hiriki
Well-known member
- Oct 19, 2014
- 536
- 742
- Parrots
- (Birdie - Jenday Conure)
(Kiwi - Green Cheek Conure)
(Elby - Lovebird)
(Gorou - Ringneck Dove)
Hello all, I've been posting rather regularly the past few days about training my lovebird, and I'm having a blast doing it and just want to talk about it!
Some context: Elby the lovebird is handshy, and has been since I got her. She was a rescue and an adult at the time of adoption. It took me about a year and a half to reach a point with her where she'll eat high value treats from my hands, and even then she prefers things like sprigs of millet where there's some distance from my fingers. I decided to do some formal training with her to build more of a bond, and it's only been about two days of training, but it's going well!
She's just about starting to understand that if she touches a chopstick with her beak, she gets millet. I'm proofing the behavior now but the biggest hurdle is she doesn't want to touch the stick if I'm holding it, lol. Baby steps! I've been moving it around the top of her cage. Today I made the mistake of leaving the stick with her when I left to take a training break and she threw it around looking for more millet
I'm focusing on Elby for now but I think I'll target train the other fids too once I get a feel for it--my conure is terrified of everything resembling a stick, so I think training might help ease that phobia a bit.
Thanks as always to this forum for all the resources I can find here, and for giving me feedback on posts like these. I'm just so, so excited thinking about the possibility of Elby someday stepping up........ it may never happen, but formal training is my best bet for sure!
Some context: Elby the lovebird is handshy, and has been since I got her. She was a rescue and an adult at the time of adoption. It took me about a year and a half to reach a point with her where she'll eat high value treats from my hands, and even then she prefers things like sprigs of millet where there's some distance from my fingers. I decided to do some formal training with her to build more of a bond, and it's only been about two days of training, but it's going well!
She's just about starting to understand that if she touches a chopstick with her beak, she gets millet. I'm proofing the behavior now but the biggest hurdle is she doesn't want to touch the stick if I'm holding it, lol. Baby steps! I've been moving it around the top of her cage. Today I made the mistake of leaving the stick with her when I left to take a training break and she threw it around looking for more millet
I'm focusing on Elby for now but I think I'll target train the other fids too once I get a feel for it--my conure is terrified of everything resembling a stick, so I think training might help ease that phobia a bit.
Thanks as always to this forum for all the resources I can find here, and for giving me feedback on posts like these. I'm just so, so excited thinking about the possibility of Elby someday stepping up........ it may never happen, but formal training is my best bet for sure!
