Trouble With Taming?

[Pepper122]

I'm very new to owning and handling birds, prior to my green cheeked conure (Cinnamon colored) Pepper, I handled rodents most of which were hand tamed by the time I obtained them.

Now I have Pepper.

I looked on the internet, found information and started trying to tame him. Well now several weeks later I've hit a dead end on the issue after making numerous amounts of progress.

Pepper does like me, she talks to me, gets semi upset when I leave, happily greets me when I come home. By all appearances? She looks tame looking at her from the cage, she's right on the front door, always as close to where I am as she can be in the cage.

Once the door is open this story changes.

When my hand is inside the cage she'll only cuddle up to it on one bar, and while she grips my finger with one foot sometimes, she refuses to step up entirely.

Once she is outside the cage, she wants all my attention, she makes noise for it and behaves the same way! Pepper will take food from my hand, I can use food to make her come right up to me, but than she runs away. My bird want's my attention, she looks at me, talks to me all that, but the second I try to give it to her she flies away.

Am I doing something wrong? Should I get her clipped to aid in taming her? Do I just need to be more patient, if so how long can I expect?

 

[sadiebird]

A few weeks is not a long time - don't forget that these birds have lifespans about 10 times that of the average small rodent. Be patient. Mine went from being very aggressive and fearful (i.e. running over to attack things he's scared of before running away) to being a complete cuddle monster who loves tickles and kisses and beak rubs. It took about 1.5 months for mine to get like this, but he does spend about 15 hours out of the cage every day which helped a lot.

I find it helps to think of your bird not as a caged pet/acquisition but as a member of the family (like a 2-4 year old child) and treat them accordingly. Invite/entice your bird to participate in activities with you, like sharing meals, playing with toys, pointing things out and naming them. Just like you'd do with a baby. If you get really excited about things she'll probably show interest (pick things up and examine them while talking about how interesting they are, and then offer them to her).

Figure out what your bird really likes and use that as a way to tempt her to stay closer to you. Don't forget to keep your body motions slow and watch her reactions to your movements to make sure you aren't scaring her - try to keep her interested and curious, and (just like a kid) she'll warm up to you over time.

I'd say don't clip her wings just for the sake of "taming" her - it's probably nice for her to be able to fly away if she needs some space to feel safe.

 

[MikeyTN]

She's already showing you that she's interested, why don't you just allow pepper to come to you on her own perhaps? Open her cage and wait to see what she does. Jasper and I bonded instantly from day one, that was a shocker, he flew to me right away.

 

[Pepper122]

I did all those thing's with my last pet, a rat called Storm. However Storm wouldn't do any of it until he bonded to me and was "Tame". I guess birds are different in that sense, I'll see if she'll do that sort of stuff and stop trying to hold her and teach step up for now.

 

[MikeyTN]

Birds is a whole lot different from rodents! Main thing is to step up first, kinda hard to do anything if they don't know to step up.

 

[Flboy]

Yes, please, birds are very different than rodents! You do not tame them, you earn their trust and love! For a life time, much different than us humans!! If it is worth having, it's worth waiting for! I have had JoJo in my life, just one week short of a year, and we are both still learning each other and growing stronger! Wished my marriage went the same, -but reality? I learned quite a few life lessons before JoJo, so I am much more respectful of our relationship! My reason for dumping TMI? A relationship with your bird is really at this level!

 

[Skittys_Daddy]

Not only are birds MUCH different than rodents, but even among bird species there are many differences. For example, some birds are inherent chewers while others are not. Same goes with talking ability and so on.

I think patience is key here. I don't recommend clipping your birds wings. I also don't think it would work. It might even backfire. Right now, Pepper can fly to you if she wants. You take that away and you're back at square one.

There is no set time table on taming. Some birds require little to no taming when you first get them while others require a lot of time and so on.

The key is, in the beginning, you have to work at your birds pace, not your own. If you try to rush taming it can backfire. If you don't put any effort into it at all, well, you don't get any result at all.

When Pepper wants to be near you, is showing interest. Reciprocate that. Use those times to practice taming. Good luck!