# Update on Luna, and Looking for Advice



## UncleSpoods (Jul 8, 2019)

Hey everyone, it’s been a while! I was last on her a few months ago, since then I’ve become way more accustomed to having Luna around and in our lives.

That being said, she’s not the easiest bird to handle. Like I said in a previous post, I think she was traumatically scarred when the pet store employees tried to get her out of the cage, because it was one of her only times interacting with humans. She now absolutely hates hands, and will hiss and nip at them whenever they’re in her cage, or stare at them when they are in sight. She also runs away from them. We’re not really sure what to do in order for her to trust us, so help would be greatly appreciated!


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## adelpks (Aug 26, 2015)

I have a similar problem with my cockatiel Clover. Due to my inexperience when I first got him home and needed to transfer him to his cage from the small travel cage I had difficulties catching him. I have since worked on developing the relationship other ways , talking to him and keeping my hands out of sight. He was happy to come to me that way and then I started to work on the fear of hands. Every day I hold a sunflower seed for him, I stayed by just putting it on my closed fist. Always doing it before I feed him in the morning, his hunger plus love of sunflower seeds allowed him to overcome his fear. Then I gradually started to step up the challenge. Holding the seed in my fingers, then requiring him to reach over my other hand to get the seed. We are now working on him stepping on one hand to reach the seed in the other. He still hisses at my hands without seeds in them though. It can be a long road back. This doesn't stop him coming out of the cage though he's always been rather timid in this. When it's appropriate for him to come out, I simply open his cage doors and he climbs out himself to fly around, when is time to go back in, he seems happy to hop on my head and I take him back that way. Having said all this it took me some time to learn how to work on his fear so if yours is still young, she may overcome it sooner with practice. They learn better and faster when they're young.


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