How can i get my bird to trust me?

[britany]

How can you get your bird to trust you then tame it?

[Wuv_Bird]

In short, time and patience.

I'm not sure how comfortable your bird currently is, but I'll describe the steps I used to tame my two parent-raised budgies and parent-raised lovebird.

Birds are prey animals so you need to show them you are not a threat. Begin by simply spending time near the bird, just talking to it in a calm, level, friendly voice. Any movement you make should be slow and deliberate. Birds are often more comfortable, especially at this stage, if you have your head and body sideways to them (looking directly at them can be percieved as predatory, where from the side is much more non-threatening).

Once the bird seems interested in you, either listening intently or vocalizing back, continue doing the excercise at closer proximity to the cage.

Once the bird is comfortable with, and interested in, you when you're right by the cage, you can begin having the cage door opening, and hold your hand/arm near the door (with timid birds, offering food helps). Remember; keep yourself sideways to the bird. It also is advisable to be at their level, So your head is no higher than the top of the cage. It may take a while, but most birds will eventually accept the offered hand.

Once the bird comes out of the cage for you, just continue being calm and talking. Offer food, toys, the chance to explore, anything the bird might enjoy. This stage I find is more up to you to judge what is best. The most important thing is to not force anything on the bird. Use your judgement; learn to tell when your bird is comfortable or not. The more positive interactions you share with the bird, the more they'll trust you; focus on building these. Avoid ANYTHING negative at this stage. If this means taking an hour to gently coax your bird back to its cage rather than quickly grabbing it and putting it back (big no no), then that is what you must do. The bird's bond to you is fragile still; continue to build on it.

Once again, time and patience; don't try to rush. The most important thing is going at the bird's pace, not your own.

Good luck!

[DesertDweller]

Good advice from Sara. To show how good her advice is, I've been raising 2 sparrows since they were newly hatched. They're 6 months old now. They would come on my hand all the time until I got an infection in my arm that I was afraid might infect the birds. So, when they could fly I didn't handle them. Now, they don't want to be touched. So, I placed their cage right next to my desk where I sit most of the day. All my birds are right next to my desk. The other day, I finally tried taking Tubbie out. She was afraid for a few minutes, but soon was perching on my finger while we walked through the house.

I use my bathroom as a training area. I let the bird out there and interact with him. I offer millet spray and let the bird explore and then I handle him. If he's too scared, he is free to fly around the small bathroom and I know he won't get into anything that can hurt him. Eventually, he trusts me enough to perch on my finger.

[britany]

My budgie green right now used to let me take it around the house but now there is a new budgie she's gone wild again!

[Wuv_Bird]

My budgie green right now used to let me take it around the house but now there is a new budgie she's gone wild again!

Ah, that changes things then. Having two birds together often results in them bonding to each other and losing their tameness. I'm guessing the new bird is not tame at all? You old budgie will recognize the new bird is not comfortable around you, and will behave the same.

Unless both birds are very tame, and you take the time to interact individually with them, keeping two often will result in "wild" birds.

If you wish for both birds to be bonded with you, it will be easiest to have separate cages for them, at least for now. If you can establish a very strong bond with both birds (and as you've already experienced, it does need to be with both) you should be able to keep them together and still handle them.

You can also try to tame them together; it isn't impossible, but it is more difficult and takes far longer. That, and it tends to result in the birds being less tame than the above method.

In either case, keeping them together will still result in the birds being less bonded to you than they would be if kept separately. After all, they have the company of each other and are not solely dependant on you for interaction. You'll still be able to interact with them, but not to the same extent. More over, it is very important you handle them separately on a frequent basis; this will help keep them bonded to you.

[britany]

Ok thankyou but my new budgie will want to keep coming out of the cage to find my other budgie....unless maybe i can seperate it for a few days then tame it ? im not really sure...

[victoria stiles]

Parrot training requires that you take the time to build a relationship of trust with your bird to the point where both of you fully trust each other.

[britany]

Yes i know already i just don't know how to get my bird to trust me that's all, i already seperated them but at least they can see eachother so their not going crazy but my un-tame budgie right now is going ok it just started training today and im trying to get it to learn how to get onto a perch it's not scared of my hand in the cage anymore unless i move my hand too quickly

[britany]

I don't think im going to tame my new budgie anymore i just realised......it was sick when i got it....

