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In which order do I train?

2K views 11 replies 6 participants last post by  AlisonJ 
#1 ·
HI everyone,

As some of you know I recently adopted a rescue parrotlet - about 1 year old, female, background uncertain.

She's friendly, not too scaredy, and has a bit of a biting fetish. But the main problem I'm having is that she can't step up yet. She'll take treats from my hands, accept head scratches, and lets me do gentle beak most of the time. She loves hanging out on my knee. But, because she's not comfortable AT ALL with the idea of stepping up, putting her away is becoming a bit of a nightmare.

I either have to spend AGES bribing her into the cage with millet (not very practical, especially if there were ever an emergency) or - as happened tonight when she went crazy attacking the BF's neck - I have had to resort to towel-ing her.

I'm really worried that the towel-ing will have erased all of the progress we've made so far on bonding, and don't ever want to have to do it again. SO I need to know, are you supposed to leave a bird in its cage and teach "step up" in there until it's learned the method well enough to be put away easily? This feels cruel, but if it's what I'm supposed to be doing please tell me, I don't want to traumatise my bird any more!
 
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#2 ·
She might be in the group of birds that hates fingers. Some birds just HATE fingers, no matter what you do. Being a rescue, she is more likely to hate fingers. Fingers are wilily, evil creatures and not to be trusted (I had a finger hater).
There are many ways to work around this. First, see if she will step up onto a small perch instead of your fingers. You can also present her your hand, fingers together and non-moving. Try both palm up and palm down, and make sure you don't move your fingers. You can also see about approaching her from behind instead of in front and see if she will step up backwards - my cockatiel would step backwards for anyone, but only forwards for me.
As far as toweling, don't feel horrible about it. It happens that it is necessary sometimes, and it is definitely what you should do in the even there is an emergency. For instance, if the fire alarm goes off, you are likely to have a bird take off flying and land somewhere and be VERY happy to be toweled to safety, so do plan on toweling for emergencies.
Does she have an "obsessions" yet? Tumi loves crinkling plastic, and now tissues, so I can lure him anywhere with a tissue or plastic bag. If she loves something, then you can try using that to your advantage.
 
#3 ·
Hmmm....Melody knows how to step up perfectly but refuses sometimes. I hate toweling her too because sometimes I have too. At the moment she's clipped so when she sees the towel coming she gets her but into gear.

One trick I use, is that I have certain color towels she prefers to attack. Pink, orange, and red. If I grab one of those, she jumps on it at starts yelling at it, Voilà!! Mommy puts her right back in the cage. :rolleyes:
Probably won't work the same for you but maybe like Tumi's plastic it will give you an idea.

Also, when Melody was a baby she had this FAVORITE swing. She would step up onto it from anywhere. maybe your baby has a favorite swing or perch? We used to carry that swing everywhere because she would not get off of us.
 
#4 ·
:)Stepping up can be a problem for some birds, as well as humans. If a bird has a fear of a finger, then 4 fingers and a thumb will look like a monster coming at her! A bird can easily step up onto a fist or wrist. With the monster snakes gone, the bird will usually step up. On a rare occasion, there will be a bird who will not have anything to do with an arm! I have seen this myself.

I have mentioned many times in this forums how important it is to teach your bird to step up inside the cage. Outside the cage there are too many escape avenues.

I have owned at least 100 English Parakeets ( they are much larger than your average budgie ) over the past 52 years, and a variety of other birds, too. I found that out of every 25 birds or so, one bird would not step up, no matter what I did. You may have this kind of bird. But do not give up hope!

The next time you are getting ready to let your bird out of the cage, try to make her step up---using your finger. I am convinced that you can get her to do this. It may take you and her an hour or more, but she will step up and when you accomplish this inside the cage, you will cross a milestone! To get a bird to step up in her cage means she will start to trust you more and more.
If, after an hour she has not stepped up, then do not let her out of her cage, period! Shut the cage door and walk away for a few minutes. Come back and try again for another hour if need be. If you let her out without stepping up, she will see this as a victory for herself. When she does step up, freeze and praise her! Do not try to take her out of her cage. Let this be a casual thing, like, " Hey, this was easy! No problem!"

