My Grey is having problems training

[LQEnder]

Hi Everyone,

I have a question, probably for Michael, but I suppose anyone can help. I'm fairly new to the bird world, but we were given a 8 year old African Grey, Rosie, a fow months ago, as her wner developed allergies to the dust. Rosie took months to "step up" and not bite (Which I supposed is to be expected after being rehomed). She has obviously bonded to me (much to my fiance's dismay). When I felt Rosie trusted me, I started trick training with turn around. She got it pretty quick, using almonds as a treat.

Starting a few months ago, she refuses to learn anything else. When I try to teach her something, she won't accept the treat. She will eat food out of her bowl or every out of my hand, but never when doing a trick. She takes it, and shakes her head throwing whatever the treat is. Its almost like she is too proud to do a trick for food.

She started out doing great, so I'm wondering if anyone knows why she may doing this, or anyway to start again. I've experimented with many kinds of nuts, seeds, fruits and millet spray, but the same thing ends up happening. Any suggestions?

[Michael]

What about just targeting? If she is target trained, you can teach her another target based trick such as go through tube to teach her that other tricks exist. This is one of the problems with taking things "too slow" and lingering on a single trick that the bird sticks to only that one.

[LQEnder]

I'll try that. Thanks.

[Naurthon]

I've often noticed that Dante will throw things I try to offer him as treats. Lately, he has taken to just moving his head away and saying, "no", but before that he would shake his head and/or grab the treat and fling it away. The odd thing I noticed is that if I picked up the very same treat and put it in a foraging toy, he'd go right after it and eat it. I don't really understand the birdie psychology behind it, but he often prefers to feed himself treats.

Dante doesn't turn down treat when I'm training him, though. I only use safflower seeds as training treats. He loves them and they are small enough that I can give him quite a few without ruining his overall diet. Almonds may be too big to use as a treat, and their probably much denser in calories than regular bird food. Never mind that it takes a long time for them to be eaten. You might try safflower (not sunflower) seeds instead.