No putting hands inside the cage and chasing the bird around the cage or room. (forcing the bird) Instead Conducted lots of trust building and bonding sessions (training). I have had great success with the following method to bond and build trust. When you have built enough trust, you can train your bird to step up and down from within the cage. (good for emergencies)
This how I bonded and built trust with an aviary bred bird and have used it on other birds.
I obtained an aviary bred IRN a quite few years ago who we named Bluey. When people approached Bluey, he would thrash around the cage in fear. So, I needed some tools to address this problem. 1 was a clicker, 2 was training treats, 3 was T-perch/stand.
Clickers are the best for training. It is scientifically proven that in order for the animal to connect their behavior with the reward, the trainer must deliver the reward within 0.8 of a second. that is impossibly fast in most cases. Then as soon as you move to give the reward to the animal, your animal will most likely refocus on you, which will delay or even completely jeopardize the training, because now the animal is being rewarded for focusing on you and not for the original behavior that you were intending to reward.
But….
It is the clicker (or marker) that allows us to “mark” a specific behavior with the animal, and for our animal to take a “snapshot” of what they is doing in that moment. Once the sound of the clicker is emitted, the animal is allowed to break the position and access the reward (or the reward is delivered to him while still performing) It is a straight-forward message to the animal of what he is getting rewarded for.
The clicker is the bridge between you and your bird and you use that bridge to highlight the bird’s desired behaviour to your bird. Training treats are not the bridge, they are the reward at the end of the bridge and patience is the time taken to go over the bridge.
Clicks won't confuse the bird. Where has words can. Without realising, words can be changed. It doesn't seem much, but it is to a bird. Has an example you might be saying "good boy". Then you say, "that's a good boy" or you’re a good bird.
Second by putting five different foods on a plate and watch which one Bluey ate first, I worked out what Bluey favourite food. I used sunflower seeds, corn kernels, pine nuts, grapes and balls of millet. This would became Bluey's training treat and I removed this food from Bluey diet. Whatever your bird picks, it must not be part of the bird’s diet otherwise it defeats the purpose of being a training treat. Bluey picked sunflower seeds. I used this method of finding the birds training treats for all my birds.
These are the procedures I used to calm and interact with him.
Bluey was in a cage in the lounge room. With the clicker in my hand, I entered the lounge room and went to the furthest point away from the cage. Then I would slowly approach the cage until Bluey showed signs of fear. When your bird becomes small and "skinny," and the bird's crop often looks sucked in, and all the feathers lie flat on the body. It usually means the bird is scared.
I would stop and stand there until Bluey relaxed.
Relaxed feathers and wings, standing on one foot, preening and /or grinding his upper and lower mandible together to produce a scratchy or "zippy" noise. The bird is probably content and relaxed. But the bird might not display all these signs but relaxed feathers and wings, standing on one foot are a sure sign.
When Bluey relaxed, I click the clicker once and took 3 slow steps backwards waited 20 to 30 seconds. Then, again I would slowly approach the cage until Bluey showed signs of fear. But this time I got a bit closer to the cage. Then I would stop and stand there until Bluey relaxed. I repeated this procedure and with each approach, each time I would get a bit closer to the cage until I was standing next to the cage and Bluey was relaxed.
When this was achieved I would leave the room for 20 to 30 minutes. Then I would repeat this procedure for 5 to 7 times that day. By the end of the day you should be able to slowly walk up to the cage and the bird should stay relaxed. This whole process might need to be repeated for 2 to 3 days.
Once I was able to walk up to the cage without Bluey being scared, I then started to train Bluey to come out of the cage.
The first stage is with the clicker in one hand and a spray of millet in the other.
I used a spray of millet first has it was a larger food treat and it allowed Bluey to get use to my hands. Once Bluey became use to my hand I started to reduce the size of the millet until I could use sunflower seeds.
Note: This is important and that is, not to force the bird to do something it doesn't want to do. Let the bird approach the millet.
I would offer the millet to Bluey through the cage where the perch is attached. If he didn't take a bite of the millet within 15 seconds, I would remove the millet from his sight for 20 to 30 seconds.
Then I would re-offer the millet. When Bluey took a bite, I click the clicker and withdraw the millet but kept it in Bluey's sight. When Bluey finished eating the millet. I repeated the procedure and did this for 15 minutes then took a 30minute break and repeated these 3 more times.
