Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 9/18/2006

Question
I was given a female lovebird a couple years ago. As a baby she was treated really mean by the husband of her first owner, thus she hates peoples fingers.  So far, in imitation of our other two lovebirds, she flies on my shoulder when we are eating and will eat food off your shoulder, but watch your fingers.  Sometimes she will seek us out when we are in our computer room and stay on our shoulders for awhile.  But she will not let us touch her. And watch your fingers if you forget and put your hand on the bird table or any of the cages.  That is all her space. She took up with one of the other birds, which I'm thinking may be a male.  (She lays eggs but they never hatch.) Do you think she will ever tame down enough to let us pet her like we do our other two birds? Is there anything that we can do to tame her a little, especially to get her to quit trying to take your whole finger off. She bites blood! Any help will be appreciated.    Thanks, Ann  

Answer
Hi, Ann.  Thanks for posting!

As long as you have the other lovebirds, I doubt you will be able to tame this bird down.  Birds prefer other birds to humans.  You can try to work with her, but it sounds like she wasn't handfed/imprinted on humans as a baby (this is why she bites your fingers).  If you want to tame her down you'll need to keep her wing feathers clipped.  There's information on my website on how to work with untame birds:

http://www.angelfire.com/falcon/birdinfo/index.html

She may be laying infertile eggs (single, female birds can lay infertile eggs).  However, you shouldn't allow her to keep laying eggs like this...it isn't good for her health.  A bird vet can give her a hormone injection to stop her laying...injection lasts 9-12 months.

Come back with any questions.

Chrys