Lovebird training

[JulieAnn]

Hi Everyone,
Good news finally. With all your help I've taken all your suggestions into account. I have the breeder lovebird who I couldn't get to eat from my hand. Well today I tried a different approach. Usually I stand in front of the flight cage I have him in and offer millet. My trained lovebird greets me eagerly and chows down, where my newly acquired breeder bird went to opposite side of cage and ignored us. So I went to the spot he usually retrieves to. There is a little cage door there. So I sat down on my step and held the millet strand there. And my trained bird chowed down for a while. Maybe three minutes later the breeder bird joined him and he ate from my hand. Well I'm holding a short stem of the millet but he ate from it twice today. So I'm wondering if my being lower than him is the reason that he ate. Before I stood above him. I always turn my head not to look at him, so he doesn't think I'm a predator.

I know he just started today and I will continue for a long time. But I was wondering how do you know when to teach the step up command? And how do you go about doing this?

Julie

 

[Monica]

It could be that he feels safer being above you, thus you are less threatening! Awesome news that you figured out an approach that would work with him!


With a bird like him, step up should be a gradual process that could take days, if not a couple of weeks at least. You first want him to be comfortable with your presence and be ok eating millet from you. Then you get him accustomed to your step up hand by slowly moving the millet over your hand. The goal would not be to get him to step up on your hand, let alone touch it... rather, the goal would be to get him comfortable coming closer to your hand for a reward. Once he's comfortable being close to your hand, then you work on trying to get him ok with putting a nail or a toe on your hand. Doesn't have to be his entire foot! Once he's ok with that, you go to one or both feet and jackpot reward!




I remember working with my tiels, some of them were ok eating from my hands but others would not. They would freak out and back off if they got too close. Once they realized I wasn't chasing them nor was I frightening, especially since they were watching the other tiels were not being harmed, they got ok to being close to my hands and eating food, but if they accidentally touched me? They'd freak out and fly off! Then they were ok putting their toes on my hand, but not their entire foot. Then a foot was ok, but both feet was a big "No-No!" Eventually, even that was ok!


Granted, I made this as easy as possible for them. I made my hand an extension of a perch or a platform, so it wasn't a physical step up, but rather a change in the perch... like going from carpet to linoleum. It's one floor, but very obvious different textures!


Once they were comfortable with my hands, *THEN* I worked on getting an actual "step up" by having my hand a little distance away from the perch, and that step led to a hop, and then to flying!

 

[JulieAnn]

Thankyou Monica. I wish you lived in Chicago

 

[JulieAnn]

I spoke to soon. Today he is back to not eating from me. Don't know why?

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

He may have frightened himself with being so close to you yesterday. Sometimes the bird backslides and need more coaxing to repeat a behavior they did but was scary to them when they did it. Unfortunately we can't read their minds and act on their thoughts and feelings; we are always guessing about their reasons for doing what they do. Slow and steady is the speed with parrots of any type when 'taming' them. In reality what you are doing is showing them you are trustworthy and winning their confidence. Also make sure you are either at eye level or below his eye level when working with him. With new birds I often sit on a stool or chair when I interact with them. Looming over them while standing is threatening to them; you could be a bird-eating monster getting ready to pounce on them, you know! Remember, humans are predators and parrots are prey animals; we need to hide our predator tendencies in order to win over the parrots we want to interact with as our flock.