Helper Birds

[BarbieH]

I have renewed my efforts to socialize Barney and Bongo, who are roughly four months old and who wanted nothing to do with humans once they fledged. It occured to me that when Didjit was being socialized, George and Gracie showed him that I was "safe." Bosco and Betty still think I'm wild, and their influence probably has been holding the boys back. So ...

... I brought Sammy out with Barney and Bongo today, not all together but first Sam and Bongo, then Sam and Barney. It worked very well! They still want to fly away, but they also learned that I am a safe thing to perch on. :)

Now, I don't want to put the Samster under a lot of pressure by giving him a job. But it helps him learn more about socializing with birds, and helps the little ones learn more about socializing with humans.

Sam also seems to be a good choice because he doesn't act quite so much like a bird as far as territory goes. Didjit's a little bruiser, George and Gracie would be out of the question. But Sam just kinda looks at those little birds and seems to be thinking, "That's nice, what are they?"

Has anyone else given their adult lovebirds a role in helping younger or newer, unrelated (or related) birds learn to socialize with humans?

[Paulette]

Barbie....I think that is an awesome idea. It's like when you have an older child, the second one learns so much faster. Brilliant!

[BarbieH]

Well, it's nice when you've got the luxury of having a bird like Sammy around. :) The little guys know Sam is a bird, but he doesn't know it. In a way, it kind of reminds me of Cassy's former bird Cheeky-Chappy, the lovebird who would feed anybird, anytime. Sam could be a bird with a higher purpose. :):)

[LauraO]

Barb: Good luck with the socialization. I totally agree that the parents have a lot to do with how their babies react to us. I mean they learn everything else by watching their parents so why not that. I think the fact that Won Ton and Babygirl are so friendly and trusting of us helps in the whole socialization process. Plus I love when the whole family comes out to play together :D

I think as Won Ton gets older he will be more of a helper bird. He is always so interested in the babies around the house even when their not his, though he still doesn't care for them. Of course, he's still young and only going on three.

[Rubygem]

:D Barb,

I'm glad this is working for you.

I have never given it much thought, but you know if we have birds that aren't into human interaction, that we are re-homing, or planning on making pets out of we always bring them up to the family room. The family room is where my pets and babies are….and this is where the action is in our home. Can’t get anywhere without going pass the family room, and when we see our babies they need to be spoken too. So the birds that are being worked with get to see all the interaction the pets and babies get and they too want to have some of that interaction. Sometimes it takes a bit of time for them to become trusting, but we give them outside of cage time, even if they don’t want us to handle them – and my conures and Greenwing are out of their cages from first thing in morning until bed time. Now my Greenwing goes to a play gym, but the conures we just open up their cage doors and they come and go as they please, unless we leave the house. We are working with a Dusky conure that never got any out of cage time from the other home, so you know to his surprise his door comes off the cage first thing in the morning…and it is funny to watch him, because he will step outside of the cage and look around to find out if we are going to yell….but when we don’t yell, he sits there for a minute then he puts himself up, and will do this over and over….it’s too cute.

So I guess being flock animals putting them close to a flock that trust you, makes sense to get the untrusting birds to learn to trust. :)

Rubygem

[BarbieH]

Thanks Ruby. :)

I think the influence of the parents is having a lot to do with our situation, plus the fact that we moved the Cagey B's cage ever so slightly a couple of months ago, so that it was no longer at our eye level. We have always talked to them and they could always see the other birds with us as they were always in the same room, but re-changing cage positions and working with the youngsters away from the cage seems to be very effective, with a little encouragement from Sam. ;)

Incidentally, when I brought him out this morning, one of the first things he did was perch on the Cagey B's cage and have a sweet little talk with its residents -- not loud chirping, but that sweet little undertone that older birds sometimes use with youngsters. :):)

[Buy A Paper Doll]

What a good boy Sam is! :)

I have to say, Milo wasn't much help with teaching Melody that she could trust me ... primarily because I had her in quarantine the whole time I was trying to socialize her. But he did help out TONS with teaching her to eat a variety of good foods. He even scrapes the cuttlebone every day and feeds it to her!

[mjm8321]

I meant to reply to this thread the day it was originally posted, but I didn't get too.
We use "helper" birds alot in our flock. As of late, we have been using two young chicks that were originally parent fed, but we ended up having to handfeed for a few weeks and eventually went back in with a foster father, who began feeding them again. He was not tame, not really a pet, but very mellow. He is now stepping up, landing on our shoulders and hands and becoming comfortable with being around is. All of this because his little charges are extremely tame. They have helped him in return for his help.
I've also paired a fairly tame lovie with a not so tame biter and the biter ( a hen, go figure!) and she's come around too.