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!
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!