Lovebird bribery?

[KateBascombe]

Hey all, I'm new here. And I've just moved in with my fiance who has a 14 year old male peachface lovebird who is entirely bonded to him. The bird, Nick, is totally fine with me when my fiance isn't home. Sweet, cuddly, he sits on my shoulder all day and will let me do pretty much anything to him. However, once the man gets home it's an entirely different story. I can't even put my hand in his cage to fill Nick's dish without getting chomped on, if I come within a foot of him he threatens me, and he refuses to sit anywhere near me without trying to gnaw my fingers off. Any tips for getting Nick to calm down when we're both home?!

[CHIris83]

Based on the behaviour i would say Nick is a SHE not a HE :) hehehe females tends to be much more aggressive then males... and she consideres your Fiance her mate when he is home...

[linda040899]

The key to dealing with Nick is seeing the world as he sees it. The love of his life is your fiance. For now, that's the way it is and that's the way Nick wants it......unless you fiance is out of sight. Nick considers your fiance as the mate and the aggression is to protect the one he absolutely loves with every fiber of his being. Lovebirds tend to form strong bonds with their mates and this is what's happened.

About all you can do is be patient and see if Nick will eventually accept your presence around him. Keep in mind that his cage is HIS home and many birds will defend their homes from intruders, which is how Nick sees you at the moment. Birds learn by experience so all I can suggest right now is being patient. I think he will eventually come around, especially if he will accept you when your fiance is not home.

Bribery with a favorite treat? Can't see where it would hurt to try it. :)

[KateBascombe]

Huh. We've always assumed male because he just seems like a boy... What are some indicators I could use? And it's just weird about the cage because he's only territorial about it when my fiance is home. Otherwise he doesn't care. This morning he came and stole some of my breakfast instead of my fiance's, but that mine have been because I still had strawberries left on my plate :P

[CHIris83]

Males lovies tends to get along better with women then men i have a female lovie that LOVES the guy i like and my guy friends in general but when my mom or any of my female friends come she lunges at them! my guy friends think she is a little angel... :whistle: and they totally loves her! when none of my guy friends are around she behaves well with me but she tends to bite if i want her to go back on her cage... this means Female lovies tends to get along well with men and not so much with women when the man is around...if its not they get along well with the woman while the man is not around... Like Linda said Nick consideres your Fiance her mate...

[KateBascombe]

The reason Nick's so friendly with Tom is because Tom handfed him when he was a wee baby, and he was the only one to really handle him for a long time.

[CHIris83]

Yeah Iris (my female lovie) was also handfed from 9 days old, she is now almost 18 weeks old :)

[Chickobee]

Handfeeding itself does not make a lovebird tame. It is the socialization that creates this bond.

Your fiance's bird is tame because he has spent so much time playing with it, not because it was handfed as a baby. Many pet stores have baby birds that they advertise and sell as "handfed" but, unfortunately for the new owners, many of these babies are never socialized once they are weaned. Then they revert back to wild behavior in about two weeks and aren't any more tame than any other unsocialized baby bird. When people buy them they wonder why their "handfed" baby isn't tame.

We let our parent birds feed their own babies and we play with them daily from when they are about three weeks old, and continue doing so after they are weaned. They get used to hands and learn to step up on command. Later they will fly to us and include us as part of the flock.

A parent raised baby can be equally as tame as one that has been pulled for handfeeding. It will also have the advantage of knowing it is a bird and how to care for it's own babies if it has any. I have also learned that handfed hens can be extremely viscious during breeding season but all of our parent raised hens will allow me to check on their babies without me risking my fingers to do it.

I have rehomed the two hens I had who were hand raised because they were both so mean when they had babies. Since the new owners wanted them anyway it was a good deal for both of us.

I haven't ever noticed that our birds have any preference of people based upon sex but they do like some people right away and dislike others. Mostly what I've noticed is that they like "bird people" and dislike people who are fearful of them.