Hello, I'm Cyrus

[aibocyrus]

Hey All.

My name is Cyrus. I am new to the forums and wanted to say hey! I have a 6 month old Blue Crowned Conure that I adopted a few days ago. He's taking food from my hand, but still biting if I try to get him to step over my fingers or on them to get to food. I found the guide here on target training doing research and figured this would be a great site to learn how to properly train my new pal.
I think the approach I'll have to eventually take with the training is to use a rod instead of my hand until he learns to trust my fingers. I'm just trying to let the bird decide when he's ready to progress.

Anyways! Thanks all,

-Cyrus

[doubleyellowdude]

seems your off to a great start, enjoy

[Michael]

You are doing well. Just have a little patience. Untame baby birds are in many ways harder to work with in my opinion than adult ones. Don't push the bird to the point where it bites. Instead focus on things that work and progress on extending them. Enjoy the baby stage while you have it but start training up the bird to push through adolescence which is the bigger challenge!

[Pajarita]

Michael is right, take your time, they need a couple of weeks to start feeling comfortable and not threatened. Plenty of time to train after..

[aibocyrus]

Thanks all! I will just keep doing what we are doing and then begin work later down the road.
He definitely likes us being around, as soon as I leave the room he squawks, not loud, but he doesn't really make noise otherwise lol. And he's exploring all around his cage now, and even let me lean in and he gave me kisses. So he's doing great. Very excited to get into the training eventually, sounds like the progress and end results pay off!

-Cyrus

[aibocyrus]

Just wanted to share an update.

We introduced the clicker and target this morning. He wasn't very hungry so I took his food away and will begin Clicker Conditioning this afternoon. He loves having us around, but hates the idea of being touched and even tries to get at hands changing out the bowls, he isn't running away any more, but I think he doesn't want hands near him. I don't really know why he is so against human hands, I don't know what his background is; perhaps I will call the bird store I purchased him from and find out.
Other than the fact he likes us close, but not too close, I do believe this training that Michael has shared will work well. We really just need to create the bond along the way. He likes when we talk to him, and he will make little noises back and forth with us, its adorable lol. He is also comfortable exploring the outside of the cage, we will just begin the training inside his cage.

Anyone had a similar situation? How did you overcome it?

Thanks,

Cyrus

[Michael]

There's no point in calling the store. Frankly it doesn't matter if he was well-handled or wasn't. He's with you now and he needs a good reason to let you do something he doesn't think he wants you to do. What's beautiful about the target training process is that your hands are near the bird all the time this is going on and he's getting used to them in a positive way. Later you transfer this process to grab training and once the bird isn't scared of being grabbed, you can pretty much do whatever else that falls in between.

[aibocyrus]

This is fantastic. Thank you, much appreciated. Really just wanting to make sure I am well informed on the process, definitely don't want to accidentally cause a set back in the process! I'm probably just worrying way more than I need to. We used to have a green cheek before we moved, and he was so hand tamed so getting over hand fright and biting was not something we needed to worry about lol.
This is going to be a new experience and definitely excited to see how the process transforms the behavior!
Really appreciate all of the information on this site, it helps so much as you know!

Thanks,

Cyrus

[aibocyrus]

Hey all, sorry for the double post, but wanted to update everyone. We have been working every day together, and the barrier must have been broken, because he is now steeping up. You tell him to step up and he puts his little foot up and steps right up. He took a shower and hung out around the house with me. Was great! Now we can start working with a T stand on his training!

Cyrus

[derickwilliams]

Welcome aboard. Have a very nice time and enjoy your stay here.



Cheers!