A few months ago, I talked with my breeder about stepping up. My breeder is well known at the exotic bird shows here in Orlando. She is a behaviorist dealing with all types of parrots and she said teaching the bird to step up inside the cage is the best way to teach a difficult bird who has had an unknown past. She said that they would resist like the dickens, but will come around.
Don't give up. Take the time to train her. It will be worth the effort.:cool:
 
#5 ·
These little guys can be so stubborn sometimes. I have a hard time getting Tobie to step up in the cage because he dosent want to come out. If walked away and said "well you don't get to come out then" he would be like "Woo hoo!! Take a hike lady!" I have to move quick or he jumps off my finger back to the perch. Poor little guy is institutionalized.

On the flip side, outside the cage, he can't WAIT to step up. That's all he does is climb on my finger. LOL
I can't even give him a treat. Im even trying to train him to eat a seed, and then letting him step up as the reward.
I don't really have a point. I just think it's ironic.

I like David's rational of teaching inside the cage especially if coming out is a reward for her. if getting her back IN is a problem you will need to find a way to make that rewarding also.
I would also keep in mind some birds hate fingers like mentioned so if it's a fist, a palm, the back of the hand, the wrist, a perch, whatever.... A step "up" is a step regardless of what's it up onto. You can always work from wherever she's willing to start so, don't feel like a failure if you have to improvise. Victories come in all shapes and sizes.
 
#6 ·
THANK YOU all for your wise and helpful feedback! And especially for calming me over the "towel incident".

This morning we've started out with lots of "non-treats" (where we just feed her tit-bits from her usual seed mix) through the bars from me and my BF. Once we knew she'd "forgiven" us for yesterday, I tried some in-cage training. This consisted of a few minutes of my having my hand in the cage, holding millet and moving it slowly towards her, clicking each time she took the millet, not clicking and not giving the millet when she bit. after a few minutes I'd got my hand right up to her, and she was okay with it. Finger waggling or opening the hand were deemed unacceptable, but we'll have another try in a couple of hours.

Does this sound about right?

For now I'm sat next to her cage, she's on the perch closest to me having a nap :)
 
#7 ·
Sounds good! Finger waggling is evil according to most parrots, so I don't recommend it. If she doesn't want you to open the hand, then I wouldn't, at least for now. However she accepts your hand, go with it. Especially as a rescue, you don't know what the full history is regarding her interaction with hands, so if she is accepting your hands, be happy!
Perching close to you for a nap is GREAT! It means she is thinking of you as her flock, her safe space! Enjoy the quiet, snuggly moments. :)
 
#8 ·
AH - glad to know about the finger waggles! Thank you! Have been holding the millet in one finger but with my palm out flat and she'll take from my hand that way,so that's progress. Also am making some progress with her going frantic when I leave the room, in fact, the last few times I left the room she didn't even notice! She's sat in her cage, enjoying the breeze from the balcony, beeping softly to the neighbour's music :) BLISS.
 
#9 ·
She does seem to be settling well. That's great news. I tend to be an advocate of training step up in the cage first, and forming a bit of a bond before too much out and about time, but I do know people who use different methods with equally good results...all depends upon the person and bird. It's good to hear she is taking seed from your hand, you can use that to encourage stepping up. I'll be interested to hear how it goes with her over the next several weeks. Given her age and the emotional tumult she's been through, it may take some weeks, or even months, for her to reveal more of herself. It's like with the four year old dog I adopted about five months ago, though we have a tight bond we are still just becoming acquainted, and here and there she reveals new dimensions of her personality. Mature rescued birds can be like that too. Good luck with your sweetie!
 
#11 ·
Thanks Malachi - it's so encouraging to hear that she sounds to be doing well. Have taken your advice and am sticking with in-cage step up training for now. We've done three sessions today - morning, lunch and after dinner - for a few minutes each and already small signs of progress are appearing. By today's evening session she was willing to put one foot on my hand to reach the millet!

So true about rescues revealing themselves in stages - my dog was a rescue and only after the first year did her awesome sense of dog humour come out! Hearing about your dog and remembering my own reminded me that it's so worth the extra work with these fellows - thanks :)

Anyway, right now little Perruche is sitting on her favourite perch, gazing out the balcony window and grinding her lovely little beak. When I see her so happy I'm filled with joy that we took her home.
 
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