Five tips on how to tame your bird and gain its trust

How long it will take to tame your bird and gain its trust all depends on your individual bird, all birds are unique and have different personalities and backgrounds. Whether you’re getting a bird from a breeder or adopting or rescuing a bird as long as you’re consistent and patient enough to work with your bird it will be much easier for you to tame your bird gain its trust and eventually build a relationship with them.

My first tip,

Set Up For Success

If you haven’t gotten your bird yet you of course want to make sure you have everything ready for your bird so they can just settle right into your home,

You won’t know if your bird will be afraid of you or your hands until you bring them home for the first time, so you want to minimize any stressful situations for them as much as you can,

You should place your bird cage in a room where you and the people you live with would be interacting with them the most that way they can get used to your routine and members of your household, 

You don’t want to handle your bird right away or change up anything in your bird’s cage once you put them in there because they’re already coming home to a new environment which may already be stressful and want to interact with them right away or changing up anything in their cage could stress them out even more, 

Give your bird time to settle in and take in its new environment and be sure to have the cage ready for them,

Give them a good number of toys to keep them busy and a variety of natural wood perches to exercise their feet 

You want to make sure the food bowls are readily accessible for you to take in and out daily without disrupting or stressing your birds out too much if they are afraid of you,

By having your bird’s cage set up and ready to go in a room where you’ll be spending the most time with them and giving them the time to get used to their new environment and home you would already be off to a good start in taming your bird and gaining its trust.

The Second tip is,

To spend time around your bird’s cage,

As soon as you bring your bird home the taming process starts when you or whoever you live with begin spending time with your bird,

Birds are social animals, so you want your bird to not only get used to their new home and their cage but also your presence and anyone else you live with, 

Start spending time around your bird’s cage altogether doing what you normally do throughout the day if you’re still in school or if you work from home you can try doing your work near them, 

you could also watch tv, listen to music, read a book, play video games and even eat your meals together around your bird, 

by spending time around your bird you’re giving them the chance to get used to your routine and most importantly it could be the start to socializing them with people in your household, 

while you’re spending time around their cage don’t forget to move slowly and not make any sudden movements that could scare your bird and 

you should also use this time to really observe your bird and how they’re reacting to your presence while they’re in their cage.

My third tip and most important tip,

Pay attention to your bird’s body language

Birds are still considered wild animals since they haven’t been in captivity for that long and they still have the natural tendencies and behaviors that their wild ancestors have.

Reading body language

The best way to interact with a wild animal like your bird is to read their body language 

this means,

If your bird is showing signs that they are afraid of you or showing territorial behaviors, you shouldn’t be reaching into their cage to take them out because,

You’ll scare them even more which will make it harder to gain your bird’s trust and 

you’ll probably get bit in the process.

How to approach if your bird is afraid

If your bird seems afraid of you especially when you’re spending time around your bird’s cage, you might be a little bit too close for your bird’s comfort so you may need to move a little bit away from your bird until they are calm and only move a bit closer to proceed with your regular routine when your bird is relaxed.

You may have to repeat this process for a couple days or until you feel that your bird is a little bit more comfortable with you being closer to their cage where you can interact with them without them being fearful of you once you work your way closer to your bird’s cage or if your bird is already okay with you being close to them you can use positive reinforcement to help with the taming process.

My fourth tip,

Positive reinforcement,

When you’re spending time near your bird’s cage you can start feeding them treats or new foods that they’ve never tried before through the cage bars especially if your bird is scared of hands, that way whenever you’re around you’re essentially letting your bird know that fun things like getting a yummy treat or something new to try will happen when you’re near, so they’ll start associating you and your hands with good things. When your bird eventually gets used to being hand-fed or if they don’t seem to be afraid of your hands you can start opening your bird’s cage and feeding them the treat through the cage door,

you can slowly start training them by luring them onto your hand with a treat you can either do this by placing a treat in your palm and have them step up onto your hand or hold out a purge for them to step on while holding a treat behind it to lure them onto the perch by teaching your bird to go onto your hand or a perch you can get them used to being on your hand and being held or close to your hand and eventually start taking them outside of the cage where you can then work on more positive reinforcement through training.

My last and final tip is,

Be Patient  

So I’ve gotten a lot of comments and DMs about how your bird doesn’t seem interested in you or doesn’t want to interact with you and you’ve only had your bird for less than a week and I get that you’re probably super excited to start handling your bird and getting them to interact with you right away but you have to take a step back and be mindful of how your bird would be feeling your bird will be in a place that they’ve never seen before and if they suddenly see a big predator which are you wanting to grab at them and take them out of their safe space then they’ll just get freaked out and you’ll make yourself seem really untrustworthy if you want to tame your bird and gain your bird’s trust you need to be patient and let your bird tell you through their body language when they feel comfortable enough to want to interact with you.

Expecting faster results can have a negative impact

If you’re expecting fast results and don’t feel like being patient and forcing your bird to interact with you the taming process will just take longer you’ll be frustrated and then you’ll need to work even harder to get your bird to trust you,

If you eventually want to have a strong bond with your bird you won’t be able to build that relationship with them if you lack the patience to tame your bird and gain its trust.

So those are my five tips on how to tame your bird and gain its trust remember that birds are one of a kind and they all have different personalities so the timeline and process of taming them will differ for every bird you just have to take your time and find the process that works best for your bird as long as you pay attention to your bird’s body language and behavior and let them make choices and also stay patient then you’ll be able to tame your bird in no time.