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Your mistakes while taming?

Discuss the methods and techniques of clicker training, target training and bonding. These are usually the first steps in training a young parrot.

Your mistakes while taming?

Postby alight15 » Sun Jun 06, 2010 7:20 pm

Lets talk about mistakes and accidents you learned from while taming...
I'll start:

I seem to make one of these and create a gap between us when ever my budgie starts to forgive me for the previous one..

At the beginning, I clipped his nails almost as soon as he got used to me,and he disliked me getting my hands near him from then.

Slowly after getting him back to trusting me enough to pet him,I decided to stwich from my tried and true spray method to sink baths.

After a while he got used to baths and gets excited the day after his bath and is much more playful,until I had to give him 2 in a row once,after he flew and landed belly first into a very spicy spill on a counter,he didnt like me that time.

As he got over it and let me touch him and fuss with him and pet him, he once shook his head and I accidently hit his tongue with the eyedropper I was using..-.- he didnt want to come to me after that.

I left him alone when he didnt want me to hold him,and slowly rebuild the bridge.

I left him with my dad one time and went into another room in the opposite side of the house,and he somehow flew through the rooms and found me and decided to land on the back of my head without making a bit of sound;freaking me out and causing me to shake him of, then dodge further attempts while trying to catch him v.v

Then another time i cut his nails too far(I went in small increments so it didnt cut into it, but the pink quick was visible through,and I tried applying quicki stop which made it worse)he had a hard time grabbing on to things so I put off certain activities.

He got better and he was,until yesterday I was letting my parakeet explore a new place since he was feeling very playful and I even got him to play with a new toy(a plastic chinese checkers marble),after he was done with jumping and flipping an empty caprisun pouch,and pecking and highfiving a empty pepsi can.
Somehow he slipped and fell of the table and between a chair that was pushed in and was stuck with one wing caught over the table and the chair's back. I was trying to fix a perch for his playgym when I heard a soft squeal (identically to what a baby makes when excited/happy)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vamK9CbmOZM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXKVZnuyJUM&h
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzwN1JlKBvM&feature=related

I turned around to see what was so much fun,and realized what happend,and tried to rescue him but as I lifted him up from underneath he fell off my hand and squeezed hir wings even more between my hand and the table before falling on the seat of the chair. I grabbed him quickly and checked his wings and he flew off, stayed up there for a good 30 sec flying angerly before getting back to my sholder.He then kept his wings tightly pressed agaisnt him,and I slowly checked to make sure nothing was broken by poking soflty,and stayed near him the rest of the time to make sure he was ok.

On a final note, I guess the sound was more of a irritated groan a kid makes and not a squeal but since he was smaller and a bird it sounded more high pitched.IT still sounded adorable,and is still vivid in my memory, it haunts me and makes me smile at the same time. His objections are adorable too, like when he wants to stay and roost on my face for hours when I need to do something. Or the way he opens his beak as a way of threatning my fingers along with tiny snaps,but runs away from them if that doesnt work.
Pet Birds & Safe Woods
Keet Korner
Other Links:
http://ezinearticles.com/?cat=Pets:Birds
http://www.birdcagestand.net
http://www.birdguys.com/pet-bird-articles.html
http://www.ehow.com/videos-on_1422_caring-parakeets.html
alight15
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Gender: This parrot forum member is male
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Re: Your mistakes while taming?

Postby Michael » Sun Jun 06, 2010 7:34 pm

The only one I can think of is grabbing Kili to put her away in her cage (especially if I thought she did something bad) because when she got her feathers and could fly, she could see this coming and didn't allow herself to be grabbed any more. I fixed this through counter conditioning. A) Never grab to put away. B) Reward being grabbed. So I was able to fix the behavior quite quickly after it began. Otherwise, I may be able to think of training mistakes but not really anything that has to do with touch or trust. Kili is really bonded to me and pretty much lets me do anything to her.

Oh yeah, one more was when I scared her with the harness by putting it right on her the first day. I ended up having to start over again and desensitize her to the harness and train her to wear it.
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Re: Your mistakes while taming?

Postby notscaredtodance » Sun Jun 06, 2010 7:45 pm

It was one of those silly mistakes where I didn't even consider it would be scary to a bird. I bought these ivy sticks which are about 6 feet long, and twisted almost like java, but smoother, and I figured they'd make great perches. So I brought them right into the bird room and set them down on the table, reached in the cage, and tried to set her on them. Needless to say, she freaked out and flew down onto the ground and even though she hasn't reacted negatively towards me since then, I know I traumatized her by just not being aware that things that I find harmless can be terrifying to a bird.
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Re: Your mistakes while taming?

