wareagle89
Moving in
- Joined
- 1/14/21
- Messages
- 6
- Real Name
- Shawn Dean
Hello All! I have had my female sun conure named Phoenix for about 3 weeks now and she has settled in very well. She will be 1 on 25 AUG. She seems to be comfortable around me. When I sent next to her cage she climbs over the bars near me and she gets really silly as if trying to get my attention. She will hang upside down and even lay on her back on the bottom of the cage. When she see's me she also seems to get excited as she kind of flaps her wings slightly and calls to me. With all this to me it seems she is eager to interact, but she refuses to step up. She will take treats from my fingers and from the palm of my hand inside of her cage and eat the treat next to my hand and she doesn't act scared of my hand. However when I hold the treat away and have my hand in between her and the treat to try and get her to step up she very rarely will touch me with her foot and most of the time she will stretch her neck to the point she falls over against my hand or she will climb around the opening of the cage trying to get to the treat from other angles. I'm at a loss to be honestly. I bought her from parrot stars and they just advise me to give her more time, but Im seeing very little progress towards her stepping up.
I did a online consult with Landon from Bird Tricks and we talked for the entire 30 min consult and I feel like she cared and she answered my questions and we discussed diet. She felt pretty sure the reason my bird isnt stepping up is because the food motivation isnt strong enough. So she instructed me to feed the bird only twice a day. So I am to feed her one in the morning her chop and then remove after 3 hours and then in the afternoon her pellet mix (Intune and Tops.....I am planning on switching from Intune to Tropican Lifetime pellets) and remove after 3 hours. Prior to this I would feed her chop in the morning then remove after a few hours and she had access to her pellet mix all day. So I tried what she suggested I feed Phoenix in the morning and removed her food 3 hours later then in the afternoon I came to her to do our training session and she did seem way more desire to get her walnut treat to the point she kind of hooked my hand with her upper beak and pulled it closer to her and placed her foot on my hand. Then I found some articles on here that brought up some very big concerns about Bird Tricks methods and withholding food was one of the issues i read about and then I instantly felt so bad cause I think she may have been super hungry and probably hungry for awhile. I felt so bad that I might of just starved my bird. So I have stopped doing this and went back to her normal feeding plan, chop in the morning and pellet mix available all day.
Honestly I feel like she is motivated for her treats without withholding food cause she has climbed out of her cage and I was able to lure her back into her cage with a walnut. So I have went back to just trying to get her to reach for the treat and hope one day she decides to step up on my hand. Sometimes she touches my hand with her foot, but most days its just disappointment for me. I just want to hold her that way I can take her around with me and we can hang and play. I'll remain patient cause honestly I can see her bubbly personality just from her mannerisms in her cage and I know when we get to the point she steps up shes going to be an awesome bird. So if anyone has any advice or tips that would be able to help me to get her over the stepping up hump please let me know.
I did a online consult with Landon from Bird Tricks and we talked for the entire 30 min consult and I feel like she cared and she answered my questions and we discussed diet. She felt pretty sure the reason my bird isnt stepping up is because the food motivation isnt strong enough. So she instructed me to feed the bird only twice a day. So I am to feed her one in the morning her chop and then remove after 3 hours and then in the afternoon her pellet mix (Intune and Tops.....I am planning on switching from Intune to Tropican Lifetime pellets) and remove after 3 hours. Prior to this I would feed her chop in the morning then remove after a few hours and she had access to her pellet mix all day. So I tried what she suggested I feed Phoenix in the morning and removed her food 3 hours later then in the afternoon I came to her to do our training session and she did seem way more desire to get her walnut treat to the point she kind of hooked my hand with her upper beak and pulled it closer to her and placed her foot on my hand. Then I found some articles on here that brought up some very big concerns about Bird Tricks methods and withholding food was one of the issues i read about and then I instantly felt so bad cause I think she may have been super hungry and probably hungry for awhile. I felt so bad that I might of just starved my bird. So I have stopped doing this and went back to her normal feeding plan, chop in the morning and pellet mix available all day.
Honestly I feel like she is motivated for her treats without withholding food cause she has climbed out of her cage and I was able to lure her back into her cage with a walnut. So I have went back to just trying to get her to reach for the treat and hope one day she decides to step up on my hand. Sometimes she touches my hand with her foot, but most days its just disappointment for me. I just want to hold her that way I can take her around with me and we can hang and play. I'll remain patient cause honestly I can see her bubbly personality just from her mannerisms in her cage and I know when we get to the point she steps up shes going to be an awesome bird. So if anyone has any advice or tips that would be able to help me to get her over the stepping up hump please let me know.