So Lada the female red sided Eckie is staying with me for a while. I am having some trouble working with her though and could use some advice other than from her parront.
Lada is 7 years old and generally VERY sweet and easy going. She is probably the most chill parrot on the planet. She almost never makes a sound, she will willingly step up onto strangers including kids and has even done a substantial amount of work with the mentally handicapped, so she has had her fair share of rough petting/handling I am sure. Nothing abusive of course. I'm just trying to highlight the fact that you can do anything to this bird and she is fine with it. She never bites.
Ever since she has been staying with me though I have a lot of trouble interacting with her. I was able to take her out of her cage at her parronts house, but when she stays with me, all she wants to do is stay in her cage and it is very difficult to get her out. She has never bitten me, however, she does occasionally do the "warning, about to bite" stance if I try to get her to step up in the cage. All she wants to do is stay in her cage. She only occasionally ventures outside. I work next to her all day and leave her cage door open. Yes I realize this is probably just posturing to get me to go away and in some ways potentially just a bluff that I have now been reinforcing... In comes the hand... puff up and look mean... hand goes away.
This in my opinion is not cage aggression, although it may be the start of it if I don't correct the behavior right away. Her parront just tells me, I need to be more assertive when asking her to step up to get her out of the cage. I try to do this, but it's just not really helping. She is on her own time. I also recognize that most people do NOT recommend letting them come and go from the cage as they please. It should be noted though that she will eventually step up (outside the cage, or at the cage boundary), especially if I bribe her with a treat. Then once she is with me, she is very sweet and we can hang out together around the house and she will generally step up on demand (not always, but usually). This is probably a textbook example of a common problem that I feel countless others have experienced. One other thought, I have read that generally you should not request them to step up from their "home" perch, as this is the equivalent of reaching into their house, and then more specifically, into their bedroom. Generally you should try to remove them from the cage at or near the door. Thoughts here?
Can anyone give some advice on how you think I should approach this to correct the behavior? Where should I start regarding some exercises? Should I keep trying to get her to step up inside the cage? Should I instead work on step up training outside the cage? Should I just give her more time to adjust? She knew me off and on before ever coming home. It has now been a few weeks that she has been with me. I will probably get a lot of "have patience" responses. I don't doubt this, I just get mixed signals from her. Some days she seems happy to oblige, and other days she seems to hate me. So on the happy days, its hard to imagine that she needs more time to adjust to me.
Thanks,
Andrew
Lada is 7 years old and generally VERY sweet and easy going. She is probably the most chill parrot on the planet. She almost never makes a sound, she will willingly step up onto strangers including kids and has even done a substantial amount of work with the mentally handicapped, so she has had her fair share of rough petting/handling I am sure. Nothing abusive of course. I'm just trying to highlight the fact that you can do anything to this bird and she is fine with it. She never bites.
Ever since she has been staying with me though I have a lot of trouble interacting with her. I was able to take her out of her cage at her parronts house, but when she stays with me, all she wants to do is stay in her cage and it is very difficult to get her out. She has never bitten me, however, she does occasionally do the "warning, about to bite" stance if I try to get her to step up in the cage. All she wants to do is stay in her cage. She only occasionally ventures outside. I work next to her all day and leave her cage door open. Yes I realize this is probably just posturing to get me to go away and in some ways potentially just a bluff that I have now been reinforcing... In comes the hand... puff up and look mean... hand goes away.
This in my opinion is not cage aggression, although it may be the start of it if I don't correct the behavior right away. Her parront just tells me, I need to be more assertive when asking her to step up to get her out of the cage. I try to do this, but it's just not really helping. She is on her own time. I also recognize that most people do NOT recommend letting them come and go from the cage as they please. It should be noted though that she will eventually step up (outside the cage, or at the cage boundary), especially if I bribe her with a treat. Then once she is with me, she is very sweet and we can hang out together around the house and she will generally step up on demand (not always, but usually). This is probably a textbook example of a common problem that I feel countless others have experienced. One other thought, I have read that generally you should not request them to step up from their "home" perch, as this is the equivalent of reaching into their house, and then more specifically, into their bedroom. Generally you should try to remove them from the cage at or near the door. Thoughts here?
Can anyone give some advice on how you think I should approach this to correct the behavior? Where should I start regarding some exercises? Should I keep trying to get her to step up inside the cage? Should I instead work on step up training outside the cage? Should I just give her more time to adjust? She knew me off and on before ever coming home. It has now been a few weeks that she has been with me. I will probably get a lot of "have patience" responses. I don't doubt this, I just get mixed signals from her. Some days she seems happy to oblige, and other days she seems to hate me. So on the happy days, its hard to imagine that she needs more time to adjust to me.
Thanks,
Andrew