Terrified

[mushroomblue95]

Hello,

I am new to this site and a new bird owner. My boyfriend and I adopted two lovebirds from a friend of ours. We have had them for maybe two months if that. They are a boy and a girl peach-faced lovebirds I believe. Since that time I have come to LOVE them. I look forward to seeing them everyday and they are hilarious. Their previous owner said that the one was given to her and they bought the other as company for that one,but were not able to spend time with them. Understatement of the year! They are terrified of us. Anytime we go close to the cage they hide and "freak"out if we try to touch them. Other then hating us they seem to be happy. Just bought them a huge cage with lots of toys and they have a hardy appetite. Any hope of taming my two babies?

[linda040899]

Hi and welcome to Lovebirds Plus Community! Glad to have you here with us! :)

All live creatures will respond to love, kindness and patience. I honestly don't believe that untame lovebirds cannot be tamed, at least to some degree. It may take some time (many months, a year, maybe more) but what you have to do is build a trust relationship with them and to do that you have to earn their trust/be assimilated into their flock.

For starters, you simply have to accept them as they are, in a new situation and fearful. Think about how you feel when you move to a new place...... Begin by just being around them. Sit near their cage, talk to them, sing to them, eat near them. Lovebirds are, by nature, very curious and at some point, they will want to check you out. Should you find them near the bars of the cage where you are, have a treat ready that you can offer them from your fingers. Let them come to you.

I don't know how you feel about flight feather clipping, but if you do it, you can probably open the cage door and let them come out of their cage to sit on top. Should you need to pick them up off the floor, you can offer a wooden perch/dowel for them to step up onto. Most birds don't like being on the floor (If they do, they shouldn't!) so they should go for the perch so you can take them back to their cage. This is one area, however, that you will have to decide how to handle, as you are there and can assess the situation better than we can.

Are you on mission impossible? I don't think so but degree of tameness will remain to be seen.

[mushroomblue95]

Thank you for the reply! I have never clipped feathers before and would be fearful to doit myself but if they were clipped and I let them out...the question would be how would I catch them. They really go wild when we go near. I can't see them staying still to let us catch them. I will take your advice though. We have essentially been doing all those things. I'm sure by now they hate my special lovebird song I made up.