I have a very tame, very friendly budgie. He's lived outside the cage since I got him, and he only sleeps and eats in it. He has a bird playground, a small mirror, and a lot of toys which I rotate periodically.
He had periods when he was more friendly than normally (friendly = omg annoying), but they would pass and he would go to his normal routine of playing with his toys, chirping, and occasionally demanding attention.
Since we have moved, the bird has become unbearable. Every time I open the bathroom door, he flies in and wants to sit on the mirror. If I have a plastic cup on the table, he tries to land on it until he knocks it over. He tries to sit on the sofa all the time (which is something I did not let him do in the old apartment and he did not do it). He has a dish with water on his cage, he now manages to knock it over and spills water everywhere (probably because he knows he will get an instant attention when he does it). Tonight, his goal has been to knock over flowers I put on the table. When he is left alone at home, he never does these things.
I do not know how to punish him because it is his way to get attention. If I chase him off, he thinks I am playing with him and comes back for more. He used to react to "No!", but that does not work any more. I try to say No! and shut him in the cage after he does something bad, but he gets really nervous, starts walking from side to side on his perch and tugs on the cage door and makes sad noises, so it makes me feel bad. And soon as I let him out, he goes and does the exact same thing because of which I shut him in.
I don't want to have his wings clipped because I know he would not be happy. If I put him in a different room, he gets sad because he is not with us. I had cats and dogs, and I know that it is silly to expect a parakeet to react favorably to a dog-training techniques, but I do not know how else to do it. I would appreciate any kind of advice.
I read that placing something the bird is afraid of next to where you don't want it to go works. Does it make sense trying to scare him every time he does something bad? He thinks everything is playing and does not react scared or anything
Thanks a lot.