Blue Fronted Amazon step-up help

[Joseph_Arno]

Hello, I have been trying to train my Blue Fronted amazon to step up onto my hand for over a year now, he is a very special case, due to his previous experiences, he hates handheld purches, so I've been training him to step up directly on my hand from the cage top, this parrot isn't scared of me, I pet his head through the cage all the time, hes not scared of my hand and he is target trained, he follows the stick everywhere, naturally ive been placing my hand infront of him with the stick on the other side, we are at a point where he succesfully puts one foot on my hand and leans over it for the stick, here in lies my problem, after weve been doing this one foot thing for months, naturally we have to move on to the next step, moving the stick farther away so he has to step up completley, right? One problem however, when he cant reach the stick with one foot on my hand, he gets aggressive and attacks my hand, biting and pulling as if saying "get this hand out of here and give me my treat!", when this happens, I endure the pain and slowly move my hand away until he has to let it go, and then start with the one foot thing all over again... I have looked everywhere on the internet,I have read 3 books, I have never seen a parrot like this one, I love the little guy but he has been such a pain in the bum it gets harder and harder to bare with him everyday... I am desperate and just want a companion pet but what I have right now just refuses to accept any form of training, he does not know that hands are for stepping up and I cant get him to understand that. I need serious help, I dont want to give up on him, but I grow tired...

 

[expressmailtome]

Bump.

 

[MommyBird]

Hello @Joseph_Arno ! Thankyou for working so long with your Amazon, Blue Fronts are a big favorite of mine. They really want to please you.

OK, this may sound strange to you, but in my experience not all birds think hands are for stepping up on.
Hands can be a little wobbly even if you don't notice it, they do.

Please try presenting your wrist or forearm and see if that works.
Also hand held with palm horizontal or perpendicular to the ground can make a difference.

And, often they prefer the other hand, so try BOTH left and right hands both ways, wrists, and forearms.

Also, make sure that it is slightly up for him to step and never step down. Some don't like that, and of course not a big jump up.
Keep your training sessions short, 5 min is more than long enough.
Try to end each session on a success. If every session ends on failure you see that you yourself are frustrated and don't want to do it.
Even if it is that he simply follows the stick to the other side of the cage, do that so that you end on success.

 

[Clueless]

I don't target train but MC was scared of hands. Barbara Heidenreich helped me tremendously.

For mine, he will step up on a T perch and then I lower it beside of my forearm and he steps up on my arm from there.

MC prefers to come out of his cage by himself and goes straight to his playstand (which I push next to his cage).

Limit training sessions as stated above. ALWAYS end on positive note. Baby steps take a long time BUT these parrots live for years and are awesome, it is worth it.

 

[Joseph_Arno]

Hello @Joseph_Arno ! Thankyou for working so long with your Amazon, Blue Fronts are a big favorite of mine. They really want to please you.

OK, this may sound strange to you, but in my experience not all birds think hands are for stepping up on.
Hands can be a little wobbly even if you don't notice it, they do.

Please try presenting your wrist or forearm and see if that works.
Also hand held with palm horizontal or perpendicular to the ground can make a difference.

And, often they prefer the other hand, so try BOTH left and right hands both ways, wrists, and forearms.

Also, make sure that it is slightly up for him to step and never step down. Some don't like that, and of course not a big jump up.
Keep your training sessions short, 5 min is more than long enough.
Try to end each session on a success. If every session ends on failure you see that you yourself are frustrated and don't want to do it.
Even if it is that he simply follows the stick to the other side of the cage, do that so that you end on success.

Thank you very much for the response! I have posted this question on a couple of other forums and have gathered new and helpful information, we will restart training fresh in a weeks time! Thank you again!

 

[Joseph_Arno]

I don't target train but MC was scared of hands. Barbara Heidenreich helped me tremendously.

For mine, he will step up on a T perch and then I lower it beside of my forearm and he steps up on my arm from there.

MC prefers to come out of his cage by himself and goes straight to his playstand (which I push next to his cage).

Limit training sessions as stated above. ALWAYS end on positive note. Baby steps take a long time BUT these parrots live for years and are awesome, it is worth it.

Thank you for the reply!

 

[redindiaink]

Have you tired ditching the target stick and just luring them onto your hand with treats letting your arm be an extension of the perch they're on? Like this or this?

 

[Joseph_Arno]

Have you tired ditching the target stick and just luring them onto your hand with treats letting your arm be an extension of the perch they're on? Like this or this?

I have not but surely it will be one of the methods used, thank you for the videos!