Advice needed

kvance2017

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Feb 8, 2020
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Hello everyone! I’m new to small birds- always had cockatoos and macaws prior to this point. I am currently struggling to bond with a 4 month old (supposedly handfed baby lovebird, Kiwi). I have had Kiwi for a month now and feel like I have made no progress. Kiwi’s cage is right beside my recliner. I spend time talking to him, maintaining the cage, and feeding him etc. Kiwi’s wings were clipped prior to me getting him/her. Kiwi still stays as far away from me as possible- will not take any food or treats from my hand. Goes ballistic when anything has to be done inside the cage... I am not getting any bonding in and really want to get to a point where he wants to be out of the cage socializing- like shoulder rides or at least sitting on my hand... I am desperately missing my larger more social birds. Any advice welcomed... :orange:
 

LaManuka

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Aug 29, 2018
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Welcome to the forum to you and Kiwi! We have many lovebird lovers here who I’m sure will have plenty of constructive advice for you.

From my own perspective I would say that all birds initially view humans the same way they would view a predator, it’s hardwired into them over millions of years of evolution so you need to have that viewpoint at front of mind in everything you do. Even more so with little birds like lovebirds! Kiwi has absolutely no reason to trust you, and you cannot be 100% certain of what his experience of humans has been in his short life so far. Indeed he’s been through major and, to him at least, possibly traumatic changes in his life to date!

My lorikeet Lilly came to me at the age of almost 4 months old and had spent some time as an aviary bird so had reverted back to a semi-wild state despite being hand fed as a baby. I say “hand fed” rather than “hand raised” because I’m fairly sure the only interaction she had with her breeder was at feeding time, and I suspect this is quite common. When she first came home she was terrified of everything but especially of me! I spent 3 solid weeks sitting progressively closer to her, all day every day, reading quietly to her and I would play YouTube videos of her species on my phone which piqued her interest and enticed her to come a little closer. Finally one afternoon it was like a switch flicked on in her brain and she leapt onto my shoulder to inspect the bottlebrush flower I had picked for her (lorikeets love those!) and she has been my velcro-bird ever since! So stick with it, take your time, move slowly around your bird so he comes to realise you’re not going to eat him, and always have yummy treats handy and I’m sure you’ll find Kiwi will work it out for himself eventually, they’re pretty smart so they usually do :)
 

Laurasea

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Aug 2, 2018
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Welcomed to the forum. I've not got advice for you tho, sorry.
 

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