New senegal parrot in few days HEEEEELP!!!

[chelenka]

Ok without any advice Coco is out of her cage and getting trained. She is a bit stuborn but my hubby caught her yesterday to get her out of the kitchen and the let her fly to the livingroom and she DIDN'T bite him!!! Yesterday she got into cage by accident. Coco dropped her nut so she walked in alowing me to close the cage door.
Today I had to catch her and... She DIDN'T BITE ME!!!

We are slowly getting there.
What should I do when she is stborn and doesn't want to cooperate?

Thanks

[cml]

Dont chase after Coco, it will inadvertily train your parrot towards not wanting to be grabbed or touched. Michael has an article about just that, which I recommend you to read.

We use targeting and step up to get our way when our parrots are being stubborn, it works well, just dont punish it right after doing one of these, but do something fun before you put them in the cage, and make sure being in the cage is a good, fun and rewarding experience, so that you dont create negative feelings about it!

[chelenka]

Well we are not really chasing her. When I put my hands near her she flies away. But. She has not got enought strenght yet to fly longer than a minute. Then she ends up on the floor and we simply pick her up. I am trying to target her to go in her cage but it doesn't seem to work. Yesterday I brought a perch forward she stepped up on it and I put her in cage. Today no chance... So again flying around, us watching from one place then the floor, pick her up and in cage. Have you got any less stresfull strategy when a parrot does not know how to or doesn't want to go back?
And what exactly do you mean when you say do something fun??? Examples would help because I haven't got the foggiest clue what do parrots consider as fun.
She loves to chase the targetting stick and I can just say perch and she would fly on it. She is good with training not scared of my hands particularly but she can see that I am about her to pick her up. Today I started to train her to step up. Quite ok. She is not stepping up yet but she is reaching for the stick over my other hand rather than grabbing my finger. Not hard of course, it doesn't hurt at all and I ignore it anyway.

Take care

[marie83]

Parrots ALWAYS know when you want to pick them up, doesn't matter what you do. You need to practice picking them up at intervals in their training/time out and reward so they never know which time your actually going to put them away. The time you do put them away feed them a meal, give them their favorite treat or some other reward that they really really love/want. You need to make going back into the cage worth their time.
On that note it won't hurt to practice being put away too. Put them in and reward, then let them straight back out. This will help make it worth their time and make them more willing to go in.

Please don't let your bird fly round for a minute, pick her up and put her away. What on earth will you do when she can fly better and she's happy to fly from side to side for 15/20/30/60 minutes? Believe me without the training she will become like that eventually cuz its a really really fun game, unless you restrict her flight of course, but then you may well get a bite instead.

[chelenka]

I appreciate what you are saying but how exactly am I supposed to pick her up when she is flying away from me?

Today and yesterday she refused to walk over my finger to touch the stick. I tried calling her onto my hand. When I pointed to my hand with targeting stick she flew on it!!!!!!!
Well done Coco !!!
I pointed to it twice and now I just call her! It is amazing!

How I do it. When I wake up I give her a full bowl of fresh fruits and vegetables. When I get back from work I take the bowl out. There is always still plenty in it. Then I leave her alone. After an hour or two I start the trainig and when we have finished I leave her to watch us, I talk to her and wistle. While she is watching us I put a bowl of seeds in her cage so that they are already there when she goes back.

Since she is happy to finish her treat while sat on my hand I am thinking about doing what you have suggested tomorrow. I will try to put her in cage reward and call back out.

I don't want to do too many things in one day.
One step at the time.

She flies on the perch when I say "perch" since yesterday and she flies on my hand when I say "come here" since today.

I think that is pretty fast learning. Don't you think?

That's my baby Coco for you!!!

[marie83]

Thats what I mean, don't try and get her when shes flying away, if you chase her round the room your just teaching her that flying off gets her more out time so when she becomes better at flying your going to have a big problem as you'll be chasing her longer and longer periods before she gets tired. I wasn't meaning to sound rude just saying that sometimes it's better to leave a situation alone until you've figured out how to approach it rather than risk making it worse as they are very quick to figure out what gets them what they want. I think we have all had issues getting birds back in their cage at one time or another, Ollie has certainly given me the run around in the past.

Sounds like your on the right track now anyhow, just keep practicing picking her up and putting her down and those good old flight recalls so she knows it doesn't automatically mean shes going to be put away She's very smart and your making great progress already, well done.

[chelenka]

Thank you very much.

Yes putting her away is the only problem we have.
NO there is another. She loves to bite my ceiling lamp. How can I stop her damaging my actually two lamps?

And you didn't sound rude just concerned. You don't know me. I get that lol

[pennyandrocky]

you are on the right track like marie said. it will take some time, but mine now put themselves to bed since they know a bedtime treat is coming they just fly right to cages between 730 and 8 pm.

[Cockatielsongs]

The key is to be patient with Coco

[Wayne361]

Food management will work wonders with putting him back in his cage. Oscar my gets a feeding in the morning and the next one is before he goes to bed. He gets training rewards in between but not so much as to make him full. Every night it is same routine....I replace/clean his water bowl, then I take his food bowl out of cage. (oscar is on my shoulder the whole time) I put in fresh vegetables, slice of banana, one grape and anything else I deem sufficient. He is watching me the whole time saying "yum yums" as he gets more excited about being fed. He is literally prancing on my shoulder and will attempt to climb down to get food at times. I then put bowl in his cage and i always have him step-up and put him in the cage myself. (he is seeing me as the direct cause of his pleasure (food)). Only once have I ever found having a slight problem putting oscar in his cage and was determined that my wife had a banana that she wanted to get rid of so gave it to oscar while I was at work. Because oscar was full at bedtime he had very little motivation to go back to his cage. My solution? One sunflower seed.....he will do anything for them.

Wayne