Rescued Blue and Gold...How to start?

[kristalkarakus]

Hello all,
I have recently, 3 months ago, rescued a b*g from a crazy man here is istanbul. 2 weeks ago my untrained male b*g opened his cage and now they are happily sitting togehter on their perch completely avoiding me or whatever i do in the bird room.
As i have listeden on mz.barbara's podcasts i have to separate them put them in a cage and put them in different rooms, then i have to start training or at least making them more comfortable with humans.
Or should i leave them together out of their cage and try to do something while they are together? But i did try to at least figure out what they like so i can use it as a treat that was a waste of time. So, if i want to separate them, i need to start with throwing a towel, so i can actually put them back into the cages. because there is no way of kindly asking them to go back into the cage as they are completely terrified of human interaction.
Any thoughts?
Thank you all.
Kristal.

[Avialae]

Wow, no, if they're comfortable with eachother, do not separate them. When taming birds, it is both more kind and effective to keep them together if they are already bonded. Most times the become more daring as they are more confident when they know they have each other.

I would start by simply sitting in the bird room, reading, or doing something different every day, just to get them used to that you are in the same area.
If you can put up food bowls that the birds easily can get to from where they're sitting, but not close enough so that you scare them when you put something in the bowl.
When they are used to you being there, start dropping some nice treats in that bowl from time to time, so that they assosiate you with something pleasant.

Never approach the bird when they show fear or avoidance. Try to be very observant, and as soon as you see them backing away or showing signs of fear, you back away to. That way they quickly learn that they can control your movements when it gets scary, and that should boost their confidence quite a bit. This is for me always the first step with very fearful birds, and it tends to work very well.

When you have repeated this for a while and they seem more comfortable with you around, knowing you won't try to do anything to them, you can start to try to offer them treats more directly. Taking treats directly from the hand can be quite a big step to take allt at once for fearful birds, so i would recommend using long tongs. I use the ones meant for feeding reptiles, you should be able to find them in turkey as well. You can start by just fastening som treats to it and putting it up in their area, so that they get used to associating tongs with treats.
After a while, try holding the tongs with treats in them very still, and a few feet away from the birds. If they back away, back away with the tongs too. Try to approach them slowly again a few moments later, but always stay at a safe distance. When they start showing interest to the food in the tongs, you can start moving them a bit closer. Eventually, they will start taking food from the tongs. It is important to still remember to back away when they do; at forst, they will usually take the treat, and then back away to eat it. Make sure you slowly withdraw the tong when they do this.

Once they readily take treats this way, it will be much easier to make progress with them. But this might take a few weeks, so let's start here.
Also, if you could provide a picture or film of your bird room and general setup, that would be very helpful. What i've written above are more general guidelines, most of the time you will have to adapt it to the particular surroundings and birds.

Also, Kudos to you for bringing these birds home and being willing to work with them!

Best of luck
/Steph

[kristalkarakus]

Hello, thank you so much for your detailed and helpful reply. What i did today is i managed to put them back in their cages in the bird room. At least they are togeher but still there will be a sence of control rather than them discovering underneath the carpets and whatever there is left in the room.
I will definatly take a video and pictures of them.
As for the togehter training part. I have tried giving them treats with a thong but once one starts running away he other one does it as well. I tried to do the same exercise with my female and the semi wild b&g, the female took the treat out of my hand sooo the other one though ooo ok lets do he same thing, so he did take it. But that was the single progress i ve got before the wild one got out of his cage. Now everybody is in their cages except for my female. She is awsome i had her for the past 2 years.
Enough blabing, i will provide you with picts and vdos.
Thank you again for your reply.
Xos. Take care.