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Thread: Need help taming a love bird

  1. #41
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    Florida, USA
    Posts
    27,318

    Default Re: Need help taming a love bird

    I read your post with much interest and I respectfully have to disagree with Barbara H. In order to tame a parrot you have to earn its trust and that only happens via experience. In the wild, birds are prey creatures and that is an instinct not lost when living in captivity. Keep in mind that we have taken a wild creature and are having it share our lives in an environment that is not normal for them. When fully flighted, birds will seek the highest perch available and, again, unless you have a parrot that lives in the underbrush in their natural habitat, height is safety. Your lovebird does not associate the cage with bedtime and sleeping.

    I can understand that you don't want to clip flight feathers, even temporarily, but that means you have to approach taming a bit differently. You need to get your lovebird perch trained before you let it out and about. He/she needs to get to know you and at least accept the thought that you don't intend to make it your next meal. This takes time, patience and love. Depending on the individual bird, it can take anywhere from a few days to several months or even longer. I have a female African Grey who has lived with me for almost 25 years and the best I can do is interact with her or let her take food from my fingers. I have no choice but to clip flight feathers because she's a particularly destructive parrot and loves to be up as high as she can get. Choice came down to clipping the feathers to limit where she can go or she would be in her cage when someone is not around to supervise her activities.
    Linda L.
    There are no bad birds, just misunderstood ones.



  2. #42

    Default Re: Need help taming a love bird

    Personally I don't even believe it is possible to socialise an adult bird with a history of solitude, while she is in the cage, without clipping the flight feathers. A fully flighted bird will not come back to cage, unless hungry, and they can go on for quite some time without food and water. Grabbing a bird with a towel, because she needs to go back to her cage, basically reverses all the trust built till that point, and you are back to square one.
    Given her aggressive behavior re food bowls and water, I assume there is a fair chance it's a female, which are known to be more feisty in general, especially when they are hormonal and are only interested in nesting, nothing else. I would suggest clipping flight feathers (6-8 of them, each side) for now, and start the taming process, stepping up, feeding from hands, carrying her on the shoulder, etc. Even with the feathers clipped, it will take several months before you actually will have a bond and she will accept you as a partner. Feathers will grow back in a year, and if the taming is done, you can leave her fully flighted then.

    Try to avoid the situations that she bites, learn to read her body language. If she bites you, don't show any reaction, either positive or negative, because both are equally rewarding. Lovebirds are incredibly smart, and it doesn't take much time for them to figure out that they can use their beaks to discipline us, their human slaves . Don't take her to the cage after she bites, because that is a reward too. Just put her on the ground, because that is the only thing that they truly hate. As Linda said, height is equal to safety, so being on the ground feels incredibly unsafe and vulnerable to them.
    Victim of a lovebirdfever
    Follow on instagram: Lavieetlevin
    http://lovebirdsinmontreal.blogspot.ca

  3. #43
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Location
    Toronto, Canada
    Posts
    1,640

    Default Re: Need help taming a love bird

    I'll have to completely disagree with Barbara H too.

    When I got Max two years ago, he was terrified of hands. I would change his food and water cups and he would scream his lungs out! I thought, no way will he ever trust me and become tame. I got him with clipped wings which I didn't really like but I knew they would grow back in. Anyway, I listened to the advice here in this forum and they were absolutely right! Patience, love and kindness is the only way! Now Max is a Velcro lovie...when he's not up to mischief...lol
    Happiness is spending time with your lovebird

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