Not making any headway...

[Celia58]

Okay so its been 4 months now weve had Nacho. And we have made no progress.He will take food from me but always does it in a way that he stretches out and ready to run.Its like he expects me to trick him.
I wanted to do the clicker training but the stick scares him.Its a child size chopstick.And I must admit Ive been sporadic at best with training.But I get pretty discouraged after awhile and I dont see any progress.
Let me give an example of how fearful/stubborn he is.
He was coming out of his cage just fine for awhile, but will only sit on the rope perch on the door..But I moved his cage over about a foot and now its slightly unlevel.So I have to prop his cage door open with something so thought the chopstick would be good.For well over a week he would not come out of the cage.So I switched to a piece of folded up paper, still no good and he wouldnt come out for another week or two.So yesterday I started moving his food bowl over just enough to prop open the door and hes back to coming out again.


The funny thing is awhile ago he got scared and flew into our back room onto the desk there. I walked in there, talked to him a few minutes and reached over and gave him scritches.I dont know if he enjoyed it but I sure did.
Was he just frozen with fear? He has never offered to bite, even when I scoop him up to bring him back to his cage.But he wont willingly let me touch him or step up or even come close to my hands, except if he gets scared away and is lost(then he will barely allow me to scoop him up)
I dont want to forceably take him out of the cage, I tried it once and it wasnt pretty and felt wrong.
So what should I do? Do I need to even train him?
I feel like if I dont train him he will be missing out on so much.But maybe if I just let him be eventually he will decide to one day surprise me and land on me, that would be nice.

 

[Katy]

Sounds very frustrating. I'm sure you want to get more out of your relationship. I think training is a very good idea at the very least because you'll need to properly handle your bird in a vet emergency or giving meds, etc. I will warn you that it takes a lot of dedication and moves very slow.

i think I would suggest getting some of the basic Barbara Heidenreich videos and watch them. There are books too, but I like to see how she handles the birds.

there are retreats in various states that have training classes. Finally there are behavorists that can consult with you over the phone. One I know, is a member here. Her name is Vicki and her handle is Braveheartdogs, I think.

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

Is he hand shy? Will he step up on a finger on command? If he is afraid of a stick, even a chop stick, don't use it. Does he bite or try to bite when you try to step him up on your finger? One thing I found was I had a rescue cockatiel that was afraid of hand held wooden perches and bit or refused to step up on a finger. This cockatiel came with a cage that had one of those rope perches in it. So someone on this forum suggested I try to get him to step up on a rope perch. And it worked! He would step up on the rope perch and ride it anywhere.

It may be that one reason he allowed you to scritch him and handle him in the room with the desk in it was that it was a strange (to him) room. Birds often get stuck in their behavior modes. MJ, a cockatiel, got bitey and refused step ups out of her cage and anywhere in the living room where her cage was kept right after she came into her first hormonal season. My BFF (MJ's mom) was very upset and really missed the loving scritches and interactions whe used to have with MJ. So I decided to use Sally Blanchard's 'strange room' option and we took her cage into the craft room, opened her cage and let her come out on her own. MJ flew out of the cage after a few minutes and circled the room, looking it over for a whole minute. Then, winded and tired, she finally landed on the top of the book case and watched her mom and me working on a craft project. Within ten minutes MJ had flown down from the top of the book case and demanded her mother pay attention to her, even to stepping up on command and wanting scritches from her mom. Maybe that is what you need to do. Take him, in his cage if possible, into a 'neutral or strange' room and interact with him there. Let him come out of the cage on his own and initiate interaction with you while in the room. YOU will be the only thing familiar to him in that neutral room, and with birds being so change resistant, he should come straight to you for comfort and familiar interaction.

Give it a try. Once you pattern him to getting scritches and attention from you in the neutral room, he will start doing it in even his familiar room where his cage is usually kept. The goal is to benignly find ways to change the way he reacts to you; eliminate the high emotion and fear factors and substitute calm, fun and wanted relationships with him. And don't forget treats; they love treats and react to them immediately, the greedy little guts!

 

[Celia58]

Thats an interesting theory.I will try a rope perch for step ups first since that is easiest.
He never bites, just screams and runs away.
His cage is double stack cages so moving it isnt really an option.
I could move him to a smaller cage that I can move around easily.
ITs not like he does anything in his big one. Just moves from his sleeping spot to his food and water bowl and back.