New Member, New Parrotlet Owner

Hi, my name is Sandy and I have just adopted my very first bird...an 11th month male Parrotlet.

I understand Parrotlets are suppose to be very affectionate, but little Ernie doesn't seem to want to sit on my finger or be petted.

The couple I got him from, bought him from the breeders, so he has really only had one owner. They would let him fly around the house all day long, they clipped his wings the night before I picked him up. I am wondering whether that is part of the problem, he is adjusting not only to a new home but he can no longer fly. He chirps alot, he likes to come out of his cage and play on top, I have bought him a ton of toys for his cage, as he only had one in his cage when I got him. Somtimes he jumps to the floor and he has no problem getting on my finger, but he seems afraid of me. Any suggestions to win him over.

Welcome to the forums Sandy,

First, I hope you don't mind that I deleted two other copies of this post which were posted in the same section - I suspect the multiple posts was a mistake and one of the others contained a number of formatting tags which were not working properly. If I missed something and there was a reason for these other threads let me know and I can restore them.

Now, to the new bird - congrats. Its a thrilling, challenging, rewarding, yet sometime discouraging experience to bring home that first bird. How long have you had him? If you have just brought him home within the past several days to a week then I'd say it sounds like you are off to a great start - it takes time for them to learn to trust us. If it has been much longer than that there are certainly some things you can do to get things moving along smoother.

I have to be off for the moment, but I hope to get back to this thread later tonight. Until then browse around, there are a lot of older threads that address similar issues and lots of experienced members who will likely drop in.

Thanks for deleting the other 2 messages, I am totally new at this and it was an error on my part.

I have had Ernie for 2 weeks now and if you have any suggestions on how to earn his trust I would love to hear them.

Sandy

So you say he will step up on your finger well, but he doesn't want to sit there?

What exactly does he do? Does he bite, jump/fly away? If you could describe some details of his behavior it would be helpful in addressing the problems.

Have you tried using perches or sticks to get him to step up?

If for some reason he ends up on the floor, which sometimes he just jumps off the cage, if I put my finger down and say step up he will, he doesn't really want me to pet him, he kind of runs up my arm and gets on my back. Eventually I get him back on my finger and I bring him to his cage. The only time he goes to nip me is when he is on top of his cage and I put my finger down in front of him. I can put my hand in his cage and he will eat from my hand. As for using perches for him to step up, when I first got him I got a branch from outside that was about the size as a perch in his cage and tried that, but perhaps he is more use to me now and I will try again.

I am not quite certain what people mean when they say you should spend time with your parrot. I would take him around the house more with me if he would sit on my shoulder. I try to spend a good 45 minutes in the morning talking to him while I have coffee and leave his cage open for 2 hours while I am getting ready for work. At night I talk him while making dinner and then spend some time talking to him after dinner and leave his cage open for a couple of hours. I have a cat and dog,so so I am careful about leaving the cage open re the cat.

Thanks