Parent raised birds : )

I was wondering are there any other members here who have parent raised birds who are tame?

All of my fids are parent raised. I must admit I think I prefer parent raised over hand raised. This is just my personal experience.

Care to share you stories?
The ups and downs of owning a parent raised bird?
Would you ever own one again?
Or just go for a hand raised bird?
Did you tame your parent raised bird?
What is your worst experience?

I tamed my birds and I would do it again. It was very hard with Alex(he was abused at his last home). It took us months before he would stop screaming at us when he saw us. He is a complete different bird



Crumbs, he has a very loving personality.




Yuki, she is very gentle and loves scritches/pats. Which isn't very common for alexandrines Yuki has never bitten anyone. When I got her she was extremely calm and just loved watching me. It didn't take long for her to become tame, it was almost like she already was.

The only advice I can offer if you are thinking about taming a bird is
You need PATIENCE
Clicker training helps a lot
Observe and learn your birds movements, understanding body language is a must (this is my opinion)
Never push their boundaries
Teaching/doing tricks helps with bonding My fids a love their training sessions It really helped with bonding

I would say the worst thing ive come across for having parent raised birds is that

A lady yelled at me saying I was pushing and destroying my birds for forcing them to become tame. She told me it was unnatural and I didn't deserve to own my fids. She said I'm going to create bad behavioural issue for taming my birds and I should of gone for a hand-raised bird instead. At first when she met my fids she was praising me for socialising my fids. Saying how great they are with strangers and others. How cuddly and friendly they were. When I told her they were parent raised her toned changed. I'm not sure why she was so against it? She is a breeder and she hand raises birds. So maybe that has something to do with it? I dunno but it was kind of uncalled for. I am a shy person and it did make me feel uneasy/sad at the time but I am pretty sure I give my fids a happy and wonderful life

She didn't even know what pellets were, she thought I was feeding them "cat food". My fids get harrions pellets, fruits, veges, and some seed.

Kenji is hand raised, and I don't know about Rosie.

Parrots I prefer hand raised, raptors I prefer parent raised.

Not a bright breeder.....

I've tamed parent raised budgies before.... had a couple of semi-tame parent raised bourkes (handled them while they were in the nest).

I have no clue if my first conure was parent raised or hand raised, and although he wouldn't be considered tame, we did have a special understanding with each other that took me too long to figure out!

Let me get a bigger house though, so I can get a "wild caught" [rescued] conure, and I'll get back to you on that!

I had a parent raised blue crown conure for 21 years before he passed in september. He was not only my first bird but he was also wild-caught. I had no problem taming him, though I wouldn't want to do it again. Many years ago I tried my hand at breeding pflb's and then cockatiels. I didn't hand feed, but I did handle the babies a lot so that they would be hand tame.

I wouldn't want to have to tame a parent raised bird again, I know I've already said that, but it's worth saying again.

I have noticed different behaviours between my brothers hand-raised maroon bellied conure to my parent reared maroon bellied conure.

Both are well socialised and aren't bonded to one person. Eddie (my brothers conure) is very sweet, cuddly, and playful. Though he will lung/nip you over little things. He can be aggressive at times. it also seems like he thinks he is a little human and doesn't know he is a bird. He tries to mate with anyone.

Crumbs is also very sweet, cuddly and playful but he isn't as cuddly/playful as Eddie. Crumbs doesn't bite and he seems more independent? Unlike Eddie who use to scream when anyone left the room he also started plucking for a few weeks but he has stopped. It also seems like Crumbs knows he is a bird and he would rather hang out with another bird than a human. Though Crumbs is very happy to hang out with me and get scritches. Eddie would attack another bird if they go near a human(it doesn't really matter who, just as long its a human).

I'm not trying to say you should get a parent reared over a hand raised bird. I think if I do decide to get another fid I would go for a hand raised bird. It takes a long of work and time to tame a parent raised bird but at the end it is totally worth it. Though I warn you, you will receive a lot of bites. Though it is very rewarding : )

It also depends on the bird itself. All birds have their own personality

That breeder was not bright at all. xD

@ Monica
I would love to hear from you when you do

Copperarabian said:

Kenji is hand raised, and I don't know about Rosie.

Parrots I prefer hand raised, raptors I prefer parent raised.

Click to expand...

You do falconry?!? I LOVE falconry. Want to become an apprentice if I ever find a falconer, haha.


Kiwi was hand fed, which I've been told is different than hand raised. Either way she's awesome.

I don't know if my lovebirds or parrotlets are human or parent raised. I do know it doesn't make a difference to me because I have two of each and they are bonded to each other, which I'm happy about If I had a single bird I think it would be a more important issue to me, that it was tame, primarily meaning human hand raised and friendly.

