I just found this video on youtube:

 

The woman said that fasting (ie not allowing the bird to eat) for a period of time was a useful tool for taming. I have spent hours (and hours!) reading this forum and I have never heard anyone mention fasting.

 

Is this as ridiculous to everyone else as it is to me? I would never dream of taking food away from my budgie!

Food should always be available to budgies. Even though their main feeding times is at dawn and dusk, they do graze and eat all day long. If the bird you are trying to tame is a baby it truly needs access to its food at all times. She says on there that she removes the food while she is at work....most people work longer hours than 6 hours and if you remove food before you leave for work and the time is around when a bird is feeding the most in the morning, it is not a good plan.

I have seen some of these videos and I am not all that impressed with her. She does give some bad advice in some areas of so called knowledge shared.

Edited August 21, 200915 yr by KAZ

im sorry but i cant stand this lady she has all these little movies on budgies and no real clue

i looked at a few the other day very wrong info

as for tameing bird with starvation

6 hours is a long time for a baby to go with out food

i have tamed birds with useing food as the way they conect but never starved for six hours

it starts in the nest then when bringing baby inside i would only feed them from my hand

their is a big diffrence though as i was offering food every half hour to my babys on my hand who did come to me and all of day they had food in cage all night and then when morning comes take food out placed on bench next to me tip the seed into my palm and then they come to eat from you then replace babys with seed just removing and placing it in your hand every half hour or hour never trying to pat them though this is used to make the bird asociate you with food so when you let them out they fly to you and are not afraid or do not fly all over house

that woman sucks and its not a good thing to starve birds

but food training works very well if done right

she's lost the plot

food should always be available

thought you can be favorite treats like millet sprays aside for taming

the birds would only be coming to her, as they are hungry, not because they want too

I'm so glad that you all think she's a nut case too!

 

It's a scary and sad thing to think of the people who will watch that video and believe her.

The wonderful thing about the net is that you can find a lot of good stuff or a lot of garbage. You have to pick through it and use your common sense for sure.

Not impressed. Totally unncessary and borderline negligent/cruel. There is a difference between a food reward/treat and completely depriving food for so long. I'm sure it would work but there are much better ways. Instead of leaving out food and offering a meal as a reward, why not leave the food in and offer a favourite treat it can only get from you? It has nearly the same principles, only the bird is not coming to you out of desperation, and the bird does not suffer any hunger. (This is #1 of the "five freedoms" of animal welfare by the RSPCA, underpinning our animal welfare legislations).

This is born out of this idea that an animal should be "tame" quickly. And why? In many cases, particularly people who watch and then go do this method, it's for human desire that disregards animal needs. As SDavies said, the birds come to her because they are forced to, rather than choosing and trusting her.

There were other things she said that irked me - "parrot bird"? What? "The bird is bored all day in its cage"? Great, her bird is deprived of mental stimulation AND food.

I'm not impresed at all.

Edited August 22, 200915 yr by Chrysocome

this is actually quite mean

its like making a begger dance for food

On 22/08/2009 at 5:26 PM, Elly said:

The wonderful thing about the net is that you can find a lot of good stuff or a lot of garbage schedules. You have to pick through it and use your common sense for sure.

I appreciate your concerns about animal welfare and agree that depriving an animal of food for extended periods is unnecessary and potentially cruel. Offering a favorite treat while keeping food available is a more humane approach that motivates the animal without causing hunger. It's important to prioritize the well-being and mental stimulation of animals in our interactions with them.