How Do I Get Her to Take a Treat?

[Athena&beepbeep'smom]

Hi Im Kara, I'm new here. I have a one year old Pacific Parrotlet and a 7 month old White Capped Pionus.

Athena the Pionus is doing really great in a lot of ways. I've only had her since March and she already never bites and rarely screams even though that was an issue at first. She's becoming more affectionate and actually calls to me for attention to be around me. She is more or less flight suit trained. She will lay upside down in my hand, step up or down and will let me touch anywhere but under her wings without complaint (she lets me touch there too but yells at me some.) She's starting to mimick sounds (laughter mostly) and learn some other behaviors so I wanted to really start working with her and training her, but I can't reward her because the one thing she still refuses to do is take food from my hand. I've tried all her favorites but she doesn't want it until i put it down. Any tips on how I can get her to take food from my hand?

This is just a really new problem for me because Beep Beep the Parrotlet takes food from just about anywhere.

[pchela]

Does she get her favorite foods all of the time? If she does, she has no motivation to have to take food from your hand. Maybe if you find out her faves then you can only offer those from your hand.

[Athena&beepbeep'smom]

Okay, that's what I thought too, so one of the things she loves but rarely gets is any kind of seed (I use it as treat only with her because the pionus are somewhat prone to gout and fatty liver issues with too much fat or protein in the diet.) So last night I had her on my left hand and was trying to feed her millet spray with my right hand. I've tried this several times before with no avail, but she finally started munching the end of the millet spray. I was so excited. By the time we were done she was munching the part of the spray right up against my fingers and she even went back to doing it after I put her flight suit on. I'm very encouraged.

Of course then I moved too fast or something and she freaked out flew straight up and slapped me right across the cheak with a surprisingly forceful wing. She is so flighty and prone to freakouts. Much more than any of the other birds I've ever owned. Some days I wonder if we'll ever get past it.

[Kim S]

If she freaks out you've gone just one step too far. Try to 'read' her. You should be able to pick up little signs that she isn't comfortable with what you are doing.
It would improve her trust in you immensly if you can react to her little cues when she gets frightend and back off before she freaks out.
Like Michael always says: its best to leave training on a positive note.

[Athena&beepbeep'smom]

Yeah, it's just quite hard with her. I have a parrotlet and in the past I had a green cheek they were much easier to read before a bad reaction. Athena can be sitting on your shoulder doing just fine. Then you make a move to brush your hair out of your face or scratch your nose and she freaks out. sometimes the way she reacts to the smallest movement would make you think she's not hand tame or comfortable with people at all but on the other side she actually calls out for human interaction and loves her beak and white spot rubbed and loves when you talk or sing to her and will step up on command even if she doesn't want to. I mean she's really consistent with it, so I'm always at a loss.

If she's in one of those moods (and she was last night) where she's just flighty at every small move should I just leave her alone for the evening? I always feel torn about that because on one hand I don't want to overstimulate her and break what trust we have developed but on the other hand I feel like if I just left her alone when she was nervous and flighty she'd be in the cage all the time and then how would she ever learn to be more comfortable out around people?

She's the oddest thing and I've never seen a basically tame bird be as nervous and flighty as she is. It's like she's torn because she really wants my attention but is also just a little scared or intimidated too, like she can't decide. Also "Pionus are very quiet birds" my butt! I must have read that a thousand times when I was researching but this bird is nervous and freaks out and when she freaks she screams and when she screams it's loud. so it's not just constant to hear her own voice or anything but I'm not sure i'd classify her as a quiet bird.

So advice is totally welcome. How do I deter the screaming or can I even? How do I get her more comfortable so the smallest thing doesn't make her freak? Why is she still this nervous when we have made such strides with stepping up and physical affection etc? Why does she seem more nervous some days than others? it's like I have 2 birds, one that is outgoing and sweet and funny and one that is totally terrified of me and her suroundings and barely tame at all.