Trouble with 1 yr old galah male

[GalahBoy03]

Sup peeps I got a prob with my 1 year old galah I got a few days ago today is (23/3/15)
And it's been pretty what u call scared not interactive although I don't blame him I I don't know who's been his owner or how much owners he has had and how they treated him. he walks away from us when we get near him we've tried looking with him seriously and in a certain voice telling him no if he beaks
One problem we have is that if we just try to hand feed it. It's beaks us and sometimes it even bites hard we know he won't do it on purpose birds are caring animals I need some tips on how I can tame it and how to make it stop beaking plz reply quick :64: and if anyone has no clues is their anyway I can call someone to tame him for me btw I live in sydney Australia

 

[strudel]

You can "tame" him, you just need to give him some space and time for him to learn that you aren't going to hurt him and to learn that his new place is his home and somewhere he is safe and among friends.

Have a look for the "sticky" thread about how to work on building trust with your bird.

Have you kept birds before?

 

[Puck]

Hi there welcome to the forum! I don't know that I would characterize birds as "caring" creatures--they are prey animals. If he is biting you then he probably DOES mean it! It doesn't make him a bad bird though--you are a stranger to him right now. Just like we tell our kids not to take candy from strangers, our fids are equally wary of people they don't know. Like strudel said, there are lots of great threads here on bonding with your bird. You have only had it a very short period of time. Most birds need at least a week to really settle in and start trusting you, if not quite a bit more. Try and read his body language--if he doesn't want your hand near him right now then back off. You have 50+ years to bond with him and birds aren't like dogs who love you right away. Try sitting beside his cage and just talking to him. That tends to help them settle into their new homes.

 

[Minimaker]

Look up youtube videos of training parrots and work on your bond with your bird. Sometimes seeing it in action really helps.

As I type my conure is in the background having a fit because I won't come get him. He's out on the playstand, he's fed, nothing is wrong with him. And yet he's bouncing up and down flapping his wings and squeaking like mad because he has to be near me. You can bond with a bird, if you work on it.

 

[Pinkbirdy]

Do you have to hand feed him ?

 

[Jayyj]

I'm not desperately keen on the word 'tame' - what you're doing is teaching the bird that you're not a threat and that you can be trusted. That means taking your time and letting him set the pace - it can take anything from a few days to months and even years with a bird that has issues, but given he's still pretty young it shouldn't take too long to get there. When I first brought mine home I let her stay in the cage with the door open, put the tv on and had a book to hand, and just talked to her whilst getting on with other things. I didn't pay her too much attention and avoided too much eye contact (prey species get nervous when large animals look at them as though sizing them up for lunch), just let her get used to me being around and the sound of my voice. Pretty soon she was coming out as far as the cage door, and at that point I started offering treats. If I did something like offering food or going up to talk to the cage and she backed away or lunged at me I wouldn't try to force the issue, backed off and gave it a few hours before trying again.

Sprigs of millet were really useful to me in winning her over. You can cut off a piece that is big enough that a bird can take a bite without getting close to your fingers so less frightening to him, less chance of you getting chomped. It didn't take long before Alice was scampering forward to take a bite, and within days I had her stepping off the cage onto my forearm in order to get to it (if you try this, don't take your arm away from the cage, give him the chance to step back if he wants to then once he's staying put you can start moving away from the cage with him).

Unfortunately galahs are very beaky birds - if it looks interesting and it fits in their mouth, it's going in. The trick in the long term is teaching pressure biting so that the bird knows not to chomp down and cause pain, but if you've only had the bird a few days is probably a bit early to be dealing with this.