I Have a Vampire Parakeet

User Question
I am hoping you may be able to help me, I work as a vet tech ( cats/dogs ) & sometimes get bunnies,birds,possums,geese & a pigmy goat once! in at our clinic, 2 months ago a man came in with a budgie & threaten to set it free if no one would take it, I live in NY & its fall. I couldn't let this bird die, no way.

So I took it home, I already have a male & the new one is a female, I have them in seprate cages, for about 4 weeks & slowly intorduced them & they are the best friends, My male is still young & the girl is older, she loves Jack my boy, I am happy he has a girl.

I wanted to finger tame her & she is a visious little bugger, she draws blood. I read your site, I read books & I was wondering if this little girl will ever be tame enough to trust to finger tame or its a lost cause, The guy said he kept her in a closet & or when she would get noisy the kids or himself would throw things at the cage, & the only way to catch he is grabbing her tail!!! He said he felt bad for her, (Oh yeah right!) I was mortified by the cruelity.

I am taking things very slowly with her, I can reach in the cage to clean it, sometimes she gets upset & I talk softly to her & we are ok, but if I get too close BAM she nails me & her beak hurts! I try not to pull my hand away like I read but she hangs on, I blow in her face & she just hangs on & draws blood, her feet planted on her perch, any skin she can grab she nails you, I did the earth quake, nothing....

any advice or do I have Hanibal Lector as a parakeet? I love this bird anyway but there has to be a compramise some how. I would like to clean the cage with out being bitten, or having to move her to another cage while she hangs on me with her beak, I would like to let her sit on the tree I have for them but I wont be able to catch her if I give her that much freedom.

thanks for your time.

Lisa's Answer
That is very sweet of you to take in the bird! It definitely sounds like she was cruelly abused at her previous home and it is very lucky that she even made it out of there alive.

Definitely parakeets are forgiving and she will come to love you, but you need to give her some time. She has had to defend her very life at her previous home and she can't be sure yet that you are a nicer person.

I actually have a cage that I can clean without ever reaching my hands in it. The food goes into it from the outside, and the tray underneath it slides out through a slot in the side. So you might consider looking to change to a cage like that, so she can feel safe and secure in her cage without any "scary hands" going in there potentially to hurt her. In the meantime, there isn't much else you can do besides being patient, talk quietly, and help her settle in. I think after a while she will come to trust you and you can go through the normal hand training steps and have her be a finger-friendly bird. It will just take some time.

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