How do I train a bird that won't take treats from me and hates clickers?

[Hoshi]

Hello all, it's me once again, asking for advice.

My bird, Hoshi, is 13 months old now and I'm still having trouble with trust. I would absolutely love to train him, however, he won't take treats from me and he hates clickers. When offering a treat, if I get my hand with the treat closer than about 10 inches away from him, he will fly away. In a previous post about this subject someone suggested clicker training, I tried it, it was a bust. The clicker sound scared him to death. I tried target training with a chopstick but he was terrified of the chopstick... Even when I laid the chopstick down he wouldn't go near it.

Now I shouldn't say that he won't take things from my hand, it's just a really really really really really long process. He loves nutriberries and he gets two for breakfast and two for dinner (along with his veggies and sometimes nuts/fruit). In order to get his food he has to take the first nutriberry from my hand. Sometimes it takes up to 45 minutes-1 hour of me standing next to his cage with my arm out, offering the nutriberry on my hand, but he eventually runs over, snatches it lightning fast and runs back to his corner. Yes by the time he grabs it my arm is killing me. I have been doing this with him for a good 5-6 months and his comfort level hasn't changed at all. He's really dramatic and makes it a huge deal just to take the single nutriberry from my still, open palm.

I would absolutely love to potty train him and train him to be okay with his aviator (we haven't even attempted to put it on yet), however, his fear and inability to take treats from me hinders this. If anyone has any ideas on what I can do, that would be great!

 

[BlueDoraBarry]

it may sound a bit cruel, but it doesn't hurt your bird in any way. Take the food bowl at night, he will be hungry in the morning and the only food he has is from your hand. One thing that does get them to want to take it is eating in front of them. Take a cucumber, carrot, veggie, etc, and eat most of it in front of him. Break a piece you haven't bitten out of and offer it. If he gets close, keep going. If he backs away pretend like you're going to eat it. keep going back and forth. Also, don't use an open palm. It is very big and intimidating, especially for a terrified bird. Place the treat in your index finger and thumb and feed him through the cage bars with only the treat poking through. Once he gets used to that, feed him every time you pass by. Then start feeding from the front of the cage. Then open the door and feed at the edge. Then in, a bit more, slowly, till you can feed him. Dora was, too, afraid of all elongated objects for quite a while. And of me and my hands and my food.

P.S. Since he has been with you for a while I think this would work. But, if he doesn't improve try just dropping it in his food bowl instead until he starts coming before you drop it, then starts eating as you drop it, then from your hand.

 

[Tazlima]

Treats aside, how comfortable is he in your presence?

When you approach, does he come to meet you? Try to escape? Give you the stinkeye and threaten to bite if you reach for him?

If he's frightened just having you standing there, then offering treats may just cause extra stress instead of being the positive thing you mean for them to be, because Hoshi knows that you, the big scary human, are focused on him.

In that case, you may need to take a step back even from offering treats, and work on the red-light-green-light taming technique for approaching the cage.

Certainly clicker and target training are more advanced than just accepting treats. I wouldn't bother with either of them until you've built more trust. (And if the clicker noise is scary, just use a verbal bridge like "good bird" instead).

If, on the other hand, he's comfortable with you nearby and just isn't quite ready to go on to the next step, BlueDoraBerry is spot on. Failure is a valuable teacher. Offer the treat, and if his body language makes it clear there's no way he's taking it from you, just shrug, eat (or "eat") the treat yourself, and walk away. Give him a minute or two, let him relax, and try offering again. Three or four failures in a row? Shrug and move onto something you know he's more comfortable with.

Having the option to say "no thanks" and knowing that you'll accept that answer and back down will, eventually, make him much more comfortable and confident in his interactions with you, which will, in turn, lead to accepting the treats. It may take a while, though, so you have to go into the training session with the idea, in your own mind, that if you ask him "wanna treat?" and he says "no," you'll accept that answer and not try to push.

 

[Hoshi]

Treats aside, how comfortable is he in your presence?

When you approach, does he come to meet you? Try to escape? Give you the stinkeye and threaten to bite if you reach for him?

