New bird problems (pionus)

[MikeyTN]

Birds can be phobic even at 3 months old!!! I've raised enough babies to know better. Once in a great while I'll raise a baby that's absolutely terrified of everything and bites hard and drawl blood if I get too close. They were handfed by me personally! No they won't come out of the cage willingly, you can tell by observing if the bird will or will not come out on their own eventually. Disagree with all you want as I didn't just train a few or raised a few babies. Been through hundreds....

 

[Birdman666]

Yes sometimes it is normal for a new bird to be scared, even a baby! BUT I have to say that the breeder is telling you some lies. IF your feeding stuffs that the breeder is feeding (the bird supposedly been eating at the breeder's place), they generally will accept them since he is eating his pellets. But you do need to get him out of his cage like Birdman says and sit with him on the floor if you must and observe. Try to earn his trust and you need to work with him daily several times a day. When I work with a bird like that I do it 4 times or more per day at 25+ minutes each time. At the beginning just to sit him with you for a bit until he's more calm then start working with step up commands. Use a perch if you must! Have two available and have him step up over and over from one perch to the other. I usually have the bird trained to step up good for me within a couple of days. I don't push on the other parts of the training as much at the beginning cause the main thing is step up and bonding to begin with. Then you can work on the other parts later on.

I totally agree. It's a bonding issue at this point.

And also showing the bird that while you are not going to hurt him, you also won't permit him to bite you.

Somewhere along the line you will arrive at a happy medium.

Usually. 99 2/3% of the time.

Every once in awhile, you get a hard case. That just takes longer.

 

[null]

Yeah I'm trying to stay enthusiastic about it, but it's still difficult. I had taken her out once this morning for about 45 minutes or so, she let me scratch her head a bit, but the rest of the experience was the usual (as I've been describing). While I'll need to take her out for a vet trip tomorrow, I'm done with this method, I feel like it's just making things worse.

I tried to offer her some sweet potato on a spoon about 30 minutes ago and got the worst reaction out of anything I've done so far. As in, instead of squawking and backing away as she normally does, immediately started through her wings up, jumped from her high perch all the way down to the bottom of the cage and made some of the louder noises I've heard her make so far. Maybe it was just a bad time. (To be clear, I moved the spoon very slowly towards her, and she reacted like this when it was ~8 inches away).

Thank you all for the support so far though

 

[null]

Thought I'd give a brief update on anything thats happened. When I'm home, I've been leaving her food outside the cage door, and she usually comes out pretty easily now to eat there, and then climbs around the top/sides of her cage.

She is still however very afraid of me it seems. I had to take her to the vet (unrelated) and he said she seemed moderately comfortable being around people, but if anyone got too close she would get mad. The main thing however is that she is deathly afraid of hands, and told me to focus on reform for those.

As suggested by him (and here), I've been trying to offer her food (she still only eats pellets) by hand, but if my hand gets ~6-10 inches a way, she makes noise and backs off. I have however been spending a few minutes each day (if not more) just holding my hand(s) inside her cage. Sometimes she seems to loosen up a bit, but will stay as far away as possible.

In due time things will probably improve, the only difficult thing is getting her back in her cage without scaring/angering her. Now that she likes to explore a bit more, I can't seem to get her back in without making her mad of course. Whether I use my hands or try to get her to perch on something I can move, it takes longer and longer each time to get her back in.

 

[MikeyTN]

It's just gonna take a lot of time, training and patience to accomplish it. At least she'll come out to explore a bit.

 

[Echo]

Thought I'd give a brief update on anything thats happened. When I'm home, I've been leaving her food outside the cage door, and she usually comes out pretty easily now to eat there, and then climbs around the top/sides of her cage.

She is still however very afraid of me it seems. I had to take her to the vet (unrelated) and he said she seemed moderately comfortable being around people, but if anyone got too close she would get mad. The main thing however is that she is deathly afraid of hands, and told me to focus on reform for those.

As suggested by him (and here), I've been trying to offer her food (she still only eats pellets) by hand, but if my hand gets ~6-10 inches a way, she makes noise and backs off. I have however been spending a few minutes each day (if not more) just holding my hand(s) inside her cage. Sometimes she seems to loosen up a bit, but will stay as far away as possible.

In due time things will probably improve, the only difficult thing is getting her back in her cage without scaring/angering her. Now that she likes to explore a bit more, I can't seem to get her back in without making her mad of course. Whether I use my hands or try to get her to perch on something I can move, it takes longer and longer each time to get her back in.

I'm sorry it is so hard on you! Usually getting a hand fed baby from a breeder should enable you to have a tame baby. One who shouldn't be afraid of hands especially! Hmm curiouser and curiouser

 

[null]

Hello again, I have another question that maybe someone can help me with, and I don't think it's worth making a new thread for. To reiterate, this is my first parrot, so I'm still learning the best way to approach things. I'm just going to give a brief explanation on any changes, which will lead into my question.

