Need ideas for building trust with older bird

[metalbudgie]

I have an older hen (maybe 6 years?) who lives in a large cage/small aviary. She’s a very sweet, interactive bird as long as I stay outside the cage (she’ll choose to sit on the side closest to me, and she’ll start eating if I start eating, and she’ll burble back and forth with me, and even dance sometimes to Eddie Van Halen songs... great bird!) but she is not and has never been hand tame.

I suspect she had a rough life before I got her. I got her from a rescue center who said she came from a “hoarding situation”. She has a slightly deformed cere from infections (all healed now), and she had stress bars on all her feathers (also all better now). She also is unusual compared to other parakeets I’ve had in that she doesn’t fly much (prefers to climb back and forth in her cage) and she won’t sit on anything unsteady like a swing or rope ladder.

So, I woke up one night last summer around 3am with my bedroom full of smoke and the sky glowing orange. I was really scared, and grabbed my bird out of her cage and stuffed her into the smaller travel one in case we needed to evacuate. (Her regular cage is too large to fit out the door). She’d been woken up when I turned on the lights, so I had to really chase her around to catch her, and it was a pretty traumatic experience for both of us. Fortunately the fire turned out to be pretty far away, so everything was fine from that standpoint. But about two weeks later I had to catch her again to take her to the vet because she’d been really listless (the vet said she was basically fine and probably just feeling a little sick because of the smoke). She really didn’t want to be caught then either.

Ever since then she’s been very skittish of me putting my hand in her cage. I don’t blame her one bit and I feel really guilty for stressing her out like that, especially because even as scared as she was she never tried to bite. I’m also worried because sooner or later I will need to catch her again for some reason, and I don’t know how to make that not traumatic.  It has been almost six months now... What can I do to try to regain her trust? I’ve tried bribing her with spray millet, but she isn’t really that much of a fan.

[blue48]

Hello and welcome metalbudgie.

I'm no expert. I have 2 budgies, one I've had 18 months from a baby, and the other for about 4 months. Like yours, the second one had a less than ideal first year although more from lack of human interaction than anything else. The first owner lost his sight, then the breeder took him back and he was in an aviary where he was not comfortable, and then he came to me. So he's not tame, but over the time I have had him he has become used to me and is no longer terrified.

Maybe that's the best you can hope for, to regain trust and as you say, it has been 6 months so it's a long time coming, but I hope you can see some progress from 6 months ago, and all I can say is keep trying. I know that's not what you want to hear but there's no magic solution.

Hopefully there will be no need to catch her again but if she doesn't get finger tame I would suggest trying to do it by catching her in a soft cloth, nothing too bright, but big enough to hide the dreaded hands.

Have you thought of getting her a friend?

[metalbudgie]

Hi blue48, thanks for the response.

She has improved a bit - she is no longer on edge for normal everyday stuff now. She's fine with me touching her side if she is sitting against the cage wall and I can do it without my fingers going in the cage. Her remaining distrust is all centered around my having my hands in her cage. I actually was using the cloth technique, but unfortunately she was not fooled.

I've been sitting with my hand resting inside the cage for about 30-mintues or so every day for a few months now, but she just moves to the other side of the cage well out of reach and waits until I take my hand out. Don't seem to be making any progress there. I wouldn't mind except for that I worry about if I have to catch her again for the vet or something.

I am planning on getting her a friend once lockdown eases up a little. I'm a little worried that if I get a new bird and she is still extremely hand shy, the new bird might pick up the shyness from her and they'd reinforce each other. Then I'd have two birds I can't catch. I guess it probably would depend on the personality and age of the individual bird...?

[Hezz]

If you can’t bribe her with millet, is there something else that she loves? Or just offer her her regular seed in your hand. Regaining her trust will take some time and a fair amount of effort, as in every day several times a day if possible. Always be calm around her - the panicked situation of the smoke and fire will have been more traumatic for her than the actual catching her. If you had been calm at that time the chances are that she would not have had the reaction that she did. Birds are very aware of our own stress levels and take that on board themselves.

Instead of 30 minutes at a time, I would break up that time into at least 15 minute intervals and do so as many times a day as possible. You have to be offering her something as a reward for coming closer to you, or letting you get closer to her. An empty hand is no incentive.

[metalbudgie]

I'll give it a try. Thanks.

[mona]

Agreed. Birdies sense our emotions and fears.. Stay consistent in your efforts and keep trying different treats (aka her favorite food). She must be terrified of the fire & smoke plus your reaction (which was of course normal, I would have freaked out too).

Mine are currently afraid of the remnants of henna on my palm..



My birdies are not hand tamed.. I have not grabbed them since a long time (except last year when one of my birdies was chasing and torturing the other birdie). To transfer them to travel cage, I get up earlier than they get up and moved food, water, etc to travel cage and arranged both cages door to door. For applying coconut oil to their cere and feet, it worked out without the need to catch them. I just kept the earbud steady and they allow me.. sometimes when they don't, I leave the oil on their favorite swing where they rub their cere and the work gets done.. till the time, she is afraid of your hand, there might be some workarounds..