How to hand tame Haku?

[BeakyBird]

In addition to what @eleni said about her bird's wings being clipped: Her bird came to her clipped, and she was able to train Stella while clipped. However, my Ollie came to me as "the most grumpy and difficult of the clutch" according to the breeder, yet he was fully flighted and is the most tame little bird I have ever dealt with. He's such a momma's boy and only took a week or so of "training" to become tame.

When I "trained" Ollie it wasn't really training at all. At that point I had never had a parrotlet; although I had had a Sun Conure, Parakeets, and Lovebirds. He was training me if anything. I was always under the assumption it'd be impossibly to tame a flighted bird, and some people remain under than impression. Ollie changed that for me. I literally let him take interest in me. He'd never get millet (aside from the car ride home, and his first day) unless he was joining me. So he started to equate me to "well she gave me millet, can't be too bad". Eventually the bond formed, and now he's a little blue tumor (as some people would call it).

EVERY bird is different. Find what he/she likes and train them with it. The first couple weeks for Ollie it was millet. After that, Ollie enjoyed my company so much the thing I used for his "taming" was me! He became very beaky so every time he'd nip my neck I'd say "No" firmly, and then remove him from my shoulder and place him gently on the floor. He was flighted, so he could fly back up, but eventually he just stopped nipping.

 

[jahpan]

@Zei when people say wings are clipped are they generally meaning that the bird cannot fly at all or it can fly but not too high? Because mine is doing that.
I'd be afraid if mine was super clipped, it would just fall on the floor or something >_>

also i have a general question about birds or in this case my lovebird....how do i get him to stop coming over to my laptop and chewing off the keys for the keyboard? he like to pull on them and i can never be on my computer without him doing so >>

 

[pinkdagger]

Distract him! If you want him to be able to hang out with you, give him a designated toy or area to stay on that's away from your keyboard. One of my lovies likes to chew the grips off my mouse, but she has a bunch of papers off to the side that she's allowed to chew if she wants to stay on my desk with me. If she can't behave, she has to be somewhere else during her out of cage time.

 

[jahpan]

@pinkdagger thank you!!

@Zei oh also another question when I'm trying to handle or train haku my parrotlet, can i use gloves? because mine bites really hard and it gets discouraging to hold him.

 

[Monica]

A clipped parrot should *always* be able to fly to some degree or another. Not being able to could lead to injuries. Broken keel bone, broken feet/legs, broken beak. Then again, merely clipping them can result in some of the same issues! By clipping a parrot, you remove control of where they can fly and how they fly, thus clipped birds may fly into things a lot more than unclipped birds. Saying that, there's a lot of dangers to having flighted parrots, too. Pros and cons on each side!

Lauren, if you were to use gloves and your lovebird became "ok" with being on gloves and being handled by gloves, what would happen if you removed those gloves? Animals don't general unless they are taught to generalize. To them, a bare hand is not the same thing as a gloved hand. What if you removed the glove and your bird still bites your hand? Then what? You are back at square one. This is one reason why gloves are not recommended.



Can you learn to read his body language and learn to avoid the bites? If he's biting out of fear, don't put him in a situation that will cause him to be afraid. If he's biting out of boredom or curiosity, then teach him to chew on something else. Give him something to do! If he's biting out of aggression, figure out what causes him to be aggressive and try to avoid situations that result in his aggression.

 

[pinkdagger]

In addition to the advice above to find out why you're being bitten, I've found in my experience that gloves looking so much bigger can be more intimidating. I still use a perch for one of my birds who can be a bit more stubborn if she doesn't feel like stepping up. It was easy for me to transition from a chopstick or perch to hands, especially if you can make it worth their while (hint: hold a treat just barely out of reach in front of the stick or perch ).

 

[jahpan]

A clipped parrot should *always* be able to fly to some degree or another. Not being able to could lead to injuries. Broken keel bone, broken feet/legs, broken beak. Then again, merely clipping them can result in some of the same issues! By clipping a parrot, you remove control of where they can fly and how they fly, thus clipped birds may fly into things a lot more than unclipped birds. Saying that, there's a lot of dangers to having flighted parrots, too. Pros and cons on each side!

Lauren, if you were to use gloves and your lovebird became "ok" with being on gloves and being handled by gloves, what would happen if you removed those gloves? Animals don't general unless they are taught to generalize. To them, a bare hand is not the same thing as a gloved hand. What if you removed the glove and your bird still bites your hand? Then what? You are back at square one. This is one reason why gloves are not recommended.



Can you learn to read his body language and learn to avoid the bites? If he's biting out of fear, don't put him in a situation that will cause him to be afraid. If he's biting out of boredom or curiosity, then teach him to chew on something else. Give him something to do! If he's biting out of aggression, figure out what causes him to be aggressive and try to avoid situations that result in his aggression.

Ohh sorry that was intended for teh parrotlet to use the gloves not my lovebird ^^;
but yeah I am finding it almost impossible to train this lovebird...i thought he was hand raised/friendly when i got him but it turns out he aggressive and doesnt want to socialize at all. DX

 

[Coki]

I really think taiming comes with time, patient, and specially personal space.

I don't say you don't have to interact with your bird, but you can't try to hand him if you notice he's afraid of you. It's like you're afraid of spiders and i lock you in a room full of spiders. It just doesn't work.

I've eight budgies, some are tamed, some are not, some may want to spend time with me, and some may not. I let them be, with time and space, they became friendler. I actually now that they're in an aviary got some of the most afraid ones to step up or eat from my hand. This happened because i don't rush things (i believe), i know they will play with me when they feel like playing, and as more time passes, they will become tamer (if i keep spending lots of time with them as i do).

You need to prize any single change of behaviour. If your bird is afraid of your hand, prize him when your hand is nearby and he doesn't flee. Or prize it just when you see he's not paying attention to your hand. You need to wait until he relaxes (They all do eventually). You need to give him his own space.

I know we're mostly used to dogs that are most of the time cuddler and the let us do whatever we want to do with them. Birds aren't like them, some like to be petted, some don't, some like to hang out with us, some don't. But they don't do that because they're mean, they do it because they don't trust us, because they don't know us, and it's our duty to be patient and show them we're not there to harm them.

It's the same when you know someone, right? You will feel awkward or even get agressive if some random stranger came and hug you, kissed you and whatnot. They don't see us as leaders, they see us as equals, and equals have to gain their trust, and even if they're small and afraid (a plus we can say), they can be tamed. New birds have to go to the same process we go in a flock. It's all about patient. They don't give up`, why should we?

 

[Monica]

I think I was looking at your avatar while reading your post, so lovebird stuck in my head!

I usually try to avoid labeling a behavior as aggressive, unless it is very obviously aggression. Usually, with new birds, it's fear. The bird avoids you, but when you get too close and the bird can't escape or has given up trying to escape, they bite out of fear. Aggression on the other hand is where the bird goes out of their way to bite a human. This should not be confused with curious/bored biting.