Parrotlet target training/taming

[Eric&Rebecca]

So I've recently began teaching Mia with target training. Not something I've done before as I've usually had my own methods but I thought I'd give Michael's training a go. The good news is:

Mia will sit on my shoulder, my arm, my foot, my chest....
Mia is happy for me to be near her cage
Mia will eat, preen, drink and chirp and now contact calls me.
I can get her out the cage on a wooden dowel and she'll step up on this without question

The bad news is:

Mia will constantly try and fly back into her cage when she's out
Mia will jump and sit on the target stick, no matter how small it is, she hops onto it even if it means doing a tai chi maneuver on one foot (d'oh!)
All of a sudden Mia will not, at all, ever go anywhere near my hands, even with food, she's absolutely petrified of them. This has not always been the case, it seemed the minute we moved to the next step in training she decided she didn't want to be treated from my hand anymore. She will step up occassionally for no rhyme or reason at all and then I can pet her and she becomes this silly tame thing and then five seconds later she flips and won't go anywhere near a hand again. Not sure what that's about.

At the moment I've decided to go right back and start at the beginning, but that seems to have made things worse, now she panics anytime my hands change water, food, anything.... What's going on? Have I done something wrong? Was I right to start again with the training?

[marie83]

I'm pretty sure you wont have done anything wrong, sometimes birds "go along" with things in a new home until they begin to settle in and have the confidence to object to things they don't like such as hands, this could be why she seemed quite tame to start off with. Plus she was cooped up in a tiny cage to start with, she probably didn't realise her ability to fly and get away from things she didn't like but now she is learning.
Your doing the right thing by starting from scratch, remember harlies story? I had to start from scratch what felt like a million times. I'm confident it wont be anything like that for you but setbacks happen to everyone at some time or another.
I know that you know what you are doing so please do not lose faith in yourself. Just talk to her as your doing the jobs that need doing "right I'm going to change your water now" for instance or shorten it down further to "water time" or something so she learns what you are saying quicker. She will soon learn what you are saying means you are going to do something that causes her no harm. Then you can just start sitting outside her cage, building up to making gentle hand movements, beginning to offer treats again etc etc.
I never got any reassurance with Harlie, nobody seemed to understand but there were very few people to talk to about it anyway, I lost faith many times because I was doing everything by the book but nothing was working. Patience, determination and taking things real slow will win through. You know this

[Eric&Rebecca]

Thanks Marie83.

I've made some discoveries, she will step onto my hand/finger outside the cage but only from the wooden dowel and only if my hand is palm to the floor and only on the finger if I hold more than one finger out and its in a relaxed position.

I can't treat her as such but sometimes I am able to pet her or i simply stand still and quiet and say good girl very softly. If she does this well I allow her to cilmb upmy arm or on my shoulder and if she sits for a while I will then calmly return her to the cage. I'm only doing short 15 minute bursts.

Hopefully once quarantine is finished I can leave her out the cage and let her fly to me. I think its difficult because she has to be separate, when she's surrounded by the flock and the time I think it will help er to warm to us more. She's quitehappy sitting for short periods of time and there's been no nipping.

She still flitters around a bit when I hasve to reach in to change the water but I've been doing this by first opening the door, allowing her to calm down, then slowly entering my hand to change the food and water. Whenever I get to a point where she panics I stop and wait till she calms down and then I resume slowly what I was doing....

Kind of had to lose the target stick for te time being, even the smallest chopstick she was using to balance on one foot. I think she sees it as a cue to practice tai chi!