my first lovebird

[Meeko]

Hello there my name is joel and I'm the proud owner of my first lovebird.

I got him yesterday and he/she is around 6 weeks old. I don't know a name yet and was curious about how to tame it. I read on the internet that you have to earn its trust and make him understand that you're not a scary giant.

It's a roseicollis green with a bit orange in the face. The breeder wasn't sure if he ate on his own but I saw him eat millet today but not yet any seed. He hangs in the bars in the top of the cage as far away from me as possible since I got him is that normal ?

[Wolf]

For now this is normal as the bird is very scared of everything. It is alone in a strange place with a strange new human that it does not know if it can trust to not eat it. This type of situation in the wild would result in the birds death and at least on an instinctual level this bird is aware of this.

You are going to have to spend some time watching the bird from a distance from the corner of your eyes as a direct look is how predators look at this bird and that will scare the bird, looking directly at the bird will be fine once it learns that you will not hurt it. While you are in the room with the bird you should act as if you are ignoring her while still talking to her in a higher pitched sort of sing song type of voice which will help to calm the bird. Give her a name as their parent birds name their babies and call them by that name throughout their lives, so naming and then using that name often is very important to the bird.

While you are wandering about the room talking to your bird and ignoring her Watch her and when she relaxes on a perch with one foot lifted up wander closer to the cage until the bird starts getting nervous and then take a step or two back away. Work your way up to the cage when the bird is perching and relaxed. When you get up to the cage leave her a piece of millet.

You should repeat this whole procedure until the bird will remain on the perch while you approach the cage while talking to your bird. Once you are able to approach the cage you need to continue with the talking using the birds name often and tossing in a lot of " Good Bird" type of praise again using the birds name. Also since they like music start singing softly to your bird and offer the bird a piece of the millet held in your fingers through the bars of the cage. Now once you are able to walk up to the cage with the bird remaining calm you need to continue these sessions as lasting about 10 minutes and ding this two or three times a day. If the bird takes a few bites of the millet from your finger then just continue talking and singing for the remainder of the session and offering another bite, up to three times during the 10 minute session. If the bird does not come for the millet then leave a piece of it in the birds food dish and come back later for another session. When you are able to establish these sessions then you will still need to continue spending time in the room without apparently paying attention to the bird while you watch TV, listen to the radio, work or play on computer or whatever and still talk to the bird and occasionally going to the cage and giving it a piece of millet in its food dish, just a little piece every few hours.

When you are doing the 10 minute sessions watch for the bird beginning to come over to the side of the cage that you are approaching from, this shows you that it is looking forward to the interaction with you and when the bird comes over to get a couple of bites from the millet from your fingers and remains there calmly eating it, the bird is beginning to show you some trust. And it is at this point that you move to the front of the cage and stand or sit in front of the open cage door and talk and sing to the bird while offering the treat at the door of the cage. It is very important that you do not reach into the cage during this exercise, you need to wait for the bird to come to you and to take a bite of the millet that you are offering to it. Again you watch for the bird to move towards the front of the cage as you approach and then to calmly come to you and eats the offered millet calmly. After the bird is doing this for two or three days then it will be time to start working on the step up and to also begin target training . So let us know when the bird is doing these things.

In the meantime try to get some of the handfeeding formula from the breeder with instructions on how to mix it and how to feed it to the bird as it will need you to continue to feed it this food at least twice or three times a day for a while. Please list all of the foods that you give the bird paying attention to note which of the foods the bird eats or does not eat and when you are giving this food so that we can help with the birds diet.

[Meeko]

Thanks for answering^^

Point is he doesn't even sit on a perch, he just hangs in the bars. the cage sits on a table next to my chair where I always sit watching tv or playing video games. Should I move him to the other side of my room ? The breeder gave me some kind of egg food for birds, telling me to handfeed him that. A friend of mine his dad also breeds birds and gave me some of that formula and how much to give it and how to make it. But how should I approach the bird when he's this scared, I can't imagine him feeling at ease when in my hands. He didn't touch the ground of ita cage yet. Sorry if I am asking to much, but it's my first bird and I don't want to do it wrong or harm the bird or frighten him more.

[Wolf]

I think that I would begin by moving the cage so that it is higher. I would personally pick a spot that is near a window, but not in front of it and is along a wall so that the bird can feel protected from that side. I would also place the cage so that when I stand next to the cage that the highest perch is about eye level. These will all help your bird to feel more secure and safer.

I would think that if the bird is this fearful of you that even if it still needs the handfeeding formula that you would not be able to use the normal methods of either syringe or spoon feeding it to the bird. Perhaps you could place a small amount of it in a saucer like would be placed under a tea cup and put that in the bottom of the cage and going away from the cage foe a while and see if that will work.

[Meeko]

It's been a week or so since I got him, a friend of mine who has had several birds told me to remove the food dish from its cage and hand feed him several times a day, I do this 4-6 times a day. When I put my hand in the cage he runs/flies away. I make sure he sees the food (most of the time he is on the bottom of his cage breaking the wood snippers into smaller pieces) when he has seen it I take my time untill he starts eat. He doesn t sit on my hand tough sometimes puts 1 foot on it and then I slowly move hand an inch so that he has to step up. Robin says this will work. The bird looks fine but in someway it feels like I'm forcing him to like me. He also doesn't eat something trough the bars while that should feel safer right..? But my friend tamed a cockatiel this way and the bird is adorable and loves to be with humans after he is done playing.

But I don't want to force my bird or make him feel uncomfortable. Also I have questions about his food, that same friend said just parakeet seed is enough. But I read here that people give their bird all kinds of things. I was thinking of adding egg food to the seeds, the one I can get in the pet's store.

