Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 1/13/2007

Question
Hi,
I bought a 5month old lovebird from a breeder 3 days ago and his behaviour is
worrisome to me.
He is very very scared of me, and when I put my hand in his cages he squawks and
frantically flies away from me.
Whenever I am in the room with him I leave his cage door open, he has yet to fly
out on his own.
He eats a lot, but I have yet to see him drink any water. (I have water placed
in 2 different containers in his cage) He doesn't play with his toys and uses them as a safety shield to hide behind.
The only time he makes noise is when he is scared because someone is coming hear
him.
Will his behaviour eventually change? I read to him and talk to him everyday,
but I don't want to force him out of his cage to play with me because he seems
so frightened.
Any advice you can provide would be greatly appreciated!


Answer
Hi, Kristina.  Thanks for posting!

If it's only been 3 days, this bird hasn't had enough time to get acclimated to his new environment and get used to you.  You need to give this bird some time to settle down.  The bird is stressed out from the move.  

I don't know if this bird's behavior will change or not.  Was this bird handfed as a baby?  If not, it might not be tame.  If it isn't tame, you'll need to start from scratch taming this bird.  If the bird was handfed as a baby, you might want to ask the breeder what happened to the bird's tameness.

The first thing you need to do is give this bird time to settle down in it's new home and give it time to get used to you before trying to handle/work with the bird.  In the meantime, talk to the breeder about this bird's background and find out all you can about this bird, whether the bird was handfed, socialized to humans as a baby, etc., etc.  Then you'll know where to begin/where to go with this bird.

I have to ask because it always amazes me....why did you buy a bird that didn't seem to be tame if you wanted a tame bird?

Chrys