I have a 3 month old lovebird. And she will not step up. Not even with the lure of millet.
Is it ok to move my lovebirds cage from room to room and outside during day with me. Also is it good to play lovebird singing for her. She seems to love it. It is how I get her to come out of her cage instead of chasing her around and scaring her.
Hi Sandra,
It sounds like your little bird wasn’t hand fed? A parent raised lovebird can be very challenging to tame. At three months, you haven’t been working with her for very long. It takes a lot of patience to tame a parent raised bird, and you aren’t going to see a lot of progress at one time. You need to first work on the bird trusting you, and this means do not try to get her on your hands or try to touch her. Lovebirds are prey animals, and they do not like being grabbed. A hand can make them feel like a predator is trying to get them. You should sit by the cage with your hands out of sight and just talk to her. She isn’t going to be ready to even try to get her used to your hands until she will approach you when you talk to her. I wouldn’t play lovebird sounds for her, because this just makes her want to be back in the aviary with her clutchmates. She needs to bond with you, not other birds. You definitely do not want to chase her around the cage. Right now she needs to stay in the cage and get used to you. Coming out of the cage is something she can do when she trusts you and your hands. She needs to have a reason to bond with you. If you allow her to come and go from the cage on her own, she has no need for you. She needs to have some dependence on you. I’m going to give you the links to our training and behavior pages to hep you better understand how to work with her. As for moving her cage to where you are, this is OK as long as it isn’t scaring her. But I wouldn’t take her outside. Birds do not tolerate abrupt temperature changes well, and she could get too hot or cold. And there is the risk that she could get loose outside and fly away. And on that note, you will have better luck taming her if her wings are trimmed. She will grow new feathers the next time she molts, but if she can fly away from you, she is going to be hard to tame.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
