imported african grey

[roy]

I have just been told by psuk that my cag is a imported parrot from belgium and that she could be a captive bird not handreared.
Im finding it very hard to get her to interact with my hands and i have problems with getting her back into the cage she will be anything to come out but hates going back
has anyone got any ideas please

[Polarn]

wild cought or handreared... what is your cagesize? does it feel cramped inside? enough stimulating things to do in the cage?

Only things I can think of, I never close my cage but my bird still spends about half the day in there playing around..

[roy]

Reggie, thats my cag, her cage is about 5ft tall its a corner cage,she can open both wings fully with touching the sides and theres 4 toys in there i hide food so shes got too have a look for it shes just so hard to handle, when i see other people with there cag doing things i just wish i could its like she just dont want too do anything but just sit there letting me scratchthe back of her neck thats the only thing i can do

[donald1954]

Hi roy,

if the bird is imported from Belgium, I would check the papers to see if the bird is originally from any other country.

We hold 2 handreared birds and two parents raised. Yes, the two birds raised by their parents, where paniking at first, frightened of hands, they nearly fell of the perch when we entered the room. The cage problem ( not wanting to go inside) was the same. How long is the bird with you? I would not do anything that could frighten him, find out what his favourite food is and try with the bowl-method to gain trust. There are a lot of questions to be answered first to find the correct solution, if the bird is from the wild, he well may miss the company of his friends. Could you tell a little more about your little friend, maybe we can do more for you than.

rgds Karin + Don

[roy]

Hi donald
Can i just say before i start telling ive only had reggie for 7weeks & i love her to bits ive spent loads of money on her and dont mind.
My daughter got her for me as a surprise, we were told that she was handreared they didnt have any papers,she is 3 years old (not sure tho).
When my grand children come to see me reggie puffs her feathers up,and watchs them like a hawk, the people we got her off have 7 kids dogs & a cat, i think the kids miss treated her if i show reggie a pen or pencil she will attack it or a wooden perch, i must say if i show her anything she moves away from it, new toys i have to play with them first when she see me playing with them then she gets confident she comes too have a look i just dont know how to gain her trust and show her im not there too hurt her, it sounds silly but i love her to bits, i did take reggie to the vets health wise everything was ok but she said feather plucking was down to behaviour problems.
Oh the only other thing we did was 2 days after getting reggie i went and got her a new cage as the one we got with her was a mess i wouldnt have kepted a dead wild bird in it let alone a beautiful cag
im open to help i can get thankyou

[Polarn]

To build your trust I would suggest training. Might sound weird to "demand" the bird to do something for a treat would help. But I do believe it does. Now depending on how your bird react to things might limit what you are able to start off with. I started out in the following order:
Targeting
Shake hand
Wave
Recall
Step up
Turn around
Currently working on nodding yes and no and some touch training.
There is no particular reason for the order I thought these thing in other than this was the things he did or was willing todo. And especially now with the training to let me touch him I have to start out with something he knows so that he gets that oh this is a training session. Whatever I do when he clicks I will be treated for. This somehow puts him in a state where it is easier to introduce new things. Same with turn around if I walk up to him ATM and put my hand above him he gets kind of paranoid looking. But if I ask him to wave, shake hand and step up a couple of times he is totally confident with my hand above him. Trying to work the same way with the touching but he still gets a little paranoid looking when I do touch him, but its getting better. And today he even landed on my shoulder and rubbed his head against my cheek. I've had him here since December 12 and he was an aviary bird. But figuring out what he was willing to do early on helped me and still helps me In building a good relationship I think. So if he freaks out if you present a target stick but is willing to grab your finger when you put it in front of him, then I would teach him to shake hands first, or if he puts his foot up when you present a finger, wiggle your finger slightly and ask him to wave, then treat him. Positive reinforcement can make or break any relationship I think.

[donald1954]

Hi roy,

nothing to worry about, 7 weeks is not long. The bird might need a little longer to adapt to his new home. You never know what happened before in his live. It took quite a while with my two parent raised boys, but now, they are just as tame as the two girls, which are handreared. Take it very slow, put a little bowl in his cage, and drop something he likes in there, whenever you pass. when he takes it " Good boy". dont look at his face, when doing. Leave the bowl in there, and when he is out, just do the same. My birds learnt very fast, to go back to their Aviary. Use a cue, when you drop the food, like " Go home first" or what ever you choose to say. It is not taking a long time. Just be patient it will come, from one minute to the next. Mostly when you dont expect it, but when, than the birds desevers a bargain - double the reinforcer! When you dont have any progress, let me know, we try a little different, but leave the bird a little time to learn.
Kind rgds, don

[donald1954]

One thing I forgot to ask. How long is Reggie out of his cage usually? What I did when he accepted the bowl and his reward in it, I left the door open and when he went into his cage, and repeated this a couple of times over the day. The bird learned that the cage door will not always close, so now when my birds step up they are all willingly going in their cage now. It is not that when they go in, automatically the doors closes. Always use the same words for the cue.
Main things is now, to make it easy for you to return him to the cage and win trust. You can start with target training in the cage too. When my birds took the reward from the bowl I made a little change in the training and they had to touch my finger first to received the nut. Works quickly. You can use a targetstick instead, when you are not feeling save. Have a go and tell us how it works. Hope you understnd my English.

Rgds Karin + Don

[roy]

Hi donald i work all day, but my wife is in the house most of the time, i get back in about 6:45pm & i let her out about 7pm till about 8:30 or 9pm until i put her back then we go to bed and get back up about 7am. i do cover the cage on a night time when we go to bed for 2 reason the first so she knows it time for bed the other reasons is the one morning i got up and it was really cold and she was divvering with how cold it was.
I think ive got to spend some time with her training, should i put the empty bowl inthe bottom of the cage or on the side of the cage. just noticed she likes butternut squash so im going to use that as the treat as i dont like giving her sun flower seeds
oh by the way your english aint that bad yours is better than mine and im english lol

[roy]

Hi polarn
just want to say thankyou for taking time to talk to me very useful information again thanks hopefully i will get to grips with the training