Note: By removing the Millet from the Bird's sight you encourage the "what have I just missed out on. Was that food? Where did it go? Then when you re-offer the millet. The bird thinks I'm not going to miss out again.
The next stage. With the clicker in one hand and a spray of millet in the other. Open the cage door and offer the millet at the entrance of the cage.
Note: Don't put your hand inside the cage has the bird could see this has invasion of their territory.
If Bluey didn't approach the millet within 15 seconds, I would remove it from his sight for 20 to 30 seconds. Then re-offer the millet. When the Bluey came to the cage entrance and took a bite I click the clicker and withdraw the millet but kept it in Bluey sight. I did this for 15 minutes then took a 30minute break and repeated these 3 more times with a 30-minute break between.
Note: I used a spray of millet first has it was a larger training treat and it allowed Bluey to get use to my hand. Once Bluey became use to my hand I started to reduce the size of the millet until I could use sunflower seeds. This was done before training Bluey to leave his cage.
The next stage is to place a T-stand just outside the cage. When Bluey flew to the T-stand and took a sunflower seed I click the clicker. I did this for 15 minutes then took a 30minute break and repeated this daily. Gradually I would move the T-stand away from the cage.
You can use the T-stand to return the Bird to the cage. I found that a T-stand is better than a piece of dowel. The T-stand is good for handling birds which fear hands or birds that bite. The hand is below the bird and far enough away for it to feel safe while the human's hand is below and far enough away not to be bitten.
This how we taught Henry our Eclectus Parrot to step up and down from both inside and outside the cage. while people feel that's it's good to allow their birds free-range within their home, I personally like to be able to get Henry in and out of his cage when needed and without causing any stress to Henry. I used a clicker and treating treats to achieve this.
I would put Henry on his T-stand and gave him a sunflower seed and click the clicker. This indicates that training has started.
Then in my right hand I held the clicker and the sunflower seed. The set up was the clicker in the palm with my middle finger on the button and the sunflower seed held between my thumb and index finger.
With my left hand I made a pistol, so my finger was parallel to the T-stand and about 3 cm away. Then I would bring my right hand up behind my left hand and show Henry the sunflower seed and say, "step up". if after 15 to 20 seconds Henry hadn't stepped up onto my left hand I would remove the sunflower seed from his sight.
Wait 20 seconds and reshow the treat. When Henry stepped up onto my left hand and took the sunflower seed I would click the clicker at the same time.
Then to teach him to step down, with henry still on my left hand I would bring it parallel to the T-stand and about 3 cm away. Then with a sunflower seed in my right again, I would bring my right hand up, So the T-stand is between my left and right hands. show Henry the sunflower seed and say, "step down". if after 15 to 20 seconds Henry hadn't stepped down onto the T-stand I would remove the sunflower seed from his sight.
Wait 20 seconds and reshow the treat. When Henry stepped down from my left hand, onto the T-stand and took the sunflower seed I would click the clicker at the same time.
Birds use their beaks like a third hand and they will use this "third hand to help them onto your hand when you are start the training of step up. This is because the bird is unsure how stable your hand is so they test your hands stability with their third hand before stepping up.
This scenario happens when an inexperienced owner is not clear in their signals to the parrot. For example, when offering a hand for the bird to step up, an inexperienced owner often isn't quite sure of him/herself... so their hand motion is uncertain. The bird may wish very much to climb on, but is unsure of the stability of the hand will reaches with its beak (The beak functions as a third hand) to steady the human hand. The human, afraid of that beak, pulls their hand away. Now the bird is confused!
Now each time the human's hand is offered, and the bird attempts to grab the hand with its beak to hold it steady so it can climb on. The human jerks their hand away. The bird has no idea what has happened but if the scene is repeated (as it usually is), the bird will learn that its beak will make the hand go away. The bird doesn't really want the hand to go away, but it is fun to control one's human's hand so the behaviour will happen again and a-gain. Once again, the parrot has no idea it has done anything wrong.
This is more towards interacting with your bird to build trust/bonding. Once you have established a bond of trust with your bird you can start to train basic tricks. Then advance to more tricks if you desire.
The advice I can give is
1 move slowly around the bird
2 let the bird come to you.
3 Don't force the bird to do anything that it doesn't want to do.
4 make the trust building and bonding sessions (training) fun
5 end all training sessions on a positive.
6 patience.
Remember food is a great motivator.