The Message Board

RE: taming tips for a baby galah

Posted 799 days ago

It's pretty simple really; the more time you spend handling your bird whilst it's young, the tamer it will be. Galah's are generally quite birds so you shouldn't have too much trouble. I have hand reared a Galah. Good Luck, Alan.
_________

RE: taming tips for a baby galah

Posted 798 days ago

I have a 2 year old handraised Galah that I purchased at 12 weeks of age. I could never really find many good free websites that were for parrot training so I brought a book called "Parrot Tricks", teaching parrots with positive reinforcement by Tani Robar and Diane Grindol. Very good book.
I love my Galah but he can be very naughty sometimes. Usually when they mature at 1 or 2 years you will notice a slight change in personality where they may start to act up. They are known to be not as cuddly as sulphur crested cockatoos and a bit more cheeky but then again there are some out there that are very affectionate and well behaved. Mine after about a year started to get very noisy so at all possible try not to ignore your bird when he/she sqawks loudly because our darling 'Galucky" can be soooooooo unbearable that I don't think our hearing will be around for much longer... I am not trying to put you off because they are beautiful pets just please keep this all in mind.

RE: taming tips for a baby galah

Posted 795 days ago

Taming a baby bird can be time consuming. You MUST be patient. Don't force yourself on him. Make sure he is in an area that has people in it most of the time. Get him used to you. Never make sudden moves or noises near him, until he knows he can trust you. Trust is the big issue here. Find something he likes, sunflowers are a sure thing, and take them away from him for a few days, don't give him any. Then give them to him separately from his food, only a few at a time. Make sure he knows where they are coming from, ie, you. Once he realises that they are coming from you, try to get him to take them from your hand. This may take a while. Be patient, just lay your hand flat with the seeds on it. It may take several goes for him to get the idea. From there you should be able to work up to patting, scratching, sitting on your finger etc.

As for the noise mentioned by madaboutplants, My galah is not that noisy, but we have other birds as well. We always used to cover them up at night, as recommended by all bird sources, but this was when they were ALL noisy, and with good reason. You are their "flock". They can hear you moving around at night, after you have put them to bed, but they can't see you, so they call out to you. Similarly, in the morning, if we were attempting to sleep in, they are covered over, and can't see whats going on, are you there or not? So again they call out, which made sleeping in impossible. We now leave all our birds uncovered. They don't suffer if we go to bed late, they are not "grumpy" because their sleep pattern has been distrupted, and neither are we, so its happy times all round.

On a different note, you don't mention what you are feeding him, but get him on to a pellet diet if he is not already( Vetafarm and Roudybush are good ones), and limit the amount of sunflowers he has. Keep them for training or for a treat. Also make sure he gets plenty of fruit and veges. There is lots of info on the internet on what id good for them.

Good luck. A tame or handraised Galah is a beautiful and affectionate pet.
_________