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Post: Help With Blue Mask Lovebird

Posted by Grace on 3/24/07

I recently bought a blue mask lovebird from a small
petshop with lots of happy birds and knowledgeable
employees about three weeks ago. I took one male home and
they told me he was about 3 months old, so almost four
months old now. He had been on pellets for two weeks at
least when I bought him and he is supposed to be hand
raised.

The issue is, he is obviously very healthy and he eats
constantly (which I am very happy about!) but whenever I
approach the cage, he becomes almost terrified (his
feathers get sleeker and his eyes get rounder) and he just
tries to get far away from me. When I'm around and not
really paying attention to him, he chatters and fluffs up
and looks really content. The strange thing is, however,
that I handled him before I bought him, and he seemed more
tame then than he does now! I think he is stronger now
because he eats more, and whenever I gently handle and pet
his head, he just squirms to get away and his first
reaction is to fly, which wasn't necessarily the case
before. He never bites me, even though he opens his mouth
as if he wants to bite me sometimes. He just wants to get
away from me the moment I handle him. Also, before, he was
easier to get out of the cage, and now he runs around and
squawks and really puts up a fight! As if I want to eat
him. o_O? So I'm a bit confused about this "change" in his
behavior and am wondering now if he was even handraised? I
went out of my way to purchase a handraised bird and he
acts like a parent raised one. =(

So...I'm not sure if it is just a different personality,
but I once had a lovebird that was also handraised and I
bought him when he was about four or five months old, and
he always approached the cage when I would walk by and he
allowed me to handle him within days of purchasing him.

Does anyone know what the problem might be? I know that
lovebirds sometimes take a lot of time to bond, but the
employees told me that he should get used to be quite
quickly since he was a handfed bird.

I would appreciate any input or suggestions.

Posts on this thread, including this one

Help With Blue Mask Lovebird, 3/24/07, by Grace.

Re: Help With Blue Mask Lovebird, 3/24/07, by Eleanor.