Training Lovebirds in the Early Stages
Training Lovebirds in the Early Stages The first few days at home with your new bird may be really simple or a little uncomfortable for the bird, depending on its personality, where it has previously lived, its age, and how it is introduced to your home.
Birds are quite adaptable, and if you’ve established a welcoming atmosphere for them, they should have no trouble settling in.
When you first bring the bird home, let it a few hours to acclimate to its new environment.
Don’t try to play with the bird right away; he has to find the food and water bowls and choose a suitable perch. He might want to play with his new toy as well.
Many people advise not playing with the bird too much in the first few days, although this is dependent on the bird.
This is something you should do if you have a young sociable bird who enjoys playing with your hands.
Allow time for a rescue bird or an elderly bird who is less skilled with its hands and feet to become acquainted with its surroundings and new family.
Discover your bird’s personality without making any assumptions about him.
Is he self-sufficient, or will you have to train him? Is he interested in healthy eating, or do you need to train him to be open to new experiences?
Don’t assume it’s the same as your other birds or birds of the same species. Each bird is unique.
Examine your bird to ensure that everything in his new house is in working order.
Is he afraid of a certain toy?
Are the perches positioned correctly?
Is the bird’s food and drink dishes soiled?
Is he in a position to easily reach them?
Please observe how the bird moves around in its habitat. If something needs to be repaired, do so right away.
A timid bird is not the same as a terrified bird, yet a timid bird may appear fearful.
A shy bird will show some interest in family life if you do not focus on it.
Is the bird watching what you’re doing?
Is he happy to play while you move about the room?
He may not be used to human touch, but he is nonetheless interested in what you have to offer.
A timid bird may climb to the back of its cage to keep an eye on you to determine if you are as bad as you appear.
If you offer the shy bird a snack, it may be hesitant to accept it. This is an excellent bird to deal with because he wants to join your flock but is wary of his new surroundings.
Begin by “acclimating” this bird to your presence. Allow him to adjust to family life before placing any expectations on him.
It is acceptable to lift your hand slightly closer to the cage to provide the bird food and water, but not to touch him.
Avoid making direct eye contact with it by whispering to it. Make no obtrusive touch. The goal is to acquaint the bird with your presence.
Once the bird is used to your presence, try lightly touching it on the chest or head, then slowly withdraw your hand.
You want the bird to understand that your interaction is not terrifying and may even be fun. Repeat this process until the bird becomes acclimated to the contact.
Once the bird is acclimated to being lightly touched, try to persuade it to climb on your finger or at the very least allow you to scratch its head.
If you move gently and without fear, you can gradually persuade the bird to become your friend. Your proximity and touch should become a habit for the bird rather than something you push on it over time.
Instead of expecting an immediate response from the bird, allow it some time to get to know you.
Taming a Terrified Bird
A scared bird isn’t used to being touched by humans. Perhaps it was raised by its parents rather than being hand-fed, was captured in the wild, or spent enough time as a “breeding bird” to forget what human contact feels like.
Perhaps the previous owners never touched the bird, or the bird has a history of negative human encounters.
In either case, this bird must first gain trust in its new home and human flock.
When you enter the room, a startled bird may twirl around the cage. Clinging to the back of the cage increases the likelihood of him glaring at you warily and remaining incredibly silent so you don’t see him.
He will freeze in place if there is anyone nearby. When you service their cage, terrified birds may hiss, snap their beaks, and make other frightening noises. He’s uninterested in you. He wants you to depart.
Handle a fearful bird with the same care that you would a shy bird. Handle this bird with caution and refrain from attempting to “tame” it.
Allow a few weeks for the bird to acclimate to its new surroundings.
Proceed with caution when you are ready to handle the bird. If you think you’ve been bitten, try “stick training” instead of engaging the bird with your hands.
Don’t wear gloves! Gloves terrify birds and increase their fear of your hands.
Furthermore, if you use gloves to tame your bird, you will have to start over if you want to use your ungloved hand since the bird will be so used to the glove that it will be afraid of your hand.
