Hi chuckles
chuckles wrote:thx for replying ellie , how can i teach him that trick ? btw when my bird see a treat now "apples" he start to turnaround non-stop , i dunno how to teach him new stuff??
Well done on the turnaround... the fact that your bird does it when he sees the apple means that your bird enjoys training.
Mine will sometimes pre-empt my signal and do tricks in an effort to get me to give them treats too. They'll do whatever gets them the reward that they want. They're very smart!
If you want to train your bird to come to the front of the cage when you open the door, you need to break it up into smaller steps. Bird trainers call these steps approximations. Figuring out the approximations can be the hardest part of bird training. There is no one set of approximations that will work for all birds and trainers. You have to be prepared to look at what you are doing, see how it is working and modify accordingly. Once the bird is doing the first approximation reliably, you then move onto the next approximation and stop rewarding for doing the first approximation. Think of approximations this way, just say you want to learn to dance the waltz. Your teacher might start by rewarding you for lifting the correct foot when it's time to start. Once you've mastered that, they'll stop rewarding you for that and then start to reward you for moving that foot into the correct position. Bit by bit, you do more and more for the rewards until eventually you are doing the whole dance.
Here are some ideas for approximations for getting your bird to greet you at the front of the cage when it's time to come out.
Approximation 1. get your bird to take small bits of apple from your hand through the bars of the cage.
Approximation 2. get your bird to take small bits of apple from your hand through the bars of the door.
Approximation 3. open the cage door, hold the bits of apple at the door. If the bird is too scared to come, start leaving the apple in it's food bowl when it shows an interest in coming towards you.
Approximation 4. give your bird a bit of apple from your hand at the door of the cage.
If any one approximation is too hard for your bird, you go back to the previous one that your bird knew how to do and try creating a different approximation as the next step. Depending on how tame your bird is, approximation 1 might be too much if it's not already used to taking treats from you. In that case you could start with, holding the apple through the bars and when the bird stops looking scared of your hand or takes one step towards your hand, you put it in your bird's food container (making sure it sees you).
Training sessions don't need to be long - gauge it on your bird's interest and your time availability. Keep the treat pieces as small as possible. Generally, the behaviour will take several sessions to complete.... some can take a long, long time... but it's much better to have your bird doing things because it wants to and it's mentally stimulating for your bird and helps form a bond.
Good luck and best wishes!
Ellie.