How to build trust with your parrot ?

Parrots are among the most famous pets in India, especially with bird lovers. There’s a reason for that. Parrots make pretty strong bonds with their owners, in fact just as strong as dogs do. In fact, I have seen parrots getting depressed after the death of their owners. They are pretty entertaining and interactive too.

However, unlike dogs, parrots take some time to make an emotional bond. You will have to be patient and be ready to do some work. So, if you have got a new parrot, then let us help you make him your lifelong friend.

Table of Contents

• Spend time with your parrot
• Contact Comfort
• Age and Past Experience of your parrot counts
• Friendly Parrot breeds

Spend time with your parrot

To make a bond with any animal, or human for that matter, you will have to spend some quality time with them. Parrots make stronger and quicker bonds with people who give them food, pet them, talk with them etc.

Though parrots will not respond to you as soon as a puppy will, but you will see them trusting you and interacting with you in a month or two.

Contact Comfort

Most of the animals will not be able to develop trust in you or become your friends, if you do not provide them contact comfort, i.e. if you do not touch them, pet them, hold them etc.

In fact, in a psychological experiment conducted on a baby monkey, he was put in a cage with two dummy monkey mothers. One monkey mother used to provide him food and milk, while the other was just a stuffed teddy bear type toy that was soft and comforting to touch. It was found that the baby monkey spent much more time with the stuffed monkey mother toy. This is a very well-known experiment in psychology, that underlines the significance of ‘contact comfort’.

Apart from petting and holding a parrot, another way of providing him contact comfort is hand-feeding. If you have brought a young parrot, and you are feeding him with your hands, then he will start trusting you pretty soon. Afterall this technique combines two of the most important needs of a new-born parrot baby - hunger and contact comfort.

If your parrot refuses to eat food from your hand, which will probably be the case for the first few times, especially if you have brought an older parrot, then you will have to be patient. Keep taking your hand with food into the parrot’s cage, wait for some time and then leave the food in its cage. In a few days, your parrot will develop the corelation between your hand and food.

Though there’s no guarantee that your parrot will definitely start eating out of your hand, but he will definitely start trusting you more.

Note

Though a downside to hand feeding approach is that, parrots get used to hand feeding and refuse to eat food on their own. But this habit will wane away as the parrot grows.

Also, keep in mind that once your parrot gets used to your petting and holding, you should pet and hold your parrot in your hands on a regular basis, i.e. every day or so. If you will stop touching and holding him for long time, then he will lose trust in your proximity soon. Then if you try to hold him one day, say a week later, he may even bite you. This is truer, if your parrot is new and is still getting used to your company.

Wear Gloves!

To be on a safer side, you may wear gloves while handling your parrot in the initial few days. That will protect you from your parrot’s bites and the scratching of its claws. But if you are wearing gloves, then be extra cautious not to hold your bird too tight, or you may end up suffocating or hurting it.

Age and Past Experience of your parrot counts

Younger a parrot is, the sooner it will make a bond with you. If you are getting an older parrot, which has spent some years with other owners or in pet shop, then you will have to toil a bit harder and your parrot will take much more time before it starts trusting you.

The past experience of a parrot also impacts his trusting abilities. If he has been abandoned by previous owners, then he might not be very keen to trust another human again. And if he has ever been mistreated or abused, then you will really have to be very patient and loving to allow your parrot to get back normal again.

Have Patience!

If you still have not buyed/adopted a parrot, then you may opt for a younger parrot. Younger the parrot, easier will it be to bond with him. Older parrots may carry some past emotional baggage or scars. It will make it harder for you to win their trust.

I had a parrot once, who was somewhat emotionally broken, probably because of past mistreatment. He used to stay away from people and other parrots. One day he even bit me pretty hard. But I kept my patience and kept on loving, talking and petting it. It took me months, but he got much better with time. Thereafter, he made many parrot friends, and also stopped biting.

Friendly Parrot breeds

Yes, there’s a lot of variety in parrots too. Even different parrots of the same breed may vary in how friendly they are, whether they are passive or aggressive etc.

So, the amount of time and effort you need to invest in making your parrot your friend, will depend on its breed too. For example, Indian Ringneck parrots are very aggressive and you will probably get a few bites before you turn him into your ally. In comparison, breeds like Alexandrine parrot (mountain parrot), African Grey parrot etc. are much more passive.

Then there are breeds like Budgies. They are not only friendly, but they might not do much harm even if they bite you. They are the Pomeranians of the parrot world.

So, if you are one of those lazy souls and do not want to spend much time in trust-building activities, or are really scared of getting a few parrot bites, then get a docile breed - a breed that is already more friendly.

So, these were some of the tricks that we wanted to share with you. Go ahead and use them. Remember, there’s no magic trick that can make your parrot start believing in you and trust you overnight. You just need to mix your love, care and affection and give it some time.

If you really love your parrot, he will soon understand that and react and act accordingly.