[shanlung]

britany,

I am so sorry to hear your budgie is sick. I hope he will recover. In meantime, you should isolate and quarantine him as precaution against problems with other birdies.

Folks, this thread started when britany first pm me as to how she could get her birdie to fly to her the way my does, or did.
I told her the key criteria is that you need to make yourself a nice place for birdie to go to. That the birdie trust you and like to come to you regardless of walking to you if they cannot fly as yet, or to fly to you when you so indicated.

Britany than hit me with the next question how to get her bird to trust her. I felt that will be a very good question and perhaps should be asked in the open forum so others might be able to join in and contribute and answers made be useful to a lot of others too, even to the question that they might have thought of asking but have not asked as yet.

This is not an easy question to answer, and I am not even sure if my own thoughts on this might help you.
I am rather strange as you all well know, and perhaps my beasties and birdies are strange and unusual as well.
No single answer will be the answer. Just as no birdie, even if they are CAGs, or cats, they all are individuals. Might even have had a very bad history with *&%$$^&*(% humans in the past and that barrier of mistrust created earlier need to be dismantled.

None of our birds are tame and it might not be a good idea to think of taming the bird. We should accept the birds are wild in their genes. Even if bred in captivity, they are still many generations from having wildness bred out of them like barnyard chickens and ducks.

That being said, I do not think there are many barriers to forming of bond and trust with the birds.

To get the trust , I take care never to impose myself on them. Which meant very careful watch and attention to their moods and their wishes.
To do that, you must truly have to treat them with the respect, courtesy and dignity due to other intelligent sentients of your equal. Because if not, you have to be the lord and master and order them. In which case you only can see if they obey your orders or not, and thereby miss out on seeing their moods and feelings that must be the key of the relationship.

Totally not interacting with them, or interacting on superficial basis in that you feed them, water them, clean the cages will not do either. Gooey eyeing them only is not likely to help. I have seen enough letters here and other forums birdies being with them for years and not stepping up and biting them.

There will be times when I had to nudge the relationship along. But then, I pay close attention to keep pushing the barrier, and always ready to step back.

The birdie had to come largely at his own pace.

You have seen my setup. A flight room with cage and cage door permanently wired opened so birdie can come and go as he pleased. This allowed the birdie to set his/her own comfort distance from me. I then slowly try to close this distance.

Even better will be the birdie is encouraged to close the distance. In that I moved bowls of food closer and closer and closer to me.
Best seen here.

shanlung: Li Bai - Conditiong the clicker and easing him over the barrier

And here.
Building trust & understanding with Oberon
http://shanlung.livejournal.com/131173.html


So folks with birdies in cage and refusing to get out of cage, perhaps you can do that too. The birdie come out of cage volunteerly. Do not feed the birdie in the cage. Perhaps start by placing the bowl at bottom of cage next the the open door. Then move the bowl out of the cage so birdie must get out of cage to eat. Then slowly onto you.

[pixibubbles]

I hope your bird is getting better!

Sammy will fly to us when he wants to, and quite often when he's called. But when he's in one of his funny or naughty miids, he will play up and tease lol

To put it quite simply, we got him to want to be with us by integrating him to our family and becoming his flock. First off he needs to trust us. For Sammy that was mostly jsut spending time around him and letting him feel safe. That's everything from eating next to him (flocks don't sit and eat when there's danger about), to just sitting and talking to him, and hanging out in the room he's in.

Then it was making him want to be with us. So we got the most interesting toys and best treats to encourage him to spend time with us. Now, most of the time all I have to do is pull my hair off my shoulder to make room for him, and he takes that as an invitation to hop up to see me. Once he's there he usually likes to preen me and rearrange my hair

You just have to work with the bird on their terms- these are crazy intelligent creatures. They have their own minds, likes and dislikes. If you ignore them, you just get an irritated, badly adjusted bird who wants nothing to do with you

[britany]

my bird still looks healthy now aand its been awhile since i got and thought it was sick but it is fine now!

[DesertDweller]

Glad to hear it, Britany!

[Marrie]

Glad your birdy is looking healthier! How is he/she taking to you ?