Yesterday she was fine with my hand in the cage. She was fine with it in the cage the first time the millet was offered. Second time I offered the millet it wasn't fine. A little confusing really.
Happy to stop with the hand in the cage if that's an issue for her and work from the outside. Would love to know why the sudden shift from fine to not fine though.
Until she is OK with stepping up having her out of the cage would be problematic. How would I get her back in the cage if I had to or even get her out from harms way if I needed to without manhandling her? That would set any kind of trust back significantly. In my situation it's not feasible to let her loose without enough trust already that she will step up.
Not sure about the sudden shift-- could just be that she didn't feel like having you in there at the moment---She could have been cranky from lack of sleep (if it was noisy the night before). Maybe two days in a row felt invasive of her space, like, "woah man, this happened once and now you think you live here?" (especially if she was already moody due to being tired or something) LOL I have no idea- but as long as you were respectful of her cues (and it it sounds like you were) you don't have to worry. Cockatoos have a bit of a reputation for being a bit "fickle"--I am sure there is a hidden reason most of the time, but it can be hard to decipher-- it is wise though to always try (as you have been) to figure it out.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it-- if what you are doing keeps working- then stick with that!!!
It sounds like what you are doing is making progress/working -as what you are doing works, that's great--- I am not saying this would work for your bird or your situation--I will just tell you what I did with Noodles for roughly 3 months when I couldn't get her to step up (or even touch her initially). ..I DO think this method of mine made it less likely for her to resist the cage because coming out wasn't novel to her. I never have to chase her or anything to get her back in...but again- just sharing (you do what works for your house, your bird, your set-up!)
I let her out every single day, BUT only at times during the day when I knew I would be available to supervise closely etc (because she was unfamiliar with my home, she didn't really WANT to go exploring, so she stuck around her cage-top etc)...she came out after work each day, and on weekends (and if she went back in to eat, 99% of the time, she didn't get shut-in unless it was getting dark/bed-time)---she went in and out as she pleased, but she would go in every night at roughly the same time for bed and do this weird bob- so I would cover her for bed every time that happened. It is her signal to this day.
We established a bedtime song/dance ritual--- she ate dinner, we danced and sang to a few songs, then lights dimmed and USUALLY within 5-25 minutes, she would go inside (as long as things were pretty quiet). Like I said, I did have to usually dim the lights in the house/ shut the blinds to get her inside without touching her, but it almost always worked. So---during this period, I also wouldn't get her out in the morning if I had work because I couldn't necessarily bank on getting her back in in a timely fashion. Sometimes, if she went back in to eat in the evening and it wasn't bedtime, I would still lock the cage on her so I could run to the store or something) but never every time she went in.
When mine wouldn't step up voluntarily, there were a few times when she got startled and ended up on the ground (rare)..In those instances, she DID step up because she was unfamiliar with the room and trusted me more than the scary/unfamiliar floor...Mine also has a hard time flying well in a house---she CAN but yours probably does a better job due to size, practice etc.
I cannot think of any "danger" situations that ever occurred for me personally in which I had to pick her up other than the 1 or 2 times she was scared and accidentally flew to the ground/into a chair. Again, mine chooses not to fly very often, even though she can, so this made a difference in terms of what she could get into...and since she didn't know my home or me that well at the time, she tended to stick close to what was familiar (her cage).
Planning was my biggest thing during that "era" LOL---
1. teaching her right off the bat that just because she decided to go back into her cage to eat or sit, DID NOT mean I will lock her up again (because that seems to be a fear when they get out and like it for the first time). This keeps them from resisting re-entry in the future and can be helpful if for some reason you HAVE to go--then a bribe can sometimes get them back in, but usually only after they have established that it isn't going to sign them up for another prison term lol. I tried to shut the door on her with as little predictability as possible (excluding bedtimes), but I shut it FAR LESS than I kept it open.
2. Letting her out when I could "wait her out" and generally, I shopped before I came home or after she went to bed so that she could have quite a few hours outside the cage when I came home.
3. Letting her out when natural light and noise would decrease in my favor...and having a way to decrease them manually in the even that they days grew longer (blinds, curtains, lights, lamps, whatever)
4. Establishing a sleep/light/dark routine (and bedtime ritual)---They have very programmable clocks in their heads and they WANT to follow that 12 hours dark, 12 hours light cycle that they would get in nature...plus, in the wild, they go back to their trees to roost (aka cage). They are naturally inclined to follow that cycle (unless something super exciting makes staying up more appealing of course lol). She resisted going to bed sometimes, but ultimately, she put herself there every time (kind of like a kid who is exhausted and says they aren't tired, only to fall asleep mid protest ha)...so establishing the cage as a safe-space and mostly option place during the day was huge...and then setting up some cues so that she knew (in addition to the lighting) what we did each day around the same time. Play, food, nighttime song/dance, dim lights, bed.
^^^She doesn't require the song/dance anymore, although I found that it was a good alternative to that noisy evening burst that they often get right before bed-- which was why that started to begin with (it was a cue, but also an alternative behavior that served the same noisy purpose/energy outlet, without being as disruptive).