Do not attempt to tame the bird until he has acclimated to his new surroundings.
Allow him to eat and drink as he pleases. Try not to change his environment too much during the first several weeks.
After a while, you’ll notice signs that the bird is ready for a closer look.
He will feed or preen himself when you enter the room, be curious when you operate the cage, and even approach when you offer him a treat. It’s time to take things a step further and discover what the bird will accept.
Slowly progress with this kind of taming, and the bird should eventually feel at ease with the idea of having a human companion, or so we hope!
Classes for Perching
The Step Up is essential to your relationship with your bird and may even save his life one day. The “Step Up” is simple: your birds perch on your finger or hand.
Birds are born with no knowledge of how to do this. As a result, you must educate them. The bird will immediately step onto your finger since it resembles a perch.
Some birds, on the other hand, learn considerably faster than others. Baby birds who are just learning to fly will notice this right away.
When you have a newborn bird, it normally comes to you and knows precisely what you want it to do. To reinforce the practice, say “Stand up” every time you give your finger or hand.
It’s not difficult to teach a bird who doesn’t know how to stand. Instead of a flat surface, place your bird on a perch or your finger. Use your second finger or hand as a “perch,” applying light pressure to the bird’s lower chest/belly area, causing it to feel off balance.
When a bird loses its balance, it will usually lift one foot.
Carefully remove your finger from under the foot. If you elevate your foot, the bird will cling onto your finger with one foot while balancing on the perch with the other. “Get on,” you say. Rep numerous times a day until your bird understands that “Step up” means to stand on your hand.
When learning this behavior, keep the following considerations in mind: First, make sure your hand is a strong perch. If you’re worried about the bird on your palm, he’ll be too.
If you falter once or drop the bird out of fear, the bird will remember and may refuse to climb back onto your palm, or it may bite you.
Also, be sure you practice the Step up with both hands at the same time. If you train it with your right hand, the bird could be hesitant to walk up onto your left. Keep in mind that birds are creatures of habit, so try to train the behavior in a variety of settings.
Once the bird has mastered walking on your palm, have friends and family members repeat the activity, ensuring that they can hold the bird safely.
Stick training for your bird
Pole training is similar to “step up” training, but instead of your hand, you use a perch or dowel. For certain birds, this may be the first form of step-up training; perhaps the bird is a little hand-shy or prone to biting, but for most birds, stick training should come after hand taming.
Choose two or three different shaped sticks or dowels, one of which should be extra long. The idea is that if you ever need to rescue your bird from a high position, he will be much easier to rescue if he has had stick training.
Your adorable bird will almost certainly take to stick training right away. Other birds could be scared by sticks.
That’s alright; you just need to get the bird used to the presence of the sticks. Begin by arranging the sticks throughout the room. Leave them a few feet away from the cage for a week.
Then, progressively move the sticks closer to the cage until they are almost touching it. After the bird is acquainted with its surroundings, move the sticks to the top of the cage or even inside the cage.
Allow the bird to come into contact with the sticks if it so wishes. Then, try to persuade your bird to stand delicately and comfortably on the stick. At this time, it should no longer be an issue.
Use the “ladder technique” once you’ve persuaded the bird to stand on the pole. You instruct the bird to land on your hand, then on the stick, then on your hand, and so on until the game becomes a game.
Do this for a few minutes several times a day, but don’t make it too difficult for your bird. Once the bird has mastered climbing onto a perch or dowel, try different species with different colors and textures.
Avoid using slippery perches as well, as a bird may be hesitant to step on a slick surface. Repeat several times a week to encourage the behavior.
A program that recognizes and rewards exemplary conduct.
If you’ve ever heard of positive reinforcement training for dogs, you should know that it can also be used to educate lovebirds. Positive reinforcement works especially well with intelligent organisms like birds.
Positive reinforcement seeks to reward positive behavior while disregarding undesirable behavior.
