How to begin the bonding process with baby bird?

[Fauna]

Brought this sweet baby home a few days ago. Shes super lively, adventurous and curious about everything. She will immediately go and explore any new thing that is put in, and around her cage. I want to start getting her used to my hands but i dont know what the best way to do it would be. Its hard to start doing it not through the bars since shes full flight and will fly away from me when shes out of the cage. Shes not entirely nervous of me when the bars are between us and ive gotten a few exploretory pinches (picture attached) Oh goodness i ramble. Basically, i just need advice on how to successfully hand tame a full flighted baby pineapple conure

 

[goofybird]

You can start trying to feed her millet or treats from outside of the cage. I recommend using spray millet as a way to bond, because it's long so she doesn't have to come close to your hand. Slowly make the treat shorter and shorter until she has to touch your fingertips to eat it. You can also give the treat from the outside of the cage door using millet spray. Next, Using a treat or millet, slowly lure her onto your finger. If she steps up, give her a treat. Eventually she will learn that you want her to step up. Say the word will she does it, so she understands the cue.

 

[Fauna]

You can start trying to feed her millet or treats from outside of the cage. I recommend using spray millet as a way to bond, because it's long so she doesn't have to come close to your hand. Slowly make the treat shorter and shorter until she has to touch your fingertips to eat it. You can also give the treat from the outside of the cage door using millet spray. Next, Using a treat or millet, slowly lure her onto your finger. If she steps up, give her a treat. Eventually she will learn that you want her to step up. Say the word will she does it, so she understands the cue.

Awesome! Do you also happen to know any good ways i can teach her the difference in biting pressure/not to bite too hard? (Preferably a way that may spare my fingers )

 

[Jexnell]

In the wild when a bird bites too hard or any other grievance they are ignored for an amout of time.
What we do is place her some where like the back of a chair, on a branch what ever and ignore her for a full minute. Don't giggle or talk about what she did. With you back to her for the one full minute. When the time is up, continue what you were doing. Rinse and repeat till she learns.

 

[Botsari]

Awesome! Do you also happen to know any good ways i can teach her the difference in biting pressure/not to bite too hard? (Preferably a way that may spare my fingers )

Unlike animals like dogs, which have millions of years evolution as pack animals where negative reinforcement is everpresent, and probably at least tens of thousands of years selective beeding while living with humans to understand our cues better, direct negative reinforcement doesn't work with birds. You can never really say "no!" or "bad bird!" to a bird. If it is a reaction of any kind they might as well register it as praise, and in the worst case might even cause them to seek out that reaction. This is the core thing - as mentioned above - you can only passively and very consistantly REMOVE something they want like your attention. So my advice will be to try to NOT make a display (if possible) when you get bit. Just remove your attention.

Positive reinforcement like treats, on the other hand, registers immediatly! Its very easy to reinforce a desired behavior. For the accidental or intentional biting of the hand problem, I have found they learn pretty quickly when you feed them by hand. If your bird hacks at the food or your hand, pull the food away and say something like "gentle", then try again. Over time when one of my guys is overstimulated I have found that, especially if they are focused on getting their treat, just saying "gentle" now after so much experience makes them go into super slow motion mode when reaching for the treat. It can be very exagerated and funny, like a kid saying "You want slow? I'll give you slow!" It is kind of how I know that the hacking is just excitement rather that actual hostility. If you visually anticipate the bite and remove the desired object at that moment, then allow the bird to try again you can turn it into positive reinforcement, but its not always easy as the bird can be sneaky too.

Also rather than deliver the food all the way make them come the last inch or two - the bird will feel it is actively making the choice each time, and will come to realize it is in control and the hand is not a threat.

 

[Dragon58]

love alll the wounderful addvice!! thats how i eventually bonded with myother birds... giving them treats by hand...but they wore adults when i got them....or in the teen stage... ladyhawk is a baby... just old enough they said to be taken form her mother which is also a rather tramizig experence so im going real slow with her an accidnetly bite dosnt bother me but when its delebrite and hard thats not ok..... it was being totaly unexpected that made me reacat in that horrable way....now i will be pereaded for the unexpected! and since the door is opened when i give her her spray mallet i put the cat in the bedroom and dogs eithe outside or in the wood shop just in case she manages to get out of the cage...... i believe in being better safe then sorry! once we are bonded I will be gettingone of those flying leash things for her as neither spike or i can spend long periods of time trying to catch a bird to put back in her cage....

 

[DonnaBudgie]

It's not easy to harness train any bird unless they are comfortable being touched everywhere on their bodies. You will never get her to accept a harness being put on her inside her cage. We have several members that either use a harness or have tried to. You should as for help about this topic.

To get her comfortable with your hand and perching on it you should do that taming inside her cage using treats since you don't seem to want to take her out of the cage without a harness on. You mentioned that you don't have the mobility to chase a flying bird around the room and I understand. I would consider having her wings trimmed. That way you can let her out of the cage (no dogs or cats in the room) and put her back when necessary without a huge struggle.