Hahns Macaw - No Response/Excitement to Clicker Training

[booyeah]

Hi Guys,

We have a new 3 month old Hahns Macaw that we got this New Year.

He seems to be getting acclimated to our place more and more every day.

Still a little skittish around us specially when I come close to his cage. But would eat food from my fingers if I feed him.

Been trying to do the clicker training for 2 weeks now. I would do it while we are in his cage so that he is comfortable. I will take away his food bowl and wait for like 40 minutes to an hour before I start the session. He would bite the target stick but when I give him the treats (millet, seed, yogurt), he will bite a little bit then throw the rest. sometimes will not bite at all. he seems not interested with the whole thing. He would go around his cage instead and play with is toys. I took it the toys out before the training and still got the same results.

I would like to ask how do I entice him to participate in the training session.

Thank you.

[Pajarita]

Ay, ay, ay, you are rushing things waaaaay too much! You have a baby and babies are not to be trained, they are to be loved and cared for until they are juveniles because they need to bond with you before you can start training them and they need to be a certain age before they go to school. You don't need a clicker or a target stick to teach the baby to step up, they do it on their own because they NEED the physical touch, same as human babies. And, same as human babies are not sent to school, baby birds should not have training sessions. It's called flooding and not recommended at all. Birds take months to bond with you and you started training the baby just a few days after you got him before he was even comfortable in his new home. Don't forget that you took him away from everything he knew and brought him to an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people. He is depressed, confused and scared and taking his food away and training him is exactly the opposite of what you should be doing, my dear. Parrots are not like chickens which are born precocial, they are highly altricial and they take a looong time to grow up so the only thing you need to do for now is win him over and make him feel safe and loved.

You should also NEVER take food away from a baby for any period of time, they need to have two different kinds of soft food served fresh twice daily (soft food is just that, food that is soft and easy to eat - like gloop, birdy bread, oatmeal, polenta, cous cous, etc) every single day and, in most cases, at that age, they still need handfeeding (once or twice a day) because they always regress when they go to a new house. Babies that are not weaned properly (what it's called the 'abundant method' which I what I described) have issues the rest of their lives so, please, stop taking the food away from him. I know you did not mean it but it's highly traumatizing for a baby to be kept hungry... it does things to their brain and it always backfire (you might end up with a disaffected bird that does not love you or a bird that has an eating disorder).

[booyeah]

Hi Pajarita - thanks for the reply. Good to know..

I was under the impression that doing the clicker training might help out in the bonding process specially when the bird is new.

Anything i can do to bond with him? If i let him out, im scarred he might get more traumatized when i try to pick him up to put him back in the cage.

He just move away when i come close or change his water n food bowl.. Hasnt bit me yet..

I'll try to leave him be for now until he fully gets comfortble at home. We placed his cage where he can see our green cheek conure. He started using the birdie hut.. He wasnt using it until he started seeing our 3 yr old gcc use it at night.

[liz]

Let him out a few hours at a time. He has a lot to investigate. You have strange things in your home. When he is out for a while he will get tired and you will be able to scoop him to pick him up.

Pajarita suggested oatmeal but it has to be steel cut without additives. I was sharing my whole grain cereal with mine and got a resounding stop that. No additives and low iron. Look in DIET at all the things I was doing wrong.

[Wolf]

Well, why don't I just jump right in here and try to find out how long it will take for me to stick my foot in my mouth.
You got your bird for New Years, what a novel way to start off a new year and it makes things easy to remember. I was guessing that this was your first bird, but after reading a little further along I discovered that I was in error about that. I would like to hear more about both of these birds as I am somewhat fascinated by these creatures. I was a total novice not too long ago, when it came to birds, until one morning my life was suddenly and unexpectedly invaded by a Senegal parrot who ran away from home and wanted to come live with me. Talk about going through a crash course in parrots. And I see no signs of my research into their care letting up anytime in the near future either. right now I am focusing mostly on nutrition and it is a lot to take in.
I started out with seeds and pellets and then I learned that this was not really the way to do it as they needed the addition of fruits and vegetables, which I soon discovered that for the most part they had no idea as to what all of these brightly colored things were and refused to eat them. Can you imagine my chagrin when soon after starting to teach my birds to eat veggies and fruits, I learned that whole grains were also a required ingredient for them to have a good, healthy diet. I went out and bought several varieties of these whole grains with the thought that they looked like seeds to me, so this shouldn't be so difficult to get them to eat since they ate other seeds, right! Wrong!! I don't know why they are so difficult for my birds to accept and eat, I mean, really, they look just like another seed to me, but apparently not to them. My research told me that I should not switch them over to a new diet too fast as it could cause them some digestive issues, as if this was in any way possible. After having my birds for three years, I am still in the process of getting them to eat a healthy diet. It is like I must have mentioned the words healthy and diet to my lady at some point when referring to the birds and they said, healthy diet for us, ain't happening.
Now I brought this up, at this time for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that Pajarita mentioned gloop to you and that is what I am feeding my birds for breakfast each morning. The second reason is that you have just got this last bird and he is still just a baby, so this is the best of all possible times to start looking into and giving your birds a healthy diet. It also fits in with the fact that there are many things that you can do right now that are useful for you and your bird while you are earning his trust and creating the beginnings of your bond with him instead of training. The act of eating food is a social as well as a bonding activity for parrots of all types so I see no reason that you can't use this to your mutual advantage.
The single most important thing that you can do at this stage of your budding relationship is to hang out with him and talk to him and sing with him, you could probably also get away with teaching him some whistles. The more time that you spend with him doing these things be better your bonding will progress. It is very important to remember to let him set the pace and to not push him. You can also learn about his body language now as well and it will save you some problems later on. You will find that after a time he will begin to look forward to this time that you spend with him and not only will he not move towards the back of his cage when you approach, he will start coming to the front and may even start trying to talk to you, in parrot of course. Now as to time out of his cage goes, I find that the best way to begin is to let him outa couple of hours before dinnertime as he will be more receptive to going back to his cage for dinner and to go to sleep for the night than at any other time.
Well it appears to me that I may have gotten through this without eating too much shoe leather this time, and I hope that you will find this to be somewhat useful.

[Pajarita]

Sit next to his cage and open the door. Try to have something that would distract you for a while. I can read for hours (the whole day, actually) and never get tired but I know that the younger generation doesn't read as much as we, old people, do but you can play video games, solitaire, watch TV, etc The idea is to find something that will keep you put without squirming or fidgeting for a while because what you want to do is to make him used to your presence, make him understand that you are there for him but that you will not ask for anything he doesn't want to give or impose in any way and, once he figures this out (and he will, they are VERY smart), he will approach you of his own and, most likely, even climb on your hand or arm. Babies NEED to feel the warmth of a body next to them and will look for it as long as they feel they can trust you. So, plan these 'sessions' in advance (try to have two of them, at least, every day and plan on them been long -at least, half an hour but more if you can manage) so you have something to do, carry some nice treats with you (a small piece of a multigrain bread, little pieces of a millet spray, raisins, etc) and offer them to him whether he comes out of his cage or not. Talk, sing, whistle quietly so as not to startle him, praise praise praise all the time in a soft voice and before you know it, he won't shrink away from you any longer.