Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 11:20 am Post subject: Bed time
Hi,
We have just got our first bird, Bright Yellow Kakariki called Nana, we have only had her 2 weeks and have read nearly everything on these forums to get as much info as we can as we are first time bird owners.
We dont know how old she is as got her from a pet shop.
We are having trouble getting her back into her cage at night, and hand taming her. We have moved her cage so she is sat next to the sofa and can get used to us being near her. We will sit for hours with our hands in the cage and she is still scared of us. we cant seem to find a treat she likes , we have tried dried berries, nuts, apple, oranges, cucumber, carrots, peas, sweetcorn, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, mint leaves, chicken, fresh mealworms, and nothing seems to distract her from the petshop food.
We let her out of her cage as often as possible as we dont feel it is big enough for her. 46 x 35 x 90cm. If there is only one of us in the house during the day she seems to have a nice time flying and will go back in her cage on her own. In the evening when both of us are home she will fly for a little bit and then park her bum on the curtain rail and stay there. We have had to leave her out all night as we were unable to make the cage seem interesting enough even after changing all the toys and putting more treats inside. We have tried ignoring her and leaving the room but nothing seems to make her want to move.
Any help would be appreciated as we are first time owners and would like to make her life as pleasant as possible and being out all night seems a bit dangerous. Sorry for the long post!
Reading between the lines..I think your bird is afraid of hands rather than people...ie most birds do not connect a tree leaf and a tree trunk.
The only time I have seen a bid not eventually come down from the top of a cage and eventaully sit on a hand in a cage was one that was tramitised by uncontrolled children , and the adults wacked the cage to shut it up.
Does the bird tremble when the hand is in the cage....continue to show intense fear, or just .."Im not sure about this yet" ?
Getting the bird back in the cage is a matter of getting the bird to claim the cage terrortially 1st....
It is his safe haven from everything....thats the 1st step
Do not invade that space till he becomes possive about it.
Only then u can start to tame down in that cage.
A lot has happened upto now, cage location etc etc changed around....
Do u have another cage..set both up and let him choose as best as u can.
Even put the doors together so he can wander between....and give it a good 2 weeks to settle in.
It can be more difficult not having age or history...compared to say a wild bird or a avairy breed bird.....these birds have not been screwed around with. _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
Hi Nick.... to the forum ... nice to see another member from "the shire"
i agree with steps about giving a bit more time to settle in. although i have a large wild colour male who still wont even take a sunflowere seed from me or get near me after several years...we have an arangement... when i go near the cage he hops to the bottom so i can open the top door to do what i have to.... soon as i finish hes back on his fav penthouse perch. In the past ive had trouble getting certain birds back in the cage... and it can get worse ..... from experience id say be very carefull about your hands.... try keep them down and away from the bird and dont make it into a game of tag....!!! they soon work that out and have hours of fun getting you running about backwards n forwards...!!! id say..... invest in a black short handled net (for birds...they have a padded edge) and when all else fails...... bribing etc let him sit on the curtain pole..... and turn the lights off.....get a small torch so you can see and quietly and gently pop the net over him and against the wall and hold him through the net.... lights back on and release into the cage........... but talk to him calmly while you are doing it so he doesnt panic
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