I co-parent my Green Cheek Conures so the parents do the raising and feeding and teach them to fly and play and be a parrot, and I do the socializing. I have tame well adjusted babies.

I think that breeder have an issue!!!! I'm all for co-parenting or taming down parent raised. I've done that in the past, it doesn't mess them up psychologically so I dunno where she learn that from????

I do love the thought of co-parenting I am pretty sure Yuki was raised like this. As when I got her she wasn't afraid of humans.

New Zealand doesn't have the best educated people when it comes to birds. A lot of people are just in it for the "money". I always see that people are selling babies so others can handrear them themselves. So I see a lot of unweaned babies for sale.

I've raised budgies before, and honestly, i don't see the point. They take relatively easily when parent raised, so id never go through the trouble of raising such small birds.

For most parrots, if handraised properly, are better than parent raised. However i had a female Jenday conure once, 1 year old untame parent raised, managed to tame her within a month and she was sooooo sweet!!! So it can depend on the individual bird itself sometimes.



The ups and downs of owning a parent raised bird?: Generally, they have not been taught that biting is bad, so they tend to be rather nippy and sometimes quite flighty.

Would you ever own one again?: I sure would!!! And do ^^

Or just go for a hand raised bird? If my birds bred babies, i would hand raise them.

Did you tame your parent raised bird?: Certainly did. Have tamed a few.

What is your worst experience?: The biting...

Funny how ive received more bites from hand-raised birds than parent raised birds.xD
Once I learned their body language they didn't really bite, they really only bit out of fear. Unlike Eddie who will bite/lung at you for very little things I know to never wear certain colours or he will attack you. Makes me wonder what's going through his mind

And It does depend on the bird itself. Some birds are just nippy while some are the biggest sweetheart in the world

i have two parent raised birds, both tame. one is very cuddly and just as affectionate and demanding as a handfed bird. he was tame in a matter of days though really. mango, our other parent raised bird is tame in the sense that hes not afraid of us, he will come fly to us and sit with us or play with us on his own whim, but hes not cuddly and is a very independent individual--but that is his personality.


however, we have 2 handfed birds. munch was handraised from day 1 and was reverted back to a wild bird by the time we got her and i will tell you. there's nothing harder than to deal with a reverted handraised bird. especially with the tendency to be aggressive--they arent afraid of hands like a parent raised bird. so they are fearless and can be so much harder to earn their trust.


would i do it again? absolutely. you can build the same bond with them, they just take time sometimes. but its so worth it once you earn their trust.

SpotsandSally said:

Copperarabian said:

Kenji is hand raised, and I don't know about Rosie.

Parrots I prefer hand raised, raptors I prefer parent raised.

Click to expand...

You do falconry?!? I LOVE falconry. Want to become an apprentice if I ever find a falconer, haha.


Kiwi was hand fed, which I've been told is different than hand raised. Either way she's awesome.

Click to expand...

I don't, but two of my friends do. When I have extra money I plan to get my license and raise a red tail to it's third year, then decide if I want to continue falconry or not. It's amazing! My friend who does abatement has about 12 raptors, all amazing to watch.
It's incredible to have a bird land on your glove hand :heart:

Hand fed and hand raised are the same thing

Copperarabian said:

Hand fed and hand raised are the same thing

Click to expand...

actually, i heard the same... that handfed and handraised are slightly different. handfed meaning pulled after a certain age and handraised being handfed from day one.

I am assuming when you mean a bird raised by parents that the parents feed the baby bird the whole time? I had a green cheek conure named Clover who was raised by her parents. Yes, she became tame after I worked with her but I am sure if given a choice she would choose a bird over a human. I was told her siblings were pretty wild. I guess this might apply to any budgie you buy from a pet store. I am going to assume my first bird that was a budgie was raised by it's parents. In the end it depends if you have the patience to tame such a bird. The person that had Clover was also taming her before I got her. I know for sure two of my birds were handraised. The Green cheek conure Paulie (my mom bought me in my school years) was handraised. I could handle him but he turned into a little demon with anyone else. My current bird Captain Jack was handraised and so far he has not decided to go biting the heck out of other people. He has been nice to strangers and to the vet. However, on this forum I wonder if handraised will mean the baby bird will be tamed. I read of a macaw being described as feral or a Illigers macaw that came from the same breeder as Captain Jack attacking its owner as if it thinks it is acting for the movie Birds.

Hand raised and hand fed can mean the same thing or completely different things.

Hand raised could mean co-parented or hand fed and raised with love.

Hand fed could mean the same as hand raised with love or being hand raised but otherwise not interacted with.


Some breeders will hand raise their chicks and interact with the chicks as they grow up and mature. Other breeders may treat chicks like an assembly line... once one chick (or a group of chicks) has been fed, it's on to the next chick(s). These breeders may feed the chicks but they otherwise do not interact with them as they grow up.



