GCC training

[kmmark87]

I have sort of adopted a GCC and was hoping someone had some advice on working with him.

I don't know how old he is. But he's at least 4 or 5 and fully flighted. He's a pretty good bird and I can scratch his head, pet him, and hold him and he always steps up when asked.

I wanted to start working at clicker training, which is where I hit a problem. He won't take food from a hand. No matter what the food is, even if I know he loves it, he will attack my fingers instead of taking the food. This is the only time he really bites me now (he used to bite if I scratched him for too long, but I've picked up on his signals now). I think it is very strange. I've just been offering him food, and hoping he eventually just takes the food, but I wondered if anyone else had ever encountered something like this. Or had any ideas on how to fix it.

Another problem I've hit in the last day or so is that when he is on my arm he plucks my arm hair out. I don't mean that he sits on my arm and when he gets bored he plucks out my hair. He will step up onto my hand, immediately shuffle onto my wrist and begin plucking. I haven't been reacting to it, and have been putting him back on his play stand or on his cage when he does that and wanted to see if anyone had any other advice for stopping it.

[marie83]

Green cheeks are funny little things lol. On occassion Ollie used to do that too.

A few suggestions for the treat issue

-make sure he is hungry before training, he wont want to risk missing his treat hopefully

-try putting treats in a bowl, picking them up and pretending to eat them, give him one after this but before begining to train him. That will hopefully ensure that he knows there is a treat coming, cuz he knows your picking them out of the bowl, and your not just poking your fingers towards him...

-offer him the bowl and let him pick his own treat out.

As for him pulling your arm hair, the only suggestion I have for that is keeping them covered for a while or distract him before he starts pulling. Hopefully he will forget his new hobby