• Welcome to Avian Avenue! To view our forum with less advertisments please register with us.
    Memberships are free and it will just take a moment. Click here

Hazards of buying unweaned birds - Breeder's input appreciated.

shanlung

Sprinting down the street
Avenue Veteran
Joined
10/17/09
Messages
372
Real Name
shanlung
This is a great thread. I think what I wrote before will give folks food for thoughts.
I was standing on the shoulders of giants and what they said especially to the later developements of those birds
were very disturbing.

Imprinting of birds
 

wyrinth

Sprinting down the street
Avenue Veteran
Joined
8/27/13
Messages
308
Location
Queens, NY
Wow, how did you get the songbirds to fly to you? I have canaries that I've been trying to tame, but it's not really progressing o_O
 

shanlung

Sprinting down the street
Avenue Veteran
Joined
10/17/09
Messages
372
Real Name
shanlung
Wow, how did you get the songbirds to fly to you? I have canaries that I've been trying to tame, but it's not really progressing o_O
The same way as with the greys.
I accepted them as my trainers and did not felt a loss in esteem to be their trainees.

You also must be a very nice object for them to fly to and play with.
The song birds I had happened to be caught from the wild in some part of their history



You can see more of the above in his folder
LiBai flights in apartment - a set on Flickr


The hill mynah Jackie was a young adult when I got him. Another wild caught. Feisty and uppity but he decided I was a good slave.



My favourite being Yingshiong of course.





At the beginning, I did not even make eye contact as song birds were that shy and shama might not even eat if you as much as look at them.

In time, I found out the intelligence of shama. And later on his feistiness with me and his cheekiness to me that clearly established him, and his kind, as fellow intelligent sentients that we shared this world with. I think the separation of birds into aviary kind of birds about the biggest cop out fostered onto bird carers.

You can see how Yingshiong flew to me when I called and how he will return to his cage in his room when I asked him to.
You can also hear how he sang

Tinkerbell Legacy - Living with a flying parrot - October 8th, 2006


That underline the lie that only handfeds can bond with humans. Even old songbirds caught from the wild will respond to considerate respectful handling. I have friends who are 30-40 years breeders of shamas and they told me Yingshiong landing on me was the first ever they seen a male shama landing on human.

It hurts to think his kind have only a cage with no toys and other mental stimulants. You can understand why I refused blank cheques for Yingshiong and handed him to Jurong Bird Park as no way could I allow him into his former kind of life before he came to me. I like to think I improved lives of shamas as the bulk of my web page visitors are from Indonesia , Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia where shamas are treasured. I can see them using translators to try to understand what I wrote. And they could hear for themselves the singing of Yingshiong and the richness of his songs (resulting in blank cheque offers) . Price of shama vary from US$300 to US$20,000 depending on singing ability and other factors. I hope that inspired them to give their birdies a better life and time out of their cage

You can see the process of our training together in my livejournal and the steps side ways and backwards and my tripping on my own flat feet.

Most of all and most important of all, you will see the fun and the magical relationships we all had.
 
Last edited:
Top