Postby TheNzJessie » Thu Jun 10, 2010 12:46 am

umm my mistakes would be i used to give up to easily and and frustrated. or ending a training session on a bad experience instead of leaving it on a good note.
Qwil-:budgie:
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:)
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Re: Your mistakes while taming?

Postby Athena&beepbeep'smom » Thu Jun 10, 2010 3:29 pm

I have a still relatively new white capped pionus. At first she was bad about hollering pretty loud when she was hungry or wanting attention. I responded to this by telling her no and rubbing her beak (i had been told rubbing the beak can help to stop screaming or biting because it forces them to close their beak and therefore interrupt the bad behavior.) What I didn't know then is that the only place Athena really enjoys being rubbed is her beak, so we had about 4 really long weeks of near constant screaming to get her beak rubbed while I tried to counter condition that behavior. We're doing much better now though. :amazon2:
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Re: Your mistakes while taming?

Postby gizmo101 » Mon Jul 05, 2010 4:35 pm

i only got my bird a month ago and my mistake was giving him treats when he had only been with me 24 hours because now he relates those treats to a time he was distressed and he will never go near those treats a basic mistake i made just by trying to help :?
just because you dont know something why cant your bird teach you
gizmo and georgia cockateils
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Re: Your mistakes while taming?

Postby JadeW » Thu Jul 08, 2010 10:44 pm

I'm sure I'm making all kinds of mistakes... But the ones that stick out in my mind thusfar are accidentally causing Cas a couple of night frights. One from trying to see if he slept on one foot, and later when I tripped over his playgym that was on the floor and fell into his cage. Needless to say, I'm a lot more careful when trying to walk around in the dark >.>
Michele and Cas <3
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Re: Your mistakes while taming?

Postby alight15 » Fri Jul 09, 2010 9:24 pm

well I made another mistake recently

I dropped my budgie...he was on my thumb continuing his usual efforts to move a finger on the hand he was on to a different position for no real reason tapping it,chirping at it,bobbing his head,pushing his head against it, and working on another finger after the first moved etc...(just keeping himself busy)

and during one of his efforts of pushing using his whole head and part of the shoulders, I shifted in my seat and he fell. My hand was about 4 feet up in the air and he managed to catch himself about a foot from the ground and fly, but his 3 rounds around the room were weak,slow and very difficult.

I Instantly pushed him into my face and cupped a hand on the other side telling him it's ok...because he kept his wings part open(away from his body) like ready to fly at a moments notice ;after he managed to make it to my hand on the 2nd try.

HE was surprised by the attention or my actions though cause he tried to get away,then stared at me for a while watching my movements,not knowing to fly away,or come closer..but eventually it passed and he went back to chirping a bit..
Pet Birds & Safe Woods
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Other Links:
http://ezinearticles.com/?cat=Pets:Birds
http://www.birdcagestand.net
http://www.birdguys.com/pet-bird-articles.html
http://www.ehow.com/videos-on_1422_caring-parakeets.html
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Re: Your mistakes while taming?

Postby alight15 » Fri Jul 09, 2010 9:59 pm

notscaredtodance wrote:It was one of those silly mistakes where I didn't even consider it would be scary to a bird. I bought these ivy sticks which are about 6 feet long, and twisted almost like java, but smoother, and I figured they'd make great perches. So I brought them right into the bird room and set them down on the table, reached in the cage, and tried to set her on them. Needless to say, she freaked out and flew down onto the ground and even though she hasn't reacted negatively towards me since then, I know I traumatized her by just not being aware that things that I find harmless can be terrifying to a bird.

I try not to introduce things too soon myself,my budgie gets a little freaked and flys off when it's something new,even if I'm holding a paper towel in my hand and he's seen it before he flies off or attacks it(biting hard and making holes)
I usually get him close enough to look at it for a bit then put him aside and let him see me use it(since we've gotten close he wants things I have or use or use them too ^^)
Pet Birds & Safe Woods
Keet Korner
Other Links:
http://ezinearticles.com/?cat=Pets:Birds
http://www.birdcagestand.net
http://www.birdguys.com/pet-bird-articles.html
http://www.ehow.com/videos-on_1422_caring-parakeets.html
alight15
Cockatiel
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 61
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: Budgerigars
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