What Now?

[deHens]

Hey guys,

My 19 month old Lutino IRN, Mia has made a lot of progress lately. We have had her for about a month now and in that time she can now comfortably, inside and outside of the cage, take treats from my hand. She is also clicker trained and has taken quite a liking to me. I am the one working on her training, so I give her a lot of treats at the moment and when I come into the room sometimes she will run up to the cage bars looking for a treat (and I will usually give her one).

She has done a lot in the past month and I am very happy with her progress. Her fear of hands has improved, she is not as scared of my hands, but has been a bit cautious as my cousin does not realise she's not trained and will poke her finger at her face or through the bars to try to touch her tongue, which distresses me and her, he has thankfully stopped 'teasing' the bird now. She has a small fear of hands and will still bite your fingers if you come to her without a treat in your hands. We have respected her space and her time she needs to progress.

I have recently ordered the Barbara Heinrich DVD on introduction to training and 2 foraging toys for her on amazon, after reading Ellie's post on the importance of foraging. I am starting to give Mia much more foraging oppourtunities for entertainment and much more.

So now I'm questioning what to do next?

I will of course follow the DVD when I get it, but that's not coming until another 2 weeks. I have been feeding her treats freely for a while and want to raise the bar for her to get a treat. I just want her more comfortable with my hands and for her to be able to step up on my arm or bar (hopefully my hand, but she may not be as confident yet).

Any suggestions or ideas would be much appreciated.

Cheers,
Jack

[Skyes_crew]

You can try flight recall. If you recall to your hand it may get her more comfortable with hands. Plus it's an essential part of training a flighted bird

[deHens]

Sorry for not metioning that her wings are clipped! Anything else essential before I start taming and training her, possible to get her used to me and my hands?

Sorry,
Jack

[InTheAir]

I'm glad your wee bird is settling in! Parrots aren't really like any other kind of pet, are they?

Search: Target training.
I can't provide an explanation as I trained our bird to target to my finger, which I believe a lot of people find problematic. It works well for the style of training I do, and our bird only bites people if he is repeatedly provoked (even then he let me down when I tried to demonstrate to someone last weekend that the most easy going bird will bite if you annoy it enough)...

Karen Pryor is a clicker training legend, check out her website.
Also goodbird inc has some stuff for free on their website.

If you teach your bird to target well you can teach her to target to your hand.

Btw research flighted parrots and see if your household could adapt to a flighted bird, it's really cool having a flighted bid (if the peeps you live with are compatible with it). It also allows the bird more confidence, as it is the one to chose when if wants humans in its face... Our bird has been flighted his whole short life and he is super tame.

How is the foraging going?

The main thing about any type of animal is that if you can provide a suitable lifestyle for it, you will get the best possible results in training exercises. Parrots are even more sensitive to this than other pets, so they set a great example to us humans on how to care for animals correctly.
Just for giggles, I was visiting a close friend today who has a cat that she maintains is horrible. My boyfriend and I get on great with this cat, we both pick it up and cuddle it on its back while it purrs, then let it go when it starts looking uncomfortable... Neither of us have ever been scratched by it.. She regularly gets bitten and attacked by it, and watching her tonight, I pointed out that the reason it tried to rip her arm off was because she kept trying to pat it after it said (in cat) it had had enough pats for now. i think parrots are quicker to object to indiscretions than her cat is.

Regards,

Claire

[deHens]

Hey Claire,

Sorry about the delay, I went out to bunnings (warehouse) and pet barn in search for items for a play gym for Mia (and got her a toy). I was just thinking of constructing a play area for her to spend outside of her cage (as IRN's are supposedly to have 3-4 hours of of their cage a day). Anyway, I will get onto constucting that for her when I have the time!

Birds are very different pets from anything else I have had (fish, cats and a dog), they are very timid animals and are not easy at giving people their trust, but hopefully rewarding pets!

I have been doing some target training with Mia a while ago (after you suggested for me to google it in my last topic) but I dropped it because she didn't quite get it or something, I'm not too sure. She was ok at it, I had her turning her head to touch it, but I am quite sure she was biting out of curiousity than to get the treat.

The foraging is going well, I gave her some vegtables on a skewer today, she had a go at them but didnt eat much of them. I have also torn up some paper to put in her food bowl, so its not as easy for her to get to her seed and has to forage for it. I alsO have ordered some toys for foraging too, I'm trying to put her over to be what nature intended of her, as well as if having many more benefits for her and our relationship.

Thanks for your suggestions, I will pursue her target training while I wait for the DVD to arrive, hopefully one day she will be trained to step up on my hand. Its a journey!

Cheers,
Jack

[InTheAir]

Sounds like you guys are going great. Good luck with your construction.

If she likes wiffle balls you could get her to take it from your hand, and give it back to your hand or put it in an empty coup cup (if she doesn't mind you holding the cup near her). You won't need to be able to touch her or take her off her perch for that. I think most people call that trick fetch, you'll find a better explanation by googling it than I can provide ;p I'm better at communicating with our parrot.

[deHens]

Haha, thanks, I've given it a good search and found this site: http://trainedparrot.com/fetch/

Thanks, it seems like a good way to teach her a trick with minimal contact, building a better bond with her so she can be more comfortable around me.

