Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have a young black masked lovebird, we are working on taming.

so far he will sit on my hand out of the cage, and step up from finger to finger.
i work with him a few times a day for about 15 to 20 minutes.

he tends to jump and try to fly (his wings are clipped).

im wondering how long will it take before i notice he is getting used to me?

How long have you had him or been working with him? It sounds like you are making very good progress. The times can vary on how long it takes for a new bird (or even a bird that has been with you but not worked with as much) to get used to you. It seems as though some lovebirds will crave attention and will want to be with you all the time almost from the beginning. This does not necessarily mean they will always behave well around you but they may like to hang onto you or nip when you put them back in the cage or even chirp etc when you quit handling them.

Others seem a bit more shy and take longer to come around to tolerating or acting like they want human contact. Just in my opinion it seems like the ones that take the longest form the best bonds with you. That doesn't mean that any quickly behaving bird will soon turn into a little menace LOL, or that you won't have a good relationship with an already well tamed/trained bird, just that when you have spent a long time winning a birds trust that when they do finally fully accept you they seem to "show" it more and it can feel more rewarding.

Keep patient and keep working on it and looking back you should gradually see a change in his behavior. He will probably go through a testing stage (if he isn't already) where he will nip a little more or fly off a little more etc just to see what his boundaries are. Once the testing is done they seem to settle in to their routines a bit better and come along on behavior and training a little quicker.

he came here to live 3 weeks ago and i started working with him 2 weeks ago.

i am the first person to actually be "working" with him.

Then you have definitely come a long way in a short time. Just be ready for the "testing" phase and keep being patient and working with him. You should start to gradually notice him actually looking for your attention instead of just tolerating it.

todays time was better, i learned something (it has been years since i have had birds)

i took him out and he was jumping, so we moved to the bath room, a smaller place, for 15 minutes i worked with him stepping up he did well, even let me scratch his head.

the bathroom is a smaller place so theres less distractions, so i will be working with him there.