At least that's been my understanding of it.

that's about what happened with munch. she was fed, but not socialized to human handling. thus, she learned that hands arent a scary thing, but they arent a good thing for her. thats what she was like as a baby and now she absolutely loves hands and loves cuddling, but it was a looooong road of very painful bites where she'd latch on and not let go for dear life (even grinding her beak as she bit!!) but it took 1.5 years to teach her to step up and want to interact nicely with hands and 2 years to get her to enjoy scritches, so now she knows hands are a good thing for her.

tsuka was our parent raised tiel and hes great! he has his moody moments, but i dont think those have anything to do with how he was raised.


so yes, with birds, i think personality comes down to it more than how they're raised. because you also get handraised and socialized birds who would much rather have bird company than people company. then you get birds like tsuka, who were parent raised and unhandled until 5 months old, who actually prefer human company over bird company.

but in terms of pet quality--all are equal. i dont mind having an untame bird to give a good comfortable home. if a bird wants to be left to do bird things and not interact with humans, i respect their space and let them do whatever makes them happy. in the long run, with this approach, they learn to be comfortable with their respect of space and privacy and ironically i find they settle down more and come to trust you on their terms. it makes for a potentially slow bond, but a very strong one--even if its hands off.

mango is parent raised, he'd rather be with birds more than people, and even then he likes to terrorize the other birds so he's also happy to go play by himself as well. he's independent in nature and just likes to do his own thing. he might want to come fly to our shoulder or laps and see what we are up to, maybe play with our hair or get a kiss or two, or he will be a little brat and go for my husband's books while he reads them. or he'll happily fly over to the playgym and play with the toys by himself. he's just happy to do as he pleases and we dont force him to be a cuddly interactive bird. he absolutely LOOOVES being talked to though. he gets all excited and squeaks in this tiny little joyful way when you walk up to the cage, lean in close and just go "whatcha doin' mango boy?" its adorable how he likes to interact and hes just a good of a pet as our other more hands on birds. is he tame? yes, he will step up when he is away from his cage, he'll come sit with us and he isnt afraid of us. but hes not cuddly, he doesnt want to sit with you all the time. but, hes really shown his true colours when we respected his space and he's bonded well with us over the last 3 years this way.


some birds are just independent. 3 of my birds are nippy. but they're birds. theyre gonna be nippy from time to time. i dont factor that in with tameness. mango and munch nip and bite around their cage--heaven forbid cage cleaning time and feeding time--i occasionally get bit for invading their cage. thats fairly common and normal lovebird behaviour.

tsuka, he's just a moody aggressive bird some days and can be a little booger. but thats him.

thats just my personal take on it. i personally think biting has more to do with an individual personality than it does with being parent raised vs handfed. i know some people with handfed fully socialized birds who still love to nip.

this is a rather interesting topic though, because its cool to see everyone's experiences and stories.

Very, very interesting thread. Thank you to all who commented. I currently have two lovebirds. We started with one (Mango - a male) and inherited another one (Sunny) who turned out to be a girl. I couldn't get her DNA tested with COVID etc and our lockdown restrictions we had here in Melbourne . By the time we were able to do such things we just thought Sunny was a boy afterall as there seemed to be no signs of babies coming along. After seeing an egg in the cage in July we knew then we had been wrong! Sunny is a girl afterall!

To cut a long story short, 7 eggs later we had two hatchings. One has survived to the age of 21 days today! THe other sadly did not get passed 9 days . We are doing the co-parent thing i.e., allowing Sunny and Mango to raise their baby but handle the baby daily with the view it will help it get used to our hands and be better socialised. We hope!

Both Mango and Sunny did not come to me tame. I have had to work really hard to gain their trust. Mango started doing tricks for me though within the first week. Having him on a specific diet I believe helped a lot with this. However, it took him 4 months to step up. He really hated hands! Sunny is not as tame as Mango but she will step up (did so for me after having her for a month) and also has learnt a handshake trick .

Neither of my birds will fly to me unless I have millet but I can pretty much get up close to them without them flying away and sometimes I feel like Mango follows me into rooms in the apartment and calls out when I disappear. Pretty cute!

I think it is important to accept your birds the way they are after you have made attempts to tame them. Just like humans, we are not all the same. Some of us like to be hugged and some of us don't. It is, what it is.

I do agree though that target training or clicker training can help tremendously whether or not your bird was hand or parent raised. It really helps to cement a nice bond with your bird.

I will keep you posted on how our co-parenting situation goes with the little one. I am being really careful to only remove the baby from the nesting box when both parents are distracted and not looking and do the same when I return the baby. I really don't want the baby learning from the parents that I am some sort of threat!

Thanks and Kind Regards,

From a proud Grandparront!