How to Discipline a Parakeet

Parakeets, frequently referred to as budgies, are small members of the parrot order Psittaciformes. They are intelligent, highly social and can bond to human owners with proper training and handling. Because they tend to exhibit extremely obnoxious behaviors such as screaming and biting, it's important to know how to properly discipline a parakeet. By interacting with your parakeet in a way that encourages good behavior, you can form a lifelong bond with your bird.

Things You'll Need

  • Parakeet treats
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Instructions

    • 1

      Feed your parakeet a treat every time it behaves appropriately to encourage good behavior. When it perches on your hand, greats you without screaming or calmly walks around outside its cage, speak calmly and softly to it. Squawking and biting are instinctive behaviors. To stop them, parakeets must be given an alternative behavior. When your parakeet begins to associate good behavior with receiving food, it has an incentive to continue the good behavior.

    • 2

      Ignore inappropriate behavior. Never reward screaming by taking your bird out of its cage or yelling at it. For parakeets, almost any attention is good attention, and if you attempt to punish the behavior, it will simply do it more often. If you are holding your parakeet and it bites you, immediately place it back in its cage. Close the cage door and leave the room. Return again in a few minutes and pick the parakeet up. If it doesn't bite, give it a treat.

    • 3

      Remove stimuli that encourage bad behavior. Parakeets thrive in calm environments, so put your parakeet in a location where there isn't loud noise from cars, televisions, computers or phones. Cover your bird's cage with a drape at night. This helps to calm the bird, which can eliminate many unwanted behaviors.