Ask Lafeber

My bird doesnt want to sleep in his cage

Hi, i have had my loverbird for 3 weeks. He is 2-3 months old. Now, we let him out from his cage first thing in the morning, and we uasually close the door when he is eating at the evening. He is not fully tamed yet, but we are seeing progress every day. He eats from our fingers and sit next to us. But he does not feel safe enough yet that he sits on our finger without him eating millet. And we can not move him with our finger to his cage. So my question is, is it sometimes ok to let him sleep outside his cage, in the living room? Beacuse he is afraid to eat in the evening beacuse he knows that we will close the cage-door, and i dont want him to be hungry every night. Or what can we do?

Hi,

When an owner says “My bird doesn’t want or like something”, what I hear is I’m going to let my bird do what he wants even though he could get hurt or killed. He had to be taught – just like you would teach a child what they can & can’t do. In the wild, his parents and flock members would teach him because if they let him do what he wants, he would eat something poisonous or get killed by a predator.

By giving your bird free roam, you are going to end up with a wild lovebird that might come to you sometime, if that is what he wants. And if it ends up being a female, you will end up with a bird that won’t stop laying eggs. Pet birds need a routine, and they need to see you as a means to come out of the cage, not as the reason he gets locked up. Small birds can be easier to work with if they have a little bit of a wing trim. The feathers will grow back when the bird molts. But as long as the bird can fly away from you, he gets to decide what he does and whether he comes near you. You are in charge – not the bird. With a bird that is hesitant about hands, try training it to get on a stick. Lovebirds are a prey species, so if you try to grab him, he thinks you are a predator trying to catch him. He should also be eating throughout the day – not just twice a day. Parrots are foragers, so they spend most of their day foraging for food and eating. They have an extremely high metabolism, so by the end of the day without food, your bird is running on empty. This is not good for him. He should come out of the cage on your hand or on a stick, and after you interact for a while, return him to the cage. He should always be supervised or he could get hurt or killed by getting into something he shouldn’t. And he should definitely sleep in a cage. He can’t see well in the dark, so if he got on the floor during the night, someone could step on him and kill him. I’m going to give you the links to our behavior and training pages to help you understand him better and work with him.

Pet Bird and Parrot Behavior

Teaching Your Bird

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda