First of all, thank you all for taking the time to try and help me and Sally!
A few important things I forgot to mention!
1.In some EXTREMELY rare cases he would fly onto the shoulder of a certain person in my household, tough, when on his shoulder, the person still couldn't touch him with his hand without getting bitten
And a long time ago, when my grandma set next to his cage, he would eventually go down to her shoulders and play with her golden earings, still not allowing her to touch him of course
2.He sometimes leaves his cage to fly a short circle above the living room before flying back to his cage, probably to use his wings a little (his cage is always open, he sometimes sits inside, and sometimes outside on top of it,
but that's usually when he's more active and feels like making sounds)
3.Sometimes when he is doing his short circle, something would make him crash (bumping into the glass accidentally while flying next to it) and he would end up on the floor, in that case, he doesn't really know 100% how to get back to his cage, in this scenario,
he would let me approach him, and when I lay out my finger next to him, he would step on it to let me get him back to his cage, but again, when he is on my finger, he still wouldn't let me touch him, he would let me put him on my shoulder tough.
If this is somehow relevant and could be helpful, I would love to know!
Hi ya!
Be interesting to know if this 15 year old Princess parrot is new to you or not?
Love to see a photo of him.
http://www.parrotforums.com/general-parrot-information/49144-tips-bonding-building-trust.html
Sally is not new to us! we got him a few months after he hatched, he was hand-fed trained before he moved over to us
Here is a picture of the little guy:
When he sleeps, it's always infront of this mirror
Respect his boundaries! His cage is his! My JoJo isn’t the least bit cage aggressive, but I still ask for permission before reaching in!
How exactly does one "ask permission"? I assume I can watch for his reaction first tough and move back if he doesn't like something I do.
Tell us more about your parrot.
How is Diet.
How long you've had.
What sort of enrichment do you provide.
Many knowledgeable peoples on this forum will help you give your bird a better life.
read links provided above.
I am sure you can convince your bird that there is a much more interesting world outside of his cage.
fifteen is young.
I've had him for about 15 years, he's been with us almost the entirety of his life,
As for food and enrichment, here are 3 pictures:
These are treat sticks with plenty of stuff on them (as you can see, these sticks are almost done, he loves them)
These are his basic seeds at the bottom of the cage, he eats them, and lots of seeds and shells get onto the floor outside the cage haha
Aside from these he LOVES Portulaca oleracea, I'm not sure what the common name is in english, my mother picks it for him when we see a plant of it, it looks like this:
Hello, and welcome to the Parrot Forums family!
Another important thing is whether or not your bird was hand raised. This will make a big difference in terms of how difficult it might be to get him hand tame.
If your bird gets angry when you approach his cage, does this mean he never gets to come out? If so, it might explain why he is so highly cage territorial. Cage-bound birds tend to be highly protective of their home spaces.
Assuming that your bird is indeed cage-bound, your first step will be to start building a relationship with him. An interactive relationship with elements of trust and communication. You'll have to start slowly. Reading to him while sitting as near to his cage as you can without him getting uncomfortable or nervous is a good start.
Another great way to begin an interactive relationship with him is target training. You can start this off while he is inside of the cage by using a pointer (a chopstick makes for a great pointer) and pointing it toward a certain area within the cage. When he moves toward it, or even better yet touches it with his beak, you reward him with his favorite treat. A clicker can be used as well as a bridge, but that is up to your individual preference. Here are 2 videos illustrating the basics of target training:
https://youtu.be/HaOicTtwIZo
https://youtu.be/a6iRRum5lPU
And here's a link that gives some insight as to reasons a bird might be biting:
http://www.parrotforums.com/training/57935-brainstorming-biting-parrots.html
Thank you very much!
He was indeed hand-trained before we got him, and we got him when he was a few months old
He DOES get to come out of his cage, his cage is always open, unless we have to open up a window, we then close the cage, but it's open 90% of the time, and as I mentioned in at the start of this reply, he sometimes does circles above the living room when he wants to stretch out his wings
I've tried sitting next to him and playing guitar, I'm not sure if he hates the sound of it or not, but I assumed he'd like music
I guess reading to him or playing the flute might work too? I guess I'll have to judge by his reaction
Will a regular chopstick from a chinese food order do the trick? I'll get a clicker for him next time we order food from the pet store and perhaps try this type of training with some sort of fruit/dried fruit or the leaves I mentioned above
It's also possible the mirror is in play here. He could view it as his mate and is being territorial and agressive trying to protect the reflection in his mirror which he thinks is his mate. In his mind he may have mated with it and is expecting some little mirror babies any day now...
He does indeed think the mirror is another parrot, whenever we clean it, he suddenly interacts with it alot, he also sleeps infront of it
Tough, considering the things I mentioned above, I think he just doesn't like people touching him, even if he feels safe enough for him to sit on their shoulders or hands... I might be wrong
Also, adding this picture of his cage in full view, as I said, it's open 90% of the time:
