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Training a lorikeet to go back in the cage? + landing

Budgiie

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Spencer
My lorikeet will NOT go into his cage when asked. If I open the door and hold him inside it on my hand, he will run up my arm and cling to my shoulder. If I try to gently nudge him in, he bites my hand. So, if I have plans for the day he can't come out or he won't go back in when I need him to. He will only go back in if he's hungry which is about once every 2 hours or so. So, if there's an emergency, I have to towel him. He doesn't respond to targeting unless I put the stick right in front of his face and there's no treat that he values more than being outside the cage. It's not as if he spends all day in the cage, I work from home and the cage door is open from sunrise to sunset. Knowing all this, how do I train him to go into the cage when asked?

Also: my family is getting very frustrated by his landing habits. He won't land on my arm or shoulder when coming in for a landing. As my family puts it: he just 'smacks you in the side of the head' and climbs up your hair. When I hold my arm up for him to land on, he dodges it and comes back around to grab your head. He's not afraid of hands at all, so I don't know what the problem is. It annoys me to the point where I wear a baseball cap inside because having to untangle a lorikeet from my hair every 10 minutes is getting old (and also I fear that he may hurt himself if he gets too tangled in my hair). I have tried recall training but he won't sit still.

Does anyone have any advice?
 

Wardy

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How old is your lorikeet ? And how long have you had it ?

I target trained my birds so used to target them back to there cages i then used to put a treat they could see in there cage they would head in for it i would close the cage and offer another treat. Now i can tell one of them to go back in and the other i carry her to the door and she heads back in herself.

The landing issues could just be a case of gaining some confidence with landing and will improve over time.

I would persevere with the recal training doing it for short periods throughout the day.
 

FeatheredM

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Birds that get absolutely freedom tend to have to have this problem. Maybe he needs a routine where he stays in the cage for a short period of time, like an hour at lunchtime or whatever works for you. Make sure his cage is fun to be in though so he can learn to occupy himself in there. I would do recall training. Start yourself at very short distances, so that he can feel more confident landing on your arm. Only reward him when he la is on your arm.
 

Vmax

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My Max has done this. I trained him to step on a short perch I mounted to his cage door. When he steps there, he gets safflower seed treats. As he enjoys his treat, I gently close the door and offer one more seed. I approached this issue step-wise with him and showered him with verbal praise as well.
 

Emma&pico

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@Vmax this is a really good idea one of my lovebirds won’t go bk in his cage and this could work although it won’t be long until he clicks onto that
 

Vmax

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Birbs are scary smart and sneaky!!!:dalek::loltears:
 

Budgiie

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Spencer
How old is your lorikeet ? And how long have you had it ?

I target trained my birds so used to target them back to there cages i then used to put a treat they could see in there cage they would head in for it i would close the cage and offer another treat. Now i can tell one of them to go back in and the other i carry her to the door and she heads back in herself.

The landing issues could just be a case of gaining some confidence with landing and will improve over time.

I would persevere with the recal training doing it for short periods throughout the day.
He is about 8 months old, I have had him for about 6 months. I have finally found a treat he is responsive to. When I introduced him to apple originally he seemed uninterested so I disregarded it. This most recent clicker training session I tried it again, and he was very responsive. I even put the rest of the apple slice in his cage after the 20 minute session and he jumped in to eat the rest. After the session was over, I set the clicker on the table and he ran over and touched it, and looked at me expectantly. So that is a step is the right direction. Thank you all for the advice to persist!

However, now I have another problem. He is going for the face now with his beak, especially my lips. I tap his beak and say, 'no bite'. And he gives me the 'this is funny' look and goes for my face again. I am worried about my eyes. He has cause the inside of my lip to bleed and now I'm scared to have him on my shoulders. He picks at my blemishes and makes me bleed. How can I keep him away from my face after I have allowed him to be on my shoulder and around my face all this time? Any advice? :cry:
 

Branch

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What is your parrot's diet? If it's very sweet or full of seeds, he won't want to do what you want for a treat that he could easily get from his food bowl. And for the biting issue, have you started step-up training him?

If you have, that's great, continue doing so. If you haven't started doing it, start it. I recommend step-up training since if he goes for your face again, you can get him down.

It would also teach him Positive Reinforcement which teaches your parrot that it gets nothing from biting, but if it does the right thing, it gets rewarded.

On top of that, if you want your bird to stop biting you, (I used this way to stop my parrot from doing something I don't want him to do), basically if he did something wrong, I would say NO. Not screaming it, but saying it loudly. If he stopped what he was going to do, reward him and he'll eventually get the hang of it. Try to keep him away from your face until you feel comfortable with him near your face again.
 

Budgiie

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Spencer
What is your parrot's diet? If it's very sweet or full of seeds, he won't want to do what you want for a treat that he could easily get from his food bowl. And for the biting issue, have you started step-up training him?

If you have, that's great, continue doing so. If you haven't started doing it, start it. I recommend step-up training since if he goes for your face again, you can get him down.

It would also teach him Positive Reinforcement which teaches your parrot that it gets nothing from biting, but if it does the right thing, it gets rewarded.

On top of that, if you want your bird to stop biting you, (I used this way to stop my parrot from doing something I don't want him to do), basically if he did something wrong, I would say NO. Not screaming it, but saying it loudly. If he stopped what he was going to do, reward him and he'll eventually get the hang of it. Try to keep him away from your face until you feel comfortable with him near your face again.
Thank you!!

Unfortunately as a lorikeet in a country without a lot of options he was raised on low quality lorikeet mix which I assume is full of bad sugars. The first four ingredients are "rice, wheat, glucose, and corn". :shocked6: I am switching him to Roudybush Lorikeet Mix which is supposedly much lower in sugar so that fruit hopefully becomes more appealing to him as a treat.

Since my last post he has eased up on the biting. I like your idea of rewarding him when he stops though, I will definitely try that.

I still have a lot of issues with him landing on my head and getting himself tangled in my hair. I saw a post of a rainbow lorikeet that got his feet cut after getting tangled in his owners hair / fabric fibers (warning: graphic). I'm considering cutting off my hair to keep him safe because I don't know how to train him to stay off my head. :cry: Any advice for that would be appreciated. If I try to remove him from the top of someone's head with my hand I get bitten, so I kind of have to gently push him off awkwardly onto another surface, but he just climbs back up.
 

sootling

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Adding my advice as someone who's budgies free roam for all their waking hours:
My budgies THRIVE on routine. When it starts to get dark, they know it's cage time. Sometimes they even put themselves to bed. I put them to bed at close to the same time each night. This may take some time to establish, so be patient, you'll get there! Sometimes the budgies also need breaks in their routine, and when they do, they'll refuse to go in the cage. This is fine, I just let them sleep outside for one night, and then the next night they go right back in the cage, no complaints.

Have you ever tried training just to go in the cage? For example, spending 5 mins a day playing on the cage, or feeding treats inside the cage, or something of the sort to associate the cage with good things, but not have any pressure to actually get the bird in the cage right that instant.
 

Branch

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Thank you!!

Unfortunately as a lorikeet in a country without a lot of options he was raised on low quality lorikeet mix which I assume is full of bad sugars. The first four ingredients are "rice, wheat, glucose, and corn". :shocked6: I am switching him to Roudybush Lorikeet Mix which is supposedly much lower in sugar so that fruit hopefully becomes more appealing to him as a treat.

Since my last post he has eased up on the biting. I like your idea of rewarding him when he stops though, I will definitely try that.

I still have a lot of issues with him landing on my head and getting himself tangled in my hair. I saw a post of a rainbow lorikeet that got his feet cut after getting tangled in his owners hair / fabric fibers (warning: graphic). I'm considering cutting off my hair to keep him safe because I don't know how to train him to stay off my head. :cry: Any advice for that would be appreciated. If I try to remove him from the top of someone's head with my hand I get bitten, so I kind of have to gently push him off awkwardly onto another surface, but he just climbs back up.
I don't know if this would work but have you considered wearing a hat? If you wear a hat, he won't get caught up in your hair and you can remove the hat and your bird if anything gets peckish. Also, I suggest you start step-up training him.
 
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