Petrie the Rescue Lovebird

[Guardian]

I adopted Petrie nearly a year ago from the Humane Society. At this moment he just flew over to see what I'm doing on the computer and get some attention. He loves humans, he's getting used to the second addition of another lovebird (Ducky) to our home.

Ducky was adopted as a baby and is ok with getting on hands, however Petrie will not let me pick him up or train him with my hands. He will go on my shoulder, jump on my sleeved arm, let me touch him on the beak (maybe) with my fingertip and will eat (only millet) from my hands. This has taken a year to get him to this point. He is much more social with us than Ducky and I would love to get him to the point where I could actually pet him (if he wants, or just to be able to have him step up).

I just don't know how to break this point of fear with him. I have tried to have him step up onto a stick and he is scared of that as well.

Any ideas would be wonderful.

[marie83]

How close can you get with your hand before he shows signs he isnt happy? Keep doing this and reward with millet. Then move your hand slightly closer, if no reaction reward him, keep doing this until you can get your hand really close. If at any point he isnt happy go back a step or 2.

You will tame him, just might need more time and patience.

[Dave & Karen]

If the bird is small enough, you can make him perch on your thumb while your hand is open, this will allow you to sneak in a pet with your index or middle finger. I did this with our parrotlet who wouldn't let us get near him to pet him but he would land on our fingers readily and take treats from our other hand but fly off when we tried to pet him.
Once I got him to perch on my thumb, I would present a treat to him as a distraction then I could sneak a pet to the back of his head or neck and the result was almost instant where he would start to push his head closer to the finger that's petting him and start rotating his head to get his cheeks and jaws pet, of course, he'd soon realize he was being touched and fly off, but after about a week of this he would finally come over and fluff his head up for scritchies. Now about 2 months later we can touch him anywhere on his body and he totally enjoys it. the only thhing he still won't let eitherr of us do is open his wings, but he's slowly getting used to that and does enjoy a scritch or 3 under his wing. Once you can get him to groom himself on your finger or in your hand it's real easy to start petting him in different places and he will calm down considerably as he realizes he's being pet and no harm is meant.