Hello

[Annie Revie]

Hi. My name is Annie Revie. I live in Northern New South Wales in Australia. We have recently acquired a Green Cheeked Pineapple Conure and we have called him Archie. We are absolutely beginners and are following the very good instructions on the blogs. So far we can approach the cage without Archie having a flapping fit. We are now working on inserting hand into the cage several times a day. This is going well and the next step will be to get him to step onto a stick. I am finding it all pretty challenging but great to see his progress, no matter how small.

[Wolf]

I don't know how long you have had Archie, but don't get in a hurry let the bird pick the pace. Instead of crowding him by putting your hand in his cage just yet try offering him some apple pieces through the bars of the cage until he comes to you to get them and them do the same with the cage door open and let him step up on your hand naturally on his own. Talk to him while you do this as he is in a new place and needs to get used to your presence and to your voice as well. Proceeding in this manner will also help to reassure him that all is well. What you do now is forming the foundation of your relationship and will make things easier or harder for both of you, so go slow and let the bird set the pace of things.

[Pajarita]

Welcome to the forum but I'm a bit confused. What are we talking about here? An abused or neglected adult that you adopted from somebody or a baby that you bought from a store or a breeder? Because the only time you need to do any special approach is when you are dealing with an adult that has issues, otherwise, babies are a bit nervous when they change hands but get over it in a matter of hours (they need the physical contact and affection so much, it over-rides their concerns) if talked to softly and offered a couple of treats.

[Harpmaker]

Hello and welcome Archie and Annie Revie!

[Annie Revie]

Thank you for your welcome. Our Conure Archie is seven months old. We bought him from a pet store. He is hand-reared but he was housed in the store in a cage with four other birds. He seems nervous. If we catch him with the help of a cloth he allows us to stroke his head and he does not bite. However he wants to get back to his cage as quickly as possible. He will not step onto a finger or a stick for us. He does not yet accept treats from us at all. he is allowing us to approach the cage without going into a flap. I think the advice to just go very slowly sounds reassuring. Thank you very much for that. I will stay in touch. PS we have now had him for 12 days.

[Wolf]

Catching Archie with a cloth is called toweling and it destroys any efforts at winning his trust so please don't do this again.
Your best bet is to spend time just talking to him, about 15 minutes at a time, several times a day. he is afraid and needs reassurance and he will get this from you talking to him in a calm voice and by your presence. Again offer him some long thin pieces of apple and if he doesn't take it from you just stick it through the cage bars for him to get after you move away. Never push him to do anything as this will not help you to achieve your goals and will just cause you more problems.

[Pajarita]

He must have not been handled enough because, usually, hand-fed baby birds that are put in a store for sale are VERY eager for people's attention so, yes, easy does it. Wolf is right, no toweling unless it's necessary and then, with previous training for it (playing peekaboo plus). Try letting him out of the cage and then asking him to step up from outside the cage. GCCs are known for not wanting to step up from inside the cage -not that they cannot do it (3 of mine did and still do and 1 did not and still doesn't) but it takes a bit more effort to get them used to it than other species. Make sure you start him off on a good diet and a solar schedule to make things easier on yourself and him (do you know for a fact Archie is a he?). GCCs are mostly fruit eaters in the wild so they require less protein than other species so no free-feeding the protein food (seeds, pellets, nutriberries, nuts, etc) and use a mix for cockatiels (a bit of striped sunflower seeds in it) for the spring and summer and a budgie mix (mostly cereal grains and no sunflower) for the winter. They are great eaters, fliers and bathers and, given enough shoulder time and attention, they are sweet-tempered and quite quiet little birds. I had a male (he was rehomed to a wonderful couple and is doing great with them) that spoke many words (had the sweetest habit of answering you "I love you, I love you, I love you" -always 3 times - every night when I covered his cage and told him -as I tell all my birds- "Nite nite, I love you") and I've just discovered that Codee, a female yellowsided that I had rehomed and 'repossesed' recently, has learned to say her name! And, by the way, she is the sweetest thing and the first thing she does when I let her out of her cage in the morning and climbs to my shoulder is to press her beak against my cheek and make kissy noises several times in a row - can't help but go gaga over the little darlings!

[Annie Revie]

Thank you all so much for your welcome and for your advice. We will not towel him as you say. We do let him out of the cage at times. He seems to like sitting up there and getting around the whole cage. He has flown down sometimes but mostly goes back on his own. However I worry about electric wires and so on. So are you saying that if we can't get him back in the cage we shouldn't towel him even then? He is nowhere like ready to step up. So what do you suggest when this happens if not towelling?

[Wolf]

First of all for your safety as well as that of Archie, please arrange your electrical cords so that Archie can't get to them. Parrots seem to love chewing on them which can easily lead to an electrocuted bird and to fires.
The only time that you should towel your bird is for a veterinary exam, and then let your vet be the one to do it. The only time beyond the vet toweling your bird that you should even consider toweling as an option is during an emergency in order to save his life.
There are several alternatives to toweling to get your bird to go back into his cage.
1.) The first and easiest way is to train your bird to step up when you request it, so that you may place him in the cage.

2.) The second way it through target training your bird

3.)You can train your bird to go to its cage, when you ask it to.

4.) in the beginning when the preceding option are not yet viable, you can refrain from letting your bird out of its cage until just a couple of hours prior to its dinner time. Then get Archie's attention so that he sees you putting hi dinner in his cage and he should return to his cage shortly after that all on his own. If not, give him until dark and he will usually go back in by himself for dinner and sleep.

Now that he will take treats from you through the bars, let him do that for one more day and then talk to him and offer him treats through the open cage door. you should of course be in front of it when you do this.

[Pajarita]

Yep, what Wolf said. Hand-fed birds don't actually need to be taught to step up because, in their eagerness to be on us, they would on their own but this is only after they have bonded with us, of course, because it's their love for us and their desire for our company that makes them do it. With birds that were not hand-fed or have, for one reason or another, lost their trust in humans, you need to train but, again, only after they begin to trust you because, otherwise, the training will require flooding and that's never good. Or, you can train them to go back into their cage by simply giving them the command (I tell mine to "Go home!"), this is simply done by putting a treat inside the cage and kind of 'herding' them in the way a sheep dog would do sheep.

But I also think that it's practical for a bird not to be afraid of toweling and that can be achieved by playing what I call 'peekaboo plus'. I have a few birds that have no issues whatsoever with toweling (as a matter of fact, it's the only way I can give one of my toos some love and scritches) and, let me tell you that it gives an owner great peace of mind because you know that, when it's needed, you won't be stressing the bird. Let me know if you want me to tell you how to do it.