Help with Rescued Lovebird

[ckb]

Hello All,

My name is Claire, and I need help with my rescued lovebird.

I've had my lutino peach faced lovebird (Lemon) for just shy of 1 month. My roommate found him (we don't actually know it's a boy) in a pile of trash put out for collection in front of my building on Aug. 18th. She called my boyfriend, knowing we are both animal lovers, and I came home that day to a cute little lovebird in a cage on the livingroom table. I've always had a soft spot for lovebirds, so we decidd to try keeping it.

When Lemon showed up, it looked like he had been outside for a few days. He was dirty, scruffy, could fly buy had a good amount of feathers on it's front and behind it's head in pins, and overall appeared to be in shock. When my bf put him in the cage with food he immediately dove into the the seed and ate for 20 min straight before falling asleep on the food bowl. I think that maybe he flew out of a window, and was looking for food in the trash.

Here's an image of Lemon on that first day: http://bit.ly/YPFbeK

The bird training task has been mostly mine, but my bf does talk to it when he's home. He works fro home, so it around it more, but it too busy working to spend time with Lemon. I go to work Sunday - Thursday, and am usually gone 10am - 7pm.

At first it would eat nothing but bird seed, even spray millet. It now eats seed, spray millet, and sunflower and pumpkin seeds, and nothing else. It shows no interest whatsoever in any fresh fruit. After a few days of hanging around the cage and lots of talking at it, Lemon started eating spray millet out of my hand. I can hold the sprays for it, but it will not eat from a pile of sides in my cupped hand.

The state of things now are:

1. Lemon spends most of the days yelling and screeching at my boyfriend while he's trying to work. We try not to cover the cage to make it be quite too much, but talking at and being around it has stopped making it calm down.

2. I only have my evenings after work to spend with the bird.

3. We have 4 cats, so I haven't been able to take him out of the cage until today. We had to rearrange some times so we could cat/bird proof the bedroom, which we have done today.

Today I opened the cage and Lemon came out on his own. He flew around the room and perched on many high places, but also sat on top of a folded towel I put on top of the cage. He ate millet up there, but will not allow me to hand feed him millet or get too close for too long out of the cage. He did however, fly to and sit on my head 3 or 4 times, as well as land on my laptop where I was watching bird training videos ^_^

When the bird first arrived, it was scared, but not aggressive. Now he has started actively biting. I can properly ignore the bites as they are too weak to hurt much, and have been doing the technique of twisting my finger when it's bitten so it associates biting with imbalance. But he's still pretty eager to do so. Lemon is back in his cage now, and is pacing back and forth on the ground level very frantically. When I put my hand on the cage near him he goes right to trying to bite, almost lunging.

Questions:

1. How much time should I spend with Lemon out of his cage?

2. What behavior of mine can I change so that he stops being afraid enough to attack me.

3. Will the anti-biting finger-twist method I've been using be enough to curb biting?

4. Should the bird be in a room without the cats 100% of the time, or can they be around him when he's in the cage?

5. How do I get Lemon to stop flying away from me when he's out of the cage? I've found many helpful videos on improving parrot behavior, but I can't apply them if it keeps running away.

6. Is there anything else I'm forgetting?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Many Thanks,
Claire

[Wolf]

Let me begin by saying that I do not have any lovebirds. The closest that I have is a parrotlet, not the same but they are similar in many ways, beginning with size. Both of them do have an aggressive side to them and they don't realize how small they are. I really don't think that the twisting thing will be much value as it would make them have to grab a better hold and this means grabbing on with the beak. I think that you will have better luck with just pushing his beak aside, when he is biting and saying something like " No Bite ! " It is not real fast but they will learn.
Little birds like lovebirds and parrotlets are very insecure and need a lot of attention, especially when they are the only bird in the house. If your time with them is going to be quite limited then it might be better to get a mate for it, so it will not be so stressed from being alone. I would allow at least three hours of out of cage time each day, for this bird, with about one hour of it being for one on one interaction with him. In the same subject of interactive time, why can't your boyfriend move the bird and its cage to the room where he is working? /it is not like the bird will make a lot of noise as the reason that it does scream is that it is alone and knows that there is someone home, moving the cage and bird to where the bird can see him and he can speak to the bird will help the bird to not scream from it being alone. It is important to understand that for any parrot, not just lovebirds, that the most severe punishment that you can inflict on them is to make them be alone. It is pure torture for them. They are flock animals and are never alone from hatching until the day they die, in fact being alone is a death sentence to them and it terrifies them, which is why they scream.
Cats are predators and view birds of this size as a snack. They should never be around the bird when it is out of its cage, and should never be allowed in the room with the caged bird without supervision.
A month is not a lot of time for a bird of any species, and since it has been a month without a lot of interaction it is even shorter of an amount of time, effectively. I would recommend that you change things so the bird is not left alone all day, either get your boyfriends help or get it another lovebird and introduce them over a period of time in their own separate cages. Give it three hours of out of cage time with one hour of one on one time. And get it on a healthy diet.
On the issue of diet it should probably have more fresh vegetables than fruit. You already have a basic idea as to what it needs to eat, so I am leaving this open for someone with more experience with lovebirds to make more dietary recommendations.
Do these things and perhaps in another month you might be ready for training.

