by Pajarita » Wed Jul 19, 2017 9:08 am
At only 8 weeks of age, I hope from the bottom of my heart that you are feeding him soft food and that you have not clipped him! I have to say that it sounds to me as if you have because you mention he climbs up to the top of his cage instead of flying out of it, as little birds always do when they can fly.
Now, there are a few things you need to take into consideration with parrotlets. 1) is that they don't do well alone, they all end up plucking. 2) is that they cannot be fed seeds put in a bowl and just leave them there all day long, they need whole grains and lots of greens and fruits (and the seeds need to be grass seeds like millet, canary seed, etc which are lower in protein and fat). 3) last but not least, you are rushing things too much with your taming/training. One and a half week is NOTHING! You need to allow the bird to get to know and trust you first and you are not going to get that if you keep on trying to touch him when he doesn't want you to. Slow down. Take your time and only introduce new things at the bird's pace. Spend many hours just sitting or doing things in the same room he is in (his cage should be open), talk, sing, whistle and offer him a treat every now and then but, if he doesn't take it from your fingers, just leave it near him and walk away. These are not rewards, they are tokens of your affection for him, they are gifts. They will be rewards once you start training but for these seeds to be what we all a 'high value' item, he can't have them all the time - and that's another reason for him not to get seeds all the time in his cage.
Once he flies to your shoulder, you can start training him to target.