Handrearing vs. Handtaming... what's the difference?
Josh and his scarlets.
MYTH : Scarlets don't make good pets. BUSTED!
Handrearing is used for 2 purposes ... to raise orphaned young or to begin creating bonded pets. If you are deliberately removing the young for handraising, you must remove them prior to their eyes opening. The idea here is when their eyes open they will bond to you, a human, as their parent and friend. In scarlets this is done around 1-2 weeks of age, at the time of banding if not sooner. Just like human parenting with a newborn, handraising is a lot of work. Babies must be kept warm, but not too warm. They must be fed every 2-3 hours around the clock until they are weaned, which in scarlets, is around 4-6 weeks. Formula must be just the right temperature - too cold and you can cause GI issues, too hot and you can burn through their throats. You must also be careful to get the food in their esophagus - it is very easy for novice feeders to choke a baby by putting the food in the windpipe instead!
My recommendation - if it is something you wish to try - before you pull your first baby - find a local mentor. Try a bird store, not just a store that sells birds but a store that raises birds. If you don't have a local store, call your local avian veterinarian. Read up as much as you can, the good, the bad and the ugly so you know what to expect and when you need to go looking for help.
I have never tried handrearing. I may in the future but for now I just do not feel I have the experience for this. I do have some more detailed information from my mentor if you are interested in how she does it. If you do successfully handraise babies, remember when you sell them to charge accordingly.
Hand taming... Hand taming can be used with almost any bird at any age. The younger the bird, the quicker the learning as young birds are more impressionable and have less to "unlearn" about life. Older birds can learn this but you have to overcome more of life's lessons and this can take longer. Some birds are simply too traumatized to accept any human handling, and bonded pairs of birds can be difficult to tame as they are more interested in each other than you.
This is not a race, it’s a game to earning and building trust and respect. It’s also a life long game… if you stop playing with them, they will lose interest and while you may be a tolerated entity you will not be their friend. You can substitute companionship for food once the method is learned but food is the best way to start.
WARNING: Your bird MUST eat pellets to do this method! If they do not, you must first convert them to pellets or select an alernative “yummy” treat to train with. DO NOT just pull your bird’s seed and except them to accept the pellets “just because there is nothing else to eat”. A bird will starve to death before it will eat something it doesn’t like or doesn’t accept as a food source.
The idea behind this method is to choice something your bird LOVES to eat. Then restrict that favorite food to only coming from you.
Even if you plan on letting your bird fly free in the future, it is best to start this in a restricted area, like a small cage. This keeps the bird contained and unable to completely avoid you. Feed only pellets and clean water free choice.
Once your bird is settled in, begin with your training....
Several times a day, slowly put your hand in the cage – try not to startle your bird too much.
On the palm of your hand is a small amount of seed (or chosen yummy treat) and you can add a spray of millet between your fingers.
If your bird is not too frightened, slowly advance your hand towards them.
The idea is to encourage them to take a chance at the yummy stuff you have.
Don’t chase them around the cage with it.
If they won’t come, just hold your hand steady – at least they are getting use to having your hand present.
Once they become comfortable with you approaching them with the food, begin pulling your hand back – making them come to you a little more each time.
Millet is a wonderful lure once they get a taste of it!
If you want them to fly to you for treats – begin taking your bird out once you have the above method perfected.
A modified wing trim can definitely help here.
Start off close to the cage, with just your bird sitting on it.
Offer your hand with treat/millet.
Again, once they get the idea, slowly work on moving your hand (and self) further from the cage- first so they have to hop over to your hand on the cage, then so they have to slightly stretch out, then really stretch out, then hop off the cage onto your hand… then finally fly over.
Once they start flying, again go slow on the distance you expect them to go.
As your bird gets the idea they will quickly learn to get the yummy treat they must come to you.
The name of the game is patience! Wait until your bird is comfortable with each step before moving on… and if they suddenly become uncomfortable or lose interest – back up to the previous step and wait. Then move forward again but even slower than the last time.
I recommend frequent short sessions at the start. This keeps the previous session's learning fresh but isn't so long as to bore them or fill them up on treats. If you have multiple birds you want to tame, keep them in separate cages beside each other. You will find the learning curve goes up a lot - they each want what the other has and will quickly catch on by watching you train another.
Its not a lot of time - in 72 hours, with four 5 minute sessions a day, you can have a parent raised "wild" bird eating ...literally... from the palm of your hand. We tried it with a separated pair of 2 year old "wild" scarlets and had hand tamed birds in 4 days, fighting over a chance to sit in our hands to feed.
So if you wanted a companion "pet" bird but can only find parent raised babies - buy a baby and use the above method to create your new best friend!
Thank you to Josh and his work with Little Fluffy that showed us that an antisocial scarlet is a MYTH!
Our Merlot after 72 hours of training!
Our Chiantis also after 72 hours of training.