Hello Everyone...And Help Me Please !!

[xeryus]

Hi everyone, am from Singapore. Have a young African Grey named Coco which is about 2 years old. Got him from a pet shop when he was still only a baby bird without any feathers. Still remember holding him in my palm, & I told myself that I will take care of him until my time ends...hope to learn more from this forum in taking care of my lovely grey...

I have an incident recently & I really need help & advise...about 2 weeks ago, when I was doing laundry at the back of the balcony where Coco's cage is, and as usual, Coco was playing in his cage, getting my attention by climbing all around in the cage. Suddenly, Coco was screaming loudly non-stop, and from that moment I knew that it wasn't the usual playful scream he makes, I turned & saw that he was hanging mid-air, with his neck trapped inside the loop of a small metal chain which I put it inside for him as a play thing !! Immediately, I ran towards the cage, & opened the cage door trying to unhook one end of the metal chain, so as to free the loop & to free him. However, upon instinct, he bit my hand hard when I was trying to unhook the chain. Enduring the pain, I managed to unhook it, & he dropped to the base & freed of the choking...the pain of my bleeding hand was overcome by the sight of seeing him freed from the choke...

Ever since that incident, he would not want me to touch him, or climb onto my hands anymore....every time when I go near to him, he will dash away & try to hide in one end of his cage, away from my approaching hands...he would not go onto my hands again...however, he will still accept food from my fingers, or feed him his favourite treats...but just would not want me to hold or touch him....we were very close & loving before this incident...& I'm deeply saddened & heart broken by this...I know that he has misunderstood my intention, thinking that I was the one who made him choke, & I will forgive him for this...

Any gurus out there can share a light, on how can I gain the trust back from Coco...? I know it will take a long time & patience, but I just need to know what can I do to make it right...thanks in advance for your kind advise !!

Cheers !

 

[Featheredsamurai]

what a sad story! It's so heart breaking that he is afraid
I would give it time, and be gentle. Don't try to force him to come onto your hand if he doesn't want to.

You should check out trick training, it's a fun and amazing way to establish, or re-establish a relationship.

check out these two videos on how to get started. You'll want a clicker, which tells the trainee the exact moment they did something correct. It helps a TON. I spent weeks and weeks trying to train my galah cockatoo Rosie to wave, with a clicker she understood what I wanted in a day, and had it perfect in three.

[ame=http://youtu.be/zCXrlJeubXU]How to Clicker Train Your Parrot | Parrot Training - YouTube[/ame]

Touch training is the other very useful training method. It's a skill everyone should teach their birds. You can direct your bird to go to a specific spot on their perch, or play stand.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqtptXFyb2c"]How to Target Train Your Parrot | Parrot Training - YouTube[/ame]

Once you have those down I'm sure we can help you with tips for new and fun tricks to teach

 

[rbreck]

Poor coo coo, and poor you. I think you will need to start all over. Might be a very long process. Maybe with clicker and rewards, baby steps.

 

[Betrisher]

Look up 'hand taming a parrot' on YouTube for some useful hints. One method I've seen that seems sensible and appears to work is where you have the bird on a free-standing perch. You hold the end of the perch and offer tiny tidbits of food to the bird. As he relaxes and gets used to taking the treats from you, gradually lure him to the end of the perch and then off it and onto your hand. Don't move away, just keep feeding him treats. To finish, lure him back onto the perch.

If you do this a few times over the course of a week or so, you could eventually move away from the perch with him on your hand. The key is to have the bird so focussed on the food rewards that he doesn't notice he's actually getting close to your hand. You have to take it so slowly at first because this bird has had a terrible fright and has, sadly, blamed your hands for it. With patience and daily work, I believe you can get your friendly Coco back again.

Please keep us informed of your progress! It would be so great to know Coco has recovered from his fright and will allow you to handle him again! Good luck with it and remember: patience and slowness!

 

[xeryus]

Hi Copperarabian,

Thanks for your tips & the videos !!! I will definitely watch them & will try to learn from them !!

Yes the clicker, I bought one from the pet shop but didn't use it yet...maybe it's time for me to use it... anything I'll try if it'll help to bring back the relationship with Coco....

what a sad story! It's so heart breaking that he is afraid
I would give it time, and be gentle. Don't try to force him to come onto your hand if he doesn't want to.

You should check out trick training, it's a fun and amazing way to establish, or re-establish a relationship.

check out these two videos on how to get started. You'll want a clicker, which tells the trainee the exact moment they did something correct. It helps a TON. I spent weeks and weeks trying to train my galah cockatoo Rosie to wave, with a clicker she understood what I wanted in a day, and had it perfect in three.

Touch training is the other very useful training method. It's a skill everyone should teach their birds. You can direct your bird to go to a specific spot on their perch, or play stand.

Once you have those down I'm sure we can help you with tips for new and fun tricks to teach

 

[xeryus]

Hi rbreck,

Yup will definitely try the clicker....will go thru some videos first on using the clicker...

Poor coo coo, and poor you. I think you will need to start all over. Might be a very long process. Maybe with clicker and rewards, baby steps.

 

[xeryus]

Hi Betrisher,

Sounds like what I am trying to do to Coco now, buy luring him nearer & nearer to my finger holding the treat...at this moment, he still won't walk near to my finger & get the treats, unless I move my finger to his mouth, then he'll take the treats....I'll give it more patience....will update progress...thanks

Look up 'hand taming a parrot' on YouTube for some useful hints. One method I've seen that seems sensible and appears to work is where you have the bird on a free-standing perch. You hold the end of the perch and offer tiny tidbits of food to the bird. As he relaxes and gets used to taking the treats from you, gradually lure him to the end of the perch and then off it and onto your hand. Don't move away, just keep feeding him treats. To finish, lure him back onto the perch.

If you do this a few times over the course of a week or so, you could eventually move away from the perch with him on your hand. The key is to have the bird so focussed on the food rewards that he doesn't notice he's actually getting close to your hand. You have to take it so slowly at first because this bird has had a terrible fright and has, sadly, blamed your hands for it. With patience and daily work, I believe you can get your friendly Coco back again.

Please keep us informed of your progress! It would be so great to know Coco has recovered from his fright and will allow you to handle him again! Good luck with it and remember: patience and slowness!

 

[xeryus]

Some improvement noticed...during hand-feeding Coco his favourite treats today, I tried not to retract my fingers when he took the treat from my fingers, & now he didn't walk away after taking the treats ! But still, when I tried to move my fingers closer, he'll still walk away...

Started on the clicker, hope will see some result soon....will update.

Cheers