[felix11]

Okay. You are basically taming a totally untrained, socialized bird. I have done this with a variety of small parrots and finches in the past, and I know it's frustrating, but it's definitely possible, and you will see results.


1. How much time should I spend with Lemon out of his cage?

Right now, you can't train your bird outside it's cage. 'Outside cage time' is currently for the birds own exercise and mental stimulation. Not bonding, or training. I'd give it a few hours a day. BUT - each day, before you let the bird out of it's cage, spend about 30 minutes sitting very close to the cage, doing something - not looking at the bird, not trying to touch the bird - just reading, or on a laptop. This will help the bird calm down in your presence, which will help with biting. You can do this 'quiet flock time' whenever you want.

First training needs to happen IN the cage. Take away his food for a few hours, so he has motivation, then offer him millet from your hand. Short sessions (10 minutes) are WAY better than long sessions. When he accepts millet from your hand, you can begin teaching him target training (look it up, it's easy) IN the cage. Stop the training BEFORE he gets bored. This will make him like you much more, instead of seeing you and training as a chore.

It sounds like you've been rewarding the bird for screaming, by giving it attention when it's loud. Ignore it when it's horribly loud, but reward it by vocally responding to his cute, softer noises. This will encourage cute noises, and discourage screams.

2. What behavior of mine can I change so that he stops being afraid enough to attack me.

Train him inside the cage. Don't use your fingers yet, he's probably scared of hands. Use a long millet stalk when feeding. Over a week make the millet length shorter and shorter, so he has to get closer to your hands. Eventually, you want him to have to perch on your hand to eat the millet - if he's eating, he's not biting. But not yet, go slow.

4. Should the bird be in a room without the cats 100% of the time, or can they be around him when he's in the cage?

Are the cat's going to jump on his cage, look at his cage, hang around his cage? I've seen a cat knock over a bird cage, and the bird fly out. If the cats want to eat the bird, keep them away. If they are totally disinterested, slowly introduce them into the room, maybe just one cat at first, so as to not totally stress the little guy out.

5. How do I get Lemon to stop flying away from me when he's out of the cage? I've found many helpful videos on improving parrot behavior, but I can't apply them if it keeps running away.

Inside the cage first. You wont get any results outside the cage until Lemon will 'step up' and 'target' for you. Outside is just for Lemon's fun.

How fun! Good luck!

[Wolf]

I don't agree with ignoring the bird if it screams. Screaming means it needs something bad enough to risk its life by screaming. Find out why it is screaming and take it from there.

[Pajarita]

Wolf gave you great advice, so did Felix in terms or taming and training but he is repeating the ubiquitous 'ignore the screams' advice which I don't agree with. BUT, personally, I would be more concerned about getting this bird healthy and on a good diet than anything else because going by the picture of when you found him, he was in BAD shape (and it's not only how raggedy his plumage looked, his mask is too light in color -a healthy peach face has a bright, vivid, almost red face while his is very pale, a sure sign of lack of vit A in his diet) and one month is nothing when it comes to getting them back to a good level of condition. He needs vitamins and minerals in his water until he is on a good diet and that means him eating whole grains, veggies, fruits and leafy greens on a daily basis. Lovies are partial ground foragers and they do well on seeds as long as the mix is low protein/low fat (a good quality small psittacine without sunflowers is good) and given only for dinner so you need to start transitioning him to a good diet asap (they are actually very good eaters and I've never had a single problem switching them). They also need large cages and that means a flight one with several toys a ladder or two, a boing or two, etc. (lack of enrichment -entertaining- could be a reason why he screams and the pacing is typical of birds in cages that are too small).

I also agree 100% with Wolf in that lovies always do better with a companion. In English, they are called 'love birds' but in Spanish, French and Italian, they are called 'inseparables' and both names fit them to a T because they really love their companions and stick to them like glue so, if you really want to make him happy, get him a friend. Now, you can either DNA him and find out whether Lemon is male or female and get the opposite gender (best option for him) OR you can get a male because this will work out whether Lemon is a boy or a girl (males always get along while females usually don't).

Some cats will ignore a bird but I would never leave them together without supervision.

[Tman007]

ckb what pajarita, felix11 and Wolf said read their post add them together and you have a good start. Now as for screaming you need to start to find out what each vocal is. Is it screaming for food is it's water dirty? Does it want attentions. Is it saying good morning or good night. Right now don't Ignore the vocals. Just like Wolf said find out what it wants first. Sometimes it just might take a look around and see if everything is ok. They may just want to see if you are there. And also Lovebirds are birds of love, they really need to have a buddy to be with.