If he's frightened just having you standing there, then offering treats may just cause extra stress instead of being the positive thing you mean for them to be, because Hoshi knows that you, the big scary human, are focused on him.

In that case, you may need to take a step back even from offering treats, and work on the red-light-green-light taming technique for approaching the cage.

Certainly clicker and target training are more advanced than just accepting treats. I wouldn't bother with either of them until you've built more trust. (And if the clicker noise is scary, just use a verbal bridge like "good bird" instead).

If, on the other hand, he's comfortable with you nearby and just isn't quite ready to go on to the next step, BlueDoraBerry is spot on. Failure is a valuable teacher. Offer the treat, and if his body language makes it clear there's no way he's taking it from you, just shrug, eat (or "eat") the treat yourself, and walk away. Give him a minute or two, let him relax, and try offering again. Three or four failures in a row? Shrug and move onto something you know he's more comfortable with.

Having the option to say "no thanks" and knowing that you'll accept that answer and back down will, eventually, make him much more comfortable and confident in his interactions with you, which will, in turn, lead to accepting the treats. It may take a while, though, so you have to go into the training session with the idea, in your own mind, that if you ask him "wanna treat?" and he says "no," you'll accept that answer and not try to push.

He is decently comfortable in my presence, he definitely doesn't come over to greet me but he doesn't move away either. He will step up without much hesitation, give kisses, and does tolerate scritches on the top and sides of his head. I will try the "eating" of the treats if he doesn't take them. I've done something somewhat similar where I slice up an apple and cut a slice in several birdy-sized pieces and share it with him. I'll offer the small piece of apple while I slowly munch on the other pieces of apple, it seemed to make him more interested in the apple since I was eating it too.

 

[Hoshi]

it may sound a bit cruel, but it doesn't hurt your bird in any way. Take the food bowl at night, he will be hungry in the morning and the only food he has is from your hand. One thing that does get them to want to take it is eating in front of them. Take a cucumber, carrot, veggie, etc, and eat most of it in front of him. Break a piece you haven't bitten out of and offer it. If he gets close, keep going. If he backs away pretend like you're going to eat it. keep going back and forth. Also, don't use an open palm. It is very big and intimidating, especially for a terrified bird. Place the treat in your index finger and thumb and feed him through the cage bars with only the treat poking through. Once he gets used to that, feed him every time you pass by. Then start feeding from the front of the cage. Then open the door and feed at the edge. Then in, a bit more, slowly, till you can feed him. Dora was, too, afraid of all elongated objects for quite a while. And of me and my hands and my food.

P.S. Since he has been with you for a while I think this would work. But, if he doesn't improve try just dropping it in his food bowl instead until he starts coming before you drop it, then starts eating as you drop it, then from your hand.

I actually already do the thing where I take his bowls away at night! He has an open cage door all day while I am home and there are places to set his bowls on top of his cage as well as inside. Unless I am gone all day, his food bowls are always on top of the cage. This has definitely helped with coaxing him into taking the nutriberry from me. As I have said in my other reply I also have tried sharing an apple with him and eating in front of him while I wait for him to take the smaller piece. This also has worked out pretty well. I'll try to use my thumb and index finger from now on, I've heard both ways to use an open palm and to use a thumb and index finger. I also have tried to put a small treat such as a single seed in his bowl every time I pass by his cage to try to associate me with a good thing (treats/food), but it hasn't really helped. Thank you for all of your advice!

 

[Tazlima]

He is decently comfortable in my presence, he definitely doesn't come over to great me but he doesn't move away either. He will step up without much hesitation, give kisses, and does tolerate scritches on the top and sides of his head. I will try the "eating" of the treats if he doesn't take them. I've done something somewhat similar where I slice up an apple and cut a slice in several birdy-sized pieces and share it with him. I'll offer the small piece of apple while I slowly munch on the other pieces of apple, it seemed to make him more interested in the apple since I was eating it too.

This is all great!

Yeah, failure training is definitely the way to go, and I'd try different foods.

It should look like this.

You: *offering treat * "Hey, Hoshi? Would you like some apple?"

