Dunno Where to Start

[Rison]

Hello,

Nubie here. :confused:

New to this forum and bird training/taming.
We have a new lovie (1 week). She's approx 3 months old, fresh from the breeder. Here's my quandry. I am in my infancy of taming/traing. Exploring the Net I have discovered two distinct & conflicting taming/training methods. One has you placing your hand into the cage calmly letting lovie "learn" your hand is safe. Over time allowing her to step onto your finger. While another says NEVER put your hand in the cage. Take the bird to a neutral / small room and work from a t-bar. My quandry is, I do not want to scare lovie by invading her private space in her cage - or reaching in and attempting to grab her, only to take her to another room and have ger fly around the room in an effort to train her. Her wings are clipped, yet she can fly short distances well.

Before I begin I want to start on the right path. We spend a lot of time softly talking to her and "being" close to her cage. She is beginning to accept us, and want/enjoys our interaction. I just don't want to ruin what has been established in an effort to move forward.

I have lived with birds most of my childhood, my father (Bill Henderson) was a very succesful color bred canary breeder & judge. :happy: I do understand basic bird behavior, but this is a very new chapter in my life with birds.

Please help me move forward, without ruining the past. Oh yeah, I do understand "Patience is a virtue". That is not a problem, just wanna do the Right thing.

[linda040899]

Hi and welcome to our community!
You are definitely on the right path by just taking the "soft" route and letting your new lovebird get used to you without invading her cage! You've only had her a week so her interest in you is a great start! What you want is a trust relationship and that will only happen if it's on her terms. She has to understand that she is safe with you and that will only come with experience. To your advantage is that lovebirds are very social and love to explore their surroundings once they settle in. Keep doing what you are doing and you will find her coming to you sooner than you might expect!

[butterfly1061]

Hi and welcome to the board.

I agree with Linda. You are starting out in the right direction. Over the next few weeks, you may want to try and open the cage door and let your lovie venture out on her own. I'd suggest doing this in a small room. Maybe begin offering her millet in your hand outside the cage near the cage door. Lovebirds are very nosey as well as social and this may spike her interest in you. It may take some time before she actually takes the millet, but keep trying. You could also offer her a piece of millet through the cage bars. Small things like this will work over time. It builds up her trust in you. :2cents:

[Tango's_Mom]

I agree, the best thing is to let your bird come out on her own terms, it took me several weeks for mine to come to me and a full six months for him to accept hands, so it's good that you understand the need for patience, but I've had him for a year now and I'm very glad that I took the slow road to build trust, I got the stick your hand in the cage advice when I bought my bird, and made absolutely no progress until I found this board and was given the advice to let him come out on his own.

[Rison]

Thanks for the input everyone. I still am confused though as to if I do allow her to "come out on her" before shes hand trained, How will I get her back into the cage. That's why I was thinking of getting her hand trained first in the cage. Then when she does come out I have a way to return her. Otherwise I'm back to chasing her around, catching her and scaring the heck out of her. I would think that would be two steps back in gaining her trust.

[linda040899]

If you want to train her in her cage, train her to step up onto a perch, one that is long enough so that your hand is still outside of her cage. Perches seem to be less invasive than hands. While a bird may not step up onto a hand, a perch is viewed as non-threatening.

Has she had her well-bird check up yet? If not, you might ask the vet to clip 3-5 primary flight feathers on each wing so that it's easier to work with her once she comes out of her cage. The feathers will grow back at her next moult and you should have her at least partly trained by that time.

[sdgilley]

Hi & Welcome!

I still am confused though as to if I do allow her to "come out on her" before shes hand trained, How will I get her back into the cage. That's why I was thinking of getting her hand trained first in the cage.
I have two lovies that are not hand tame, but they come out and return to their cage (by training). If your bird will come out, take the cage and bird into a small room that has been bird-proofed (closed windows, covered mirrors, toilet seats down - it can be a bathroom). Once your bird comes out, she can explore. When you are ready for her to return to her cage you can use a dowel to step her up, or such. I would dim the lights and call "cage" to my flighted boys and they'd fly around. When they landed on their cage, I'd ~very enthusiastically~ call "good boy!" over and over and clap. They thought that was a hoot, and connected the word with the cage. This happened over time, not right away. You bird is a baby, so I'd take it slow. If your baby has a wing trim, you can pick her up and return her. If she bites, use a dowel.

While hands can be a no no inside their cages, because of trust issues - when they are out, it's not the same. My two males will bite me, so I trained them with enthusiastic applause. I also have a hen that is very tame, so it's differernt with her. Birds are individuals! Good luck!

[Bella]

My lovies (now with Cassy) never became tame with me because I did not spend enough time taming them.

However, they used to spend a fair bit of time outside their cages and I did manage to train them to accept a perch (in our case a long twig) and go back into their cage on that.

Good luck.

[Rison]

I have a feeling I will have decent luck hand taming Dini in her cage. Since my original post, yesterday morning I spent alot of time working with her. She will now accept Millet spray out of my hand inside he cage. :happy: I know not to rush it. But I will continue feeding her the millet until she fully accepts my hand. Then we'll move to the next step of "step up" / "step down".

[butterfly1061]

That's great progress! Congrats :D See, time & patience always pays off.

[Kirby]

I definitely would watch to see how she reacts to your hand in the cage...

My little guy Kirby HATES HANDS in his cage... He'll take that extra effort to run across the cage to bite you.
So I just put my hand in the cage to give him food...

Even then I just leave the cage door open and when he comes out on his own it's his time out of the cage (and since it's OUR space, if he bites for no reason he gets disciplined... ) When he comes out on his own, my boyfriend or myself close the cage.. and cover it up..

Once he's out of his cage, he's a TOTALLY different bird. I can pick him up and he loves being upside down and zoomed through the air. He'll have his naps in our house coats and then eat animal crackers when we're having some.

You're going to have so much fun with her... The best is when she will throw out a random noise you wonder how she learned it (Just like Kirby's ray gun sound) VERY AMUSING!!!!



You have a great source of information and helping hands here!!! ^^