My behavior:
-I try to just place my arm in her cage for a few minutes (over a few times) each day
-While I didn't do this too much, especially since she comes out of her cage now and sits on top, I do not reach into her cage to get her unless I absolutely have to.
-I try to only pick her up if she falls/jumps off the cage and onto the ground (so I can but her back on top of the cage)

Her behavior:
-If I leave the cage door open, she'll now venture out, even if her food bowl is still inside her cage.
-She still only eats her pellets, but seems to have at least tasted one or two other things I've put in her bowl. She will still not directly accept food from me no matter what method I employ
-As far as her general.. "paranoia" goes, she seems more scared then ever, almost always making noise if I even look at her
-For a while I was able to hold a (~8 inch) stick out and she would chew on it, she won't do that anymore.
-While she will fiercely try to escape if I try to pick her up, if I hold her (even gently), she doesn't really resist at all.

Okay, so here's my question. Over the past three days, I've taken her and just put her on my lap. Once there, she doesn't move much, and will surprisingly even sit on my arm/hand (the thing she is afraid of most). She does make a lot of noise though, cawing every 5-10 seconds until she tires herself out, but not biting or trying to run away. The first day I found a spot on her head that she let me scratch for almost 10 minutes, the second day she let me do it for a few minutes, and today not at all. And while it may just be me, I feel like she's getting louder each time I do it.

Is something like this helping? Aside from the noise, she seems calm, but I feel like otherwise she seems more afraid than before when around her cage. But the fact that she sits on my arm/hand I would think would mean improvement. Maybe I should do it a lot less often, or the opposite? Or just not do it at all. I know there probably isn't a right/wrong answer, but some feedback from even just one other experience bird owner would be most appreciated.

Thank you again.

 

[MikeyTN]

Is there a bird club or a bird lover in your area by any chance???? I think you just really need someone to show you how its done and go from there. Then you can learn from it and ask any questions you may have while the person is there teaching you. I had to do that with some people asking for my advice before.

 

[null]

Is there a bird club or a bird lover in your area by any chance???? I think you just really need someone to show you how its done and go from there. Then you can learn from it and ask any questions you may have while the person is there teaching you. I had to do that with some people asking for my advice before.

Yeah I was thinking of speaking to a trainer for a day or something. I know my intentions are in the right place, but I know I'm doing something wrong, and it can be hard to "diagnose" the problem/solution online, since every bird is different mostly.

thanks

 

[legal_eagle]

You may think I'm off the mark on this, but I get the sense that maybe you're being too quick to label and try to interpret behaviors. By the end of your thread you seem to be reporting progress with what is clearly a baby bird. I once had a hand-fed baby budgie that literally sat in her food dish for two days without making a sound or moving after I brought her home. I just went about my business, talking to her now and then. On day three, she made a peep, and eventually started coming out of her cage on her own. I would call to her from the other room and eventually she hopped to the floor and walked to me (her wings were clipped, which I think is helpful, but I later allowed them to grow back). She continued to become tame over time. Had I started labeling her or trying to psychoanalyze her I would probably have worked myself into a tizzy. But I just spent time with her and allowed her to mature. This has been my experience with all of my birds. Remember that parrots are wild animals, and that their behaviors make sense in the wild. Those behaviors are not "problems." Ninety-nine percent of the problems that everyone talks about here, in my opinion, would go away by simply treating your parrot with kindness and respect, and by not setting up a power struggle or need to "cure" certain behaviors.

 

[null]

You may think I'm off the mark on this, but I get the sense that maybe you're being too quick to label and try to interpret behaviors. By the end of your thread you seem to be reporting progress with what is clearly a baby bird. I once had a hand-fed baby budgie that literally sat in her food dish for two days without making a sound or moving after I brought her home. I just went about my business, talking to her now and then. On day three, she made a peep, and eventually started coming out of her cage on her own. I would call to her from the other room and eventually she hopped to the floor and walked to me (her wings were clipped, which I think is helpful, but I later allowed them to grow back). She continued to become tame over time. Had I started labeling her or trying to psychoanalyze her I would probably have worked myself into a tizzy. But I just spent time with her and allowed her to mature. This has been my experience with all of my birds. Remember that parrots are wild animals, and that their behaviors make sense in the wild. Those behaviors are not "problems." Ninety-nine percent of the problems that everyone talks about here, in my opinion, would go away by simply treating your parrot with kindness and respect, and by not setting up a power struggle or need to "cure" certain behaviors.

I'll take your advice to heart. I'm not doing as much as I'm making it seem like I am, I just don't want to deal any long term [mental] damage with my attempts to make things better (thus why I came here asking for advice), as even little things seem to make matters worse.

 

[MonicaMc]

Would she accept warm, mushy foods from you????

Like mashed sweet potatoes... you could always mix in bananas or almond butter.... maybe some organic salt-free baby food warmed up?