Michael wrote:Get a new, totally different handheld perch to use. I would suggest you buy 2-3x NU Perches and put most of them in the cage but save one exclusively to use for step-up training. This way he can get used to those perches in the cage on his own time and then get to the point of the training. It's not doing him or you any good if he ends up biting your hand in the process. Might as well be the stick till you are both comfortable.
Pajarita wrote:With all due respect to Michael, I don't think this will work and I'll tell you why. For one thing -and correct me if I am wrong, Joseph- but it doesn't seem to me as if the bird is afraid of the stick or your hand but that he simply does not want to step on either. And, unless I did not understand your posting correctly, what you want is for the bird to step onto your hand and not on a stick, right? Because what Michael suggests is good for getting a parrot used to perches that he is currently afraid of but, if the parrot is not afraid, putting the perches in the cage is not really going to make him step on your hand.
Now, I don't really 'train' my parrots in the sense that I don't have training sessions, give them rewards for doing something right or care about them doing tricks - I don't even care if they don't step up to my hand. What I do is verbally praise them when they do something right and scold them when they do wrong. The very popular 'don't react when you are bit' makes no sense to me, either. What is this supposed to accomplish? To teach the bird that we don't feel pain? How is that useful in any way? And the 'if you react to pain, they will continue to do it just to get a kick out of your reaction' also makes no sense to me. Parrots are not naturally aggressive, they only defend or protect. It's only in captivity that parrots attack for no apparent reason and in every single case, it's because a human taught the parrot that his biting is the only way the poor bird will get his point across. It's the human's failure for not being able to handle a parrot correctly and not the parrot's.
If I were you, I would stop this training immediately and allow a couple of weeks to go by without asking him to step up because you are now in a 'loop' where every time you do this, the parrot refuses and, when you insist, it bites you. What you are doing is basically teaching the parrot to bite your hand whenever you ask for something he doesn't want to do. And you do NOT want to do this -most especially with a blue front which is one of the hot three species! After two weeks or so, I would start from scratch again and this is what I would do: forget about the target stick [you need to change the whole approach or he will remember and go back to biting you], put a small piece of a high value item in the palm of your hand and simply offer it to him without asking for anything. Do this three of four times a day, in the middle of the morning and the middle of the afternoon [you are keeping it at a strict solar schedule, right?] and reserve the high value items ONLY for these exercises [you are not free-feeding protein food, right?]. When he takes the treat from you hand without a single hesitation for about a week or so, start offering the treat from your fingers without putting it on your hand. When he takes a step or two toward your fingers and takes the treat without hesitation for a week or so, you can start very slowly and very gradually training him to step onto your hand by putting one hand on the cage top [open and with palm facing up] and holding the treat on your other hand so he would have to step over the 'flat' hand to get it and simply voice the command 'Step up'. If he doesn't do it, ask a second time in a soft and calm voice [harsh commands are not for parrots] and, if he still doesn't do it simply walk away with the treat without asking a third time. Go about your things [or pretend you do] for no less than 5 minutes and then ask again once - twice - and if he still doesn't do it, walk away again. Repeat this no more than three times a day. The worst thing you can do when trying to teach a rehomed parrot to accept you is to be a controlling pain in the neck about things and insist on things. It's always best to let them think about things on their own and try another day. Parrots are hard-wired to gorge on protein food so, if you are feeding correctly, he will be more than willing to step on your hand for his high value item. It might not happen the first, second or even the third day but, eventually, his desire for the high value item and the fact that you are being nonchalant about it, will work in your favor.
Once he is stepping on your open palm without hesitation for a couple of weeks, start moving the hand while he is on it very slowly and while you softly praise him all the time so he ends up perching on the side [the part between the index finger and the thumb]. This will take much longer than any of the other 'steps' but, if you persist and keep your cool, it will happen.
Pajarita wrote:Well, your training will go much faster and better if you did not free-feed protein food [pellets are protein food] plus he will live a longer and healthier life [high protein destroys the liver and kidneys]. I know that avian vets and most people say that pellets are the best food for parrots but I suspect that's because none of them have actually done any in-depth research on parrots natural diets because pellets have a min protein of 17% and that is, exactly, the same amount of protein that amazons consume during breeding and raising their young [as per the one and only amazons study there is] so, when you free-feed pellets to an amazon, you are, actually, feeding them a breeding diet all year round. And taking into consideration that amazons are super prone to liver. kidney and heart problems, I would suggest you reconsider.
If he was fed gloop, chop or mash with raw produce for breakfast and all day picking and only protein food for dinner, he would not waste any time nibbling at your hand when you are offering a nut [I would NOT use sunflower seeds, nuts are much healthier for them and much more nutritious].
If he is already OK with taking treats from your hand, you can skip the first step so do wait a couple of weeks and then start offering the treat with the flat hand in front of it.
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