Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 3/21/2007

Question
I have two parakeets I got for Christmas. They are still scared of me but I'm working on that. When I try to clean their cage one of them flies around they cage while the other one tries to bite me. If I let them out to clean the cage they will never go back in the cage. They will sit on my ceiling fan for days, and I am not able to catch them and put them back. How can I clean their cage?? I'm lost. Please help me!!

Answer
Hi, KeAra.  Thanks for posting!

YIKES!  A ceiling fan that is turned on is a MAJOR hazard for your birds!  So make sure it's off when your birds are out.

Your birds are not tame.  You will continue to have these problems as a result unless you can tame them.  Taming parrots takes much time and much patience, as well as knowledge of what you are doing and general knowledge of parrot behavior.  Your birds are scared of humans because they most likely weren't handfed as babies and allowed to imprint on humans.  They also were not socialized properly, so they fear people, fingers, hands, and most anything else having to do with humans.  In other words, they are like the wild birds that are outside.   

Not all birds can be tamed.  Since birds prefer other birds to humans, you are at a disadvantage because you have 2 birds that are not tame.  This doesn't mean you can't try to tame them, but it makes your job more difficult.  My website can provide more insight into birds in general and at least give you a start on what you need to do in order to help tame them down.  

At this point in time, the only thing you can do is to continue cleaning their cage the way you've been doing it.  I would recommend having their wing flight feathers clipped so they cannot gain altitude and get away from you if/when you let them out of their cage (a bird breeder, avian vet, some pet shops can trim flight feathers if you don't know how to do this yourself).  This will allow you to catch them easier when you need to and will also not allow them to escape from you when you want to work with them.  However, if you have other pets in the home and you don't keep your birds in a separate room from them, you need to leave their feathers intact so they can escape from other pets.

Having 2 birds will make working with them harder because you'll need to work with each one separately as often as possible.  Trying to work with 2 at a time would likely be disasterous.  After reading the information on my website relating to taming/training, come back with any questions.

Chrys