My Meyers Parrot Training Progress

[Pajarita]

Yeah I think I didn't "train" her to step up as much as I just won her trust with tasty snacks. The stepping down definitely feels like training, lol.

With hand-fed birds, you don't really have to train them to step up, they do it on their own because they want to be ON you all the time anyway. Mine step down with no problem (well, the ones that are 'nice' which not all of them are) but they are loose all day long and have other birds for company so it's not as if I was the only 'attraction' while a single bird would cling to you like Velcro -and some that are not single, too (GCCs and cockatoos come to mind).

[modifieddesign]

Like I said, I was basically just winning her trust. She would not step up for me until I started using the seeds as a reward.

[Wolf]

Hey, sometimes a little bribery is just the ticket.

[modifieddesign]

Always works with my wife...haha

[Wolf]

Not going to touch that one.

[modifieddesign]

Today I got Norma out before I served her breakfast and we hung out together and then did some mild target training. I saw it click in her head. She totally gets it. Touch the tip, get a treat.

She enjoyed it very much. So much so that when my daughter needed something I set the stick down and she kept tapping it expecting something. Now I realize not to leave it near her when I'm not using it. Only lasted a few minutes and then we just went back to hanging out together.

But I'm happy that she seems to take to training very well. I can't wait to eventually flight train her.

It says flight on my status but she is actually clipped right now. The breeder clipped her before I even contacted her to buy one. When they grow back she will never get clipped again.

[Wolf]

People get these birds and appear to me to have a parrot picture taped over the image of one of the birds they normally see outside and think That would be so cool to have one of those flying around in the house living there. Then they get the bird and most are then afraid to let it fly either they get the picture of it crashing stuck in their brains or of the mayhem of chasing down a bird who keeps fling away. But then some of them get past that and their bird learns to fly safely in the house and the thought of clipping a birds wings becomes painful to them. Some just seem to start at this end point. But in any case very few people who experience their friend the bird making a mad dash through the air to greet them when they come home will ever consider clipping any other birds wings.

[modifieddesign]

I definitely think it's sad to remove the main thing that makes birds awesome, flight. Not sure I will ever free fly her outside without a harness, but I am already bird proofing the house for her to fly in.

[modifieddesign]

I threw a company BBQ at my house yesterday and all of my employees took turns handling Norma. She did great and stepped up for everyone. No bites occured, no freak outs. Even the nervous people held her and both her and them did fine.

She is socializing well.

[Wolf]

Just keep a box of band aids on hand. Since the Meyer's is so closely related to the Senegal if he decides to bite he may very well pull out the stops and bite hard. When Kiki bites she removes a piece of flesh that is about an eighth of an inch wide and up to a quarter of an inch in length. She bites harder than my Grey parrot and is one third the size. I would also make sure that they know not to react to the bite so that you have a chance to remove the bird without it getting hurt.