Bird i Caught

[Jezz]

Remember the bird i caught (photos in photo section), well, i have been leaving found ads in the paper, on communtiy notice boards etc and nothing! It has been over 2 weeks since i caught him and nobody has claimed him, it seems a bit if a waste becasue he such an amzing little bird. I guess he reminds me of Janie's Oliver. He does not bite at all! He is still scared of hands but what i do is pick him up, and then sit down and talk to him and whistle to him, then i slowly remove my hands so he is no longer constrained and his just sitting in the palm of my hand. I continue to talk to him and whistle and can give him kisses. But as soon as he sees my hand he gets scared. How do i go about taming him, if i can't reward him with treats because he runs away from my hand?
Is what i am doing right? Should i continue to pick him up and then slowly remove my hands? Or should i take a different approach?

Oh yeah, anyone know any good names for a Lovebird with a great personality? He is Green, he occasionally whistles, he does not bite, and he thinks he is a Lorikeet:lol

[graushill]

Hi Jeremy,

Your found birdie sounds really sweet :). I think the method you're using to tame him sounds really good. If he sits in your hand already after just two weeks, then you've already achieved much more progress than I have with my hand scared lovie in a year. The only other thing I could think of was maybe the "shrinking dowel" method, you know you start with a longish dowel and gradually make the dowel shorter and shorter until you basically are offering your hand? But I do think your lovie sounds like he's beyond this method >o . As for name suggestions, I think Marley is a sweet name. Besides who's cooler than the king of reggae ;) ?

Gloria

[Elle]

Hello Jezz,

Blu was affraid of hands when I got her and she's not a biter either. I did insist on teaching her the step up command with the hands and not a dowel. I may not always have time to go find a dowel and I am very tall so reaching in high spots is not an issue.
What I did is instead of insisting for her to be on my hand is once she stepped up, she was allowed to go anywhere on me except on top of the head. She would immediately jump on my clothes and from there she was fine. Her place of choice, of course was the shoulder. Having her on my at least at eye level gave us an opportunity to communicate.
Once she finally felt comfortable with us, we have seen an amazing turn around in her attitude. She CANNOT GET ENOUGH of our hands now. She doesn't want to be on the shoulders anymore, the arm is not acceptable, it's on the hand where she can gently nibble on my fingers or give me a manicure. When she's on the hands, she knows if she's cute I will raise her to face level and give kisses. She loves when I feed her with my fingers. She take the food, throw it away so she can now gently kiss the fingers.
She is simply amazing.
We also worked on scritches. She would stand on my shoulder, I would gently blow air in her neck and when she would be relaxed, I would substitute for a finger. Just for a few seconds. The goal is to show how great it feels but leave her on the edge.
I can now stick my hand in her cage and give her scritches at night. She is actually waiting for it. Won't go to sleep without it anymore ( she puts herself to bed).
There are a lot of things you can do to get your little lovebird used to hands. The advise I have is it won't happen over night and for really great result, don't force them. Encourage them by showing them the wonderful things you can do for her/ him with your hands. For example, scritches, feeding pellets or little treats, natural sugars on the fingers is also great (if you cut a juicy pear for example and there's juice on your fingers, offer your finger to your lovebird. First reaction may be to bite but the surprise when they taste the juice is they let go with a quizical look on their face. If they like it, they'll go taste again. It also shows that bitting doesn't bother you)
If you are able to manage to hold your lovie in your hands and calm it down, that is awesome. You want to avoid frightenight it. If you know exactly what will startle him, of course it's to be avoided. Sounds that you are able to steadily progress with your new lovie. And I'll leave the naem thing to the experts :)

Regards,

Elle

[Janie]

Jeremy, from the photos I saw he also reminds me of my little Oliver! :) I think you are going about everything in the right way. Truth is, Oliver was very timid about hands for months after I adopted him. Even now, while he will always step onto my finger, he won't eat from my hands. I did exactly what you're doing (in the beginning), just reached out and picked him up. You've made far more progress with him in 2 weeks than I did with Oliver in 2 months!!!! It does help when they don't bite! :D I would never have been so brave about picking him up if he'd bitten me! I'm sure I made many mistakes in earning his trust but he is a special little bird and very forgiving and the bond that we have now is incredible.

