I'm a second owner and he won't 'warm' to me!

[Drunkensailor]

Hello, I bought my African grey from a pet shop 5 months ago and he was 2 and a half years old when I got him. I leave his cage open all the time and he flies around the room to various perches I've set up and seen to enjoy it. He's already very vocal and excepts food from my hand and also comes on the sofa when I'm eating to share food with me. However, he will in no way what so ever step up or come too close to me. I've tried countless times with your technique and I'm still at square 1, he just flies to the other side of the room if I try it or he just backs off and walks around his cage. Is it because I am the second owner and didn't raise him from a chick and feel that he will never step up or fully bond with me. Is this true or am I just about to give up too soon? I love my bird to pieces so it doesn't matter if it never happens but it would be nice. Can anyone help and give me some more amplifying advice?? Thank you

[Alcatraz]

Since your bird has the knowledge and skills of flight, you might want to consider clipping its wings once so you have more control working on different areas of taming. That should give you several months until the wings grow back.

[Kathleen]

Clipping the bird's wings will probably create more aggression and several phobias. Your bird doesn't need to be clipped to become tame. Clipping isn't the right answer.

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3207

Go to this topic. The person has a similar situation and needed advice on how to get their bird to be more handle-able (because it kept flying away from them). I explained a process you can try.

[Alcatraz]

[Yorkochanie]

I am and was the second owners of my greys too.

My Timneh -now an angel - was really tame, knew to step up, to fly, let me to pet him, loved playing with toys, everything. His first owner had raised him as the perfect bird.

I own a Congo now. When he came to me, he didn't know to step up, didn't know to fly, hated toys, hated bathing, never went out of his cage for two years etc. Now, his feathers are growing back, and the succeded two flights! Now, he doesn't love toys yet, but, after a week, he starts to play with it. Now, he loves to bath! He really does In his first days, he didn't even wanna come out of his cage. Now, he goes out his cage, and walks in the room. My Congo loves to cuddle, and talks too. These are the good ones. But, it's been eight months and still won't step up for me. I tried target training, step-back, putting my hand in front of his chest, stepping on stick-then my hand-.. etc. But, none of them was successful. He just doesn't get that I want him on my hand. Sometimes, I feel just like you do. "he will never step up or fully bond with me." I know that every bird can be trained, I trained 14-15 myself, but he's being so challenging. Any tips?

[ptuga72]

I have an eclectus named Scarlet. When she came to us (6 mos ago) she wasn't very friendly. I couldn't be in the same room as her without her screaming, plucking, lunging and shaking. She didn't know how to step-up, but was familiar with target and clicker training. Scarlet still doesn't step-up onto my hand, and I cannot touch her (she will bite or at the very least "beak bonk"), BUT she does step up onto a thick rope perch when she can see her reinforcement (normally a piece of pecan). My suggestions to you would be:
1. Be consistent. Choose a method of training and reinforcement and stick with it. Practice training without your bird present if you need to in order to be comfortable and consistent with it.
2. Find reinforcement that is motivating for your bird. Make sure that you know what your bird will work for, if she doesn't get anything out of it, she wont do it.
3. If using a bridge (i.e., a clicker) Teach your bird the bridge. Make sure your bird associates the bridge with reinforcement so that when the bridge is used properly, she will know she has done something good and reinforcement is on the way. This helps mitigate the problem of not providing reinforcement fast enough
4. Evaluate your Goals and Expectations. Questions to ask yourself: What do I want to accomplish? How am I going to accomplish this? How can I make the process easier on me and my bird? After you ask yourself these, it is good to evaluate your expectations. Every bird is different and training takes time. Some birds take longer to learn things. Scarlet may never step up onto my hand or want to be touched, I am okay with this. It doesn't mean that we aren't bonded or that we don't love each other.

More specific advice would be: be the one to take him in/out of the cage, even if it means your just having him target a spot outside his cage once you open the door. If he is nervous with you near him, work on him remaining calm with you near. If you wish to work on step up during this time, try teaching him step up onto a perch instead of your hand.

if you haven't you should read these articles:

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=249

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=227

[javelin]

I just want to follow this thread because I'm pretty much in the same boat. Sunflower (peach-faced lovebird) I believe was previously owned and may have been cage-bound for a long time. He's not terrified of humans but he is definitely not comfortable getting one so close to him.

I can get near his cage and place a hand or two but he would show a lot of nervousness and occasionally flies about in panic. He has never bit me and I've come as close as touching his feet without him flying off. But once I chance on his feathers he does a 180 like his life depended on it. He won't eat from my hands, not even if I put a large helping of sunflower seeds (his favorite at this point) in his "treat" bowl and hold it in front of his beak. He would show some interest for the seeds, if he's not too scared to fly off to the far side of the cage. But he won't touch it unless I put it down and let him be.

I'm throttling back on my taming program and will follow Michael's training guide here to the letter as much as I can. Will start from square one. It's been only about 3 weeks that we've had him anyway. On some of the threads here, Michael mentioned having a "getting-to-know-you" period of up to 6 months. I hope it would be sooner though.

We'll see then. Wish us luck.