by Pajarita » Tue Jan 16, 2018 10:55 am
No, no, I did not mean to accuse you of anything! I was just stating a point. The truth is that we know so little about parrots that we all make mistakes. I know I've made -and still make- tons of them! Besides that, the training fad is very new and it has a lot of kinks that still need to be resolved. People tend to misunderstand about it... they think that training creates a bond and it doesn't. If it's done correctly [and this is not an easy thing to accomplish, either], it can deepen an already strong bond but it doesn't create it. Personally, I don't train any of my animals. I teach them good manners the same way that a mother teaches her kids, as she goes along and with noting else but consistency, persistence and patience.
Now, the first thing I would do, if I were you, would be to stop the 'evening watching TV and giving them treats'. Parrots need to follow a strict solar schedule with full exposure to dawn and dusk and that means no artificial lights on after the sun is halfway down to the horizon and sleep when it's dark. It's a funny thing about this... we all know about it [think of chickens and the birds in the trees] but, for some reason, we don't make the 'connection' when it comes to pet birds. We tend to treat them like dogs and cats and forget they are birds. I was fortunate in that I had been caring and breeding canaries for many years before I got my first parrot back in 92 so the same way that I kept my canaries to a solar schedule, I kept my parrots. It never even occurred to me to keep them up after the sunset... The reason for this recommendation is that birds in the wild do not produce sexual hormones all year round but, if you give them a rich diet and keep their days long month after month and year after year, their sexual organs grow too large and this means chronic physical discomfort and even pain for them. I know of two male birds that were peeing blood because of this and one quaker that actually mutilated his back, right above the spot where his overgrown gonads were! An animal in pain is an animal that does not want to be touched and will react with aggression if you do.
You should also revisit their diet because both species you have are mainly fruit eaters and that means low protein/fat and high moisture/fibre so, if you are free-feeding pellets, seeds. nuts, etc. they are eating way too much protein -this makes them hormonal as well as mess up their kidneys and livers.
Aside from that, I would just spend time with him alone in a room talking, singing, whistling and, every now and then, offer him a treat and ask him if I can touch him [I always ask my birds if I can, even when they ask me by putting their head down]. I don't know if this will work out because, in all honesty, it's not something I have ever done. I never try to touch a bird that doesn't 'ask' me for it. I have a female redbelly that has been here for about three years and it's only recently that I scratch her head with any regularity. The male redbelly, which came several months ago, is not 'touchable' yet. He is beginning to show an interest in a relationship with me [he perches on my head and my shoulders, follows me around flying from one spot to another, etc] but he hasn't 'asked' yet so I don't touch him. And it took me five years to convince the male senegal to allow me to scratch his head so, as you can see, I leave it up to them. If they want it, they get it but, if they don't, it's fine with me.