It is amazing that a bird as tame as this one you caught is not being looked for by his previous family. My neighbor found a Cockatiel a few months ago. She brought him inside and went so far as to buy a cage for him but did try to find the owner. This Tiel was very friendly so she knew someone must be looking for him. 3 weeks later the owner did call and they were reunited. That bird was 20 miles from home! I think my neighbor finally found the owner by posting on a website. :confused:

If this bird isn't found, how lucky is he to have ended up in your yard!!!!! VERY!!!! :)

[Jezz]

Last night he sat on my shoulder for about 30 minutes:happy:
This is pretty good progress, he is a nice little bird, but of course, for him to get on my shoulder in the first place i had to put him there, but he didn't try to get off either. After awhile he was snuggling up to my neck:D

[Janie]

Jeremy, oh my, that sounds exactly like OLIVER!!!!! He didn't jump to my shoulder either but once he found it and felt comfortable, he moved there....for good! :D You've got a snuggle birdie, I just know it! :D

[bellarains]

Jeremy,

Sounds like he is yours:D

Names???? How about Danota, meaning gift from God. Seems he was sent to you, and it was meant to be:)

[kimsbirds]

Danny- Boy :)
Yep, I like it
:)
K

[Jezz]

He is sitting on my shoulder as i type this meesage, he is quite comfortable as long as my hand stays where it is:lol

Thanks Janie, i know i have said this before but if he is even half the bird Oliver is, i will be one happy chappy:whistle:

And thanks everyone for the name suggestions.
I have narrowed it down to Basil OR Tilo (An African God who apparently had to be involved i everything, it sounds like a Lovie to me:rofl:

So what do you all think? Basil or Tilo?

[Mummieeva]

I like Tilo myself and it sure fits loveies.lol.



Steph

[CaptMicha]

I found that letting birds explore my hands help. I'll put them down on the ground alternating times between flat and palms up and keep them completely still. If for some reason you don't have a curious little monkey there, take it up a notch with sprinkling millet on your hand. Or fruit juice like Elle suggested. Find out what the bird can't resist.

When he gets used to using your hand as a perch and table, I would try not to bring any attention to my hands while he's on it. Then when he's very comfy, then work on the petting and such. It might never happen, some birds just don't like hand touchy.

[Janie]

Jeremy, I like both names (I do favor "Basil" but "Tilo" is cool, too) so which name does he LOOK like to you? :D The day I brought Oliver home, I took one look at him and that was that.....he was no longer "Giggles" (isn't that the worst name?) and immediately became "Oliver!" It never occurred to me that it might not be a good idea to change the name of a bird his age! :rolleyes: Funny thing, he answers to both names....and to Giggle Bug! His former owner has a dog named Oliver....wonder if that confused him when I renamed him the same name as the dog that lived in the same room with him? :lol Oliver is a very forgiving little lovie! He is so accepting of his momma's crazy behavior! :D

[graushill]

I'm with Janie in the Basil corner, but that may be because I love, love pesto ;). Tilo is nice too, though. Kudos on the progress with your birdie also. He does sound an awful lot like Oliver :). I would feel so happy if Nemo one day decided to jump on my shoulder. The closest he's been is on my head, but he only did it because Pontus and Pidget where there and from the sounds of it, Pidget was putting the moves on Pontus (Nemo's mate) and he wasn't about to let that happen ;).

Gloria

[Martha]

I think that is great that you can give him kisses. I think you should keep working on that. Good luck!
Taylor & Martha

[Mandolin]

I like the name Tilo, i think it is pretty cool :cool: . I like names with cool meanings though and any greek god name sounds strong to me. But i agree that you have to look at your bird and see which name suits his/her personality. We had a huge list of names for Kameko when we brought her home. But she kept popping her head out of my boyfriend's hand like she was a turtle popping in and out of her shell and one name on the list was Kameko which means "turtle daughter" apparently so it fit.

[Martha]

When I first got Martha I could not like of a name for her. I even looked on the human baby names on the computer. lol But when I sat and watched her, she had a mind of her own, wanted to do everything by her self and not listen to me. She reminded me of my grandma, so I named her Martha. :lol

[Jezz]

Ok, i decided to call him Basil or Bazza for short:D

[Martha]

Oh how cute!

[Janie]

Ok, i decided to call him Basil or Bazza for short:D

:D.....I really like that, Jeremy. Bazza is a good one! :)

[Martha]

Yeah Bazza, sort of like the bird is Bazza. :rofl: