Does anyone have a hand-tamed finch. I have 11 finches and none of them are hand-tamed, or even close. I just bought my 11th finch recently and lo and behold, when I reached into his travel cage he jumped in my hand. He will also eat out of my hand. I was told by the person who sold him to me that if I now introduce him into a cage with other birds he will no longer interact with me this way. He suggested I buy him his own larger cage. It's a little awkward (physically) to keep my arm in his cage while he sits in my hand and I want to have more flexibility for him to move around, yet I don't want to let him out of the cage. In lieu of an actual aviary (where a human can fit inside) I was thinking of a mesh mosquito net that would contain and protect him, while allowing him to come to me as he wants and without the discomfort of leaving my arm in his cage. Has anyone had any experience with this and, if so, any suggestions?
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Hand-tamed finches
- Thread starter Karman
- Start date
- Joined
- 4/30/17
- Messages
- 373
- Real Name
- Pearl
I have a semi hand tame finchy! Her name is fox and she doesn't mind if I gently pet her (depending on her mood, if she's grumpy she'll peck me and fly a little away).
Why do you not want to let him out of the cage? they'll go back in by themselves, and they don't make much of a mess too. One of my finches decided he wanted to have some time away from his little baby chicks, and he flew under my hand when I was changing the food and water. He loves it now
Why do you not want to let him out of the cage? they'll go back in by themselves, and they don't make much of a mess too. One of my finches decided he wanted to have some time away from his little baby chicks, and he flew under my hand when I was changing the food and water. He loves it now
Yes we need to summon @Atomiklan . He has 2 tame finches, he's done a remarkable job with them.
It is *kind of* true that if they go with the finches they 'll be less tame. I say kind of because one of mine remained tame even though I put him with his friends. I didn't plan to tame him - he was quite ill as a baby and went through 3 rounds of medication, so I just handled him a lot.
I have a baby finch that just fledged, we are handling him but leaving him in the aviary. It isn't working that well. I don't handle him enough, I think. Yesterday I opened the door and he flew at me, and got lost in the bird room for a few hours. The parent birds were NOT happy with me! He seems fine today.
It is *kind of* true that if they go with the finches they 'll be less tame. I say kind of because one of mine remained tame even though I put him with his friends. I didn't plan to tame him - he was quite ill as a baby and went through 3 rounds of medication, so I just handled him a lot.
I have a baby finch that just fledged, we are handling him but leaving him in the aviary. It isn't working that well. I don't handle him enough, I think. Yesterday I opened the door and he flew at me, and got lost in the bird room for a few hours. The parent birds were NOT happy with me! He seems fine today.
Well I would not consider them tame just yet @finchly. We're working on it
@Karman, I would recommend reading my recent posts in the finch sub forum. I have kinda taken over the sub forum here recently. If you go back to my earliest post (maybe a month or two ago) you will see pretty much my entire progression from store bought finches to almost hand tame today. Also subscribe to my YouTube channel (AtomiFlock) and look at my earliest video. I documented pretty much the entire process thus far.
Regarding your specific questions, I cant speak much about flock mentality regarding keeping your individual finch tame, but I do potentially see some regression if you keep him/her with other non tame finches. Just means you need to work on taming all 11 instead of just 1
As for keeping your hand in the cage? YES, and it does suck for the first week or two. This is how I initially got them to trust me. You just have to kinda suck it up and leave your hand in the cage for hours on end. When I did it, I put a towel over the bottom of the cage door opening, sat next to the cage with my laptop, and just rested my arm in the cage with some millet in my hand. It was a LONG process, but absolutely worked. At first they would just stretch their feet and necks as far as possible to eat the millet without touching my hand (See video). Eventually they got comfortable enough to brush up on my hand accidentally. After some time I could finally get them to maybe put a toe accidentally on my finger. Once they got this close, I was able to migrate away from the inside of the cage (which was awesome because you are right, it does suck). I was then able to just rest my hand at the edge of the cage on that same towel (See video). This was much more comfortable. They regressed a little bit at this stage and would again hang on the edge of cage and stretch as much as possible to reach the food without having to come near my hand, but with time, they got back to the same level of trust as inside the cage. I then just kept making it more and more difficult for them slowly. I put some support under the towel in front of the cage door to create a kind of platform so I could keep my hand resting on the towel, but further out from the cage door. This meant the food was now just barely out of reach. Stretching their feet and necks would no longer work. This was a big step. They finally hand to venture either down onto hand or onto the lip of a food bowl I was holding in my hand. They tended towards the the lip of the food bowl most of the time. Always in an attempt to avoid touching me. Eventually they would just fly straight to the food bowl in my hand at the edge of the cage, but again, usually always to the lip. Finally as lip space became scarce (with two finches competing for perch space), occasionally a foot/few toes would find their way onto my finger. The rest is history. They eventually started trusting my hand when I was holding the metal food bowl and would gladly fly to the hand. Sometimes they still prefer the lip if they have the option or if I have not worked with them in awhile, but the training has mostly stuck.
