Percy's progress (red rump parakeet training)

[Eric&Rebecca]

Ok so I thought I'd start this thread for any other aussie grass keet owners that may come to the forum. This will be the story of our hand taming grass keet. Please feel free to comment with further advice.

Background

Percy is a 5 month old red rump parakeet. He was parent raised and has been with us just over 2 weeks. He is now in quarantine but has been vet checked as well as he had a touch of gas. He is now fully recovered. Percy was very nervous when he first arrived and completely hates hands.

Progress to date:

Percy won't come out the cage on his own but we have been leaving the door open when we are at home. We sit next to him and gently talk to him or hang out in the room which he is now comfortable with this. The first steps were getting him to eat and drink with us in the room. He has now done this and is starting to preen a little when we are in the room, he fully preens with his cover on at night and baths... we can hear this at night.

New training 20/2/13

Today Percy is being introduced to hands. Today we just held the hand just inside the cage and gradually moved it closer to him. When we saw he was becoming uncomfy we stopped the hand where it was. Over the course of the training he started to move towards the hand a look at it with interest. We did his for 30 minutes and then let him rest and put some sunflower seeds in his bowl.


21/2/2013

Thought I'd give it a go today. I placed some sunflower seeds in the centre of my palm Percy seemed interested once again. He gradually bent down but couldn't reach. He stepped on my hand but was a bit too shy and took it straight off. I removed my hand from the cage very slowly and arranged the sunflower seeds in a line from my index finger to my wrist on my palm. Percy took he first seeds after 7 minutes of waiting then went to get the others each time stretching to get the seeds but still taking it from my hands. The next step was placing one sunflower seeds on a pointed finger and holding this as close as I can get using the technique from yesterday, he took this with ease. We will continue with this training until he will step on the hand to eat them. Total training 25 minutes.

[Eurycerus]

Great job! I've not been nearly as successful with Diggy. I'll try your method today and see what happens. He's so shy and afraid under certain circumstances, someone really must have scared him.

[Eric&Rebecca]

22/2/13-

Another big leap today too! I did the same as yesterday, lining the seeds up this time on my middle finger and also we made the change of having my partner Eric sitting on the opposite side of the room very quietly observing. This made Percy reach further for the seeds which often lead to a brief moment where he would put his foot on my hand and then move it directly off again. Once he has removed the final seeds and put some millet, canary seed and safflower seeds in the centre of my palm. Percy stretched out but couldn't quite reach (haha! I thought) however he still maintained interest. He then began tapping his java branch then very gently tapping my fingers and hand. Then it got the better of him, he hopped directly into the palm, right in the centre with both feet! He stayed there for about 3-5 seconds, realised what he had one and jumped sideways into his water bowl and had a surprise bath! I just remained completely still despite my want to scoop him out. Luckily he was fine! Vegetable/salad introduction going less smoothly Percy seems to think the idea is too bury the salad in his pellets and seeds... Perhaps he is trying to grow it...

[friend2parrots]

Great work! Its so heartwarming to read about Percy gaining his trust in you. I'm looking forward to reading more entries in this thread!

[Shaghaf]

Hello, I recently bought a red rump parakeet. I would like some help training it.

[Wolf]

We would be happy to help you with your birds training. Why don't you go to the introduction section and hit the red new topic button, name the post and introduce yourself and your bird to us. Tell us its age, how long you have had it and anything else that you would like to share with us and start asking your question or telling us what help you need and we will do our very best to help you.