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Sunny&Scar

Checking out the neighborhood
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9/9/22
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Hi all! My peach faced baby is nearly 6 months old. When we got him at 3 months he was supposed to be hand-raised but the breeder really struggled to catch him and it was obvious he hadn’t been handled at all. (I say he but we have no clue as of yet) We’ve been attempting to tame him and I think we’re getting somewhere. He’s happy to be on our shoulders or arms as long as they’re clothed. He won’t let us get our bare hands near him and he’s recently started biting. The moment our fingers are anywhere near him he’s lunging at them. We want to train him to be okay with hands and let us pet him. Any help would be much appreciated! This is my first lovebird and I want to do the best I can for him! <3
 

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Zara

♥❀Livin´ in Lovebird Land❀☼
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Welcome to the Avenue! :)

Buy some millet spray from the pet shop. They are great for training and trust building as they can be used in different ways; fed by the small clusters, or cut into pieces or whole.
Start by cutting a good 10cm piece off and when your bird is caged, you can hold one end and touch the other end to the cage bars so s/he can eat it. Keep still until they start eating as to not scare them.
Once your bird knows what millet is, you can use it out of the cage to do the same, over time as your bird trusts you and eats without fear, make the pieces smaller.
The trick when feeding millet is to be still, because movement will spook an unsure bird.

I made a video if it helps as a visual (my bird is not a good example as he is happy eating the millet from me and had alreay been pigging out before I made the video so I had to keep nudging him to eat so I could make the video for a member here :rolleyes: ). I use the table to stop the millet moving so much. If your bird is happy on your shoulder, you can hold it there and lay it on your person so it doesn´t move so much (it will get messy),
 

Sunny&Scar

Checking out the neighborhood
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Thank you, we’ve been using millet and he’ll even take sunflower seeds from our fingers but it’s just when we don’t have anything that he’ll go to bite, and he’s happy climbing all over us and sitting up on our shoulders, but trying to get him to be on our actual hands without him biting our fingers is such a battle!
 

Zara

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but trying to get him to be on our actual hands without him biting our fingers is such a battle!
Some birds just don´t like it and never seem to get to a point where they are comfortable with hand perching. I have one hen who prefers not to perch on my hand. She will for food :rolleyes: but no food means she´d rather perch elsewhere.
Keep trying, but don´t be too disappointed if your bird never warms up to it. And even in months or a year down the road if things are still like now, I would still keep an open mind as I have seen some of my birds develop new behaviours, habits and preferences years later.
 

Emma&pico

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Hi

sounds like you have gain his trust well in a short time

one of mine indie hates hands lunges and bites hard if given the chance she will come to my hand if I am holding millet but she flys to my arm and crawls down to my hand had her since March and not once as she stepped up or come to my hands first but that’s ok I just tap my arm call her she comes it’s just the same really I’ve just learnt to do it her way I found she got less jumpy around hands outside of cage when I trains her to turn around and flip but in cage she attacks my hands even with millet
pico hand reared loves me not scared of hands but isn’t cuddle doesn’t ask for head scratching or even like it for that matter I love them both the same just learning their ways lol

I think it sounds like you are getting there he trusts you enough to come to your shoulder just keep gaining his trust and maybe he will one day surprise you
 
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