My CAG hates me now.....

[CRYROLFE]

I have a CAG named Tesla who is 8 yrs old. We are his 2nd home and he's been here about 18 months.
At first, he used to sit on his "porch" all day and I can stand right next to him and give him a treat if I wanted. That's about it though. He talks a lot and seems pretty happy.

I bought him a huge tree stand thinking he might like to hang out on that instead of on his cage. He was afraid of it. After 3 months of clicking him to walk out on it he still was afraid of it.
After flying off his cage one time, I picked him up (with a single cage door that I have handy) and put him on the stand instead of his cage. Well he really hated that but I left him there about 15-20 min. He just sat there and shook and looked pissed. After that he would freak a little if I got near his cage thinking that I might "get him" and put him on that tree thing.

We had a "bird handler" come and grind his nails and beak and to do this he had to catch him in the cage w/ a towel. After grinding he showed me how to hold him around the neck (not tight) and let him sit on my hand. The entire time he would try to attack me if I moved. It was pretty scary.

Alright....now he REALLY, REALLY hates me. If I go by his cage to feed him he bows low and puts his wings out a bit and acts freaked.

I have a target stick to try now, and just to see what he'd do I walked to the cage, waited til he settled down, then clicked and left. I did this about 3-4 times.
After that I put the stick in to see if he'd bite it.....well he just freaks and flops all over the cage to get away from it.

I also don't think he will take a treat unless it's AMAZING like a strawberry or bananas or eggs.
When he does he just snatches it and hides to the back.

I am going to go to Whole Foods and get a bunch of different seeds, nuts etc....to see what he'd like also.

What should I be doing with him first??

Crystal

[pennyandrocky]

first i would towl that "bird handler" he should know better.you have to get him used to hands so he will step up without having objects pushed at him. pull a chair next to his cage and talk to him,attach a perch close to the back of the chair and lay your hand palm up, unmoving where he can see it and reach it if he wants to.when he seems ok with you just hanging out like that put a treat in your hand and let him take it from your hand without making a move toward him.when he takes treats without hesitating start working on slowly moving your hand to his head for a pet if he seems stressed back off and try again.be patient it will take time but he'll come around.

[CRYROLFE]

Well, I can do that....and he will probably get to the point where he will take treats from my hand, but he really hasn't ever been touched. He was handled at the breeders but never by his first owner ....for 7 yrs, so I doubt he's gonna start w/ me.

[CRYROLFE]

Also, I let that guy handle him like that since he really did need to get his toes and beak done, so I felt there weren't too many options at that point.

[pennyandrocky]

it's never too late. mya was 7 when i adopted her. she was alot like yours,she's now on my lap headbutting me because i'm typing instead of petting her.you just have to be patient.

[marie83]

Definitely do as the others suggested, just sit and talk to him to start with with no attempts to touch him, get him to climb up on you etc. Then move on to feeding him treats, after that attach the perch to the outside of his cage and encourage him to come onto that, then eventually you can use your arm as an extention of the perch and just treat him for when he edges onto it.

Definitely refrain from trying to touch him until you have a hell of alot more trust between you.
It's not too late but it may take a long long time to win him over so take baby steps and have heaps of patience and you will get there in the end.

In the meantime get him some better perches and loads of chewable toys, wooden sticks etc to keep his nails and beaks trim so he doesn't have to go through that again. If he does need it doing again (sometimes things cannot be helped) let the groomer work with him with you out of sight and earshot so when the groomer is done you can go in and ''rescue'' him so he doesn't associate you with a horrible experience.

[Michael]

You gotta start over from scratch. Back to square one. Start with establishing that you're not scary and not gonna hurt. A good way of proving this is by not doing anything. Walk by the birds cage ignoring it. Don't even look that way. Sit across the room from the bird while working on your own stuff. Progressively work your way closer (minutes, hours, days, weeks, months... all depends on just how panicked the bird is). You will inevitably have to put food in the cage but not much other interaction is required if the bird is really terrified of you anyway and won't let you handle it.

In a few months I'm going to be releasing a DVD of the taming/training that I was performing with rescue parrots during my trip to Phoenix. What should be of great interest to you is my work with a skittish African Grey that was terrified of me. Within a week I had him stepping up on my hand be it out of his cage, stand, or tree. He still wasn't relaxed around me and it would take more time to get to that stage, but he was reliably stepping up for me after just one week of training. I realize you can't wait that long so I'm trying to point you to resources that should start helping you immediately:

http://TrainedParrot.com/Taming
http://TrainedParrot.com/Caging
http://TrainedParrot.com/Socialization

[CRYROLFE]

Thanks so much everyone!

Right now, if I go to the cage I will open his door and then sit in a chair next to him and work on my laptop. He isn't too thrilled but he doesn't really seem agitated. I can get him to target a stick w/ no problem and will eat something that he REALLY, REALLY likes....usually bananas, raspberries, or blueberries. I will make a video of this to show you.
He goes right for the stick and then snatches the food. I usually only do this a few times since he will then stop paying attention to the food.

I leave the TV on for him when we're not home but it's sad that he can't come out. He used to sit on his "Porch" all day but I read many articles which say not to let him do that....that only YOU should take him out. I also lowered his cage perches in case that helps.

I can't WAIT to see your videos of you working with rescue parrots Michael! Seeing the training on videos really does help me. It's so great that you do that!

Crystal

[CRYROLFE]

Should I allow him to hang out on his porch door during the day?

[marie83]

What do you mean by porch? I know what us UKers would use the term porch for but I'm struggling to make that fit with your question.