will unrequited love be all that remains? hand tamiing tips?

[evaleen]

first...
God... i love this forum...
just a newbie and already so many warm replies...

thank u so much every one!
especially u liz!

atleast u offerd to help! (and at such an extensive length to that!!!)
i am REALY touched!
*insert friendly hug here*

and @michael, lol! i knew it was too good to be tru! thanks for the reality check! (i had grown myself a pair of wings b4 they got clipped! now i know how wing-clipped birds feel like! hahahahaha!)

yeah, mayb shipping it would be too much of a hassle, and there's also the possibility of bug infestation. so i gess i'l have to give up on the idea... (aw-shucks!!!)
and considering the amount of bureaucracy in bangladesh, i wouldnt b surprised if it arrives at my door step after a month!
but thank u... really.
thank you.

[evaleen]

ah.
progress in the last 3 days.
the new cage is too big, so i cant take kiboo with me ever where i go. but its improving.
kiboo now settles down after a few minits when i sit next to his cage. so now he stays still and watches me.

(although he still goes into a chewing frenzy, but i gess we'l have to work on that)
i'v removed all him chew toys and hung cabbages and other leafy vegetables on the cage bars.
aftr a day of missing his chew toys, he started chewing on the veggies. (YES!!!)

but the problem is, he dosnt eat them. i mean he keeps shredding them like he was a blender in his past life; but he dosnt ingest them.
sometimes, tearing away the vegetable stalks causes some f the juice to flow into his beak. i even see him swallowing that, but that's it. then he just shreds the rest and goes back to his perches.

as for peanut butter, he's SCARED of it.
he bit into it, but immediately started shaking his head like its the worst thing he ever had.
and he dosnt go near it ever since. ( say whaa----????)
today, he's sleeping as i type. yaaay! he trusts me enough to sleep while i sit next to his cage..

i gave him a toy keyboard in his cage. he goes CRAZY when he pushes his beak on a key, and the "ping" sound resonates! lol then he starts trampling on it,producing multiple notes.

he is now way way waaaaaaaaaay more comfortable with me and the others.
but he still dosnt eat anything but seeds.i even tried tying nuts into a necklace and hanging it. but all the joy he finds from it is tearing the thread and watching the nuts fall.
(destructive little creature) he even tries chewing on the cage. although it didn't have any luck with it. (yet)

how should i convert his diet to healthy veggies? all he eats are his seeds. and if i take them away, he'l patiently wait till i put them back in.
i havent brought him outta the cage yet, he's too panicky for that i think.

i wana target train him... he's ready for target training, but i dont know what his treat is. at can i use to treat him with? (i give him a seed blend. but he only eats the hulled rice seeds and ignores the others)

any help?

[animal_lover]

Just read your story...so sad that the little guy had to suffer so but it is wonderful that you rescued him. I don't understand people...so cruel. I am fairly new to owning parrots as well so I have no advice except don't give up! Any new updates?

[liz]

Evaleen - have you tried just opening the cage door while you work beside him? Sometimes being able to perch on the open door gives them a feeling of confidance. He is understandably insecure.

[Polarn]

Hi I am new to the forum, actually just registered, so I'll make a proper presentation of myself in another thread. However...

I just got my bluefronted amazon home on sunday, so 4 days ago. He is borned june this year and isnt hand tamed yet, bin living in a big cage where he was fed by his parents. Anyways when I first got him home he either flew around in his new cage crazy as soon as i got close, or tucked himself into the corner. seeing you actually got past the inconfy while your close part i wont go into detail. but basicly what i did was to sit at a distance where he started to look upset, without him being flying around or anything, and just sat there and talked / sang to him until he was calmed and relaxed, then i went off, as a reward to him for accepting me being there i removed myself totally, moved the chair closer and closer until I could sit right next to him. that was basicly day 1.
day 2 I tryed to get him to pick up on the fact that penuts (still with the shell on) and peices of apples are tasty, in order to be able to use these as treats as I train him, and exclude it from what goes into his bowl. anyways he didnt touch any of em for about half the day with me actually opening the shells leaving the peanuts visible, I might add that after the first day he accepted me opening the cage to put stuffs in, kinda expanded the training into that during day 1. but seeing he didn't take the apples or peanuts I decided to try some orange, just couse it contains lots of water and has a decently strong smell. added note:they shouldn't have citrus fruits too often since they produce vitamin C themselves so oranges isnt the ideal thing to feed em daily. however he was reluctant to the oranges as well, but if I squezed out the joice and placed a drop on the bar, he would climb there to lick it up. so I squiced a tiny tiny bit of orange jouce into his foodbowl, kinda made him like the taste of hes normal parrot dryfood. then i squezed a little onto a peice of apple and placed it on his "stick" and he tryed it. so during the evening i basicly placed small peices of apple around his cage and he munched on them.
Day 3: kept with placing peices of apple since he now enjoys them, onto his, ahh figured the name for it, perch , not sure about the spelling tho, puting them down closer and closer to him, and as soon as I saw him looking for a place to escape or climb off I placed it and withdrew, trying to not let him move but accepting his bounderies, by the evening i could place it down right next to him and sometimes touch his foot, other times not.
Day 4, today that is: I decided to see if I could get into his confortzone having my hand a little bit higher than his feet and try get him to eat from my fingers, no success to begin with. then i actually used a bransh i broke off and sticked the applepeices onto, its about a foot long, then he took the first peice I offered him, I gave him about 4 peices, then sat down by the computer for about an hour next to the cage, cut some more peices of apple fed him with the stick 4 or 5 times, then closed the cage again, cut 1 little peice and a couple of as long strips of apple as i could possible make, fed him once with the stick, then offered him a long peice with the hand and he went for it. so now im basicly decreasing the lenght of the strips and gives him 1 or 2 with even intervalls, sometimes i make the strip to short and he wont take it, my goal is to be able to make em so small that he actually has to touch my fingers with his beak in order to get it.

Oh I also use a clicker, so as soon as he touches the apple i click, this is to make him associate the clicksound with a treat.

My bird however doesn't have an abused background or something, so might be slower progress with your bird, however just wanted to post this since I beleive I have gotten some progress with my bird in just 4 days. And if someone thinks I am going about this wrong please let me know, I've never tamed a bird before seeing the only bird that ahs bin in my life before was already tame and trained when I was born.. wich is a few decades ago...

As an end note I'd like to appologize for my spelling and the somewhat messy post, english isnt my first language and am writing in between treating, and gently stroking Polarn on his belly and feet, see progress while I was writing this post hehe

[cml]

I will try to read your whole post later, but this popped out to me:

peanuts (still with the shell on)

I have recently learned just how dangerous this is, there is a type of fungus that grows on the shells of nuts and its lethal, it will kill the bird very quickly. Just serve him nuts without shells and you will be fine =)!

[Polarn]

thanks for the tip, he still wont touch em so I know he hasnt gotten any yet. I just know that the affrican grey we had when I was a kid back in the 80's went crazy over them so if he wouldnt do what you asked, like return to his cage when visitors came by or something all you had todo was to go fetch one of these and ask him again and he did it instantly.

But seeing how he actually did choose the apple between them I am in luck since thats what ive bin using for treats so far.

[cml]

Sounds like you are doing a good job!

Let your new friend get used to you over a few days, and then start training inside the cage with basic target training. This is a great way to get your bird to step up. Once youve achieved that, taming and handling will become much easier.

Its a good thing that you've started to figure out your birds favorite treats, use them exclusively for training!

[Polarn]

yeah thats my thought, gonan "starv" him, well not starv but give him his pellets and such besides the training, but seeing i have so far squezed in about 10-15 really really short "training sessions" using that term lightly since the only training atm is to get him familiar to me, however I think he gets enough goodies even tho i dont put it in the bowl, but goodies is only for him when he accept it from my hand or let me touch him, and he still eats his pellets and the blended vedgies/pellets mix i do for him. although, i had to use the orangejuice in order to even get him to try the apple he definitly likes em even when there is no orange juice squeezed on it. anyways don't wanna hijack the thread, just wanted to post how i went with it seeing I to also just got a new bird, and in my eyes it is progress the more they tolerate and accept you.

Oh just need to say, just becouse I am happy about it. He actually allowes me to walk up to him when he is out of the cage now as well to touch his feets and give him a treat, however as soon as I try to stroke his belly he fly off. but he wouldnt even let me walk close to him outside the cage earlier today.

[liz]

You are making good progress. It takes time.

Rambo is partial to almonds in the shell. Myrtle hasn't quite figured out how to open the shell.