And so..day 3 with the boys

[Mek0060]

aka what I'm learning about my birds vs the reality

I sought out birds that would be "tame". I figured "hand raised" would mean that.
Nope. Not in the sense of having anything to do with hands.

But... These guys really love it when people are with them. Especially my 7 year old daughter (who is the best bird owner).

When she is in the bird room, all is cool. They just love to watch her dance for them, jump rope, talk to them. The boys are mesmerized by all she does.

Seriously tonight I got some screeching when we turned off the music to leave the room as the sun was setting.

Like my daughter says...they really listen to you.

They are terrified of our hands but so eager to be around us.

So, I try to associate my hands with just food, which is a positive for them.


They are so cute! I hate they fear my hands so much, though.

 

[Mek0060]

Day 4. This thread is like my personal blog.
If my daughter is in the bird room, all is right with the boys. They like to just listen to her talk. And dear Lord she does a lot of that.

So I'm doing seeds and pellets and fresh veggies and fruits. Today I introduced orange slices. Those fellas were in Heaven!!! It was so cute to watch them tear pieces of orange from the slices, snack on romaine and spinach, gobble up green an orange peppers!
I read if u don't have time to mash, Gerber organic baby food helps. Tomorrow they get sweet potatoes and carrots in addition to the rest. I'm glad they love their veggies and fruit.
Sebastian rewarded me with a typical Linnie action of hanging upside down in his cage while chatting it up with me. Super cute.

 

[expressmailtome]

It is great that they are enjoying fresh foods.

 

[santacruzjack]

Linnies fearing hands really is unfortunately the norm, no amount of work can seem to push past that barrier once it's there. Dinah is very comfortable being grabbed only because she was raised SPECIFICALLY to be grabbed and manhandled, she still has a fear of fingers when they're approaching her but she loves to cuddle up in hands when they're around her. Mia is the opposite, mia is okay with fingers touching her and approaching her but not with being grabbed, she's a slippery ducky when you grab her.

From my experience, every breeder's definition of "Hand-raised" or "Hand-tame" is their own interpretation of how to raise birds to be comfortable with people. You may have adopted Linnies advertised as "Hand-raised", but they were more than likely actually "mixed-raised", as in the parents did most of the work and the human spent a lot of time handling the babies and helping. With Linnies, this generally isn't enough, and they really have to be handled a lot VERY, VERY EARLY in their life to have any chance of being comfortable with hands.

However, they love to spend time with you, and they're happy. If you want to try improving your bond with them bond you could try letting them hang out on your shirt while you lay down on the ground, they'll enjoy the safety of your presence and you can spend time talking to them and working with them, for whatever it's worth with silly scaredy linnies

 

[Mek0060]

Thanks, Jack. Your post makes me feel better. I've had parakeets a million years ago that were definitely not hand raised, but it was easy to teach them to step up.
My little green man is getting brave though. He tried to explore outside the cage. I think his breeder clipped his wings. I had to pick him up to help him home...after hanging with him on the floor for a while. : )
Initially he bit at my fingers but when I talked to him, he stopped. Then I gave him a couple of kisses in his noggin and helped him home. Then praised him tons. They are so stinkin cute...

 

[Milo]

Spot is definitely hand shy as well. He will step up onto a perch or even my arm and then climb up to our shoulders or even on top of our head and happily chat with us there for hours. Don't be discouraged that they won't step up on you, maybe try different things to see if a different type of interaction works for them?

 

[santacruzjack]

Spot is definitely hand shy as well. He will step up onto a perch or even my arm and then climb up to our shoulders or even on top of our head and happily chat with us there for hours. Don't be discouraged that they won't step up on you, maybe try different things to see if a different type of interaction works for them?

I forgot to mention, we made a very simple stepping up perch for Dinah when she was initially being aggressive with us, she's fallen in love with it and it really works well for spending time with her, we also trained Mia to step up to it and it's good for getting them both out of their cage when they need to. It's just a 10 inch wooden dowel with a 3 inch wooden dowel stuck through horizontally at the top, it's perfect for stepping up because of the size of the dowel at the top, and you just need a drill or something similar to bore through the larger dowel

 

[jmfleish]

I forgot to mention, we made a very simple stepping up perch for Dinah when she was initially being aggressive with us, she's fallen in love with it and it really works well for spending time with her, we also trained Mia to step up to it and it's good for getting them both out of their cage when they need to. It's just a 10 inch wooden dowel with a 3 inch wooden dowel stuck through horizontally at the top, it's perfect for stepping up because of the size of the dowel at the top, and you just need a drill or something similar to bore through the larger dowel

View attachment 247198

Love it! We have six Linnies who live in a cage together and they are absolutely the most adorable little birds ever. Like most have said here, ours are afraid of hands too but they seem so curious of us and do want to spend time with us as long as our hands are not part of the equation. We've always just accepted that with the exception of toe nail clipping which has to be done. I know there are Linnie owners out there who have birds who are hand tame but I have no idea how to get there. I just let our do as they will and they seem happy enough with that arrangement.

 

[Mek0060]

Well, we had another little "breakthrough" yesterday. My son and step son(teens) were introduced to them ( my son had been on vacation with his dad and hadnt met the boys). Boy do Sebastian and Arnold LOVE them!
Both jumped out of the cage to check the room out. And we played music for them. When it was time to go to bed, I did have to pick them up, but neither one freaked out much. All I have to is baby talk them.
They don't like it when we leave the room. They screech and get mad. So, I think we are making good progress.

They are so precious. And they certainly eat better than I do lol!

 

[Mek0060]

These little guys are seriously perfect for children. My 7 yr old daughter reads them poems at night and they listen intently. She wants to help change their water everyday and she loves to give them their veggies and fruit every day. We sat down and shared a salad while the boys ate.

I know, I'm gushing a little. They are just Linnies.

 

[santacruzjack]

These little guys are seriously perfect for children. My 7 yr old daughter reads them poems at night and they listen intently. She wants to help change their water everyday and she loves to give them their veggies and fruit every day. We sat down and shared a salad while the boys ate.

I know, I'm gushing a little. They are just Linnies.

It's not gushing at all, I feel the same way about ours! They're such little bundles of joy and they deserve all the happiness you're giving them! It's absolutely wonderful that they love your kids, that's a bond that could last indefinitely!