Advice about terrified Rosella

[Aurora and I]

I have a Rosella, and i have had her for a fair amount of time now. She is about 7 months old now, and is on a healthy pellet diet (Harrison's) with veggies in the mornings and evenings.
She is really responsive to training, and targets fairly well when she is motivated. also when I take her out of her cage for her daily exercise and training she will step up onto a handheld perch. If I am lucky she will step up onto my finger if it is on the perch.
The problem is that she is afraid of my hands, I can't change her water dish without her jumping. I have read various of the parrot blog's articles and have used all the techniques suggested. Regardless of what i do I know i will have a good relations ship with my bird, but I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions for helping me build trust with Aurora.
Thanks

[marie83]

By the sounds of it your doing fantastic if you can target her and get her in/out of the cage on a perch. I've had several rescue cockateil that were so frightened of people when I first got the that I couldnt even be in the same room as them without them freaking out. They settled eventually but 2 of them I've never managed to do that with (still working on the second one, Harlie. Jack died at 8/9 years old).

Obviously I don't know 'wild' she was when you got her and how far you have come but I would say keep doing what your doing with the training until she is entirely comfortable stepping onto your finger before you consider pushing the boundries. Then take it very slowly from there.
Try to keep your training sessions little and often so things stay fresh in her memory.

When perfoming cage cleaning/feeding/water changes etc move slowly and deliberately.Talk to her as well, tell her what you are doing as you are going along. I've found with my 'teils they get used to it quicker if you talk to them.
The cage I have Harlie in has a solid tray so i have to lift the cage off of the base to clean it. Before I start I get the bin out of the kitchen and clean newspaper ready I say 'come on then Harlie, I'm going to clean your cage' then when I'm ready to lift the cage I tell her 'going up' and over time she learned to recognise those visual and audio cues so she learned not to panic about it. If I go to get her food/water I tell her I am 'getting your food' or 'getting your water' If I don't tell her first she goes on a little panic attack round her cage even if I do everything else the exact same.

Time and patience and alot of reassurance will win her over I'm sure.

[Aurora and I]

She has lived her whole life in a pet store (about 5 months) So she is accustomed to life in a cage (fairly large cage)
So I will continue to work with her and thanks!

[Aurora and I]

ive started talking to her when i do things, and she seems more calm, but she's still scared.

[marie83]

Well thats good, talking to her is obviously helping, eventually she will recognise the words you say as you go about her daily routine if you say the same thing each time. She's only a baby still so you have plenty of time to see more improvements so don't be tempted to rush things

[Shelby]

Is she ok with being targeted onto your forearm? Some birds are scared of hands but have no problem perching on your wrist or arm. Once she is comfortable on your wrist you can try to gradually get her onto your hand more than your arm.

[Aurora and I]

I'll try targeting here there next time i have her out ... i never thought about that before
She will target onto a stick, and i have pretty skinny arms, so that might just work, thanks for the tip.
She now knows that when i say i'm changing your water that she has to move away because she's scared if she is close when i take it out ... so progress

But I also see our relationship improving as i teach her tricks. She is now a master of the turn around trick, and caught on in only 2 training sessions.

[marie83]

Brilliant, well done. Keep working at things and you will get there. Keep us updated.

[Aurora and I]

She targeted onto my finger today twice! Then I told her "very good" and she chirped and flew around the room, then did it again!
It was like she was very happy about her accomplishment.

[marie83]

Aw, wish I was making that much progress. Will keep plodding on lol.