how to bond with tag?

[Guest sagittariusgirl89]

Its been almost 24 hours since my tag gas been home. I'm having a hard time bonding with her. Just so you guys know, I have a small dog and a cat, the breeder knew about this and she said that it will be ok.

 

Anyway, whenever inlet her out of her cage and put her on the playtop she wants to fly off of it. I know its natural since she is a bird but she is clipped and I'm worried my animals will get a hold of her. She is in her cage now and she looks like she isn't bored.

 

I don't want to feel like I'm neglecting her. Maybe I should lock the animals lock in my room and let her out for an hour at a time. Any advice, a little overwhelmed.

[Jayd]

Hi, bonding take a very long time in most cases. Your in a very difficult situation, One scratch from your cat can kill your baby, I don't have to tell you the dangers of the dog. It sounds like the breeder gave you some wrong info. Your bird should be out as many hours as possible, and flying, with the wings clipped they cannot excape danger, please be vigilante.....As far as the cage goes, would you liked to be caged 24/7? I wish the best for you....Jayd

[judygram]

You have only had this bird for 24 hours and that is not nearly enough time to bond, this process will take time, maybe weeks, months for she has to settle in and feel comfortable and come to trust you and trust must be earned.

She does need time out of her cage and you may want to put your other animals up for a while when she is out so she is safe until you can develop a routine but all time she is out with the other animals there must be supervision for it doesn't take but a second for something bad to happen. Many here have dogs and cats in their household but they learn to manage having a happy medium so everyone gets love and attention.

[Luvparrots]

Hi sagittariusgirl, I have a TAG also and she is a feisty little lady. As for the other pets, I have a small pug and she could care less about my three flighted parrots. However, when my daughter's Lab is over, my parrots are closed in their bird room and when I am visiting my daughter's home with my parrots, my parrots are keep in my room and her cats are relegated to their closed master bedroom, cat box and all.. One of her cats is a hunter and loves to stalk anything that moves. So, the answer is how good are your pets around other pets or birds. Sometimes it is best to have only one kind of animal out at one time. It all depends on your dog and cat's attitude toward parrots/birds and vice versa. Welcome to the Grey family, I can't wait to learn more about your TAG.

Edited July 16, 2012 by luvparrots

[kins2321@yahoo.com]

Bonding, takes awhile. For now, you need to know your breeder misinformed you. It wouldn't be fair to lock up dogs and cat. Do you have a room that you can dedicate to the bird? They can never be trusted to be together. Safety, is most important at this time. Nancy

[aerial.2000]

WOW please be careful. Your baby has only been home for a very short time. Bonding will come in time no worries but your other animals... keep a very close eye on your new baby! I wont let my cat indoors (well she is 90% an outdoor cat I only brought her in during winter if it snowed cuz I felt bad lol) but I wont be doing that anymore either cuz she is a major hunter. My dogs needed a few days to get used to the bird as well and now they dont care much about her and have found that she flings food and thats a good thing! :rolleyes: but STILL I would not trust my dogs to ever be alone with Marco out! so be very cautious!

[Sarasota]

Everyone is giving great advice. It will take some time to bond with your new bird.

 

Just another tip: Start training all your animals (yes, ALL of them) right now. Every interaction you have with your bird, dog, cat is a learning experience. The mammals need to learn now that the bird is off limits. The bird will have more instinct that the dog and cat are dangerous. But you may have to teach your dog not to chase, etc.

 

One way to deal with it is to teach the dog "leave it." There are many way to teach this with positive reinforcement training. Check out Victoria Stillwell teaching this on YouTube. BUT, until the dog knows the cue, you may have to completely separate the animals. You don't want any "ooops!" moments.

 

Having a multi-species home, this is something I work with constantly. It's not always easy. Sometimes it's two steps backwards, one step forward. But you want to keep everyone as safe as possible.

