Flying away

[AzurZafir]

Hello,

I have two green cheek conures and I’ve had them for a year now. Nowadays, whenever I want to do a little training with them, like teaching them to do a spin or whatever, they simply fly away. Our house is pretty big and has only a few doors and I don’t have an own room, so they can go anywhere, except upstairs. Do you have any suggestions to keep them from just flying away? I don’t disrespect their personal zone, so are they just not interested in any kind of training? Thanks for your answers,

Juli

 

[fiddlejen]

Were they previously more interested in working with you, and Now it has changed? Or are you trying to work with them moreso than previously? Are you using target training or some other method? If target training, you may need to back it up a few steps to reinforce their interest before proceeding further. Are you training them together or individually?

(These are questions you might ponder and try changing-up to see if it changes their responses.)

 

[chris-md]

Hello juli, and welcome!

It’s hard to say without seeing you posting a video of a session.

At its most fundamental, birds will either fly away out of fear (you did something to scare them) or boredom (you overstayed your training welcome and they were ready to move on).

How long are your training sessions?

You might try training in a smaller room, if most of your training is typically in a larger room.

 

[noodles123]

Get them to associate you with the things they want (but only over time-don't force it--if a scary man holds $500 in my face, I would still run away as a human). It seems like they are okay together (which is why pairs can be a challenge at times), BUT, if you can find out what they really like when they are together (food, music, specific toys, a certain person (if any)) then you can associate yourself with those things.
Definitely spend a few weeks near the cage just building trust-- getting them used to your voice and treats. NEVER push if you feel like they are angry, aggressive, scared or even remotely hesitant. This has to occur on their terms.

I know they are semi-used to you after a year, but again, when you have 2, the human dynamic can change, which is why I still urge you to work harder on trust and put more time in.

 

[wrench13]

Most parrots will do best if you know their favorite treat, the one they LOVE, and use that exclusively for training purposes. Some respond to praise instead of treats, but most - well it thru their bellies. Also training 2 parrots at one time, that does not sound like it would succeed. You want each to focus thier attention on you and what your teaching. Train away from their cage out of site of the other parrot. Keep sessions short and vary what your teaching, they get bored easily.

Once they understand that training time is to learn new things, you'll be amazed at how smart and how quick they pick up stuff. They literally learn to learn. Its like seeing a student suddenly have the light bulb switch on.

 

[AzurZafir]

Hello juli, and welcome!

It’s hard to say without seeing you posting a video of a session.

At its most fundamental, birds will either fly away out of fear (you did something to scare them) or boredom (you overstayed your training welcome and they were ready to move on).

How long are your training sessions?

You might try training in a smaller room, if most of your training is typically in a larger room.

Thank you for your response. My training sessions would be about 5 minutes long. I wanted to train in smaller rooms, but those rooms are my siblings’ and they don’t let the parrots in.

 

[AzurZafir]

Get them to associate you with the things they want (but only over time-don't force it--if a scary man holds $500 in my face, I would still run away as a human). It seems like they are okay together (which is why pairs can be a challenge at times), BUT, if you can find out what they really like when they are together (food, music, specific toys, a certain person (if any)) then you can associate yourself with those things.
Definitely spend a few weeks near the cage just building trust-- getting them used to your voice and treats. NEVER push if you feel like they are angry, aggressive, scared or even remotely hesitant. This has to occur on their terms.

I know they are semi-used to you after a year, but again, when you have 2, the human dynamic can change, which is why I still urge you to work harder on trust and put more time in.

I never push them because when I did at the beginning I got a really big bite, so I learned my lesson. Okay I guess then we’ll do some more trust gaining! Thank you for your reply!

 

[AzurZafir]

Most parrots will do best if you know their favorite treat, the one they LOVE, and use that exclusively for training purposes. Some respond to praise instead of treats, but most - well it thru their bellies. Also training 2 parrots at one time, that does not sound like it would succeed. You want each to focus thier attention on you and what your teaching. Train away from their cage out of site of the other parrot. Keep sessions short and vary what your teaching, they get bored easily.

Once they understand that training time is to learn new things, you'll be amazed at how smart and how quick they pick up stuff. They literally learn to learn. Its like seeing a student suddenly have the light bulb switch on.

Thanks for your reply! Yeah it’s hard to train them at the same time, but when they are separated they go nuts. They scream and start flying everywhere. When I try to train, I put them to the other sides of the room if that makes sense and I go across the room while one of them is eating the treat and then back and forth. Maybe that’s the problem?