How to go from one foot to two feet step up?

[Saemma]

A few weeks ago I finally succeeded in getting Thomas Redbellied to accept a treat from my right hand by using one foot to step up on to the left hand. At the moment he will approach, place one foot on my hand, yet leave the other foot always on the perch. He's a pro at it. NOw ..How do I move forward and encourage the other foot to step up on to ME too?

I am not sure how to go about this and would really appreciate some practical and helpful recommendations. Thanks.

 

[Stormcloud]

A few weeks ago I finally succeeded in getting Thomas Redbellied to accept a treat from my right hand by using one foot to step up on to the left hand. At the moment he will approach, place one foot on my hand, yet leave the other foot always on the perch. He's a pro at it. NOw ..How do I move forward and encourage the other foot to step up on to ME too?

I am not sure how to go about this and would really appreciate some practical and helpful recommendations. Thanks.

To some extent it depends on the treat you are using and where you are doing it, but sounds like you're doing great. I can't speak for others, but I found with my birds that it all depended upon their risk analysis of the situation. Is the reward worth the risk for him to put both feet on your hand? The greater the reward, the greater the risk he will be prepared to take. I used snowpea sprouts, but it will work with any treat. Start off as per normal, but with maybe slightly smaller treats than what you have been offering him and get him to put the one foot on your hand. Then offer him one 3 times the size, but make sure he has to put both feet on your hand to get to it. Once he has gotten into the habit of using both feet you can then reduce the size of the treat as you want him to do something else. There will be days where he will seem to go one step backwards. It is never easy working with untamed adult birds so I think you're doing extremely well. I'm sure you got a great thrill when he put the first foot up...first contact is always special. Good luck and keep trying variations...it will happen.

 

[Saemma]

Thanks Gerard for all that common sense! i think I'm going to have to be more strategic. Training will commence in the morning on an empty crop and with the highest value treat.

I will work on that and study very carefully what you posted.

 

[Stormcloud]

I wouldn't study it too hard, just make sure you have fun doing it. Animals pick up on our moods very quickly. Remember, all you really are wanting to do is a variation upon what you have already been doing to make him use that second foot without providing something foreign to him. Hopefully Tanya (Mystics Mom) sees this thread, because she's an absolute gun when it comes to this stuff.

 

[Saemma]

Will do!

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

Another trick is to push the hand the first foot is on slowly toward the perch the other foot is on. It also helps if you can also raise your hand higher as you go forward. Birds usually instinctually step their other foot up onto the higher hand from the perch. It seems they cannot resist the motion toward them and upward at the same time.

 

[Sparkles]

I remember have the same issue with my IRN, she wasn't handfed, so she was very scared of humans. Once she started to trust me, it took some time to get her to fully step up. I would trick her, though. I would place a treat in a way that she would have to step onto my hand to get it...playing sneaky sometimes helps

 

[~birdybea~]

With Thomas, or any bird in the early stages of building a relationship, I wouldnt get that step up by moving the hand closer for fear that it would be too pushy and make him lose confidence in the fact that he is ultimately in control of his actions. I get the two-foot step up by showing the treat and holding it further away, so that thy have to reach over your finger to get it. Moving the treat further away makes the easiest way to get the treat to step up with both feet. When he first does it leave your hand where it is, so that he can step right off after getting the treat.

 

[Saemma]

Wow!! Thanks Lois!! Hadn't thought about that either. I'd have to be careful that he not fall.

 

[Saemma]

With Thomas, or any bird in the early stages of building a relationship, I wouldnt get that step up by moving the hand closer for fear that it would be too pushy and make him lose confidence in the fact that he is ultimately in control of his actions. I get the two-foot step up by showing the treat and holding it further away, so that thy have to reach over your finger to get it. Moving the treat further away makes the easiest way to get the treat to step up with both feet. When he first does it leave your hand where it is, so that he can step right off after getting the treat.

Thanks Belinda. I've been trying that but he's not buying it yet. I think I'll have to do like what Gerard said and make the treats smaller and ULTRA irrisistable. I'll keep you guys posted. I'd love for him to discover that my hands are a wonderful place to be.

