Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 1/20/2007

Question
Hi, you probably get very simular questions to this but here we go. I have just bought a parakeet about two weeks ago, it should only be about 4-6 weeks old. Anyways, I have been having trouble taming it. its living conditions are in a reasonable sized cage in my room, every morning I clean its cage, feed it and open the window so it can see outside. I also put music for him when I leave the apartment. Anyways, the first couple days I got him, he was okay (though not happy) with me holding him and doing the stepping excersise. Lately it has been freaking out whenever I even come close to the cage, I try to put my hand inside so it can get used to me but it still gets scared. I recently bought him a small mirror with beads on them, I don't know if that made a difference but I thought I should mention it. when I leave it fruit he avoids it like the plague, he doesn't trust me. We used to own parakeets before and I've never had this problem. please help, I want him to like me. thanks

Answer
Hi, Albert.  Thanks for posting!

I think you need to give this little guy some more time to settle down in it's new environment in your home and time to get more used to you before you start working with s/he.  Sounds to me like the bird is stressed out.  Take it slow and easy, one step at a time.  Allow your bird to come out of it's cage on it's own before trying to work with it.  A bird's cage is it's personal space, it's safety zone, a place where it feels most secure.  When you "invade" it's space by sticking your hand inside, the bird becomes frightened because it thinks you are trying to corner it, thus, the flight or fight response (only choice your bird has is to freak out).  This is why it's best to let the bird come out of it's cage first.  

A bird won't eat anything it doesn't recognize as food.  Therefore, most likely why it isn't eating the fruit.  Also, keets aren't too crazy about fruit.  Try offering cooked brown rice with shredded veggies mixed in, corn bread, dry sugarless healthy cereals, whole/multi grain breads/cereals.  However, realize that your bird won't eat these things until it knows the items are food, so you will need to place these foods in the bird's cage every day until one day the birds tries the food.  Then the bird will be hooked!  This process might take a week or a month, but be persistent...it's important that birds are eating healthy foods.  DO NOT keep any seed in the cage at the same time you are offering other foods because a bird will always eat the seed if it is available and leave everything else.  It often helps if your bird sees you eating these things first (birds are mimicers and will mimic lots of actions of other birds or their humans).  In other words, while sitting on your sofa in the evening watching TV, open your birds cage door (have the cage next to the sofa), sit there eating something making "Yum, Yum" noises.  Sounds silly, but you'd be surprised if your bird came out of it's cage and helped you eat that food!  My daughter was eating corn-on-the-cob one day and a keet flew right on the end of the cob and started eating the corn as the same time she was eating the other end!

You must build trust with your bird for your bird to like you.  This should be your goal, therefore, don't do anything that would result in your bird mistrusting you.

Start with the above and I can work with you.  Also, your new keet is very young...actually, I'm surprised this bird is already weaned if it is only 4-6 weeks old.  My baby keets don't wean completely until they are 6 weeks old (I won't sell them until at least 2 weeks later)...I'm wondering if your bird is actually older than you think (or perhaps it is too young yet to be doing all you want it to do).

Chrys