NOT hand fed.

[SillyFids]

Soooo I had a hunch my baby wasnt hand fed and emailed my breeder who confirmed that they were handfed 'very little' but were handled and played with. From what I've read this isn't good news because they won't be easy to tame or maybe never friendly at all? I'm kinda mad because I really thought they were handfed>:

Anyway - is this bad as far as taming goes?? I figure its only 8 weeks so it has time to learn but does not being handfed make that harder? I don't know how to go about with a non-hand fed lovey.

[NickyBeth]

Soooo I had a hunch my baby wasnt hand fed and emailed my breeder who confirmed that they were handfed 'very little' but were handled and played with. From what I've read this isn't good news because they won't be easy to tame or maybe never friendly at all? I'm kinda mad because I really thought they were handfed>:

Anyway - is this bad?? I don't know how to go about with a non-hand fed lovey.

I don't know who told you that, but it doesn't seem to matter if a baby is parent-fed or if a baby is human hand-fed. Each bird has their own personality. If the bird doesn't like hands, they may NEVER like hands. Some birds don't like to ride on shoulders. Unfortunately, they make up their own minds into how they want to live their lives....just like we do!

The bird still has to adapt to you, it's new owner. YOU didn't handfeed the bird, the previous person did. Parent-raised babies can be just as cuddly and sociable as a human raised one. Parent raised babies generally wean quicker than human raised birdies, if I am not mistaken.

What you have to work on is building up the trust NOW between you and your bird. You can indeed do it just by spending time with the bird and make your bird just as much a part of your life as you want. My bird is like a 3rd kid. He has the run of the house when I am home and interacts with my kids and does pretty much what he wants to when I come home from work and let him out of the cage. Cherry goes back to his own cage when he wants....just like a kid will go to their room and lie down when they are tired!

It took me a week to socialize my uncle's bird. Cherry took me upwards of a month-6 weeks-two months TOPS. My bird was a re-homed bird because their previous owner died. And I got my bird from my vet.....and the vet's mom was the original owner and she bought the bird from a pet store! When I got Cherry, they thought him to be between 5-7 years old. We've now found out from the vet's mom's neighbor that this was not the case. The mom of the vet's original peach-faced lovebird died, and she bought the same type of bird for a replacement and even named him the same name! So after 2 years of never being allowed out of a cage, and this bird was kept in a parakeet cage from what I was told...(long story) this bird totally changed after 2 months of being with me!

You just have to be patient. I know that is not what you want to hear....heck, no one does! We all bring home those birdies and want them to love us and ride on our shoulders or sit on our fingers so that we can stroke them and show them love. But they perceive love and affection differently -- just like humans!!

Good luck! I bet you will be telling us in no time that your birdie friend is making great strides!

[linda040899]

I, personally, feel that parent fed, human socialized birds make much better pets. I don't hand feed unless I'm faced with a life/death situation and I've sold quite a few babies that are human handled. Several members of our board have gotten parent raised babies from me and all of those lovies tamed down to be wonderful pets!

The breeder actually did you a favor. Your lovebird knows he/she is a bird and now has to learn how to be a pet. It will take a bit of time/patience on your part, but like Nicky said, even if the breeder had hand fed your lovebird, you would still have to build a trust relationship yourself.

[SillyFids]

Thanks NickyBeth & Linda - thats great to know! I figured that couldnt be the case 100% of the time, a bird being untameable. Ive been spending tons of time with my bird, too and making sure it knows Im there. It has calmed down considerably. I felt bad, though, because I put on a YouTube video of lovies and my bird started squaking like crazy and bouncing all over his cage! It was somewhat cute but I felt bad that I made it think its 'friends' were around.

Im definitely going to keep working with it and keep at it. I will persavere!! This board has been so helpful so I really do thank everyone for their input, it really helps! I never planned on getting rid of my bird due to its 'non-handfed' status, Im just going to be an even more in its face mommy! = )


Just a sidenote: I also read (the internet is riddled with crap info, obviously) that you can tame a lovey by constantly bringing it out of its cage and holding it and 'forcing' it to become used to you. THIS CANNOT BE RIGHT!!! Im not going to try it (although I wish I could hug my bird! lol)

[Tango's_Mom]

Just a sidenote: I also read (the internet is riddled with crap info, obviously) that you can tame a lovey by constantly bringing it out of its cage and holding it and 'forcing' it to become used to you. THIS CANNOT BE RIGHT!!! Im not going to try it (although I wish I could hug my bird! lol)

I've seen several people who have found similar advice and pretty much everyone here will tell you the same thing, DON'T, which you've obviously already realized. after many months of work i was able to catch Tango if I needed to and hold onto him in case of emergency (or having to take him somewhere cuz he hates his carrier and there is no way he's stepping up if he sees that). If you do a search you can find alot of info on how many of us tamed our birds, I myself have explained my process with Tango many times and he was almost 6 months old and from a pet store, where he was handfed but not really socialized, if i had known better at the time i would have rathered one raised like yours.

