First Time Training

[cag40oz]

Hey, I am a first time bird owner who is starting to train my GCC. I am reading the forums and the How to Tame & Train Parrots site and it is very helpful. I do have a question though...

What kind of treat should I use. Charming (our gcc) loves grapes. So after reading some of the training site I thought ok that is what I should use for training. However, grapes tend to take sometime to eat. Should I just give him a taste and take the grape away until he does the next wanted action? The same with Millet spray, he likes this too. Should I just give him a bite?

Thanks

[marie83]

I don't find using grapes with a GCC very effective as they just learn to tear bigger chunks off so your left waiting ages. I use a combination of sunflower seeds broken in half and very finely chopped up apple for training. A little bite of millet would be good too and it would work well but I feel a little bit cruel showing him a whole cake and only letting him have a crumb because I'm silly like that lol....

[cag40oz]

Right, I think I'll try some chopped apples or maybe I could just cut the grape into small GCC bite sizes pieces. I also bought a bag of trail mix that has some unsalted peanuts, maybe I could chopped them up for him too.

Next Question:

When training and working on Clicker Conditioning, how long should each session last and about how many session per day?

[cml]

Your bird is very young, so you dont need to focus too much on actual formal training yet.
Basic taming, handling and perhaps targeting will be enough while you build your bond =)!

When they are young, their attention spans can be shorter (or so ive heard, Stitch would keep on training forever when he was a baby, if I had let him ^^). About 5-10min per sessions and about 2-3 times a day should be fine !

I dont know how far along with the training you are, but start by making sure he is comfortable taking treats from your hands. Basically, take it slow, there's all the time in the world to build a great relationship between you can your bird.

Alot more info on basic taming and training can be found here:
http://www.trainedparrot.com/taming

[cag40oz]

We got Charming from a breader who had already taught him to step up. He is very comfortable taking anything out of our hands, he even tries to steal chips from us everytime we try to eat them. No problems getting him out of the cage or anything like that. The breeder did a great job getting him ready to be trained any used to humans.