[Video] Ariel and I bonding

[cham87]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr74YVb4 ... e=youtu.be

Check out a cool thing me and Ariel where working on. This bird is 17 years old and just yesterday his cage was cleaned and rearranged. It was not done for past 10 years. This bird is a family bird that i took on as my own project. His wing is broken, I would want to get it fixed but dont know how or where or how much.

Ariel still shakes around me sometimes and is still learning to trust me. We have a lot more ground to cover. The interaction in the video is all that we really do right now. Anyone have any thougs or opinions?

[pennyandrocky]

just a couple things might help the cage looks like it has a mirror behind it not a good idea when first bonding it takes attention from you he may think it's another bird alot of birds get aggressive when near a mirror for too long.the person or the camera is making him nervous, he seemed to calm when you put your hand between him and the camera it shows he feels safe with you.

[Michael]

That's great. This is the basis for all training. But don't feed him too much seeds. What is important is long term progress rather than short term results. Just cause you could get him to take 40 seeds from you in a day doesn't mean that you should. Just because you could push him to allow more touch doesn't mean you should so soon. He's got a lot of background that needs to be overwritten. It doesn't happen instantly. By developing this kind of trust for a long time is what is really important. The step you are currently doing should be practice for weeks. You don't want to push him toward other things too soon cause trust can be lost. It's the long term relationship that you establish that is crucial.

You probably shouldn't give him more than like 10 sunflower seeds per day and/or a few small pieces of fruit. I know it may be exciting that you're making progress but it's not worth making him a seed junk over and it's unhealthy. But not only that. Pushing things too fast really can backfire on you. Slow down and use a long term minded approach. Do what you're doing randomly throughout the day. When he is good at that, start holding the treat in places further away so he has to take a step, a few steps, climb over to get it. While he is learning to lure for the treat he is also becoming less phobic of you. This works well in both ways. Once he is reliably going for the treat, introduce a clicker along with every treat. At first, keep it behind you back and maybe even under a sleeve so it's quieter. Click as the treat is being given but eventually click before the treat is given. Depending on progress, I'd say 1-2 weeks of this should be done before moving on to something like targeting. Don't do it sooner even if you think he could. You need to give him time to catch up to his abilities. You want him to develop ease as much as the skills because this will be needed when you get to step up and coming out of cage.

[Grey_Moon]

Looks like things are coming along great!

I'd second the mirror thing, and instead maybe give Ariel some bells or there's a talking cellphone kind of toy that Jacko has and loves to beat the snot out of--its made by Jungletalk n called the Talk N Play.

I find once a bird will eat from your hand the battle is half won, but do watch the seed amount. Is there slightly more nutritious fare like walnuts or almonds that Ariel likes? At least its some good fat and variety.

As for the vet, I'd get on that ASAP as a broken wing not healed properly will cause issues both health and behavioural. Start with any local vet--call and ask them if they treat birds, if not, do they know who does. I don't remember where you live but googling avian/exotic vet with the name of your location will give you a starting point.

I also don't know how much it'd be, usually they will charge you a bit to open the file, about 60 bucks for the base exam and then I have no clue after that. However, for something major like a broken wing they may be willing to work out a payment plan with you.

Good luck

[cham87]

Since Mike brought up the seed diet comment I wanted to get more information on that. Currently Ariel stays in one section of the cage and does not explore the rest of the cage. The section that he does not go to is the side that stores his color pellet food. It does not look like Ariel has eaten any of that. I tried to give Ariel a piece of the pellet like I was doing with the sun flower seed but he was not interested. He was normally fed a seed only diet. This is the time for me to start implementing proper diet. Should I switch to an organic non colored pellet asap? Should I worry about him not fully exploring the cage and being to scared to access his current pellet? Also when should I feed him? His current bowls are ones that are threaded on a post that is clamped to the side of the cage. I worry about opening the front of the cage and having Ariel try to get out because it takes so long to unthread one of his food bowls. Can I just leave the food in there all day with a certain portion or would it be better to have a training diet setup where I only put the food bowl in x times a day?

[pennyandrocky]

you can try mixing fruit juice into the pellets to make them more appealing.mine don't care for the pellets so much so i give them in the morning with nothing else until i can get around to cooking for them.there are birdy bread recipes on here as well where you can bake the pellets inside.