A Few Questions From A New Lennie Owner

[mallory]

I've recently acquired a lutino lennie this past week and even with extensive research about the breed, I've found myself still asking questions.

1) Suki (my lennie) has adjusted to her new home quite well, however she doesn't seem interested in any of the toys in her cage and rarely even touches them. Is it normal for them to not be playful?

2) She is incredibly hand shy which I have read is to be expected, but is there any hope for her to become trainable enough to take her out of the cage? I've taken her out a few times, but she doesn't seem to like it.

3) I've misted her with a spray bottle a few times and she runs away and acts scared of the water. I don't spray it too close or in her face, and the setting is very gentle as to not hurt her. I was confused by this behavior because I have read that lennie's absolutely love to get wet.

4) I feed her seed as opposed to pellets, and I've noticed that she kicks most of it out, covering the cage floor with wasted seed. Is she just picking out what she likes or is this a behavioral problem?

I may be overreacting too much, but I worry over every little thing that seems to be out of the ordinary. I just want her to be healthy and happy in her new home. Please feel free to answer one or more of these questions, I would really appreciate it, thanks!

 

[expressmailtome]

Bump.

 

[sunnysmom]

@Lady Jane ?

 

[PeppysPal]

I can't say too much other than give her time

 

[Animallover03]

 

[KatieChildress]

Hi!

Give your baby time getting use to your hands. It has taken my girl Shimmy months 6 months now and she will "step up" only when she's outside of the cage & calm. If inside the cage, she still runs right into her tent when I say "let's go" aka our version of step up! Time and patience.

She's been watching my Budgie eat millet out of my hand for about 2 months now and she is now just starting to walk very slowly to my hand but won't step in it with him yet! I bet in about 1 month she might, I hope!

Toys in her cage....they like to climb. Make sure they are positioned to climb on instead of fly back and forth to. Also, if you can sprinkle millet onto them it could be enticing. I actually have plastic baby rings that join together & a small dog toy made of rope for my girl to climb on! lol

Please please add pellets to her diet!!! Seeds are good, of course, but are high in fat & doesn't provide a balanced diet. Try Roudy Bush - all 4 of mine LOVE it. I actually adoped my linnie who only ate seed and it took her about a week or 2 to try out the Roudy Bush. Also, NutriBerries are great to add! You can put one ball right into her food cup or in a toy to forage. My linnie has just started eating the white of a hardboiled egg (small piece that she can hold!), and has started nibbling at chopped up carrorts! She loves holding her food and even dipping it into her water bowl! lol This too has taken me about a month to see her actually eat these foods!

As far as the spray bottle, I have not done that yet. I have a bird bath inside the cage that she dips into a few times a week, but I haven't tried the spray!

They just require time, patience, and consistency!

Hope this helps!

 

[Patty Girl]

Hi Mallory, I hope Suki is getting used to you a little by now. I've had my baby Linnies about six weeks now. Their personalities are totally different from each other. My colbalt blue "Zoolie" isn't as friendly as my turquoise "Rizzy". They were hatched around the end of Oct. and handfed by the lady (breeder) So both were very used to being handled. Do you know the age and back ground of your Suki? One way to make friends with these birds is to only feed their FAVORITE foods from your hand. Like millet, or a slice of apple. Now when I open the door of the cage I put my hands together with the millet spray across my hand and I say "Come see mommy, I got nummie nums" haha, the turquoise will fly to my hands, and the blue one gets jealous so he (sometimes) flys over too, or else I just let him step unto my hand and they eat together. They seem to love my voice cuz I have a silly bird voice I use to talk to them.Talk softly.. and laugh when Suki does something funny, they seem to love laughter and will really act crazy to hear you laugh more. I think some birds just need time to know you are their friend. Best, best wishes! Patty girl.

 

[santacruzjack]

Here's what @DerbyBirdy and I have learned with Dinah, our Slate linnie, over the past 3 months, what everyone else has said rings true and I just want to offer what information I can that hasn't been poked at.

For #1, It actually did take Dinah a while to start playing with her toys. She was very timid in her cage still and it took her a couple months to really warm up to all the toys in her cage, even refusing to chew on calcium (in toy or cuttlebone form), but now she's playing with all of her toys. As people have said, climbing toys are the trick and you should hang up a few on the cage walls, maybe next to a perch, although Linnies are quite agile and great climbers. Dinah likes softer wood, like bird kabobs or balsa wood, but I don't know if that's the norm

For #2, bearing in mind that every bird is an individual and some may never grow past tolerance of humans, you just have to be patient with Linnies. They're very hand shy, you need to consistently work with them and teach them that coming out of the cage involves being with humans. Everyone's advice on this is solid. For #3, if your Linnie is comfortable stepping up onto a perch or a stick of some sort, you can try giving her a lukewarm shower with low water pressure. Dinah so far only bathes this way, and she does like it although she doesn't do typical bird bath dance, she does the "trance" instead. Some people also use a clean sink with running warm water, and some birds will react the proper way to that. Not all Linnies are the same when it comes to bathing, I've heard of some that even dislike it.

And for #4, this can sometimes have to do with the shape of the food bowl, Ollie had a food bowl that didn't have something for him to perch on and he would always stand in it and make a mess, even pooping in it sometimes. If her food bowl doesn't have a perch in the correct positioning she might want to stand in the food bowl instead, or if it's very large. I'm admittedly not sure if it's a behaviour thing, I've only heard of larger parrots intentionally throwing out food.