I was also doubting to clip his wings for when I wanted to tame him outside of his cage as I read all over the internet that it'll make it easier. But on a different topic on this forum I read that a birds ability to fly influences a lot of things and that if I have him clipped (the first 5 feathers from the outer side of his wings right ?) that it'll take 2 years before they are fully grown back. I also haven't thought of a name because I suck at picking names. I'm sorry if I am asking a lot, it's just that it is my first bird and I really want to become best buddies with him/her

[Wolf]

To begin with a budgie seed mix is not enough as seeds are high in fats and carbohydrates but are very low in essential amino acids, We know for a fact that a diet of seeds only will eventually result in liver, kidney, pancreas and heart disease in birds. This was the reason that pellets for birds were invented, but it has been shown that a pellet only diet also has the same drawbacks as a seed only diet, but, especially in the smaller birds such as budgies, parrotlets and lovebirds, may also cause a low level chronic dehydration. This is due to the fact that these birds do not eat dry foods in their normal environment and so get a lot of their water from the foods that they eat. Budgies don't eat much fruit but lovebirds love fruit and vegetables, but like budgies they do eat a higher proportion of seeds than do the larger parrots.

Diet:

Small seed mix such as: mainly canary, also millet and oats; fruits such as: apple, pear, orange, banana; green leaves such as: Swiss chard, lettuce, sowthistle, dandelion; willow catkins; spray millet; rearing food made from: hardboiled egg, wholegrain bread, low fat cheese and carrot, all ground to crumbly consistency; complete kibble for small parrots.

This diet is what is recommended by The World Parrot Trust for a peach faced lovebird. As you can see the only time that egg is used in their diet is before they are weaned.

As for removing the birds food from its cage, I am very much against doing this especially with this young of a bird, it would be like instilling obedience in a child by using food deprivation, and that does not even consider the damage done because of lack of appropriate nutrition. Love birds eat much more food than you would anticipate given their size and this is due to their extremely high metabolism, so they actually need to eat as much food during the day as a bird of twice its size.

I know that you are wanting results and you want them now, but all things parrot take patience and patience and then as you run out of patience it takes even more patience, The method that I gave you to hand tame your bird, win its trust and begin the bonding process may not be as fast as food deprivation, but it will produce a better bond with your bird in the long run.

[Meeko]

Thanks a lot for your response. tomorrow is sunday (2 am right now in Holland) though so he has to deal with the budgy seed mix, just chopped up some banana for him for tomorrow. Kind of feel like a bad owner but he ate piece of millet today through the bars for the first time^^ I'm also going to read a lot more in the health & nutrition section. But is he going to just eat all these things ?

Also what is weaning, I am a dutchman as I said.

And again thanks for the response.

[Wolf]

Very good that he is beginning to take the treat from you through the bars, now keep doing the same thing for a couple of days. You want to see him looking forward to this, he will start coming to the side of the cage that you approach from and will calmly take a bite from the millet, eat it and reach for another bite. when the bird is doing this for a couple of days then move to the main door of the cage and talk and sing and praise him and offer the millet at the open door of the cage just like you are doing through the bars. It is important that you offer the treat at the door and that you do not reach into the cage at all during this process. You need your bird to come to you not you reaching in to give him the treat.

Weaning is the process that a young bird goes through when switching from eating the partly digested food from its parents, or in the case of human raised bird from eating a handraising formula to eating adult foods such as fruits and vegetables and seeds. You feed the bird the formula until it no longer wants it so in effect the bird will wean itself. This is the time that the parent birds still feed the young bird but begin to teach it what foods to eat and how to find that food. When the young bird starts to learn how to fly the parents take it to a feeding ground and have them wait on a branch while they go and bring some food back. The parent birds will allow the young bird to see the food and will then eat it in front of the young bird and then will go and return with more of this food and will do the very same thing until the young birds begin to ask for some of this food, but the parent birds do not offer any of it to their young so the young bird will then beg for the food without any luck the parent birds will continue to bring food back to the baby birds and eat it without sharing until the young birds try to steal it from the parent birds which the parent bird make easy for them to do. This is how the parent birds teach their young birds what foods to eat. I think that the best way to teach our birds to eat the foods that we want them to eat should be done in the same way.

There are of course some differences in the process but we can easily do almost the same thing by using a low perch on a table and eating a fruit or vegetable in front of them while they go through the stages of asking, begging and demanding the food and then allowing them to steal a small piece of it when we show it to them. This is usually best accomplished in the early mornings before the bird eats anything else.

There are also other things that you can do to help your young bird to accept new foods such as our gloop. Gloop is a soft food that I feed all of my birds, it is made from whole grins that are partly cooked along with partly cooked or chopped up raw vegetables and fully cooked white beans and lentils. However to get them to eat this food you begin with just the partly cooked whole grains and you sprinkle some of its seed mix on top of the grains, then when the bird is eating the whole grains you begin adding in the vegetables and finally the cooked beans and lentils and then when the bird is eating all of these foods mixed together you quit sprinkling the seeds on it.

Now I don't understand your reference to being a Dutchman. But that is ok. What I want to say is that we all make mistakes with our bird especially when they are our very first birds, but we are not responsible for what we don't know. You are here and asking for help and I am very glad to share what I have learned with you, so thank you for giving me this opportunity to be a part of your birds life. I have made some major mistakes and with no more than we actually know about these birds I am apt to make several more mistakes as we go along in time. You are trying to get the information to give your bird a long, happy and healthy life and that does not sound like a bad parent to me. It sounds like a very good and caring parent.