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How to train my year old lovie? Special case <-

MangoTheBird

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I've had my Lovie(fischer) since it was 3 months old. It's turning 2 years old this September.
Gender: female
I just found out recently it was female, she laid an empty egg.(I originally thought it was a guy)
Name: Mango
(I thought she was a guy when I first got her plus she reacts to mango when I call her so.. I decided not to change it this late in the game)

About her:
She's aggressive as hell. She loves to be around people and loves when I kiss her BUT throws her beak at my hands and feet. She chewed/broke her wood perch once and breaks all her plastic toys. She can happily eat seeds/small pellets and treats out of my hand(She comes to my hand for them) but I dare not touch her. Her beak is EXTREMELY sharp for some reason so she bites through thick gloves. She gets 4 - 6 hours out of the cage daily.(Supervised by me) Though she just flys to me and decides to chill with me almost everytime. She HATES cages no matter how big I get them for her. P.S: last time I tried to pet her head she bit my finger and stay attached, she drew blood and left a scar on my index finger.


Point of this thread: How do I get this crazy bum bird to let me pet her? She's too demonic but I still love her, lol.
 

Zara

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Welcome to the avenue,

Mango is fine for a girls name ;)

How do I get this crazy bum bird to let me pet her?
Some birds just don´t like being petted. All you can do it keep working on your relationship and hope that maybe one day... but don´t be dissapointed if it never comes. Don´t push her or just go in to do it. Respect the boudaries and only touch her if her body language says it is ok.

She chewed/broke her wood perch once and breaks all her plastic toys.
I have a hen who I call ¨the destroyer¨, she will wreck anything she can, water bottles, cotton perches, wooden perches, plastic toys etc. I find this is increased when she is hormonal and so I keep a close eye on her to assure she is not ingesting anything harmful. I have to remove certain things and then put them back a month later.
The same hen will not allow anyone to touch her, she calls the shots and comes to my hand on a super rare occassion. However she is bonded to another bird and so is harder for me to ¨tame¨. She also latches on when bites and draws blood.

Maybe @Leih will have some additional tips :)
 
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MangoTheBird

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Welcome to the avenue,

Mango is fine for a girls name ;)


Some birds just don´t like being petted. All you can do it keep working on your relationship and hope that maybe one day... but don´t be dissapointed if it never comes. Don´t push her or just go in to do it. Respect the boudaries and only touch her if her body language says it is ok.

Maybe @Leih will have some additional tips :)
Thanks haha. Yeah, I try not to rush into things and let her do her own thing. The reason I wanted to pet her was because she's always flying to me onto my shoulder and just chills with me or screams into my ear lol. Welp, it's fine if I won't ever get to pet her but so weird that she'll let me kiss her. Thanks for replying so quickly too :D
 

Zara

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Welp, it's fine if I won't ever get to pet her but so weird that she'll let me kiss her.
You know... My first lovie would never allow petting.... but then one day about two years later suddenly allowed it and now (s)he enjoys scritches regularly...So you never know :)

Thanks for replying so quickly too :D
I´m the Lovebird Lane lurker ;)
 

Leih

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Welcome to the forum!

My lovebird Aoife was pretty aggressive for awhile. She was 5 months when I got her, she's now about 15 months.

Does Mango step up on your hand? Does she fly to you when you ask her to? I'm trying to get an idea of where your relationship is. Have you done any training with her?
 

MangoTheBird

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Welcome to the forum!

My lovebird Aoife was pretty aggressive for awhile. She was 5 months when I got her, she's now about 15 months.

Does Mango step up on your hand? Does she fly to you when you ask her to? I'm trying to get an idea of where your relationship is. Have you done any training with her?
Thanks. Yeah, I taught her to fly to me when I call her name. She only flys to me if I'm within eye distance. I'm not exactly sure how far exactly she's able to be called back as I only have a 2 story. She doesn't want anything to do with hands.(Callback training was the only training I could give her other than stick training.)

Edit: Forgot to mention that she'll occasionally fly onto my arm and go sideways onto my hand if I'm holding my phone.
 
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Leih

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So you can try to get her to be less afraid of hands. It took months for Aoife to be okay with my hands, I really thought she'd never let me touch her, but she really likes scritches now and loves to have me open pins around her neck. :)

Some things to try. I used to put a treat between my thumb and index finger, like this (which is how most of us hold our hand for step up). Try to read when she's going to bite, and say No Bite and turn your back to her for about 5 seconds. Then try again. When she does it and doesn't bite make a big deal out of praising her. You can also use a clicker for this. Click and praise plus the treat for correct, and no click and back to her for wrong. You only really have to do this a few minutes a day. You can try multiple times a day, but if she is frustrated then don't push it. I eventually used this to teach step up but your first goal is no biting :)
 

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Leih

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If she will eat from your palm, that's a great step, Aoife absolutely couldn't get past that for awhile.
 

Leih

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Ps please ignore my awful picked off nail polish! It's polish day today :wacky:
 

Duel

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Can you show a picture of your bird? Mine has a beak that grows faster than average and when it starts getting overgrown I have to take him to the vet for a beak trim. Of course I didn't notice the first time until the vet told me that his beak is too big and and needs to be trimmed. Every 3-4 months he needs to get his beak trimmed even with all the wooden chew toys he has and switching him to a pellet diet.
 

MauiWendy

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Why are you trying to get her too allow it. Why not just accept her as she is. Are you her asking permission when you approach her or are you flooding her? I don’t mean to sound condescending in any way. My daughters parakeet will allow you to touch his beak but nothing else. He is who he is. But he is quite happy to sit on your shoulder while he sings his lil heart out. But just don’t touch him. We respect his space. He don’t like it we don’t do it. ;)
 

MangoTheBird

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Sorry for the late replies everyone! I've been quite busy.

Why are you trying to get her too allow it. Why not just accept her as she is. Are you her asking permission when you approach her or are you flooding her? I don’t mean to sound condescending in any way. My daughters parakeet will allow you to touch his beak but nothing else. He is who he is. But he is quite happy to sit on your shoulder while he sings his lil heart out. But just don’t touch him. We respect his space. He don’t like it we don’t do it. ;)
Funny thing is, I let her come to me. She'll follow me and fly onto my head/shoulder and when I'm on my bed she'll fly to me and go onto my chest to just sit and relax.(She'll beak grind) I've never once forced her to be with me.


Can you show a picture of your bird? Mine has a beak that grows faster than average and when it starts getting overgrown I have to take him to the vet for a beak trim. Of course I didn't notice the first time until the vet told me that his beak is too big and and needs to be trimmed. Every 3-4 months he needs to get his beak trimmed even with all the wooden chew toys he has and switching him to a pellet diet.
Imgur: The magic of the Internet - best pic I can find that shows beak.


So you can try to get her to be less afraid of hands. It took months for Aoife to be okay with my hands, I really thought she'd never let me touch her, but she really likes scritches now and loves to have me open pins around her neck. :)

Some things to try. I used to put a treat between my thumb and index finger, like this (which is how most of us hold our hand for step up). Try to read when she's going to bite, and say No Bite and turn your back to her for about 5 seconds. Then try again. When she does it and doesn't bite make a big deal out of praising her. You can also use a clicker for this. Click and praise plus the treat for correct, and no click and back to her for wrong. You only really have to do this a few minutes a day. You can try multiple times a day, but if she is frustrated then don't push it. I eventually used this to teach step up but your first goal is no biting :)
Sorry for late reply, thank you for your advice! I'll take it to heart!
 

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DoubleTake

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Any progress in the past couple of weeks?
 
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