Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 1/11/2007

Question
Lil is young I think. She is mostly yellow but she had lines very close to her beak. I got her from a pet store we live in Costa Rica and the birds not hand fed. I can´t even find a breeder but I was thinking if I can't tame Lil then maybe I should get her a mate and start breeding my own. What do you think? My husbands mother (whom lives in Florida) raises and breeds birds of her own so I have some one who can help me in the process. Or do you think I should keep working with Lil before I go the breeding route.
         Thank you for your time and help,
         Nicole
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-----Question-----
I got a parakeet in mid November and I have clipped her wings and have tried to tame her. When ever I take her out of the cage into another room or even in the same room she starts to breath very heavy and her feet get hot. I talk to her all the time. She is in the kitchen so I talk to her all day. She will show off for me and she sings all the time. But I think she is afraid of hands. She has even let me kiss her belly while she was sitting on her perch. I took out the mirror I had in the cage because someone told me she would make friends with her reflection and not with me. I love her she is very sweet and I love to watch her show off and do little tricks. She just seems so scared of anyones hands and I*m afraid she is going to give herself a heart attack.
 I leave her cage door open all day and she sometimes comes out and climbs on the bamboo I have on top of her cage. Any suggestions? My husbands mother is a Bird lady she resues all kinds of exotic birds and she said it seems odd what my parakeet does with her breathing. Do you think she will ever over come this problem. Her name is Lil.
-----Answer-----
Hi, Nicole.  Thanks for posting!

Do you know how old your bird is?  Where did you buy your keet...a pet store or from a breeder?  Do you know if your keet was handfed as a baby?

Most birds bought from pet stores are afraid of hands because of the way pet stores house their birds.  They usually have their parrots out in the open so that anyone can poke and prod at them all day long.  This makes most birds in pet shops afraid of hands/fingers.  In addition, if your bird was not handfed as a baby by the breeder, it did not have the opportunity to imprint on humans, thus, the fear of hands.  A handfed bird loves hands/fingers as a result of being handfed.  Even if your keet was handfed as a baby, if it spent time in a pet shop before being sold, it could develop a fear of handsfingers.

I think the heavy breathing is stress as a result of it's fear of hands/fingers and possibly it's mistrust in humans.  

All you can do is try to teach your bird that your hands/fingers aren't to be feared.  It's a process of gaining trust with your keet.  This trust won't develop overnight...it usually takes some time, the amount of which depends on the individual bird involved.

Taming/training starts when a bird is a baby still in the nest.  Pet stores often tell their customers that once they buy a bird, they can start training it.  Wrong!  

Chrys

Answer
Hi again, Nicole.

I can't really advise you on what you should do, as I'm not there seeing how your bird actually behaves in order to know if the bird can be tamed or not.  Taming takes time and patience, so I don't really think you can make a decision like this at this point.  It would have to be completely up to you whether you want to continue with taming or convert the bird to a breeder.  I don't know how much time you have available, I don't know as much as I need to about the bird, I don't know your knowledge base, etc.  Perhaps your husband's mother, who may know the bird better than I do, can advise you further.

Chrys