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How to Teach Parrot to Step Up and to Come Out of Cage

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

Re: How to Teach Parrot to Step Up and to Come Out of Cage

Postby rashwin07 » Wed May 23, 2018 3:44 am

my parrot can step up but he bites me out of a sudden.... what should i do
rashwin07
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 3
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Congo African Grey Parrot
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Re: How to Teach Parrot to Step Up and to Come Out of Cage

Postby Pajarita » Wed May 23, 2018 10:39 am

Just open the cage door and allow her to come out on her own.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: How to Teach Parrot to Step Up and to Come Out of Cage

Postby DarceeR » Sun Mar 03, 2019 9:45 am

Hi all,

we just adopted a rehomed GCC. He was bred and hand raised and very sweet when they got him. Over time he became more aggressive and then very aggressive after his wings and toes were clipped. I don't intend to do this btw and he is flighted now but it is obvious he is relearning. They treated him well, many toys, good food etc but he was extremely aggressive to the point that he would seek out and attack them. He did get plenty of outside time. We have had him three days now. He is not afraid of us near his cage (well sometimes he will puff and sometimes not). He will step up to my daughter but attacks any other people. He flew from the cage to my shoulder to chase my fingers and bite them! He is def finger aggressive. I have started to read about target training and we started today. My question is this, he is starting pretty ahead in that he will chase the stick around the cage, loves millet as a treat, but he bites the stick very hard. We have started to try and pull the stick before he bites but allow him to go for it, sometimes we miss....is there any other way to keep him from biting the stick. He took chunks from the whole family yesterday and was very proud of himself I might add! :swaying:
DarceeR
Parrotlet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
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Re: How to Teach Parrot to Step Up and to Come Out of Cage

Postby Pajarita » Sun Mar 03, 2019 10:36 am

Welcome to the forum! The problem is not training, the problem is hormones and, most likely, neglect. GCCs are one of the sweetest species of parrots, very loving, very forgiving... but they are intensely needy and, if you don't spend hours and hours and hours with them, they resent it. Also, free-feeding protein food (seeds, pellets, avicakes, nutriberries, nuts, etc) and keeping them to a human light schedule, instead of a strict solar one with full exposure to dawn and dusk will make them overly hormonal which equals aggression, especially in males.

Please discontinue your targeting training. It won't do any good and it might even backfire on you (actuallt, it already is with him biting the target stick and you do NOT want to get him used to his using aggression to get his point accross). Parrots are not like dogs, they are NOT people oriented, they don't belong to hierarchical societies so they don't understand discipline or obedience BUT they are highly social and very loving so the ONLY way to tame one correctly is to make the bird trust you, first, and then love you. Once he trusts you and loves you, you can start training him but, until then, you need to concentrate on a good diet (GCCs are mainly fruit eaters in the wild so their diet needs to be a fresh food one with large portions if fruits, veggies, greens and very low protein and fat). I've have four of them, they all came to me because of aggression issues and they all got better and ended up being the sweetest things through good husbandry and not any training whatsoever. Mine eats gloop with raw produce for breakfast and one single level tablespoon of budgie seed for dinner.

A rehomed bird will be in its honeymoon period for the first few months - this is the time when the bird is at its best behavior and when even chronic biters will think twice before they show an aggressive behavior so the fact that yours is showing aggression when you've had him for only a few days tells me that he is being asked to do things he does NOT want to do. So, stand back and observe his behavior as objectively as you can so you can avoid all instances when he feels he needs to be 'mean' to get his point accross to you. Don't ask him to step up (this implies the bird trusting a person he doesn't know), just open his cage and let him out. Do not interact physically with him (it's akin to asking a person to accept a physical interaction from a stranger), the most you should do at this point in time is offer him a treat every now and then (but, if he doesnt take it, leave it where he can reach it when you walk away because this is not a reward for good behavior, it's gift from you to him as a token of your friendship). Don't think of him as an 'animal' who has to put up with whatever you desire -parrots are VERY smart, they put two and two together and get a result of four, they observe, analyze and make conclusions so you want him to arrive at the conclusion that he is in a safe place, where he is treated right and respected. This time is the foundation for your entire future reationship with him so you want it to be strong and steady so you can build on it. Do not get him used to seeing you as somebody who will not 'listen' to him and make him bite - it will be very difficult to break him of this habit (which, by the way, he already has from his previous home so it truly behooves you to prove, from day one, that you are NOT like them).

If you take your time, feed him the right kind of diet, keep him at a solar light schedule so his endocrine system can go back on track and respect him, only moving the relationship forward at his pace, he will reward you with unconditional love and the sweetest temperament ever (my Codee is so sweet, she is the only bird that I allow my grandkids to handle).

One more thing, he can be friendly with everybody in the family but he will not be a family pet, no parrot is. He will choose his human and bond deeply only to that one -and this human will be the only one that will be able to take liberties with its body so you need to figure out who this person is in your household but you will not know for sure until months after the honeymoon period is over.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: How to Teach Parrot to Step Up and to Come Out of Cage

Postby DarceeR » Mon Mar 04, 2019 5:30 pm

HI Pajarita,

I see I posted back to you on the other one. Please excuse me, I am new forums so did not realize how it works. I thought I would get an email when somebody responded. Thank you again for your long response. This is very helpful. I am not sure what gloop is but will look it up. I am happy you told me they prefer fruit, all my readings said limit fruit but it is what he likes so I will increase it again. So far he like raspberries, frozen mango and apple. I will work on the light schedule, TBH this is the first I have heard of this! So much learning. Thank you again!
DarceeR
Parrotlet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 12
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: green cheek conure
Flight: Yes

Re: How to Teach Parrot to Step Up and to Come Out of Cage

Postby chustibabu » Wed Mar 20, 2019 6:09 am

Hi. I have an African Grey for about 2 months now. It is not scared of my hands, it lets me give her a head scratch whenever i want, also feeds from my hands very nicely. Isn't afraid of me putting my hands inside the cage. But she just would not step up on my hand or finger. I have tried a lot. She would immediately put her head down as i get my hand close to her (expecting/wanting a head scratch). If i keep food in left hand and keep my right hand just above her so it has to step up on my right hand to be able to get the food, she would try and stretch her body to the max to reach the food, but would just not even try to step up on my hand to get the food. She doesn't even want to come out of her cage much. If by mistake she gets out, she immediately walks back inside the cage. I have even kept her hungry entire day and then tried to train her to step up by offering her favorite food in another hand and one hand in between her and the food that she would need to step up and get the food, yet she would just not even make an attempt to step up the hand. She would just stand very close to the hand, but not step on it. If i try to move my hand closer to her, she would immediately put her head down and expect/want a head scratch. Please help how to make her step up and also make her want to come out of the cage. Even if she comes out of the cage, she would just hang on to the outer part of the cage, but not get off it at all.
chustibabu
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 2
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: African Grey
Flight: No

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