my lovebird doesnt like me touching him i need help!!!

[natdom87]

hi everyone. my name is natalie. let me start off by saying that this is my first lovebird ive owned. but ive had other birds and been around other birds. my last bird was a cockatiel and she was the sweetest bird ever. I had her since she was born and she died because she layed a bad egg. however, im here because I need help with my lovebird. I bought him/her (still don't know the sex but I call him a he lol) when he was 6 weeks old. a peachfaced lovebird. from the beginning he wasn't very fond of me. I thought it was because he was scared and missed his brothers that he was born with. so it took a few weeks for him to even be able to look at me. if he was out of the cage he didn't want me to look at him so we would try to hide behind me. hes about 6 months now. and the level were on is, im the only person he "trusts". when I take him out of the cage he flies directly into my hand when I open the door. if anyone else were to do that he would fly into his bed and hide. no one can hold him but me. when hes out of the cage he wants to be on me only. if I have him sit on the cage his goal in life is to fly to my shoulder. (his wings are clipped but theyre growing back so he can fly a bit) he loves my hair. has to be on me at all times or sitting next to me aslong as hes playing with something. (right now hes biting the screen as I type and biting my fingers lol ) I give him eskimo kisses (beak to nose) I make this "merp" noise and he copies me. sometimes when im not paying attention to him and gets tired of calling me hell make the noise to get my attention because he knows I like when he copies me. he likes to bite my fingers. and when he gets angry hell bite me hard. and I say no! be nice! no biting! he stops, looks at me for a second and gives me a realllly light bite to let me know he understood. hes smart. and he knows whats going on and has selective hearing aswell lol so whats the problem??? I cant pet him. he doesn't like me touching him. he can be on me all day and bite me and play with my hair and sit on my shoulder but if I go to pet his head or even snuggle he runs away or he bites me a little hard to let me know he doesn't like that. so that's my question. why? he likes me. he was a baby when I got him. so why cant I touch him? I feel that he doesn't completely trust me obviously but I don't know what else to do. that's why I got him. hence lovebird lol and I kept him by himself. is this how its always going to be? thanks for reading I hope to hear from someone

[marie83]

Some species are less affectionate than others and even individuals within a species differ widely. No bird is guaranteed to be cuddly I'm afraid. It is quite likely that it will always be this way- that your bird will never want to even have a head scratch. That said with enough training birds can be slowly taught to tolerate touch however imo this should only be done for the birds own benefit (to minimise stress when handling is essential, like when a birds sick for example) not because you want it to sit there and allow you to scratch his head even though he really doesn't like it.

You may find that during training he may actually learn to enjoy being touched rather than merely tolerate it but I wouldn't hold your breath, its a possibility rather than a probability. There are many other ways to bond with and enjoy your birds company, its just a matter of accepting the birds boundaries, personality and not taking it personally when things aren't exactly what you had hoped for.

[William]

Just keep spending time with him and touch him a little every once in a while, so he will know to not be scared of your hand. I think he will come around, and will most likely love you to pet him soon. They are called lovebirds for a reason, eh