alexandrians

[spritz]

i have just bought an alexandrian.i am told it is male and several months old.i dont know any history about this bird.my problem is that the bird is VERY timid.everytime anyone goes very near its cage it flaps about frantically bashing into the inside of its cage so we tend to keep a few feet away.this cant be helped when it needs food and water.can anyone help and will this beautiful bird ever be tame?

[vankarhi]

It sounds like it was not handraised........that is not a problem as it can still be tamed down, it will just take more time as it sounds like the bird is very scared of humans.

I would be guessing it is maybe up to 6 months old??? I have one girl who hatched in August last year. It just depends on when he hatched as to his age (obviously lol) he might have been from a later clutch.

Are you able to just sit next to the cage and just talk to him or just read a book or watch tv until he gets used to you and his new surroundings?? The other thing is how long have you owned him??

does he have a ring yet and if not was he dna'd??? Sex wont make any difference anyway as both male and female alex 's make good pets.

Once he feels comfortable with you around then you could try to introduce your hands to him with a treat in them and see how he goes. As for feeding and cleaning........do it slowly and carefully, talk softly to him, and move slowly. I would not try to get him out of the cage for a while until he is feeling comfortable with you and your hands in his cage feeding and cleaning.

Leave the radio on for him during the day if you are out ....... so he can hear human voices.........but I do it for my birds so they can hear talking and not get bored as they will hear all sorts of noises on the radio.

[vankarhi]

oh and for now I would probably keep the attention from humans down to just one human at a time until he gets used to one human then maybe slowly bring in more humans. I feel he needs to gain trust in one.......then add more to the equation........just my humble opinion.

sorry for not seeing this before......but I had to search to find it.

Others should come on soon and add their opinions to this too. We all have different ideas as there is not set rules......just don't be harsh on him or you will scare him even more.

[madaussie]

Yes we all do it our own way my way is with a welding glove and a feather tether it takes me 1 too 3 days depending on the bird.

Tether on glove on then let them bite away after awhile i hold the bird with the glove and pat the danger end yes the beak after awhile of this i let them bite the glove till they settle .

Keep the tether length so the bird can not run to far or no run all up to you and the bird.
Then the beak and body strokes i repeat this for day one over and over .
Day two same as day one but i let them on the shoulder and yes your ear will get a good bite sum times but to me that is part off birds lol all birds are different and the way people tame them as well but all i can say is never ever push to hard or hurt the bird.

This is my way and if you are not comfortable don't try this .j

[avinet]

I think if you try to put a harness on an Alexandrine that behaves as Spritz describes it is a good way to get a finger amputated, since putting a harness on with welding gloves doesn't sound possible to me. Chances are also with an Alex that it would end up total phobic
wreck.

Alexandrines have a really strong bite - in the old days when I hadn't learnt enough and still used gloves, I remember getting a badly bruised finger through a thick leather glove when an Alex tried to bite it.

It sounds to me like the bird wasn't hand raised, and taming it down will be a slow process - vankarhi's advice is spot on.

cheers,

Mike

[madaussie]

Well it works for me and as i said this is my way if you are not comfortable don't try it .
j

[bullibirdshow]

Before there were handraised birds we all had to tame our birds. It is a process. There are different ways of doing it.

My way is to work out where the bird feels comfortable with you being and then reading, or doing other stuff so the bird doesn't feel threatened.

As we are predators letting the bird watch and view us without us looking too much at them is the way to go imho.

Then you gradually work up to getting closer and to doing step ups.

Cheers,

Kate

[vankarhi]

madaussie.......you do exactly how I did it many years ago and it worked for me Not the tether though, but the welding gloves and the stroking etc.....small amounts many times a day and I did this to 2 parent raised cockatoos and a parent raised galah......and they became beautiful pets of which I owned the galah for 15 years until her untimely death a few years ago.

We do all do it differently and now I only use a welding glove if absolutely necessary. Yes being bitten is also part and parcel of owning birds too. ;D There still are things I do that are different to others and they work for me.......the main thing is not to hurt or scare the bird any more than it obviously already is.

How I described above is how I would treat your bird now at the moment but I am well aware of different ways to train many animals. I also train dogs (my own but I did take classes in a local obedience club too until a few years ago and I always told my students there are no hard and fast rules as long as you are not hurting the animal or causing it stress. I always tried to show more than one way to try to teach something because each dog, cat, bird or whatever we are trying to train/tame will react differently to different methods ....... just like our kids).