Hoshi (via body language): Ummmm, no, nope, no way.

You: No? You're sure? OK. More for me! *Eat bit of apple with dramatic enjoyment. Eat a couple more pieces of apple while ignoring Hoshi until it's clear he's fairly relaxed.*

You: *Offering another* Would you like some? No? OK. Never mind. *Eat it yourself... eat a few more pieces while ignoring him.*

(Repeat).

Keep the sessions short. Don't even think of it as training. Think of it as eating a snack yourself and you're simply inviting him to join you if he feels like it... no pressure. A few sessions of this with his very favorite foods and he'll get the idea.

As far as how long to offer for each time before giving up, stop as soon as he's made it clear he's going to refuse. if he looks interested and starts to reach for it, obviously give him a minute to decide whether to complete the movement or not.

 

[Hoshi]

This is all great!

Yeah, failure training is definitely the way to go, and I'd try different foods.

It should look like this.

You: *offering treat * "Hey, Hoshi? Would you like some apple?"

Hoshi (via body language): Ummmm, no, nope, no way.

You: No? You're sure? OK. More for me! *Eat bit of apple with dramatic enjoyment. Eat a couple more pieces of apple while ignoring Hoshi until it's clear he's fairly relaxed.*

You: *Offering another* Would you like some? No? OK. Never mind. *Eat it yourself... eat a few more pieces while ignoring him.*

(Repeat).

Keep the sessions short. Don't even think of it as training. Think of it as eating a snack yourself and you're simply inviting him to join you if he feels like it... no pressure. A few sessions of this with his very favorite foods and he'll get the idea.

As far as how long to offer for each time before giving up, stop as soon as he's made it clear he's going to refuse. if he looks interested and starts to reach for it, obviously give him a minute to decide whether to complete the movement or not.

Thank you so much for the advice! I forgot to mention before when I offer something he doesn't just stay the heck away. He will creep towards it, act like he's going to take it(beak open and everything), then quickly run away back to where he started. So he is interested, but then chickens out once he gets close. He's a strange little guy.

 

[Monica]

When offering a treat, if I get my hand with the treat closer than about 10 inches away from him, he will fly away.

Can you.... offer a treat by a spoon? A bowl? What about setting the treat down?

In a previous post about this subject someone suggested clicker training, I tried it, it was a bust. The clicker sound scared him to death.

Can you... muffle the sound of the clicker? Try clicking from a distance where the sound isn't quite as bothersome? (i.e. click 10' away, walk over, set treat down, walk back, repeat) Use the sound of a pen or anything else that's not as loud?

I tried target training with a chopstick but he was terrified of the chopstick

Going back to the previous response... can you hide both clicker and chopstick behind your back at a distance that your bird is comfortable at (i.e. 10' away or more), then slowly show the chopstick to your bird, and no response, click, walk over, drop treat, repeat? And as long as your bird shows no response, you can slowly decrease the distance where you do show the chopstick and click the clicker?

Just make sure that the chopstick is always hiding behind your back when you are moving around.

Now I shouldn't say that he won't take things from my hand, it's just a really really really really really long process. He loves nutriberries and he gets two for breakfast and two for dinner (along with his veggies and sometimes nuts/fruit). In order to get his food he has to take the first nutriberry from my hand. Sometimes it takes up to 45 minutes-1 hour of me standing next to his cage with my arm out, offering the nutriberry on my hand, but he eventually runs over, snatches it lightning fast and runs back to his corner. Yes by the time he grabs it my arm is killing me. I have been doing this with him for a good 5-6 months and his comfort level hasn't changed at all. He's really dramatic and makes it a huge deal just to take the single nutriberry from my still, open palm.

You are asking too much. Instead, put the treat down and back up. You haven't seen an improvement because you haven't set your bird up for success. Your bird does not need to take a treat directly from you in order to be rewarded for any behavior.

If your bird isn't comfortable with taking treats from you, then don't ask that right now. If your bird is not comfortable eating with you being 1' away, then stand/sit further back. You need to set the situation up so that your ringneck is comfortable, not on high alert.