Because unpleasant behavior is not rewarded, undesirable behavior decreases and desirable behavior grows in an ideal environment. The key to using this method with lovebirds is to quickly identify the desired behavior so that it can be rewarded and then choose the appropriate incentive.
Some birds may be given a treat, while others may be given some attention.
Here’s an example of how to apply this method: Assume a bird is yelling for your attention.
You’ve determined that the sobbing isn’t caused by the parrot being sick, lonely, or injured. In parrots, screaming is frequently positively rewarded; when the bird screams, the owner may scream back or face the bird – ah! Screaming attracts a lot of attention!
The bird is unaware that your yelling is a scolding. He feels your yelling is a pleasant method for you to participate in the yelling party.
When you yell at the bird, it encourages yelling. To put a stop to the yelling, you must reinforce the tranquil moments.
A quiet parrot is easy to overlook or dismiss. Instead of ignoring the peaceful moments, approach the silent parrot and say, “Good silence!”
If you do this enough times, the bird will learn that it receives attention when it is tranquil and playing by itself, rather than when it is screeching.
Remember that you can’t just ignore the shouting and quiet times; lonely parrots should yell to get attention. A peaceful parrot, on the other hand, will have less cause to cry for attention if you give enough attention to it.
This strategy has the potential to influence any type of behavior – it even works on individuals!
Discipline for a Lovebird
Punishing a bird is impossible. That is correct. It’s not possible. It just does not work. Lovebirds are instinctual and habitual creatures, and the term “punishment” has a completely different meaning for them than it does for us.
Punishment for them entails not getting what they desire, yet they must obtain what they want in order to truly learn.
Several old-school “punishments” have been around for a long time and have proven to be ineffective. Here are a couple of such examples:
The bird should be doused with water.
This method completes one of three tasks.
The bird thinks it’s bath time, which many birds like.
The bird develops an aversion to water.
The water shock will stop the action, but the bird will not learn and will resume its behavior. Water splashing is intended to be “aversion therapy,” but it is ineffective with birds.
with the beak fluttering
The beak is a delicate part that must be handled with caution. Please do not reprimand your bird by tapping or flicking its beak.
Some birds love tapping their beaks gently, but this is more for bonding than punishment.
Drop or wiggle
A bird is standing when it bites the hand. The bird will be wiggled or dropped by the owner. This is not a punishment. This is done to prevent future bites and to teach the bird not to bite.
So, if done softly, wiggling or dropping to escape a bite is acceptable, as long as you understand it is not punishment.
Force
Never use any kind of force on a bird. This is animal abuse, and the birds learn nothing but fear of you.
Instead of constantly pointing out what the lovebird is doing wrong, begin pointing out and appreciating what the parrot is doing right. The bird will learn much more than “punishment” as a result of this.
Toilet education
Contrary to popular belief, lovebirds can be effectively toilet trained.
It simply takes a little time and work, but it’s much simpler than you think.
Potty training can be achieved in a variety of methods; you must choose the ideal one for you.
The spoken cue
You can give your bird a verbal cue for “business,” allowing you to control when and where the “business” is done in the future.
Select a suitable cue or phrase, such as “Go poop” or “Bombs away.” When you detect your bird getting ready to perform its business, say the cue word and praise it enthusiastically.
The bird will eventually identify the trigger word with the term “business.”
When you deliver the signal, the bird should drop the bomb in the spot you specify.
The physical indication
If you want your bird to land on something specific, like a paper plate or a piece of newspaper, prepare the paper ahead of time and wait for the bird to arrive.
If you do this repeatedly, the bird will grasp that you are expecting a “deal” when the paper is under it. You can also supplement this method with a verbal hint.
Keep in mind that if a bird has an “accident,” you should not “punish” or scold it. This cannot be avoided.
Training is not an exact science. Each bird is different, and some may never learn this habit, whilst others may learn it quickly.
Caution: If you are overly strict in teaching your bird to “go” when you say the command, he may “hold it in” for too long and become unwell.
Potty training should not be too rigid. Allow the bird to freely “go” in or around the cage.
