Me and Pixie
is having major progress. He is targeting all around the cage (We've been target training for 2 weeks and the last week and a half I've been targeting him all over the perches and walls and bottom), and he's accidentaly been out of the cage once when we were target training and he just flew out on me. While he was out (he got back in his cage safely on his own) I tried to do some step up training. THAT didn't go too well. He just ignored the target stick and started nibbling on my finger as he usualy does when my fingers gets in nibble-reach. The next day while we target trained I tried step up again, inside the cage (covering the entrance with my arm so tha the couldn't fly out) with the same results. He just nibbled and ignored the stick, even though he could claearly see it. Do you have any ideas about how to avoid this? The biting and nibbling does not really bother me, unless it's on the "folds" around my knuckles or around my nails, where he can get a good mouthfull. No blood or anything. Yesterday I tried another technique. I just held my finger against the perch, in a typical step up position and said up. He got it really quickly, after maybe 2 minutes he climbed on my finger, hesitantly at first, as if to test if it would hold him, but then he got braver and put his whole weight on my finger. And then I said "go to perch" (we have no such thing as "step up" in Norway, as I know, so I have to use "up" for my finger and "Perch" for step up to the perch), and after a while he climbed onto his perch. I clicked and rewarded both for the finger and for the perch. But the whole time he was biting and nibbling my finger. How can I avoid that? Or can I at all? I'm keeping up with the step up routine described by Michael, but it doesn't seem to work. He can see the stick, but my finger is a much more interesting chew-toy, it seems 
Even when he has branches and stuff to chew on. And I don't mean to complain, because it doesn't hurt at all except ehen he finds places with good biting grips or whatever I whould call it, but it seems like it distracts him. I know he is not afraid of stepping up because he does that everytime I have my hands in his cage, to clean or to change his food. He's a smart and brave little fella, which I love more and more for each day. And another question. Should I let him out of the cage before I have managed to step up train him so that he can step up, or should I keep him in there? I feel it's not safe to have him outside without being step up trained, because he doesn't let me tuch him. And say if it nocked on my door and I wanted to put him in another room for a sec while I opened, so that he didn't fly away, or if he was sitting on the lamp here he could get, not burned, but get really really hot and I wanted to remove him from there. And I don't wanna force him into the cage or force him to be in my hand while I move him to another perch, because it would just ruin our good progress. He lets me get really close, f.ex when he's nibbling on me and when we're step up training or target training or when I'm giving him treats, but if I'm trying to pet him, cup my hand around him or scratc his beak he snaps at me or flies away. It's kinda weird because when I treat him or let him eat from my hands he gets so excited that I have to support him with my hand so that he doesn't fall and I end up having my fingers against his back or tail or belly and he doesn't mind. But that's not petting or cupping or scratching, it's just being there in a discrete way. And I've found out why he screames and makes loud noises. It's because there's allways something going on here. Weather it's the radio, TV, Spotify, nabours making noise, there's allways some noise here. When it's quiet he turns quiet. Still active, but more quiet than if there were music or radio on. And there's no doubt that he likes the noises. He makes happy little squeals and sounds, and he picked up kissing noises from me, I think. I allways make a kissing nsound when I'm exiting because he has done something good, and he mix those in with the squeals and screaming, lol. He also eats and drinks like normal now. The first few days he ate very little, but I kept an eye on him, especially during the evenings, and he DID drink and eat, just not as much as now. He doesn't eat or drink loads, but he is happy and healthy. And I've even learned how to feed him greens! I just cut them into tiny teeny pieces, put them in the micro wave for 10-20 sec, and then I sorta smash them untill it looks like baby food. Now I don't even need to wave or smash them, I just cut them and have some almond bits in there and he eats it all up in 24 hours. It's incredible.
