Message:
Subject: Definition of tame?
Posted by glidergal on January 09, 1999 at 11:01:16:
I have been breeding and selling gliders for about two years now, so this question may seem odd. But reading the posts this morning, it occurred to me that an awful lot of gliders seem to be hostile to their owners. Or at least more hostile than I'm used to. Let me explain: I always touch my gliders in some way, every evening, when I feed them. I have never been bitten. I tempt the babies to crawl on my hand, but I don't really work on "taming" them. When I sell them, I make sure the new owners understand the food issue, give them copies of the diet I feed them, copies of misc. info I have printed out from the net, and make sure they understand they are free to call on me if they have any problems. But I tell them that the babies are not really tame, but that they are used to humans. They seem to especially like being scratched on their hindquarters, right above their tail. And of course when they first wake up they are hyper and it takes a minute to catch up with them to pet them. So when it is said on this board to look for a tame glider, what level of tameness are we talking about? I would like to tame mine up more before the sale, but I had heard that if they bonded to me they might not bond as easily to someone else. I know my birds are certainly like that. Am I misleading my buyers? I do feel that since they are used to humans, and let me pet them, that they should be "tameable." I use a little pouch I have sewn; I set it near their box, tap on the box until they get aggravated and come out, then they go right into the pouch and I can take them out. Does "tame" mean I should be able to pick them up to bring them out without getting them into the pouch first? Sorry that this is a long post, but I don't want to be selling young 'uns that can never be tamed, nor do I want to turn away customers if you on this board fell that not biting, letting me pet them, and crawling over my hand is indeed progress on the path to taming and shows that they are "tameable".