making progress, but where to now?

[clk666]

okay, so my lovie ive named her gwen :) and she is still very scared of me. i have made progress with her tho, she does not freak out when my hand is in the cage she will just quietly go and climb around her cage. if im holding a big piece of millet she will come and eat some. she has been doing this for a few days now, but if i dont have the millet she wont come near me or my hand, instead like i ssaid just climb around her cage. any tips on where to go from here? im really not sure

[bird-brain]

Lots of people here with more knowledge than I will way in to help you out. just wondering if you have tried having her step up on a dowel or your hand covered by a sleeve? Cabo only takes food from my hand. he hates standing on uncovered flesh of any kind. He is very comfortable on my shoulder but recently as the weather has warmed, I have discovered that he will not stand on my bare shoulders if I have on a tank top. Gwen obviously knows your hands aren't going to kill her. I used to pick the safflower seeds or something smaller out of Cabo's feed to get him used to taking one seed directly from my hand. Perhaps that's another good next step?

[clk666]

ive tried but if i get anything close to her she runs away. its only if im holding the millett in one place then she will sorta come to it. but yeah maybe ill try taking some seeds out, or just keep making the piece of millett smaller. then try with my sleeve again. its just when i move or anything she gets scared and runs away.

[Dave_K.]

Keep trying every day with your hands or a ladder. I've been successfull with all of our birds in this manor. With the love birds it is a matter of trust and that takes time, some of our birds took as long as six months. others like the little fellow who just came from Florida were only a matter of two or three weeks. also I learned from him and then applying it to all of the others that "step up" works better than "up" go figure? another trick we use is to clip them only enough that they cannot gain altitude while flying. I can"t stand to see them crash on the hardwood floors from not enough lift. what this does is wear them out, then is simply walk to them slowly and offer a hand at the floor and command "step up" eventualy it always works. Good luck!

[shinbatsu]

I agree with dave. When a LB is clipped and can't get around easy, they tend to grow dependent on you. Even if it's afraid, the bird will quickly realize it's better to step up on your hand than to stay on the ground.

[Pips mom]

Pip is the same way as what bird brain was saying......I notice that when the warmer weather comes and I have on short sleeves that Pip won't hop onto my arm......noooo, not bare skin! Maybe they see the connection to the hands that are bare skin? Although Pip is like this, after a short time he's back to eagerly hopping onto my arm again, even with no sleeves! It's so funny how he notices the difference and has to adjust to it! funny birds!

[Bubblan]

Hi clk666! Maybe you could try Clickertraining with your bird? On the site www.parrottricks.com can you find a free instructionvideo on how to get your bird to trust you. It helped me a lot in the beginning when me and my birds were getting to now eachother :) Hope it can help you to!
Good luck :)

[clk666]

okay, so ive clipped her wings again(they were getting longer so she could completely fly) and when i tire her out she seems to slow down and eveen let me put my hand in front of her and touch her. she really is not one to bite, as i can grab her.. clip her wings.. do whatever and she pretty much just squirms a bit. she does not seem to be scared of hands, just the fact that they come near her. i will try all of this. thanks guys :D

[Pips mom]

Pip is not afraid of hands either, yet he still does not like the sight of a hand coming at him! He will get on hands.....of his own choice only! If a hand comes at him, most times he just runs. If you try to force the issue, he'll just bite the hand....simple solution for him!!! It's obvious that he has no fear of hands.....it's all about what he likes and doesn't like, and he just does not like hands, and I feel that it will always be that way, AND it could be that way with your lovie as well. I'd back off and let her come to you and not push the issue with hands. Pip is as tame as can be.....he loves people, other birds, very social. He'll come to me and get on me just because he wants to hang out with me. Sometimes I wonder if he thinks hands are something separate from me? I know that he doesn't like the idea that hands can grab him and hold him, but even then he doesn't seem to mind at all once we pick him up with hands and hold him, sometimes he'll just sit there and let me pet him or kiss his head! Not for long though.....he'll start squirming in a short time, and I just let him go....maybe he has come to know that I always let him go as soon as he shows me he wants to go. He definitely reacts very different with each person, according to how he thinks they will treat them. Smart little stinkers they are! I'm always thinking about us people getting to know our birds.....turns out they are getting to know us quite well too!

[bookworm0550]

Just continue what you're doing. The fact that she eats out of your hands is great. Chomper recently has been doing this. Pantalaimon also hates hands and only goes there for food but sometimes they just don't like hands and I've had pan for over a year now. It's ok if they never learn to like hands too cuz they'll still love you and hang out with you. Just continue to work with her and she will learn to trust you :)