My African grey would not eat from my hand

[Salmando9]

I'm trying to train my 7 months african grey, but I can't teach her anything because she would not take anything or any food from my hands, even if she's hungry.. any ideas please?

Thank you

[marie83]

Does she have a favorite foot toy? Like head scratches? Anything can be used as a reward really if the bird loves it, it doesn't have to be food but food is probably the easiest one. Have you tried offering the food reward from a bowl instead of directly from your hand? you can put lots of different things in it so she can pick out what she fancies at the time.

[Salmando9]

the bowl sounds like a good idea, but wont that take a long time?

[marie83]

How do you mean? It might take a long time for her to get used to the idea of taking a treat from the bowl so get her used to it before you begin training but once she is used to it I don't think she will take ages to choose what to have. Offer the bowl, let her get something then take it away again whilst she is eating. In the meantime keep offering her treats by hand too but the bowl may offer a short term solution.

If your bird isn't tame the bowl may not work either though and you need to get her used to you first in that case. Don't provide her favorite treats in her main diet, keep them specially for training, it should help motivate her more. You said you have tried when she is hungry, how long prior to the training sessions do you remove her food? As long as it isn't too long you may need to take it out for a longer period.

Hope this helps.

[Salmando9]

She is very tame. she stays upside down, i can scratch under her wings, put my finger in her mouth and everything. and I did take the food out for a longer time and it finally worked, we started today. But she's very hyper and loses focus quickly...

[marie83]

She is very young, don't let her concentration span put you off, just do several shorter sessions. A successful 5 minute session is better than an unsuccessful 30 minute one