Ask Lafeber

why are my birds running away?

I’ve had my birds for at least a year now I got the female one first then a couple weeks later I got the second. I didn’t try and tame them with food until three months after so I think that’s why but I’m not sure they keep running away and panicking and breathing really hard when I come near and when they want to go somewhere, I help them up but even when I’m still far away they’ll just fly it’s like they don’t want to be near me. how do I tell them that I’m just helping them and I’m friendly

Hi,

It’s really hard to tame birds when they share a cage. They will have a bond and generally have no interest in people. It helps to understand their natural instincts, because these are an exotic pet and can’t be trained like a dog or cat. When birds have a mate, they do not interact closely with other flock members. This is the same reason they don’t want to interact with you. Also, they are prey animals, so when you try to pick them up, they feel like a predator is trying to catch them. They have to trust you and want to approach you, which again, may not happen since they have each other. I’ll give you the links to our behavior and training pages to help you better understand them. It’s nothing personal – it’s not that they don’t like you, they just don’t understand that you aren’t trying to catch or hurt them.

Pet Bird and Parrot Behavior

Teaching Your Bird

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda