A couple of questions from a first time bird owner

[yeegdugrommut]

So I got my Jardine's 3 weeks ago and have been focusing on getting him tamed and target trained. He's only about 3 1/2 months old at this point but he seems to be catching on pretty well. He doesn't mind being pet but occasionally he'll just walk away from being pet like he's not terribly interested, which I would think is fine as long as he's not acting like he needs to get away. My first question is is it ok to do target training and wing/laying on back taming at the same time? I thought that since target training is trying to teach a behavior and taming is reducing anxiety to being touched and handled that they addressed two different enough goals that Loki wouldn't suffer for going through both at the same time. I plan on getting the training perches later in December so I wanted to get Loki a solid foundation with regards to target training and taming by then so we can start trick training as soon as they arrive, but I don't want to rush things.

If it's alright to teach both at the same time, then I have a couple of questions about his progress with both. He's not doing anything unexpected for wing taming. He pulls away slightly but he doesn't freak out and doesn't run away when I release his wing, so I'm not concerned about that. He does do something weird when I put him on his back though. Sometimes he'll squawk but he calms down after a couple of seconds. The weird thing is sometimes he'll try to grab his feet with his beak. I'm not sure if he's trying to pull himself upwards or just being silly. I'm also a little bit unsure about holding him will doing this. It doesn't feel like I'm holding him securely unless I've got part of his torso in my hand instead of just his neck, but doing this gives him enough space to squirm his head right side up and twist his body to follow. Then he just looks at me like I was silly to expect that to work. Is this all to be expected? If not are there any suggestions to fix this approach?

Regarding target training, Loki definitely seems to understand the connection between the stick and treats. He doesn't really seem excited about it though. When I present the stick and cue him to target I can see him looking around trying to figure out the best way to get to it. He then kind of slowly meanders over to it. Most of the time he'll just go up next to it and pause for a couple of seconds before slowly turning and touching it. It's almost like he knows exactly what to do but wants to see how slowly he can do it before I react. I'm not sure if my treats aren't appetizing enough. I'm using sunflower kernels on a recommendation from the vet. I bought some unsalted ones since I wasn't sure if it would be good for him to eat a bunch of sodium. I don't really notice him particularly enjoying the kernels but I have managed to get him to look up from his food bowl, drop the pellet he's eating, and target over to the other side of the cage to get the kernel. I'd like to find a more attractive treat for him but he already takes about 30-45 seconds to eat the sunflower kernel and when I experimented with different fruits it took him at least 1:30 to eat pieces of the same size. I worry that by the time he finishes eating it he's forgotten what was going on around him.

He's been such a sweet bird and I've been really enjoying having him here. I can already tell that this is the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship. Thanks for any help you guys can provide. If it would help, I can probably get videos of him doing some of this behavior.

[CrazzMc]

They love sunflower seeds so thats fine. Make sure you never bring salted as that isn't good for birds. Everything unsalted! As for taming/target/other tricks is fine however, you want to spread the sessions out. Maybe in the morning do target then at night do taming or other tricks. Learning two is fine but if you do one at a time then he/she will master than and then you can move on to new tricks and review some so do Tameness then Target, then learn the Shake trick, while learning the Shake you can review on Target and Tameness throughout your training sessions so your birdie doesn't forget.

Hope this helps

Don't grab his stomach/torso area, hold from the neck and give support with your other fingers on the back/side of the bird not in the front though.

My cockatiel loves taking the sunflower seeds out of the kernel so its a good treat I'm guessing. That happens to me as well though. The first time whenever I target train my cockatiel doesn't feel like doing it, it takes him several seconds before he touches the stick. However, after that he is bouncing around to do more. I guess he just needs a boost in the beginning.

[Avialae]

Also, take in to account that he's just a baby. Baby jardines are generally pretty slow, especially when it comes to eating. My female is 4½ months old and it takes her ages to do pretty much anything, but that's fine, and pretty understandable too at that age. They'll speed up eventually, so i recommend you just stay patient and enjoy the slow baby days. You'll miss 'em later on.

[yeegdugrommut]

Thanks for the responses guys! I really appreciate it. I went back and watched the taming videos Michael posted and I think I see what I was doing wrong. I'm having another problem now though. I got home from dinner tonight and decided to take Loki out to showcase his target training to a friend of mine. He started making a strange hissing noise. He kept running over to whatever side of the cage I was on completely ignoring my friend and made this noise as well as looking really energetic. I put my finger near him and he softly grabbed it with his beak and pulled it close to him so he could climb up and then immediately climb down. I thought he may just be really excited to train so I continued on and surely enough he ran over to the target stick and seemed fine enough while eating his seed but just dropped it all of a sudden to hiss some more. He started nibbling me a bit but I couldn't tell if he was actually upset or if he was just being nippy. I took a video of him making the hissing sound. He's never made the noise before so I have no idea what he's trying to do. If anyone could provide some insight I'd be really appreciative. (The hissing noise is towards the end)

[CrazzMc]

Though hissing may seem cute and energetic it usually means the bird is scared. (At least for cockatiels.) My cockatiel always hisses whenever we put the blanket on the cage at night, even though he knows that it will happen at the same time everyday he still does it. I guess its just a notice 'hey this is my bubble, don't burst it'. He is usually fine after a few seconds though so it doesn't really matter. Also your bird may have hissed because of your friend or in that video the camera. Just an unfamiliar object in the birds way. In some ways its curious but also trying to keep him/herself safe.

Sorry if some of the stuff I said didn't make sense, I'm tired and studying for Psych lol.

But I have to say you have a cute bird ^^

[laducockatiel]

Yes, hissing means he is scared. A lot of birds do this, and so do some other animals. He should be okay though, sometimes birds hiss just because they are new to something and are a little unsure of it.

[Mona]

I can't play the sound, but he is cute.

He looks like he is a little nervous about something. He is also "chewing" which seems to indicate that he wants to be friends or wants reassurance, but then he's backing off and hissing.

As suggested, this is no big deal and entirely natural. It is good and natural for a parrot (a prey animal in the wild) to be a little nervous about new things. You can do a few things to help him with this:

A) You can model to him that whatever is making him nervous is okay. I do this with my greys. I say, "This is okay" and often bite the object...whatever it is that is making them nervous.
B) That means you can teach them a reassuring word, like "It's okay". This will come in handy as you work with the bird as they mature. When they start to indicate by their body language that they are nervous, you can reassure them that "it is okay".
c) Don't push the bird beyond their comfort level. You want to reinforce "brave behavior" and reward it as much as you can, but they have to get their on their own time. I don't have a Jardine but I do know with Senegals, you can't push them into anything. They have to make up their own mind.
D) Work in small approximations if necessary
E) Finally, don't make TOO big of a deal about it because you don't want to reinforce the "fear" by making the bird believe there is a good reason to be afraid by watching you.....or by teaching them fearful behaviors. Handle it with confidence and reassurance.


Have a lot of fun...What a cutie-pie!