As for your net question. I think it is entirely unnecessary. I was really worried about this too. I have mine in the breakfast nook of my kitchen/downstairs everything room (one big room). The kitchen area is tile, but the rest is carpet. I did not want them over the carpet for obvious reasons. At first, I had some runaways which I had to chase down (read about this ordeal in my previous posts). Eventually they settled down into their "happy zone". They will almost ALWAYS go back to the cage. The cage is their home and where they feel the safest. They may take a short lap around the kitchen, but they always circle back to the cage. Today, they have their "spots". They come out of cage and perch on my laptop, the playstand, and recently on top of blinds which I am working on discouraging (dont want poop down the back side of curtains). They dont venture into the rest of the house anymore, and if they do for some reason its either to just take a really long lap around the room or if they get stuck somewhere and land, I just walk over to them and either encourage them to step up (usually always fails) or that encounter gets them flying again and they fly straight back to the cage. Charlie at one point was a trouble maker and for a week decided it was fun to do this repeatedly. Eventually he stopped though and settled down to his "safe zone" of the kitchen area near the cage.
Personally I dont think you need to worry about a net. I think it will just scare them or cause injury. Just separate the finch you want to work with from the larger group (or work with them all), and have the cage door open so they can explore in a bird safe environment. Now I get that dealing with 11 finches could be a bit overwhelming if they are all untame and doing their own thing. In that case, you may just have to work with a manageable number at a time and let the others observe. Either way, with patience (which I still have to remind myself to have today), you will be able to tame them eventually. I no longer believe that finches are untamable if not hand raised. With enough time and dedication I think Charlie and Emma (and a completely inexperienced bird parent) are proof that finches regardless of where they come from are tamable.
Best of luck!
@Karman, I would recommend reading my recent posts in the finch sub forum. I have kinda taken over the sub forum here recently. If you go back to my earliest post (maybe a month or two ago) you will see pretty much my entire progression from store bought finches to almost hand tame today. Also subscribe to my YouTube channel (AtomiFlock) and look at my earliest video. I documented pretty much the entire process thus far.
Regarding your specific questions, I cant speak much about flock mentality regarding keeping your individual finch tame, but I do potentially see some regression if you keep him/her with other non tame finches. Just means you need to work on taming all 11 instead of just 1
As for keeping your hand in the cage? YES, and it does suck for the first week or two. This is how I initially got them to trust me. You just have to kinda suck it up and leave your hand in the cage for hours on end. When I did it, I put a towel over the bottom of the cage door opening, sat next to the cage with my laptop, and just rested my arm in the cage with some millet in my hand. It was a LONG process, but absolutely worked. At first they would just stretch their feet and necks as far as possible to eat the millet without touching my hand (See video). Eventually they got comfortable enough to brush up on my hand accidentally. After some time I could finally get them to maybe put a toe accidentally on my finger. Once they got this close, I was able to migrate away from the inside of the cage (which was awesome because you are right, it does suck). I was then able to just rest my hand at the edge of the cage on that same towel (See video). This was much more comfortable. They regressed a little bit at this stage and would again hang on the edge of cage and stretch as much as possible to reach the food without having to come near my hand, but with time, they got back to the same level of trust as inside the cage. I then just kept making it more and more difficult for them slowly. I put some support under the towel in front of the cage door to create a kind of platform so I could keep my hand resting on the towel, but further out from the cage door. This meant the food was now just barely out of reach. Stretching their feet and necks would no longer work. This was a big step. They finally hand to venture either down onto hand or onto the lip of a food bowl I was holding in my hand. They tended towards the the lip of the food bowl most of the time. Always in an attempt to avoid touching me. Eventually they would just fly straight to the food bowl in my hand at the edge of the cage, but again, usually always to the lip. Finally as lip space became scarce (with two finches competing for perch space), occasionally a foot/few toes would find their way onto my finger. The rest is history. They eventually started trusting my hand when I was holding the metal food bowl and would gladly fly to the hand. Sometimes they still prefer the lip if they have the option or if I have not worked with them in awhile, but the training has mostly stuck.
As for your net question. I think it is entirely unnecessary. I was really worried about this too. I have mine in the breakfast nook of my kitchen/downstairs everything room (one big room). The kitchen area is tile, but the rest is carpet. I did not want them over the carpet for obvious reasons. At first, I had some runaways which I had to chase down (read about this ordeal in my previous posts). Eventually they settled down into their "happy zone". They will almost ALWAYS go back to the cage. The cage is their home and where they feel the safest. They may take a short lap around the kitchen, but they always circle back to the cage. Today, they have their "spots". They come out of cage and perch on my laptop, the playstand, and recently on top of blinds which I am working on discouraging (dont want poop down the back side of curtains). They dont venture into the rest of the house anymore, and if they do for some reason its either to just take a really long lap around the room or if they get stuck somewhere and land, I just walk over to them and either encourage them to step up (usually always fails) or that encounter gets them flying again and they fly straight back to the cage. Charlie at one point was a trouble maker and for a week decided it was fun to do this repeatedly. Eventually he stopped though and settled down to his "safe zone" of the kitchen area near the cage.
Personally I dont think you need to worry about a net. I think it will just scare them or cause injury. Just separate the finch you want to work with from the larger group (or work with them all), and have the cage door open so they can explore in a bird safe environment. Now I get that dealing with 11 finches could be a bit overwhelming if they are all untame and doing their own thing. In that case, you may just have to work with a manageable number at a time and let the others observe. Either way, with patience (which I still have to remind myself to have today), you will be able to tame them eventually. I no longer believe that finches are untamable if not hand raised. With enough time and dedication I think Charlie and Emma (and a completely inexperienced bird parent) are proof that finches regardless of where they come from are tamable.
Best of luck!
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