Please Help... at my wits end

[mack0311]

I'm losing it here. I've had my male Black-Capped Conure for about a year. He's been to the vet, I fed him very well and am very attentive to his needs, etc. I just can't shake a few behavior problems with him though and it's making it a HUGE struggle for me. He's fully fighted (I followed everyone's advice not to clip) and getting him out of the cage is NEVER a problem. He flys right to me...and stays on me. On the shoulder he mostly fine. It's just sometimes a switch flips and then he's gauging my ear and his feathers are all puffed up. I assure you, I try and get him off my shoulder, but it sounds so easy to simply place him on a stand...he'll go after my hand at that point. It's just a day ruiner for me. I know there are triggers, but sometimes it could just be anything. This is just part of the problem. Since he can fly, when he's out of his cage, he's on or very near me. If I'm sitting on the couch watching TV his nipping at my finger/toe nails. I'll say no and move him away but he's always running right back there. All of it is just discouraging me and driving me nuts. To get him in his cage in the morning, unfortunatley I have to grab him (gently and cunningly and place him in the cage. Target training, although very well trained in it, does not work anywhere around his cage. He simply files away or loses complete interest when the stick goes in his cage. He' a smart little devil.I need some practical advice. I understand that putting him back in his cage like that isn't ideal and is probably worsening our bond, but I'm telling you, I cannot get him to willingly go back in there otherwise. I've tried all the tricks on here. I want to do what's right for him and it's killing me that we're having these issues, but to be honest it's becoming more and more of a burden. What can I do?

[marie83]

All the tricks? like what? have you tried food management? a bird wanting his breakfast will pretty much always go in the cage willingly once he is used to the routine.

[mack0311]

The positive reinforcement training techniques. Yes, he's hungry in the mornings..just not hungry enough to leave me and go into his cage on his own. And his cage is nice-very large and plenty of toys.

[marie83]

What is your feeding schedule?

[Michael]

http://TrainedParrot.com/Caging

[Andromeda]

I have the exact same problem with my GCC when it comes to going back in his cage. Any suggestions for mack (the OP) would be helpful to me as well.

My situation is that my GCC is flighted and he will target anywhere and everywhere but inside his cage. He'll even target on his cage, but inside? Forget it.

The only way I can get him inside his cage is to hold him on a handheld perch and place him inside that way because if he is on my hand he bites hard (and this is the only time he bites me). I often have to chase him around the house several times before I can successfully manage to get him inside.

I have tried everything that Michael advises.

1. No meals outside the cage.

2. Tons of super fun toys inside the cage.

3. The cage is not used as punishment.

4. I try to tire him out by flying; he flies all day long, up and down the stairs, all around the house, of his own free will, just following me around. I also do lots of flight recall with him, to different perches and to my hand from 5 feet - 40 feet.

5. He is awake for about 13 hours and he spends about four hours inside his cage.

6. He sleeps in his cage at the same time every single day, I know he's tired because he starts grinding his beak and will fly to my husband's shoulder, cuddle up next to his neck, and close his eyes. Still, he won't willingly go inside his cage then, either.

7. I don't free-feed, I feed twice a day and I know he is hungry because once I do manage to get him in his cage the first thing he does is go for his food. However, he absolutely refuses to go inside on his own terms to get the food, even if I put a little treat in there for him (and show it to him first).

I never "give in" to the bites or the flying away. If my intention is to put him in his cage, that's where he goes, even if I have to retrieve him from another room several times before I succeed. I never have to restrain him but I do use a hand-held perch to handle him in this one case only.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, and I welcome any suggestions.

I do have my own theory about why he hates his cage so much, though. He is a re-home and after spending a year in a pet store he went to his first home where he lived for a year and a half. His owner admitted to me that he was left in his cage almost all of the time during this year and a half. She said she'd let him out briefly if she "had time for him" but then it was back in the cage for days on end.

Poor little guy had a "Happy Hut" (the kind that is covered inside and out in fuzz) and he had stripped every last bit of fuzz off of it out of frustration. It was bare. We bought him a new one and that's where he sleeps and now that he's no longer cage-bound 24/7 he doesn't strip the fuzz off anymore.

He's been with us for almost 4 1/2 years but he does still live in that same cage he had from his first home. Should we get him a new cage? Could it be that he doesn't hate being caged, but just hates that cage in particular? I don't know.

[cml]

We've done all that stuff as well, cool toys, no meals outside the cage etc, but what really got both parrots trained to go home to their cage on command is a very simple thing: Almonds.

They dont get almonds for anything else than going back to the cage. Well there its a fun place to be and they always have something fun to do, but its the almonds that has allowed me to train them to fly home on command ^^.

[Michael]

7. I don't free-feed, I feed twice a day and I know he is hungry because once I do manage to get him in his cage the first thing he does is go for his food. However, he absolutely refuses to go inside on his own terms to get the food, even if I put a little treat in there for him (and show it to him first).

As an experiment to see if you're still feeding too much (even though in just 2 meals. Try this to see if it's possible to make him desperate enough for food that this will work. One day, skip the morning meal entirely or make it very small that you are 100% certain he didn't get enough. For example if your normally give unlimited but timed meal, give him just a few bites worth of pellets. Then in the evening, lock the meal in the cage by closing all the doors and see if he's going over to the cage trying to get in himself... if he is, you'll be his hero for giving him access to it. Anyway, try this once or twice and see if it helps. If it does, you may need some stricter food management but not in the way described here. This is just a short term test to see if food motivation could help. Let me know how it goes.

[friend2parrots]

just wanted to mention here what I do, in case it might be of help to anyone - its a little different:

when i first got my birds five years ago, i taught them the "go to cage" command without a target stick and without a clicker. i just said, "go to cage" whenever i saw them going into their cages, and gave them treats for doing that. eventually they realized that going into their cages was going to get them a treat. "go to cage" is the command, and they get a treat for following the command. usually they fly in on command, but if they seem stubborn, sometimes i'll hold them about a foot in front of the cage, and give the command, and let them fly in.

another thing that might be helping me get my birds into the cage on command is that they seem to actually like their cages as a place to hangout and be (they have aviary style flight cages where they can fly), and sheer practice: weve been doing this for five years.

i think their compliance might be due to the fact that both of my birds are very food motivated for their treats. although i dont do food management, i can definitely see how it would be helpful for others, and hence, i think michael's methodology and marie's advice would be useful.

[Andromeda]

Thanks for the suggestion, Michael, I'll give it a shot and let you know how it goes.

For the record he doesn't get an unlimited timed meal (anymore). When I started food management he was getting unlimited timed meals but over the period of about a week I narrowed down how much food he was actually eating versus wasting and it came out to 3 tsp. If I give him more than that he doesn't eat it all but if I give him 3 tsp. (total) it's gone by the end of the second feeding. (Harrison's recommends 2 tsp. - 5 tsp. for conures as a reference).

I weigh him every day to make sure he's stable in that regard. Maybe that's still too much food, I hadn't considered that.