Thanks for the suggestion, she is coming along quite well with target training, she will now walk a few steps to get to the target (she knew more than I though she did about it when I stopped doing it). She is good and things are coming along slowly but very surely.

I want to upload a photo of her but when I try it says "Sorry, the board attachment quota has been reached." in red writing at the top. I would love for everyone to see her. If anyone knows please message me or reply to the forum.

Cheers,
Jack

[InTheAir]

That seems a good explanation of the trick. Trainedparrot has some good blog posts and training tips.

I don't do photos myself, but this post should help http://www.indianringneck.com/forum/vie ... =4&t=15060 and Ellie will answer any questions if you are still having trouble. My boyfriend knows how to post pics, but he is busy teaching Nele to play pool at the moment...

Slow and steady seems to be the birdy way. Our bird has been tame and friendly since we got him, but he will still take time to warm up to new people and toys.

[deHens]

Hey,

The posting of photo's seems a of an effort, I probably won't bother with it. Thats really cool, how is he teaching him to play pool? Really awesome things you can train birds to do with a lot of creativity.

Cheers,
Jack

[InTheAir]

Yeah, I'm too lazy to join a photo sharing site, let alone work out how to use the forum well.

We found a ringneck sized pool table today, so he has just had his first lesson. We have opted for no cue, as Nele is learning to paint and play the xylophone, which is already two conflicting ways of holding a stick like object...
He has just learnt he gets a treat if the white ball gets rolled when his beak touches it, but not if the ball goes in his mouth before it rolls. He thought the aim of the game was to drop the white ball into the holes at first, like fetch! He has figured it out now though.
Honestly, I think this is the most useless game so far. I doubt we will be able to sit through a whole game of parrot pool if he figures it out! We just couldn't resist a pool table in his size, you know how it is.

[deHens]

Thats really cool, a pool-playing bird, haha.

Mia is coming along well, she seems to be really aggressive with everyone in the mornings though, maybe it has something to do with breeding season but she screeches much more in morning and will launch to bite you when she is far away (she is usually a lot better than this, being more comfortable with hands in the day). She is getting to that stage where she is 2 I suppose, is their anything I could do to calm her down or to maybe stop this aggressive behaviour?

Cheers,
Jack

*EDIT*
When she screeches really, really loudly she will usually look at me directly, as I she is testing me or something, she is sometimes crouched down when she looks at me like this.

[deHens]

Ok, got some really good and a tad bad news,

I let Mia out of her cage whilst I was sitting on the computer and she came right up to me as if she was reaching out to me, so I put my arm out and she stepped up (not on command). She sat soundly on my arm/shoulder/head. I though this was really good, her getting more comfortable and actually initiating for her to step up on me.

When she did this she came down to me hands and started biting them, I'm quite sure this was testing, but it really hurt and I wasn't quite sure. Is this testing, she slowly came up to my hands and was biting them gradually harder, I didn't freak out or anything, so she was ok with it. I'm just not sure if she is angry with me or just checking me out, the testing does hurt. The bad news was she sat on my head and was doing it to my forehead and a bit on my eyebrow. The same thing, just on my forehead. I'm also quite sure this was testing, but after she did this I said a calm "No Mia" and put her back in her cage.

Anyone know if this is testing, aggression or if she is just curious. Any help, kindly appreciated.

Cheers,
Jack

[MissK]

It sounds like testing to me, or possibly playing (what is playing to her, not to you). You know how beaking stuff up is playing to them. I think if you were facing hostility you would find her leading with the big bite, not taking her time to get there.

-MissK

[Skyes_crew]

I agree, birds don't usually trifle with their enemies. They bite and fly. Or run in the case of a clipped bird. I think she just needs to learn to control pressure. Kind of like a puppy. When a puppy is little they bite down with all their mite. It's the mother dogs responsibility to teach them bite inhibition. Which means bite pressure control. They do that by giving a warning growl when the bite gets too hard. So when Mia's bite gets too hard you can give her that warning to teach her about limits. Let her nip until it gets past that comfort level for you and them calmly say no bite and like you did, put her away for a few minutes. I don't really believe that birds understand the whole time out thing. It's just a form of stepping away from the situation for a few minutes and starting over new. It keeps you both from getting frustrated. My birds came to realize what my breaking point Was. They still sometimes push it. Not with biting, but with other behaviors, but birds are forever learning.

[deHens]

Hey,

Thanks for the reply, I thought it was biting/playing.

Does anyone still know why she crouches down and looks at me upside-down? She also looks at me when she is squaking really loudly (she sometimes crouches down for this too). Does anyone know why this is?

Cheers,
Jack

[deHens]

Hey Guys,

The order arrived in the mail today, I have set up her foraging toys (which she seems to be enjoying) and watched the Barbara Heinrich DVD on Parrot Training. The DVD was great, had excellent examples and was very detailed, I picked up a lot from it which was very good.

Mia is very well targeted and will got about a rulers length when seen the target, and will also climb for it, which is very good. She is very intelligent and I am very hopeful on my future training with her.

The squawking and looking at me behaviour has subsided a bit, but she will still observe me, still not sure what that is, if anyone knows please share this with me.

Cheers,
Jack