Just purchased lovebirds from horrible pet store

[HeatherS]

My son and I purchased two one year old lovebirds yesterday… the cage they were in was not suitable for just one lovebird let alone two… the cage looked disgusting and they had absolutely no toys… no uv light and the lady at the pet store had to catch them in a huge fish net in order to put them in the boxes to come home with us so they are clearly not used to human touch…. Any advice?? Any tips on how we can get them comfortable with us? How we should go about taming them? I first read they should have at least three toys in the cage at all times that are to be switched out weekly to keep them entertained but then I read something saying because they are not used to them we should introduce one toy at a time? …. Any advise or knowledge would be great!

 

[rheashard2]

Glad you rescued them! Welcom. Go slow, let them get used to you and environment. Birds move at their own pace. Toys should be introduced slowly. Numbers is less important than safe.

 

[HeatherS]

Thank you!

 

[JjEjFjF]

Birds move at their own pace

And their own pace could be weeks or even months.

 

[wrench13]

100% correct. With parrots, proceed at their pace and not the pace of your expectations. Most parrots acceptance of new things is GLACIAL and not like our quick money brains.

 

[HeatherS]

100% correct. With parrots, proceed at their pace and not the pace of your expectations. Most parrots acceptance of new things is GLACIAL and not like our quick money brains.

I really just wanted to make sure there wasn’t anything wrong we should be doing differently with them because of where we got them from… what I’m understanding is just have patience and I’m good with that

 

[rheashard2]

And their own pace could be weeks or even months.

Add years to somethings. Start a box to put ignored toys. That way you can recycle them. Ignore today may be favorite tomorrow.

 

[HeatherS]

Yeah so far they have just been messing with the foraging cage mount and that’s it

 

[rheashard2]

Excellent! If they're investigating then they are taking steps to be comfortable with environment.

 

[wrench13]

Excellent info can be found on the AMazon sub forum in the "I Love AMazons" thread at the top. Tons and tons of great info applicable to all parrots not just AMazons. Read it out loud to your lovies, several times, parrots love being read to and will help them acclimate to you.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I don't know much about lovebirds but thank you for rescuing them. It takes patience to get any parrots that aren't socialized with humans to see them as their friends so hang in there.

 

[HeatherS]

Glad you rescued them! Welcom. Go slow, let them get used to you and environment. Birds move at their own pace. Toys should be introduced slowly. Numbers is less important than safe.

Well here we are a couple weeks later…. Other than the cage mount the birds tore apart the first week we had them home and a couple nips at a shredder toy the birds have not shown interest in any of their toys… I give them about 3 to 4 new ones every week after I do the cages weekly deep clean… I’ve tried bells chew toys shredder toys preening toys and they don’t fuss with them… it’s like they don’t even kno what toys are maybe?… they have been getting a lot of out of the cage time in my sons room with him…. He lets them out almost all day most days and they typically perch at the top of his closet where their play gym is and go back and forth from there to his tall lampshade…. I’ve now made two different foraging boxes at separate times and had my son sprinkle their fav seeds in the box infront of them … they had no interest…. The second box I made yesterday had a few foot toys in it with shredded paper and a foraging ball that I put a variety of different treats in (because so far all we kno is they enjoy millet)… I stuck some millet in the middle of the ball so they could see it… my son laid the box next to the play gym and because there was again no interest he started sprinkling some millet in the bottom of their gym and o e of the birds attacked his hand and bit him three times… now that specific bird has bit him a few times when it’s time to go back in the cage but yesterday was the first attack and no clue really what caused it…. Any advice on the toys or prompting them to forage maybe? Am I moving to fast for them or should I have toys outside of the cage since they are out most of the day? if you perhaps have an idea as to why one of the birds tend to bite or why it attacked while sprinkling the millet would be greatly appreciated