FINCHforum

Does anyone has any tips on how to tame a zebra? Hand feeding them since babies doesn't work too good or at least it hast work for me.
My zebra couple currently has 5 eggs that will soon hatch and I want to be ready to start taming them. I already bought some baby food and the feeding tube. My plans right now is to spend a lot of time with the babies so they get used to be handle.
Thanks in advance

GoldPanther

Hi Danny,

The problem with taming Finches, is that once they are introduced into a community of other Finches, all the taming seems to go out the window (with very few exceptions). If they're housed with other birds, they revert back to their normal wild behavior very quickly, and will not remain tame.

Also, handfeeding is not something to be taken on lightly. It is difficult, tiring, frustrating, and in many cases heartbreaking, as these tiny creatures can die so easily from so many different causes.

If you want to handraise and tame a bird, I would suggest getting a member of the hookbill family, such as a Budgie, Cockatiel, Lovebird, etc.

Thank you so much Elana. It makes a lot of sense

GoldPanther I think it’s all out of luck once I had 6 chicks and I used to leave the parents in the cage and then put the chicks on the table and let them fly across and then pick em up and put them in with the parents one by one occasionally fed them whilst having them out and one of them became tame sadly this boy ended up dying due to my brother whilst I went on holiday (it was a society aswell )

I have three grown babies that I hand fed since babies. I take them outside the cage and take then around the house so they familiarize with us humans. I hope they will get it and be tame. Sadly they see the parents being scared and they adapt to them. We'll see what happens.
Thanks

GoldPanther A former member, MLaRue, had a tame Zebra. Here is one post about Igor, and you can search for others on this site.

http://www.finchforum.com/viewtopic.php ... ch#p103323

Igor was the exception, as I believe he stayed tame even when back with other birds. Every finch I ever handfed stayed tame while separate from the other birds, but once put back in the cage, they reverted to wild type. I wasn't trying to hand-tame, though.

Saw the videos, I wish my birds were like that.

I've managed to tame a society female I bought from the bird store.
She was very young and I didn't raise her from the egg, but with a LOT of patience, she got to know me and became very good friends with me. I could rub her cheek and she would fall asleep on my finger, and would even let me preen her pin feathers.(even though they were EXTREMELY small ) I would always kiss her head and feed her from my hand. Even when I got her a mate, she would still come on my finger and trust me. She cared a lot about her mate, but she always gave me her full attention when I held her because she remembered my friendship. There were many times I had to grab her to put her back in her cage, but she still trusted me the same.

In my personal opinion, I think it is possible to tame any animal, no matter how small. I had to sit with this bird for VERY long periods everyday and stay quiet and patient, and she began to understand that I wasn't going to harm her. I know this is a rare instance, but if you really want to tame a bird, try investing most of your time to the bird, observing their actions, behaviors, personality, and what makes them scared. The key advice I have is to NEVER force the bird to do anything, because that is when the trust falls backwards and your efforts cause the opposite effect. (try imagining being in their position.) If my bird didn't like me raising my finger to her, I would either pause, or back off and get out of her comfort bubble. Isolating the bird would be best when you first get it, since it would be very hard to tame a bird you've already let live with your other birds and in your home. Then once they are more than comfortable with you, then try reintroducing them and see how it works. If after a while they still don't trust you, just understand that they instinctively are born to be scared and you can still build a relationship with them, even without having to tame them. (as in, making them feel comfortable in your presence.)

I tamed one of my zebra finch babies- it sat on my shoulder and all! Sadly it died at 6wks old, I think it was possible a weaker one as it couldn't learn to feed itself.

How tame do you want your finches? I can hand feed all of mine, so if you only want them that hand tame then it's not too difficult, but if you want them to sit on your shoulder then that's quite a lot harder but not impossible if you spend a LOT of time with it.