• Welcome to Avian Avenue! To view our forum with less advertisments please register with us.
    Memberships are free and it will just take a moment. Click here

Help with training my lovebird!

Rompope

Checking out the neighborhood
Joined
5/24/18
Messages
2
Real Name
Joe
Hey guys! So I'll try to keep this short and sweet: Last december I got a Lovebird, it was a present from my boyfriend which was an issue since he wasn't really informed about the differences between a hand raised lovebird and one raised by its parents.

It seems to me he wasn't used to being handled at all. I've been working with him for about 5 months now! We've made some progress but the thing is he will only remain with me or step up on my finger if I have his pallet with me. What training looks for us is usually as follows:

1.- I open his cage, he knows he's getting food and reaches for the door.
2.- I show him that I have a piece of pellet in my hand and tell him to "step up" 3.- He steps up and I bring him to my desk, where I will let him eat a little while he's perching on my hand but once he finishes the little pellet piece he goes back to the desk.
4.- After that I grab more food and keep it in my left hand, I hide it and then ask him to step up using my right hand. He will usually step up immediately when I put my hand near him, but if I don't feed him within 5 seconds he'll just jump back to the desk.

And that's what we've been doing so far. The thing is I don't know how to make him step up when I'm not holding anything! If I don't have any food he doesn't come near me at all, or he will and then once he realizes I don't have the pellet he'll just get away.

Every tutorial I've watched on youtube has the bird stepping up and down while getting the rewards afterwards (lol), but if I do this he won't step up on me. Is there anything I'm doing wrong? Please help :rainbow1:!
 

expressmailtome

Ripping up the road
Administrator
Avenue Veteran
Celebirdy of the Month
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
4/15/10
Messages
49,992
Real Name
Matthew

JaclynBin

Sprinting down the street
Avenue Veteran
Joined
4/19/15
Messages
577
Location
Ontario, Canada
Real Name
Jaclyn
You're making great progress with your little one. This was a big change for him - having his world go from being primarily surrounded by other birds to humans and it sounds like you've been wonderfully patient with him.

I found with taming my two lovies, particularly the younger wilder one, they would go through periods where training/taming would just plateau then suddenly they would surprise me with some new milestone like giving kisses or allowing me to pet them. It sounds like you're in the same scenario of stagnant training - but that may simply turn around with time.

In regards to actually rewarding your bird for stepping up and such, I would say maybe start doing so at irregular intervals. For example - get him to step up and reward him as you normally would, but then start chaining your requests and giving treats every second or third time he steps up (while always vocally acknowledging and praising successes). If he doesn't know exactly when the treat is coming, he may be more inclined to stick around and see what comes next.

When he flies back - is he still focused on you? It may be that he recognizes the training to include you going back to pick him up. Mine have inherently learned to return to their training rope perches after finishing their treats to await the next trick.

Additionally - you might want to train a few hands-off tricks while your bird is still getting accustomed to your presence. As long as you make it a positive experience, you're little guy will probably come around and see you as the fun treat dispenser.
 

Rompope

Checking out the neighborhood
Joined
5/24/18
Messages
2
Real Name
Joe
You're making great progress with your little one. This was a big change for him - having his world go from being primarily surrounded by other birds to humans and it sounds like you've been wonderfully patient with him.

I found with taming my two lovies, particularly the younger wilder one, they would go through periods where training/taming would just plateau then suddenly they would surprise me with some new milestone like giving kisses or allowing me to pet them. It sounds like you're in the same scenario of stagnant training - but that may simply turn around with time.

In regards to actually rewarding your bird for stepping up and such, I would say maybe start doing so at irregular intervals. For example - get him to step up and reward him as you normally would, but then start chaining your requests and giving treats every second or third time he steps up (while always vocally acknowledging and praising successes). If he doesn't know exactly when the treat is coming, he may be more inclined to stick around and see what comes next.

When he flies back - is he still focused on you? It may be that he recognizes the training to include you going back to pick him up. Mine have inherently learned to return to their training rope perches after finishing their treats to await the next trick.

Additionally - you might want to train a few hands-off tricks while your bird is still getting accustomed to your presence. As long as you make it a positive experience, you're little guy will probably come around and see you as the fun treat dispenser.
Thanks a bunch for such an in-depth answer! Yeah that does sound like my bird haha, sometimes he'll make good progress while other days it just seems like we're back to square one. Also a tiny budgie got home about two days ago, he was a stray bird and ever since we met he's been such a sweet baby bird! He always climbs on me and doesn't seem to be so scared of hands like Rompope. Anyways point was, the contrast between their personalities is so stark! One is super shy and cautions while the other one couldn't care less about hands haha :p

Well I'm afraid I'll just have to be patient and see if eventually he'll want to come up to me so we can become best buddies!
 
Top