This is my Lovebird, Mango. I have had him for about 4 months and he is about a year old. I got him from a petshop and I am more than sure he has not been hand raised. He can fly out of his cage anytime he wants. Mango usually likes to sit for a few minutes on a spot on the furniture right in front of my bed. He likes taking an eagle looking stance and stare at me. Don't know why he does it but he seems to like it. He doesn't chirp too often but when he does it's pretty loud. I don't mind it and my neighbors dont either. I give him a mix of seeds and slices of apple every now and then. He absolutely adores apples and pomelo. Pomelo are pretty hard to find around here and from what I know they are acidic so it's rare for me to give him it. I have tried in the past to give him bananas, oranges, carrots and even a mango (yes I did it on purpose just for the sake of the pun: Mango eating a mango). He unfortunately did not like any of those but I believe he gets the vitamins he needs from apples anyway. I placed his cage on my desk so sunlight does reach him around 2 pm to 4 pm. I can't say that he is entirely tame because only for the last month has he let me give him treats from my hand and he does not like being pet at all. He falls asleep when i hold my finger on his beak so that's something but he does not know how to step up and the several tutorials I watched on Youtube didn't help. It's like he does not know what I want him to do because he does not consider my finger a perch he can sit on. I really want him to explore my house and not be stuck by his own fear in 2 spots those being his cage and the spot I talked about earlier on the furniture and I believe I could help him do that by teaching him how to step up. I can tell he has had some traumatic experiences in the past. It's been hard and progress was slow but I don't give up so easily. I decided to make an account on the Parrot Forum to look for advice. Do you have any?
Mango
- Thread starter Riot
- Start date
Welcome and be welcomed!
Parrot diet is key to a healthy and long lived bird. An all seed diet is not heathy, unfortunately most pet shop birds are given this and nothing else, as a result they often come to new owners with a bad habit.
Your job is to slowly transition him to at least a quality pellet diet and best would be a diet that is mostly veggies, with pellets and a SMALL amount of seed. Try different veggies and pellets. DOnt just switch seed for the others, do it slowly over time. If you go to our nutrition board here, there are many recipes and methids of switching over for you to try.
Taming - it will help if you find out his very most favorite treat. That will become your training tool and only offer it when training. Good Luck! Taming a skittish parrot can take time, sometimes a LOT of time, but this is not a spring, its a marathon, right? He will be with you a long time, slow and steady is the key!
Parrot diet is key to a healthy and long lived bird. An all seed diet is not heathy, unfortunately most pet shop birds are given this and nothing else, as a result they often come to new owners with a bad habit.
Your job is to slowly transition him to at least a quality pellet diet and best would be a diet that is mostly veggies, with pellets and a SMALL amount of seed. Try different veggies and pellets. DOnt just switch seed for the others, do it slowly over time. If you go to our nutrition board here, there are many recipes and methids of switching over for you to try.
Taming - it will help if you find out his very most favorite treat. That will become your training tool and only offer it when training. Good Luck! Taming a skittish parrot can take time, sometimes a LOT of time, but this is not a spring, its a marathon, right? He will be with you a long time, slow and steady is the key!
- Feb 20, 2022
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- 10,896
Welcome!
I agree 100% with wrench13 that it can take much longer than you think it will, and that's okay! My ringneck has been with me for 9 months now and it took MONTHS for him to take a treat from my fingers.
Maybe you could try using a small perch or stick for training step up at first? I like having mine trained to a stick in case I ever need someone else to have them step up when they don't want to on fingers.
I agree 100% with wrench13 that it can take much longer than you think it will, and that's okay! My ringneck has been with me for 9 months now and it took MONTHS for him to take a treat from my fingers.
Maybe you could try using a small perch or stick for training step up at first? I like having mine trained to a stick in case I ever need someone else to have them step up when they don't want to on fingers.
Iris227
New member
- Jun 1, 2022
- 11
- 21
- Parrots
- Mango - male opaline redhead lovebird; Frosty - male opaline blue whiteheaded lovebird; Muffin - wild green budgie; Cookie - lutino budgie
Hello!
You should probably try to give him more treats out of your hand. A trick to getting birds to step-up is to put your finger to an area above their feet (shown on the picture). Alternatively, you can just open your palm up, but this usually works for more trained birds. Show him a treat (something he really, really likes) on the other side of your hand and try talking to him. If he steps up, give him the treat. Try slowly bringing him around the house and showing him to different rooms while holding the treat in your hand. If he flies off, try again the next day. Repeat until he is not scared anymore.
You could also try calling to him from a visible area in a new part of your home and showing him a treat that he can see. Maybe that will work.
Talking to your bird is a really effective way at bonding. I talk to my birds all the time. Also, hand feed him every day for at least 5 min. This is also very effective.
I hope this helps you and your bird.
Good luck!
P.S: I also have a bird called Mango.
You should probably try to give him more treats out of your hand. A trick to getting birds to step-up is to put your finger to an area above their feet (shown on the picture). Alternatively, you can just open your palm up, but this usually works for more trained birds. Show him a treat (something he really, really likes) on the other side of your hand and try talking to him. If he steps up, give him the treat. Try slowly bringing him around the house and showing him to different rooms while holding the treat in your hand. If he flies off, try again the next day. Repeat until he is not scared anymore.
You could also try calling to him from a visible area in a new part of your home and showing him a treat that he can see. Maybe that will work.
Talking to your bird is a really effective way at bonding. I talk to my birds all the time. Also, hand feed him every day for at least 5 min. This is also very effective.
I hope this helps you and your bird.
Good luck!
P.S: I also have a bird called Mango.
~Iris
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As a small update:
A few days after posting this, Mango actually managed to step up onto my finger. It's not much but it's a start. I'm needed to gently push him off the perch so he grabs onto the cage's bars and places his legs back on my finger. He jumps off after a minute or so and will step back onto the perch if I move my finger.
That's about it.
A few days after posting this, Mango actually managed to step up onto my finger. It's not much but it's a start. I'm needed to gently push him off the perch so he grabs onto the cage's bars and places his legs back on my finger. He jumps off after a minute or so and will step back onto the perch if I move my finger.
That's about it.
HeatherG
Well-known member
- Apr 25, 2020
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Willow has started to respond to the invitation to “come out” and me shaking his dried fruit jar. Now he steps down to his middle perch and then the front perch and cage door, and steps up on my bare hand.
He just didn’t seem to understand what I wanted before. Now he’s ok with it and I’d rather not upset him by ‘invading’ his cage:
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