# Taming Rescue Birds



## obxdiva (Aug 11, 2020)

I just brought home 3 rescue birds. I'll post their pics in another section. These are adult males rescued from a basement hoarding situation, 142 birds. The shelter had to catch them with towels in their large flight cage out of a group of about 10 or 12.


They are quarantined in one cage. They have had no handling. What I've noticed right off is that if one chirps "I'm worried" the other two hit the alarm button too. I'm wondering I'm going to make progress with all three in the same cage or if I need to pick one to be in his own cage and focus on him?? I've read through all posts with "rescue" as a key word. Any body have specific lessons learned to share? 

I did see a helpful post that they may never tolerate close contact. I would like to get them to the point where they can free flight with my current bird, Tino (adopted after being found lost. He clearly had early handling and has settled in really well). If they can learn to return to their cage reliably and not go ballistic with daily cage cleaning, feeding, etc that would be good progress.


----------



## Cody (Sep 5, 2013)

I adopted 4 birds from a similar hoarding situation years ago, there were over 300 birds in the house in dire condition. They never became tame to the point of landing on me but I did get them all to the point that they would step up for me on a perch, and I was satisfied with that and to just let them be themselves. I did not put a lot of effort into trying to tame them. When I first brought them home they were all like little frozen statues and barely a peep out of them for a couple of weeks. They were housed together in a double flight cage so they had plenty of space. Gradually they became more comfortable and eventually I was able to let them out of the cage and they enjoyed flying around and would return to the cage on their own.


----------



## obxdiva (Aug 11, 2020)

Thanks, Cody, sounds encouraging. Am wondering if you eventually mixed them in with tamed birds? I'm wondering if my friendly but not cuddly current bird will pick up some of their easily spooked habits or will he help them be more accepting. Roll of the dice on that I guess. He's probably going to ignore me anyway once he gets a buddy!


----------



## Cody (Sep 5, 2013)

My experience is that the tame bird will help the others be less fearful. I had 2 tame birds that were a positive influence on the ones that were not tame. A couple of the birds that were not tame started to be brave enough to land on my head after watching the tame ones sit on me. Unfortunately the tame ones developed tumors and I had to move them to a different part of the house during treatment and that ended the others bravery.


----------



## DavidW (Mar 3, 2007)

obxdiva said:


> I'm wondering I'm going to make progress with all three in the same cage or if I need to pick one to be in his own cage and focus on him?? I've read through all posts with "rescue" as a key word. Any body have specific lessons learned to share?


I've had four tame birds and four unhandled birds. The latter would watch the tame birds play with me and sit on my shoulders. After a long while, the nervous ones started playing with me, too -- tentatively and for short periods of time, but it was still playing nonetheless. The two most skittish of the birds never gave me their full trust, but that's OK. When they did infrequently play with me, it was all the more special.

Having at least one tame bird that's bonded with you would be the easiest way to get the others to come around, I think. I hand-feed my tame birds something, and slowly offer some of the food to skittish bird, who will visit me for just a minute, two minutes at most. It'll take forever to get more "affection." But it's worth the time and effort.


----------