[katana600]

We have two parrots, three small dogs and a young cat calling our house their home at the moment. The cat and one dog are temporary assignments and will go back home when their families get resettled and have less travel in their jobs in a couple of months. The cat is very dangerous for the birds and she is young and playful and wreaking havoc upon the little dogs too. It is all in good fun for her and she is just playful but it makes my job a whole lot harder to keep the birds happy. I can only have an open cage policy when I am going to be in the same room as the parrots for the time being, but I will take each of them with me when I go downstairs to sew and close the door to keep the cat separate. Another thing I have done when getting a new parrot acclimated is to make night time a free flight time because then I gradually turn off the lights in the rooms away from the cage and that encourages them to come back to the cage top and from there I could entice them inside with our night time almond treat. To this day when Gilbert (TAG) hears the tin of almonds getting opened, he climbs as quickly as he can to the inside of his cage for me. I have made it a point to feed the parrots only inside the cage so they just expect to go inside when it is time to eat. You will find a happy medium. Like you have said, your TAG is still new, still figuring out the rhythm of the household. It will take a little time to sort out everyone's boundaries and you will find a way to keep everyone reasonably free and happy.

[kins2321@yahoo.com]

Sarasota has an excellent point, that it is important to train ALL the animals in our home. Of course, no dog or cat should ever be trusted. Max my 18 year old Lhaso Aso trained Ollie and Zoey as new pups, that birds were off limits. Of course, I was always there to supervise . I had Sophie with me, Max worked on training them. Max and Sophie were best friends. When he finally felt " his work was done", and trusted Ollie and Zoey, he let me know his time on this earth had come to an end. WE all miss Max. Nancy

[aerial.2000]

Sarasota has an excellent point, that it is important to train ALL the animals in our home. Of course, no dog or cat should ever be trusted. Max my 18 year old Lhaso Aso trained Ollie and Zoey as new pups, that birds were off limits. Of course, I was always there to supervise . I had Sophie with me, Max worked on training them. Max and Sophie were best friends. When he finally felt " his work was done", and trusted Ollie and Zoey, he let me know his time on this earth had come to an end. WE all miss Max. Nancy

I agree they allllll must be trained and respect the boundaries each of them have!

[Sarasota]

To this day when Gilbert (TAG) hears the tin of almonds getting opened, he climbs as quickly as he can to the inside of his cage for me.

Awesome!

 

One more quick thing to add: It's work. One of my dogs is a terrier-tyoe mix. He's fine with the birds when they are in their cage, hanging out on perches/playstands. When they fly he will often go into chase mode. This is stressful for everyone. I have two commands that I work with - "Here!" and "Leave it!" I'd love to tell you they always listen, but I'd be a big liar.

 

You can also train your dog to go into a crate/get on a blanket, etc. when the bird is out. It doesn't work for me because I have so little time with everyone that I let everyone out at once. It doesn't work for every household.

[kins2321@yahoo.com]

I use to breed Teddybear guinea pigs. We all had our favorites! Teddy was Max's favorite. Max would pile all of Teddy's shavings in a corner, so Teddy could escape and come out to play! ( this only happened when Max escaped all my gates and got into the guinea's room). Teddy went missing when Sophie was around four. I was freaking out! I put everyone on the hunt including birds! Sophie found Teddy down a heating vent. Of course we rescued him and closed off that heating vent. Teddy lived a very happy life, and died of old age. Not only was he a favorite of Max, he was a favorite of Sophie's. Nancy

[zooman]

patience is key. the others gave great advice. when I brought my TAG Zuri I sat near his cage for hours talking to him and took me 2 days for him to be sure he could step up without shaking. 4years later and he can't leave my side. hope you 2 have made headway since your post.

[Darwinsmom]

I have 4 dogs, 3 of them large, and 14 cats. I am not the crazy cat lady, honest, I show and breed them and thats the only reason for so many. However, the kitties are all downstairs and the dogs are crated or outside if the bird is loose. That said, my cats were scared of my grey and never once attempted to go near him. Hopefully it will be the same with the new baby but given the separation, I dont see them ever meeting.