about this subject but i would love to see what you have to say on it.

I am so excited for this journey with Sugar. Sugar looks to be a beautiful boy :)

Yay!! I am really looking forward to following Sugar's journey! I have 4 rehomed/rescue budgies and 1 budgie I found outside and all are quite nervous. I have been able to tame only one due to past trauma but have made great headway nonetheless. They are all on your seasonal feeding system, and I have your budgie bundle. Still have not had any luck getting 4 of the 5 to step up on my finger BUT they do go through a hoop, stand on the hoop, turn in a circle and other tricks I learned from your videos.

Got a budgie today so this is going to be super helpful . I've had my other budgie for 5 years and decided to get him a mate. He will sit in my hand and eat from my hand but will not let me touch him I'm hoping to have a better relationship with her.

Great! Because I got the course, and my budgie came fully flighing

You and Capri are so sweet with the birds. So sweet to watch.

Awwwwww the budgie is so cute

Yes! Another budgie!

Im very glad that you took away that mirror, because a mirror makes a bird get obsessed. Because bird cant tell their reflection some may think its a imposter or its mate and since it will alway want to be close to it it will stop eating and drinking sooner or later and other problems.

Thats incredible 😲 I am going to try this with my untamed budgies. Sugar is adorable

Yes! I'm so excited to see the upcoming progress with Sugar! :)

I NEEDED THIS! Thank you so much this was so helpful ❤

I think you said this was of family seven, someone in this family aught have time for this bird. The bird certainly deserves being more that trained entertainment...something to show to your friends.

Yes!! Thank you so much for this. It is so different to watch it being done than to hear it

Thank you so much for letting us see how to begin ! The correct way, before I get my first. Love watching you work.💜

Wow, he seemed like a totally different bird at the end of the video ! That was so cool that it flew back and forth when you called him! That was super cute! And your daughter is so young to be so gifted with birds! She is really an awesome little young lady !!! I am super impressed!

Yes !!! Been waiting for you to do this. Thank you

This is the same situation I have. Acquried my parakeet late May. I'd watched your channel then and learned some things, but this info is what I need. Thanks so much for doing these videos!

Woohoooo thank you Jamie and dave for everything you do ♡♡♡♡♡♡

When I got my bird, I placed her cage next to my desk so she's be close to me and I flipped her food and water bowls around so they were hanging outside of the cage and left the doors open. They're the kind of bowls that hang from the bottom of the cage doors, so she could sit sort of half in and half out of her cage while eating and drinking just to get her used to being able to go in and out of her cage. A few times a day I'd just stick a hand in the cage without trying to touch her or anything, just so she could get used to my hands being near her. She let me pet her after a while (she loves neck scritches) and I started training her to step up. It was pretty slow, she didn't seem to have any interest in perching on my hand for a long time. She would bob her head and talk to my fingers, and she would tilt her head down if she wanted me to pet her, so she was very friendly, social, and seemed to like me, but she just wasn't interesting in actually standing on my hand. then it was like something just clicked one day and she was constantly jumping all over me and wanting to perch on top of my head and shoulders. Now I can call her from across the room and she'll (usually) fly over to me. One really strange hurdle early on was that she didn't seem interesting in eating or drinking at all, and I came to find out it was because she was still really young and had only ever been fed food from bowls at the floor of her enclosures. So at first I had to move her food and water bowls to the bottom of her cage so she would know where to find it, and once she got used to eating from the new bowls I put them back in her cage doors and she figured it out from there.

Thank you for this, I needed it. You do a great job with the birds and your you tube channel. I having been reading books, watching tutorials for months now. I want to get a budgie, but want to know exactly what I am doing first, and to set up the cage with all that is needed first. Wish me luck, wanting a companion bird , I'm retired and am a senior citizen would love the company.

Thank you exactly what I needed

I just subscribed to your channel. Hubby and I have purchased 2 budgies at our local Petco and we have not really interacted much with them aside from changing their water and food. Today, I fed them millet from my hand and one of them actually came to my hand and then the other one came as well! They were busy eating the millet and as I was putting them back, Bluebell, one of the budgies, flew down and it took awhile for us to get her/him back 😢 They are both clipped so they were just jumping up and down. I hope I did not traumatize them 😢

Sugar is like my Mikey. Thank you so much for sharing the way!

This was cool to watch. Thank you for sharing.

awesome training and awesome mother and daughter. more of that please.

Budgie and parakeet low cost pet birds and cute thats why budgie and parakeet are the most popular pet bird in the world. And remember always love your bird 🐦 because they need your love and attention 😗

She is adorable 😍 I love your videos,they are super informative ❤️ And helpful to everyone Tysm for your good work

I needed this thank you so much!❤👍

Looking forward to seeing more of Sugar! Will be interesting to see how he or she takes to the seasonal feeding system!

Yay I love small bird videos!😊

OMG she is awesome 😍

You gals are amazing. Great job with sugar.

Your budgies are so cute and calm!!😍😍

Thanks for sharing

Can't wait! Thank you

So cute! And hopefully he’s ok and,my bird escaped but we bought a new one and now I have 2 and this made me cry so much

I love Parakeets!! Can't wait until we get ours😀😍🐦🐦

She/he is precious!

Really enjoy your videos! You’re terrific!

. I wish u a lot of luck with sugar Edit just saying sugar is literally so cute

Good ole millet a budgies kryptonite!

Oh he's so cute.

Love the video thank you!

My white budgie 's name is also sugar what a coincidence 😂❤

Ooohhhh, so sweet..

So good to watch this video 🤗❤️

While watching this my lemon the budgie is chowing plastic toy cup and running with and rolling it 🤣🤣🤣

Really love these day 1 vids and these project birds I watch every morning with my coffee ☕ 😁I'm working my way thru them all lol and sometimes rewatching certain vids lol like this one haha I watched it the other day but ended up watching again lol 😆

Omg the ending was amazing!