 

[Stormcloud]

Belinda's suggestion is not all that much different to my own. My birds have always been fully flighted so the only way I was prepared to do this was in the cage initially. It also helps if you can work out if Thomas is a "right-sided or left-sided" bird when adapting your strategies. Yes, just as we are right sided or left sided so are birds. Hototo would take up a strategic point in the cage once he worked out what I was up to. He would deliberately leave an inch or so between his right side and the back of the cage and then flip around backwards and fly up to the top if he wasn't in the mood to cooperate. Depending on what drill I'm doing he will take up different strategic points in the cage. Very cunning for a 60g bird. I also found that if I cut one of my hands at work and had to wear a band-aid (Elastoplast) on one of my fingers neither bird will want to have any part of training whatsoever.

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

The movement I suggest is not fast or abrupt; it is very slow and extremely gentle. Training my baby cockatiels I just noticed they would rather step up on something moving toward them and slightly up and the trick seems to work with all the other parrots I have met. If a bird is not ready to be on your hand, they have the option of jumping from your finger back onto the perch and I have even had bird fly off my fingers and onto my shoulder or the cabinet next to me. But the movement is slow and gentle. Many of my tiel babies would not take a treat nor step on me to get to a treat. They tended to be very difficult to convince to step up; one to three weeks each for a dependable behavior in step up.

 

[~birdybea~]

I definitely pictured what you were describing as slow and gentle, but it is still putting pressure on the bird to step up rather than leaving the ball entirely in their court. It is a subtle form of negative reinforcement, where the bird takes that step up to avoid the pressure being applied to it's belly. While there is often not much harm at all in such minor forms of negative reinforcement, I would always opt to use positive reinforcement first in a bird that has a fairly minimal history with being hands on with humans. Hopefully that clarifies where, and why, I was coming from with my earlier post in this thread.

 

[Stormcloud]

With Thomas, or any bird in the early stages of building a relationship, I wouldnt get that step up by moving the hand closer for fear that it would be too pushy and make him lose confidence in the fact that he is ultimately in control of his actions. I get the two-foot step up by showing the treat and holding it further away, so that thy have to reach over your finger to get it. Moving the treat further away makes the easiest way to get the treat to step up with both feet. When he first does it leave your hand where it is, so that he can step right off after getting the treat.

I like this variation Bel. I'll have to try this with Chiku. Hototo's more aggressive nature means he's a little more daring than she is. Melbourne Cup Day tomorrow so it will be a good time to test it out.

 

[CeddysMum]

I agree with Belinda. That's exactly how I got my girlie to step up fully (she wasn't tame when she came to me either) ... in her own time but just holding the treat a little further each time so that eventually she had to choose to fully step up if she wanted the treat (interesting how looooong their necks can get though ).

I did find that Ceddy wasn't comfortable stepping up fully on hands/bare skin for a very long time. She preferred stepping up on my sleeved forearm for the first year or so, but did that very quickly. Maybe that's something to look out for as well with Thomas?

 

[Saemma]

Thanks guys. Appreciate everyone's help. Due to Thomas's past and current demeanor , I will stick to letting him *decide* to do use that other foot instead of physically nudge him.

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

Seeing my technique as negative is bunk. The bird always has the option to not move or to return to the perch. I do NOT push them backwards nor put pressure on their tummy to step up; pushing at them only encourages them to fly away since all my babies were fully fledged from the moment they grew their wings.

 

[BraveheartDogs]

Good job Saemma! This is a critical point in your relationship with him. Let him decide. I could easily have pressured Iris as I didn't think she'd bite, but I still respected her boundaries and now she loves stepping up to be held. Be sure that when he finally does step up that you keep your hand by the perch so he can step right off.
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QUOTE=Saemma;1473925]Thanks guys. Appreciate everyone's help. Due to Thomas's past and current demeanor , I will stick to letting him *decide* to do use that other foot instead of physically nudge him.[/QUOTE]