On my previous post, I mentioned about helping my friends, William and Amelyn to parrot-sit their parrots, the 3Ts for 10 days. The 3Ts (namely Tweety, Tyson and Teri) are gorgeous, fun-loving little parrots, but there was one big issue.

Tweety (the Lutino Lovebird) and Tyson (the Blue Pacific Parrotlet) are such tame sweethearts. Unfortunately, Teri (the Peach Faced Lovebird) wasn’t as cooperative like the other two. He’s aggressive and very territorial! He would lunged at anyone who tried to pick him up.

Teri gave me a hard bite when I wanted to offer my fingers for him to step-up. The bite was really bad and drew blood instantly. *Ouch*

So never ever underestimate the bite power of lovebirds!

In fact, I wasn’t the only victim. Everyone in the family had gotten a nasty bite from Teri. That’s really one big problem if no one in the family can handle him.

While Tyson and Tweety got to enjoy their out-of-cage sessions, Teri was the only one left in his own cage. I felt sorry for him. Seriously, I do not hope to see him ended up cage-bound after his 10-days stay at our place.

I strongly felt that I ought to do something to improve the situation.

William and Amelyn did warned about Teri’s aggressive behavior. I chanced to know little background about Teri.

Teri was already a “grown-up” lovebird when he was brought home. The early stage of his life being spent at the pet store, lacking in human touch and daily socializing, probably explain about his aggression and wildness.

I began my first approach working with Teri on the following day. My priority was to get Teri to get used to my hands and not afraid to be handled. I held small servings of spray millets into Teri’s cage. I continued doing this a couple of times a day, and tried bringing my hand closer and closer to Teri in each session.

After days of consistent approach, Teri could accept the presence of my hands in his cage without lunging at me. By the forth day, Teri could voluntarily hop on to my hands and even accept me touching him. At this point of time, I knew I had gained the trust from Teri.

I moved on in giving Teri formal training session using positive reinforcement techniques. I started off working on basic “Step-up” and “Step-down” commands, because these are very useful and important trainings. Reinforcing the “Step-up” and “Step-down” commands wasn’t too difficult for Teri, as they are natural behaviors. By reinforcing these commands, it will make handling Teri a much more easy task.

By the 8th day at our place, Teri had learned how to perform the basic “Turn-a-Round” trick on cue.

Below is a video taken on the 10th day of parrot-sitting (the final stay of 3Ts at our place), a clear evidence showing Teri being able to perform the “Step-up”, “Step-down” commands and the “Turn-a-Round” trick  confidently on cue.

Although Teri still nips occasionally during his last few stays at our place, but he’s definitely much more handle-able than the day he just arrived. He even enjoys some scratches from us too!

He’s probably the most “challenging” lovebird I ever handled or work with. With patience and consistence in taming and training, I guess nothing is impossible.

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Parrot Sitting the 3Ts