What to do?

[ELM]

When I attempt to take Buster out of his cage he will bite, This I expect since he's new and is still getting to know me. When he is sitting in his door I will come up and put my hand up to him and say "step up" and I get bitten or he just hops back into his cage. Once I get Buster out, usually this only happens when he flys to the floor, he is fine and I can handle him fairly easily. Anyway I was wondering how I can convince Buster to come out of his cage without biting. I also tried getting Buster to step up on a dowel rod but this only scares him. So how to I handle this situation? I know its still very early in our relationship but I've never had to deal with something like this so any ideas would be very helpful. Thanks.

[kimsbirds]

First Rule for Lovies: Let them come out of the cage to YOU on their own.

By sticking your hand inside the birds cage and grabbing them, you're invading their "safe space" and making them mistrust you. What we do is open their cage door, and place your hand, palm side up just outside the door (using a food bribe if you have to at first) and INVITE them to come out. If you want to dowel-train your bird, use a perch from his cage that's easily removeable and twist a sprig of millet around it for the first few times you attempt the training session. This sometimes will take several weeks to let the bird learn what it is you expect, but by far it's more pleasant for the bird because his cage remains safe and not invaded by 'the evil hand'. (If you absolutely must grab the bird from his cage for health reasons (ie: broken feather or other emergency) by all means do what you must.)
As you change food and water dishes daily, talk quietly and only reach in as far as you must to get the dishes. Once this pattern is learned by the bird, the trust begins:)
Best Wishes, and remember....PATIENCE !!!!;)

Kimmie

[linda040899]

I agree with Kim completely. Your lovebird is in a new home/situation, away from everything familiar. His cage is the only place where he feels safe and invading hands are just not welcome yet. Put yourself in his position and think about how you would feel in his place. Birds learn to trust through experience and that takes time. You will get what you are looking for but there are no shortcuts. Accept what you have now and work forward from where you are.

[ELM]

Thanks, I understand there are no shortcuts. I have never grabbed him out of the cage either. When he is acting like he may want out I put my hand in the cage and when he bites me or acts like he will bite I say no firmly and then withdraw my hand. Then I'll just talk to himm and he chitters back. Buster and I seem to have developed a little "game" that he seems to enjoy when he doesn't feel like coming out of his cage but wants my attention. He'll pick up his ball and drop it over the side, this seems to be my que to come over and pick it up and place it back in the cage. He'll then stand there and chitter at me and I'll talk to him, and I'll push his ball thats inside his cage around with my finger. When I stop he goes over and pushes it around too, we take turns doing this. The little noises he makes when we're doing this is funny. He let me know when he's had enough cause he'll start acting like he wants to bite my finger when I go to take my turn to push the ball. So I listen to him and stop before he feels like he actually has to bite me. I know he needs to develop trust in me and his current situation and this won't happen overnight. He's just my first lovebird and the only other bird I have is my budgie who I had raised myself, so Buster and all this stuff is all new to me. Thanks for your help.

[kimsbirds]

When you offer your hand to Buster, simply offer it outside his cage, not inside:) Maybe this is all you need to do to get him to take that big step!
Best wishes,
Kimmie

[ELM]

Well I just had to share what happened this morning and it goes along with this subject. This morning Buster was sitting in the door of his cage acting like he wanted to come out. I went over and knelt down in front of the cage making Buster eye level to myself. Instead of just sticking my hand up to him to try and get him to step up I took a piece of millet and had him eat it from my hand. He attempted to pull it out of my hand but I held on to it, Buster then ate it from my hand. So I sat there while he was eating the millet and talked to him. He chittered while eating the millet and got all poofy.When he was done he even let me rub his head while he was sitting in the door. Just a nice little moment I wanted to share.

[melissajean]

That is wonderfull news about your baby eating from your hand :)
I noticed you said that when your lovie goes to bite, you remove your hand, and he uses this as a way to tell you he dosent want to play any more. I dont know if this is true of lovies, but I know with other birds that is how you train your bird to bite. say your bird wants to go back to his cage, and your holding him. he tries to tell you he dosent want to interact with you any longer with his body language, but you dont understand, the bird them becomes frusterated and bites you, so you put him in his cage because now you dont want to play to. the bird remembers this. so next time he wants to go back to his cage, he just goes straight to the bite. same as with playing. the bird dosent want to play, so he bites. I would look for clues in the body language that signals he dosent want to play any more so he never gets around to biteing. or stop playing with him after say 15 mins or so. also so he dosent get around to biteing.
I know loveis are very nippy anyways, but like I said this might work.
feel free to correct me anybody