Lovebird basic training: help sought.

[sintpaljaske]

HI All

I am the proud 'owner' of a new personatus lovebird, called Arthur. My fiancee surprised me with him, knowing that I was considering getting one, and bought him in a petshop. Unfortunately they didn't train him so well there and he is very shy, wants to eat only millet and refused to bathe.
We are now three weeks further and after a slow start we made a lot of progress: he ate from my hand (only millet), got the target training, understood stepping up a handheld perch and stepped up my hand. He also came to jump from perch to perch so that I would come and train with him.
I thought he was ready to come out of the cage so we could practice on a perch as his cage has quite a small entrance and two hands through there are difficult.
I had made him used to the door by a few times taking him just a few centimeters out on my hand or the perch. And he was quite fine with that.

But when I took him out and targeted him onto the perch, he suddenly flew up and was very confused as I think he never before flew freely. He shakily flew up his cage and tried to get back in but didn't manage. After a while he agreed to step up to the perch again so I could lead him back in. After this he became suspicious of me and was slower in coming to pick food. But after a day he got fully back in to it.
So I tried again to take him out but with even less success, he flew away as soon as we were out of the cage and tried to land on bookshelf and didn't manage so ended up on the floor. I managed to get him to step up to a perch again as he didn't want to on my hand. He flew away again and got rather confused by the ceiling and the wall and he actually bumped into them. (I made the room bird-safe but never thought he would not understand ceilings or walls).
He flew onto the kitchen cupboard and I got him to step again and to distract him with loads of millet until I put him back in his cage. I always stayed calm and let him come to me and did not grab him nor shouted.
Now he refuses anything that comes from me, doesn't want to target anymore and only when he is really hungry does he want food from my hand. He retreats into his safe spot (behind a little mirror above his swing) and climbs there as soon as I come close to his cage.

I think he might associate me with the bad out of cage experience now. Any suggestions as how I might regain his confidence? And what I should do differently to make the out-of-cage experience fun and enjoyable?

A concerned new parrot owner.
Sint

[nikii]

hi,
thats happened to me before too.
the first time i let my jojo out(he is untamed),he flew all around the room like crazy.he went to bookshelf,ceiling lamp,curtain n broke them all in 1 hour.he dsnt come back to his cage n i need to catch him with towel.

the next day,he totally MAD at me n ignore me for 1 week.he refuse food from me,refuse to target training,n he always give his butt to me everytime i get near him.i let him 1 week to calm down,n slowly he get back to normal again.n after 2 weeks i open the cage,he refuse to come out,he scared(i think because of the first bad experience out of cage).but i dont force him,i let the cage door open for 10 minutes everyday n eventually the next 4 days he come out again .this time he dsnt come back to cage at all for 4 days n i dont catch him anymore.i give him supply of food n water n in the next morning i found him come back to cage himself.

he is free now 24 hours,n slowly he become really nice bird.he never run away from me anymore n always calling me every time i go out of his room i own him for 2 months now n he dsnt let me pet him yet but today he let me touch his leg.

for now,if he run away from u n dsnt take food from ur hand,dont worry.he will get back normal soon,
i think u just need to make him calm down for a week more,n start to open the cage again.make his room bird safe n let him out everyday,u will see a big different soon.

i hope this help,good luck sint

[sintpaljaske]

Thanks a lot Glad to see I am not the only one with the problem.
I took it back to basics with treats from my hands and he is slowly starting to trust me again.

Any idea how I can train him not too fly away or is that an illusion? I don't want to clip him.

Best wishes
Sint

[liz]

Clipping his wings will only make him insecure. You will have a much harder time with him and he will not be happy.

[donald1954]

Hi,

I think it is normal the first few times you let the birds out. My 4 Cags have no clipped wings, I find it to be not necessary, training works fine. Here in Germany it is not allowed to clip wings, you will find people that do it so. I agree with Liz, you take their confidence. They will be fine in a short while, it was a bit frightening here too, when I let them out the first few times, but it is only a matter of a couple of days. As our two boys were not tamed at all, it was diffcult to get them back into the aviary. Now it is easy, just show the food dishes or put a nut in one little bowl that I put in the cage.
I am sure, it will all work fine in a few days. Just keep your patience.

rgds Karin + Don

[nikii]

hi,
i totally agree with liz n donald,clipping wings take their confidence.
i dont clip my jojo's wing also,n he is doing fine.
for first 3 days its gonna be scary cuz maybe they will not come back to their cage,but i give him pistachio,let him taste it n put another one in his cage.he fastly come for it.

oh ya my jojo only stand on his cage or his playgym,cuz i make his room somehow thats the most comfortable place that he can stand.i put something on my curtain so he cant stand there.i change my lamp so he cant stand there.just make him focus to the place that u want him to go.

mmmm n for fly away,until now my jojo never fly away from me even he still untamed(as long i dont do something scary to him).he just fly like once a day around the room n come back to top his cage again,that why i suggest u to take all the things hard to reach like exp ceiling lamp.trust me they dont fly that much.clipping wings its not necessary.

good luck!!!

[nikii]

oh ya i forget something,maybe this will help u.
my friend own an umbrella cockatoo which REALLY friendly even the first day she bought him.n after a while she decided to clip his wings n suddenly the cockatoo becoming really agressive.the bird always want to jump to her face every time she tried to touch him which its never happen before.with a really big patient she can touch him in almost a year.until,now, almost 8 years she never clip the bird anymore.

i start touch my jojo just few days ago n day by day he seems more okay to being touch.(my jojo is not clipped)i can touch him in just 2 months.so from this i belive unclip birds are more friendly,confident.

this is only my advice n my experience,n clipping wings is really personal choice.u now whats the best for ur bird.
ok,good luck sint

[donald1954]

Yes, there is a differnce so in parent raised and hand raised birds. We have two of each. I experienced that the had raised birds, are not scared of hands at all, that means that when they want something to keep for themthelves they nip quicker. the parent raised birds a more difficult at the start, but easy and very loving animals once tamed. I did not believe it. when we got our 2 "wild" birds, I thought " oh cricky" I dont know how to manage. Apart from the very beginning it was not difficult at all. Momo ist the only bird, that is sometimes a little aggressive. She does not like me to clean the aviary, and she is very, very jealous. She is hand raised, a lovely bird, but you must be careful what you are doing. Training is fine, she is very clever and talks like a storm, but unfortunately she sometimes ( not every day) flies at your shoulder and bites in your ear. She is not allowed to climb on my shoulder, but when you turn around with 2 bowls in you hand to bring to the kitchen, than she does it. Always from the back. Anybody know a solution?

rgds Karin + Don