Tuesday, January 17, 2012

How do you hand tame a lovebird?

I have a 4 month old Black Masked Lovebird that I have been trying to tame. The breeder who had the bird hand fed it, but I don't believe that it was handled other than to be fed. The bird seems to want human attention and interaction. He comes to the front of the cage when I approach to talk to him and when the door to the cage is opened he will come out onto the top. His wings are clipped so when he falls onto the floor from his cage he will step up onto my hand when asked. But only when he falls to the floor. He won't let me touch him other than that. Recently I have been using spray millet to coax him closer to me. When he comes to the front of the cage, I'll put my hand out so that he has to touch me to get to the treat. I make no attempt to touch him. He doesn't get millet when I’m not there. I've only given it to him when I interact with him in an attempt to teach him that when he's on me he'll get a treat and good things will happen. I have gotten him to step up onto my arm by using the millet. When he’s on my arm he gets the millet. Then after awhile of him standing on me, I'll take the treat away and let him stand there until he decides to step off. When he steps off I put the treat back out and he steps back up. I’m not sure if this technique will help hand tame him. Can you give me advice on how to hand tame him? And I have another problem….he has developed the habit of biting my arm when he realizes that I took the millet away. It seemed like an experimental bite at first, but now I think he does it just because he can. I never pull away when he bites, but what should I do to correct him without making him even more afraid of me? I don’t want him to think that I’m rewarding him for biting, but I’m not sure how to correct him for biting while hand taming him at the same time.

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