[bookworm0550]

i agree, even if they were hand raised, they still take work. maybe not as much work as a wild one, but they still require work. right now i'm working on pan. it's a challenge and it's wonderful when they finally come around.

[CompassionAk]

I just recently got my bird from a woman here in Juneau Alaska,normally she hand feeds her birds but wasn't able to for this lil guy.From what I understand the bird was never really handled.

Not sure on his age but he was just starting to show somoe color on his head when he came home.He was really skittish and afraid of the snake fingers and I thought it was going to take a while to befriend him.

About a week after getting him he flew over to me as I was on the computer and just watched me for a while and flew away.I started bribbing him with millet and now the lil guy won't leave me alone lol.He is the most wonderful bird

Good luck with your bird,I'm sure he'll be jumnping on your keyboard like mine soon :happy:

[linda040899]

Not sure on his age but he was just starting to show somoe color on his head when he came home.
When you got your lovie, he/she was between 4 - 4.5 months old. The first molt starts at age 4 months and the new feathering looks like dark freckles on the forehead.

The very best way to build a trust relationship with your bird is to let them come to you! With a frightened new lovebird you may think it will never happen, but natural curiosity will eventually get the better of them and they have to check out everything.... :lol

[LovelySydney]

I don't think my baby was handfed & he's doing just great. Than again this is really my first experience so I can't say I know the difference between handfed and parent-fed, I think it's all about the love you give it!!

[FuzzyAga]

"My" baby lovebird, Chickie, is currently being raised by his parents, Juanita and Petey (see Photo Gallery), and at 5-weeks, has no fear of my hands, gets kisses from me on the top of his head, just learned to step-up onto my finger (so smart!), and is starting to eat crushed Zupreem pellets, broccoli buds, and kale. He's also flying short distances, like from perch-to-perch.

He will take all of these items from my finger. He also searches for food on the bottom of the cage so I put these items there. I change the paper several times a day to keep it clean for him.

He's a confident little guy, but when he needs reassurance, he goes to his bird mom, making soft baby cries, and mom kisses his beak and face, may feed (or pretends to feed him--sort of like giving him a pacifier, I guess), and grooms him under his beak and the back of his neck, a lot, because he can't reach those spots himself.

When the time comes for him to leave his bird mom and dad, he will be familiar with humans and will look upon them with a certain level of trust but the final trust that is given and received will be the one that cements the relationship with his new flock--you! :)

One more thing, parrots will always challenge you! There's an old love song that goes like this," ...bewitched, bothered and bewildered..." I know I was/am with Juanita and Petey. :)

[Chickobee]

One thing I have observed with our birds is that the ones who were parent raised as babies get along better with the other birds during flock out play times. We only have two handfed birds and they seem to lack some of the birdie social skills the other birds have. One of them gets chased away by all of the other birds. The other one is always in a fight with somebirdie so she isn't allowed out with the flock anymore.

Right now they are also the only two birds not paired up out of our 22 birds.

The parent raised birds make really sweet pets too. We started socializing the babies when they were two weeks old so they are all used to hands and people. We also have eight birds who were parent raised and not tame when we got them. They are all tame now and none are bitey.

Some pet stores sell "handfed babies" that are never socialized after they are weaned. After a couple weeks of not being handled they are no longer tame either.

:2cents: So, in my opinion, you don't need to worry about whether or not your bird was handfed. Young or old, handfed or not, if you are patient with it and don't force it to do things it is afraid of you will soon have it wanting to be with you and eating out of your hand.

[StormyMom]

When i used to breed tiels they were all parent raised unless i saw that one wasnt being fed enough or being ignored (only happened a couple of times).

As long as theyre interacted with alot they still end up very sweet birds. What made it alot easier was my breeding pairs were both VERY tame. We got 4 tiels (one for each family member) and they ended up 2 males, 2 females, and ended up breeding!! We actually had no intention of it. So with them being tame we were able to play with the babies and spend time with all of them without a problem.

I think its sad when a breeder handfeeds them but doesnt really spend time with them. I think that was the case with Stormy and hes still a bit skittish but he IS coming around. Weve had him since mid December and he was TERRIFIED when we first brought him home. Having a bird like Lizzy to follow has helped alot too