It's strange with him because when I am in the house he screams and screeches his head off if he knows I'm in the other room but when I leave for work my partner says he's fine so it's just when I am about. He isn't too bad at coming to me in all honesty. In fact it's quite easy to get him to come to me. I just need to control it. I've done the perch thing the last few days with clicker training. I've quite enjoyed playing with him so thanks again for recommending what you did. I feel it's a good start and something for me to build on
I don't mind him on my shoulder but there are times like when I am doing something, when I'm working from home or when I'm carrying the baby that I would like to be able to keep him off as it's not convenient. He's landed on the baby's head a few times with his claws close to his eyes so we are a bit cautious although he's far from an aggressive bird.
My goals in order
1)Be able to put him in the cage at least a few hours when I am in the house and not hear him screech non stop . It's important because we have a UV light and unless he's in there he's not getting enough UV when he's out.
2) feel safe when I leave the room and not panic flying to me everything I look to be leaving the room. We had a near miss with him getting caught in the door when he did this..heart in mouth time . He's gotten a lot worse the last few months. Maybe he's still adapting to the big change.
We put him to bed about 6pm ish so he has 12 hours ish , which is what I believe is recommended. I try to have a cuddle with him against my cheek and floof him a little. I only floof his neck and head. The odd kiss on top of the head which he likes. I tell him " it's seed time" and he's all excited shaking . I give him about 5 or 6 seeds to get him in his cage. His main cage is in a room away from interruptions ( baby crying at night or me going down stairs etc).
He's a lovely bird . I'm ordering a few shredding toys and a food skewer to refit his cage see if that takes his mind off us when he's in there
What is your view on mirrors? He loves strutting in then but we try not to let him near them too much as I read they are bad.
Is the training you are doing going well? Do you use clicker training at all?
I think clickers can be a great tool. That being said to me just on a personal preference level they grate on my nerves. So I just use good birdie as my bridge.
I very much understand and agree on a goal of a quiet cage break. As this became an urgent matter for me while suffering some health issues. I was unable to stand or walk, so for safety my parrots had to be caged. Well my parrots used to being cage free the entire day...screamed non stop. As soon as I recovered I was determined to fix that!!!
While they were happy and easy to return to cage in evenings. They wanted none of that during the day and would fly off as I tried to return them. So I started as I shared with you. I put a high value treat in each
Cage for mine an apple slice. Then I got each one gave a treat seed for stepping up, and held a seed as I walked to cage. Then set them in the cage with their apple slice and left door open. After they knew yummy would be waiting walking them to the cage was easy. Then I did lots of walking to the cage and step to top of cage or in for a treat then back out. Random maybe 20 times a day. By now I could walk them to the cage no problem no drama no flying off. Then I went back to a high value treat waiting in cage , and had them go inside and shut the door. Letting them back out five min later. I decided on a mid day cage break goal was from noon to 2. So the routine was started , and at first was 5-10 minutes. Always getting them back put before screams started. And slowly increasing time caged. Meanwhile I still continued with random trips to cage to step in for a seed treat or to find a foraging item.
For me training works best broken down to small steps, and repeating often . I'm not sure how long it took I'm sure it was weeks at least. Till I reached 1-2 hours ..blissfully quiet
But now it is something they look forward to , often putting themselves up. Taking a nap. I only rarely and randomly put in something special now, maybe a bell pepper slice, a hunk of broccoli, a green bean a new toy, a foraging something like a ball filled with popcorn. A popsicle stick , a plastic bottle cap. I still randomly walk them to the cage just for a kiss and good birdie. Such a breeze now to quickly cage them at anytime if needed.
A good start is too try for their normal nap time. Or to encourage a bath before cage time. As most birds will be quiet an groom or nap after a bath. Usually a guarantee half hour post bath quiet and you can build off that.