First Time Bird Owner...

[fugufish]

I purchased my budgie just about 4 weeks ago and it has been hard going. He is about 3 months old and seem to be going through his first moltI have probably made every mistake a person new to this could. He is hand fed and will step up with a little coaxing but he is otherwise is quite often just in a general poor temper.

I have tried target training and he doesn't show any interest in it, after several days of trying. There is a toy in the cage he will frequently play with, but typically stays on one perch all day long. Every once and a while he'll make a fuss until I take him out and let him flap around, but even when he seems this active he wont target train. He just stares or preens or anything else he can do to distract himself.

I have probably made every mistake possible at this point so its time to get advice from people who know what the hell they are doing. Any advice in bonding my bird would be greatly appreciated.

[cml]

Hey Fugu,

everyone makes mistakes, you are halfway to solving them as you are realising that you have been doing some things wrong =), and are willing to learn how to proceed to correct them ! So dont sweat it, everything isnt ruined, you will be able to develop a nice bond with your budgie, I am sure.

He is about 3 months old and seem to be going through his first moltI

You pointed out that he's molting, thats actually good because I would seriously reccommend you that you let him regain his flight. Clipped birds develop bad habits easier than flying birds, and they become sort of mentally scarred from it. Consider chopping of the legs of a dog, I dont think that would be a happy dog would it?

There is a toy in the cage he will frequently play with

May I ask if this is a mirror toy? If it is, chances are that he is bonding with that toy rather than with you.

For training, I would suggest that you read through Michael's guides at trainedparrot.com, because they are easy-to-read and contains excellent information as well as videos to help explain everything. Generally though, you need to make sure that your parrot is comfortable enough with taking treats from your hand, before you can start target training.

Keep at it, and good luck!

[fugufish]

There is no mirror toy a tall. I toes have little silver bells on it, but they aren't polished so that a reflection can be seen. He mostly just gnaws on it.

Is there anything I can do to help him increase his attention to target training? I currently separate him from the cage and he'll try for maybe a whole of 1 minute before giving up.

[Polarn]

this is probably gonna sound weird to you but I think most birds have a "good" attention span somewhere between 1 and 5 minutes and this increases some the more you train with them. I'd say be happy with the minute you get to start with and then hopefully your budgie friend will realize that it's fun and focus for a bit longer. and if you only get about a minute of attention each time, he/she might be interested in doing a minute session /hour.

Also as cml pointed out, let your budgie regrow the flightfeathers. chopping legs of of dogs, cutting off tailfins on a goldfish, tie a horses legs together, all these would be appropriete means to keep other animals from getting away (although clipping is somewhat revarsable, atleast thats what people think, the mental issues will to some extent remain).

But read through the articles and howoto's on here, old threads etcetera etcetera. and ask questions if you can't find the answers on here.

[GreenWing]

Perhaps your little guy is still settling in. Give him some more time, let him get acquainted with you and bond with you more, before starting the training.

[marie83]

Young birds will lose concentration alot more quickly than older birds, same as puppies, kittens etc- everything is new and exciting and distracting to them.

Have you figured out what his favorite food is?
Do you only give it to him when training?
Are you overfeeding him the rest of the day so he is too full to be motivated to train?
Will he bite the target stick at all? if not you might have to touch his beak with it to begin with and reward immediately until he gets the idea.
Training little and often may help more, like polarn said a minute would be a really good achievement to begin with.

[Pricey_boy]

thats how i started off my rainbow lorikeet he had no interest in the stick but i just touched on his beak and rewarded him hes only about 3-4 month sold and he can fly to the target from across the room.i also just started teaching him the basket ball trick he had no idea to pick p the ball but i would just touch it to his beak and reward him no he cac pick it up and drop it and we only started today.

i only do about 5 minute sessions about 3-5 times a day

[fugufish]

temper wise I may have spoken too soon. Last two days he has done a complete turn around and refuses to stay in his cage, making as much noise as possible untilI take him out. he still doesn't want to spend much time interacting preferring the top of his cage, but the fact that he is demanding to be let out on his own is reassuring.