Michael wrote:You can clicker train the bird to come to the target on its own. Use a clicker and click whenever the bird just happens to look at the target or make any movement in its direction, even from a distance. Little by little the bird will learn to come closer and closer to where the stick is. It's like playing "hot or cold." The bird knows its getting "warmer" when walking toward the target stick.
Pajarita wrote:Yes, clicker helps but it seems to me that the problem here is that this bird has become disaffected. In order for training of a parrot to go smoothly and be effective (and I say 'smoothly' because even an animal that hates you can be trained but this comes at a HUGE cost to the animal's wellbeing - and I say 'effective' because doing it wrong will, eventually, backfire) the bird needs to, at the VERY LEAST, trust its human (it's always ONE single human) completely. This bird does not have 'a' human, it has been emotionally neglected for a long time so the first thing you need to do is make the bird trust you completely and, if at all possible, to love you -or whoever is going to become 'its' human.
I warn you, training right is not an easy thing to do with a parrot. Michael's instructions are excellent but it's not a black and white issue where you just follow instructions and get a good result. Each bird is different and the trainer needs to know and 'feel' its bird, to spend a lot of time with it studying its body language, its likes and dislikes, the extent of the parrot's attention span and interest and to be able to sense the bird's mood so the training does not become counterproductive and ends up being flooding.
And all this needs to be done AFTER the bird has learned to trust the trainer completely and, for what you have posted here about this gray, he does not trust, much less like, anybody in your household. Parrots are not dogs, they did not evolve to follow a leader's instructions, they are not mentally programmed for obedience or subservience so, when it comes to the bird doing what you ask, the bird needs to WANT to do it and not so much for the reward but because it loves you and/or wants to please you. Michael's birds are bonded to him, they trust him completely and, because of this and the fact that they have a good life with him and are content with their situation, they respond very positively and consistently to his techniques/commands.
But a disaffected bird does not want to please humans so you need to work on that first - and you do not reverse disaffection in a bird unless the bird is content with its life. You have mentioned that the most the bird gets is one hour a day with people but if you use 5 minutes (which is the most that you can do in one session) of that measly daily hour to training him, he will begin to resent your presence instead of looking forward to it. Training a bird that is lonely, unhappy and disaffected is not going to work so the first thing you need to do is give it a better life and, once you have gained the bird's trust and affection then and only then you can start the training.
Basically, what I am trying to say is that you need to be patient. I know that you are trying real hard to make his life better and I can tell that you have the right attitude and I give you A LOT of credit for that
but, with parrots, everything takes a loooooong time and you need to think of this bird as a bird that needs to be rehabilitated and that is a process with steps that cannot be skipped. Training is good but it needs to be an added extra and not the basis of a relationship. The relationships comes first and it needs to be good, strong and solid. And for the relationship to flourish, the bird needs to feel content with its life and trust the human who is providing it (because they are smart enough to realize that both the good and the bad in their lives come directly from its human) so fix his life first (diet, solar schedule, out-of-cage and one-on-one time, etc), establish a bond of trust and then train.
Pajarita wrote:There is no 'second human' - there is a single human that belongs to them and they choose the person, not the other way around. Now, having said that, this doesn't mean you cannot have a good relationship with the bird even if you are not its human. Isis Redbelly loves my husband. It was love at first sight for her and nothing has changed that... not even when he was working and staying away for up to ten days at a time! And, at the beginning, she would bite me but, as the years have gone by, she has accepted me as a close flockmate and loves me as such. Every evening, when I put the dinner in her cage, she will not touch it or even move closer to it until we do our 'pica pica' session which consists of me talking softly to her, telling her she is 'a good girl' and that she is getting her 'Isis good girl pica pica' while I scratch her head, neck and cheeks (she loves to have her cheeks scratched), I 'preen' her a bit and we do 'piquito piquito' while she holds my finger in her 'hand'. She also comes when I call her and steps up and down without a problem. So, no, you will not become her 'second human' but you can become her BFF in the flock. This takes time and it implies you not asking anything of her but giving her all the time (because you need to win her affection).
Training sessions are never 10 minutes - it's 5 minutes at the most and it's even better if you make them shorter than that, actually. You can have more than one session (2 a day is good) but they need to be done like one in the middle of the morning and one in the middle of the afternoon. Timing and feeding the right diet has a lot to do with the success at training because a parrot is not going to be incentivized to do anything unless you are offering a high value item as a reward - which is always a protein food item- or when it is too hungry or not hungry at all. Have you identified Cake's high value item? Because this is as important as everything else...
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