can abused birds be tamed?

hello Tiff,

I totally agree. As I have stated, A healthy bird that has had no trama in his/her life can be tamed. It will take time and energy of the bird owner to make it happen, and when it does you will reap the benifits of your hard work.

Rome was not built in a day, a dog will not sit on command in a day, and overweight people did not get that way in a day( I know I am one of them LOL) So you need to have patience while working with a bird. I dont care if it is a baby just coming home, or a rescue, or a wild caught bird they will need a lot of your time to make them into a tame and loving bird. The first thing is to build up a trust factor in you. That will be the hardest thing to accomplish, after that the tricks,talking,and the commands will come all natural. Most birds will out live us and we have a lifetime partner to get it right. You will have your good days and your bad days and there is NO difference in the birds. They will be your best friend now and tomorrow they will be very nasty. So what, it is the nature of the beast. So just remember that PATIENCE is the key to having a good, respectful, and loving bird.

Mario(Ziggy)

Hello,
I have 3 conures all of wich are rescue birds. I have a wild caught male mitred conure named Carter who is was a breeder bird and wild caught on top of that...never handled, and never named until he came here. He was very nasty when we got him, VERY!!! Now we only got him this summer and have not worked all that much on taming him, but we do on occasion. He has made HUGE improvement since being here! I will post some pictures on here of him on Shanes arm. Just keep it up and with time and patience and yes most likely there will be blood! But you will have a tame bird SOMEDAY!

hello again!
Thank you very much to all of you who have offered your experience and knowlege! We have seperated the birds ( but put the seperate cages right next to each other )and blocked off access to the breeding box. With the help of hubby , and a thick pair of gloves, we were able to get in a wing clip and add some cuttlebone to the cages while they were out. They are responding well to soft talking and praise, and i was even able to get in their cages to change water without any lunges or attempts to remove my fingers!! We had no idea that they could talk, that is until the female called my husband an '' a**hole" !!! LOL Keep the replys commin, it really helps so much!
~ amanda

Hello Tari,

I disagree with you on somethings. Most birds can with time and effort be healed. You said it your self your bird has a mental problem and a vet has told you so. If a bird has a problem wether it be a mental, physical, or some type of trama they will not be tamed. But a bird that is in his right mind and in good condition should have no reason to not be tamed. It will take a lot of time and sweat but they should be able to make the turn in time. I am sorry that your little bird has a mental problem and I am sure you would love to be able to hold and play with him/her. It is true not all can be tamed but most can if they are healthy.

Mario

As stated some can with lots of time and patience. But some can't.
Dandy is not tame. Not really. But he is mental. The vet says that is why he plucks. His little brain is just not right. It is also why he won't stop biting. On his good days he well get in a towel and just be so sweet and even purrs.
On the other hand, my rescue amazon is sweet as can be. Only took about a year to build up his trust in me and mine with him.
So yes most birds can with time but some can not no matter how much time you have.

Hello Ronda,

I know what you are saying I have had Quakers before and they are just as loud.

No dought. I had them living in the same cage as a Nandy and they were all out of control at times.

It is a toss up between the Nanday and the Quaker. I sometimes would wonder who was screaming louder LOL!!!

Mario

Well I don't know about that Mario lol. I just looked up Nanday's to listen to them and I have to say that you really need to listen to my youtube video of our Quaker. She still out beats all the Nanday's I have heard soo far. So just to let you know, that Quakers can be quit noisy themselves

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDSbRKmpatg

Ronda,

Good advise but you should know that Nanday's are a very vocal and loud bird. They are known as the little Macaws. I tell people that if you want a Macaw and you can not afford one just get a Conure. They are all very loud and I will tell you the reason why.

Conures are a flocking bird and they will be the loudest in the morning and right at dusk. In the wild there are reasons for it it is a head count in the flock. It is to make sure that there members made it throught the night and the day. Pretty cool hah. Its roll call for the flock. Sound crazy but it is true.

Mario(Ziggy)

Hello,

The answer to your question is yes they can be saved. You need to understand that first you have to have a great amount of patience. This will be a long and titius battle. The first thing you need to do is to split them up. The abuse toward each other will not stop until they are split up. Next thing is to start to train them. At first I suggest you use a dowl stick and not your hands. They will lash out at you and become very aggressive. You use the dowl stick instead of you hand so that if the bird strikes it will only hurt wood and not your flesh. After time goes by then you can start to use your hands. Remember this, Birds have a very good memory and will loose there focus very fast and easily. So you need to make your learning leasons short and fast. What I do is 4 times a day you have the school open for 10-15 minutes only. They will stay focused for that amount of time. You need to have a reward for them every time you ask the STEP UP command and if they do it or not give them a snack. They will at first want to strike but as time moves on they will know that when you as the that they will get a snack, and the snack will get them to start to listen and to start to do what is asked. This will take a lot of time so do not give up hope and just continue to work at it. They can be trained but I can not tell you enough that patience is the golden rule with birds. Some days they will want to do it and others they will not. So dont get descuraged and just keep doing it over and over. They will need to trust you before they will react to your commands. Build the trust and you will gain a friend forever. Trust and parience will win the battle of any wild acting bird. (A long with a nip here and there). Please let me know if I can help you out with this and I will be more then happy to do so.

Thanks Mario (Ziggy)

Hi Amanda! I hope you'll introduce yourself in the Welcome room!

As far as can they be tamed, yes with a whole lot of patience and time! We have a 12 year old Quaker that we got when she was 3, and it was very similar to your situation where she was too loud and they kept her in a dark basement stairwell. She would bit us very badly. She has taken chunks out of our hands. Finally I just let my husband keep trying with her because I figured she just didn't like woman being the wife of the owner that had her before flicked her in the head and would do bad things to her. After about 6 months she was finally a good bird for my husband. She would let him hold her and she gave him kisses and everything. She still does all of this and more now. But it''s years down the road. The very first thing you need to do, is separate them, unless you are going to keep them as breeders, and in that case than they will almost always be crabby with you, because they have bonded with each other. If you want them as pets, you will have to separate them, and probably for a good bit keep them from seeing each other. Work with them daily even if it's only for 15 min a piece. When they go to lunge at you, make a fist so it's harder for them to grab the soft fleshy part of your hand. When you make a fist it just tightens everything. The screaming is normally because they need something, it may be because they want more attention, it may be because of the new environment, may be because of their diet and they need more. There is just a bunch of reasons. You will just have to wait for time for some of them and others you will have to eliminate one by one. Like I said though the first thing is first, if you don't want to breed them than your best bet is to separate them and work with them individually. It will take time so please don't think it will happen in a weeks time. If you need anything please just keep writing! There will be more to come along and try to help as well hopefully

Hello everyone, my name is amanda i am a wildlife & small mammal rehabilitator in northern illinois. I recently got a pair of naday conures from a teenage boy who, after failed attemps at breeding stuck them in his basement where they lived for who knows how long before they called me to surrender the birds. They are both very aggressive, including biting, lunging, growling, and of course ear piercing screaming. The male even plucked his girlfriend bald from the neck up. ( she looks more like a vulture than a conure ) !! The poor birds dont even have names ! The cage they came in has a breeding box attached to the back of it. If i remove it there is a big hole in the cage so it would have to be patched. I dont even think the cage is big enough! I went and got them good food, treats and toys, but they still want to take my fingers off. Is there ANY hope at taming these birds to be civil part of my family, or is the damage too bad? I should also note that ive never owned a parrot before, so my knowlege is limited to what ive been reading on the web. Any help would be greatly appreciated! thanks in advance, amanda.