Training advice please!

[PapayaTheQuaker]

Hello!
I've had Papaya for a while now but I feel as though we are not completely bonded as most parrot owners are. I feel as though he is still very skittish and and he tends to bite me when he is in his cage and I know quakers are very cage aggressive but nevertheless I would assume it would calm down by now. He has a tendency of not wanting to be held, or coming towards me when I call his name. He does know how to step up though. And he does get affectionate when I am able to get close to him and scratch his head. What are some ways or what can I do to have him bond with me?
I bought a separate cage and I have him sleep there at night without toys, to try to decrease his cage aggressiveness but its hard taking him out of one cage to another. I have to grab him from one cage where he tends to bite me just to put him into another cage. How can I have him willingly want to come out of the cage? By the way this is a bird that does not like treats.
I want to be able to train him and make him feel loved. I know he cares for me as he starts screaming when I leave the room and he begins to play and gets quiet when I come back.
Also how can I get him to learn new words? because I feel like I try for him to learn new words but he won't. What are some tips there.
Sorry for my ranting and all my questions so ill sum it up here.

How can I bond with Papaya more and have him trust me? How can I make him less aggressive? How can I make him less cage aggressive? How can I make him come out of his cage on his own? How can I get him to learn new words? How can I get him to get used to being held? How can I get him not to bite me?

 

[wrench13]

Hi! You've been around here since April, so you may know some of this already.

Notice how you put things, "How can I make...." . You can't 'make' a parrot do anything - if you try, you withdraw trust from the bank of Keeping Your Parrot Tame. Grabbing him is a big trust buster. You need to be smarter than your parrot here, and they are very smart. He is training you, whether you realize it or not. Fisrt, the screaming when you leave the room - don't come back in until he calms down and is quiet, even if its only for 30 seconds at first. By coming back right away, you are teaching him the "disappearing, reappearing human" magic trick, and the screaming will only get worse. Give him some toys in his cage to keep him occupied - quakers love wood popsicle sticks and shreddy type toys.

What have you tried as treats? Its rare for a parrot to not have a favorite little treat. We use small pieces of pine nuts, and our amazon would fight King Kong for one.
What have you tried?

 

[PapayaTheQuaker]

Papaya is my first bird and though I’ve done my research and watched countless videos when it comes time to the actual interaction ive been really struggling. I want to be able to improve his quality of life and have him not fear me so much or feel angry when he sees me. How can I fix that? I feel like I have to re-train him all over again but I don’t know where to start since he always has a fixed emotion on me. What would be the best steps for me to gain his trust again? How can I re-train him? He’s my family and I’m not giving up on him that’s why I’m on this forum. I want to do what is best for him. I feel like I have to learn more about Quakers that I haven’t yet but don’t know where to find a good place to find good information on, that I haven’t read yet. And I would love advice from people who have quakers as well and see what they did with theirs. It’s a learning process but I’m trying!!!

Regarding with treats, I tried nutriberries (which he does love but I feel like those are too big for training??), these tropical fruit mix blend from vita Kraft I believe the brand is and he did not like that and these strawberry banana ones and mango treats. And those he did not like as well. Any suggestions for small treats possibly?

Thank you for your response

 

[wrench13]

Hi again. I feel your frustration!

For trreats, try shelled sunflowers,shelled pine nuts ) available in most supermarkets as pine nuts or pignoli nuts), small pieces of walnuts or slices of almonds. Most parrots will like one of these, and of course if his diet contains these already you need to remove it ( a lot of packaged bird food comes with a load of sunflower seeds). Once you find that favorite, it becomes your 'ambasador' with your birdy. Every time you pass his cage, drop this treat in his food bowl, or even have a separatee bowl just for this. He needs to learn that ONLY good things come from humans. Spend time sitting close to his cage and reading aloud in a soothing voice anything. A good idea is to go to the amazon forum and read aloud the "ILove AMazons " thread there. it contains tons of information applicable to all parrots, and will not only sooth your bidy but educate you too.

You are correct - quakers are very cage agressive! Once he has learned to take treats from your hand, lure him out and remove him to a play stand or other area not in view of his cage, to work with him. First up is teaching step up, that has to become almost a reflex.

You will get past this hump, trust me. Parrots move and change at their won pace, which is glacial compared to how humans can change. Work at his pace and sucess is assured!

So try the treats I outlined above, find the favorite and lets continue. A few parrots do not react to treat based training, instead react well to verbal praise or scratches, but those work with bonded birds, not so well with parrots thathave no reason to want praiseor scratches.

 

[Laurasea]

Hi,
You can't train cage protective behavior out if quakers. Mine are absolute loves out of and away from the cage. But if I put my hands in the cage to change feed they usually loose their minds and screeching and trying to bite. Sometimes with explaining and going slow they try and be good. It's just something I accept and work around. I have them come out if the cage before I clean and feed.

It took me two months to earn the trust of my latest quaker. Target training, and hsnd feeding treats, like a piece if popcorn, or safflower, a tiny tiny crumb if toast helped me. Sweet talking, baby talking, praising all good things. It's so hard to talk someone through the process,

Talking, some will some won't. A quaker rehomed to me said one word, peek a boo, after over a year with me he has started to say hello, sometimes. He mumble some other things maybe he will talk more maybe he won't. My green cheek conure only said hello fir five years, then all of a sudden much to my surprise she has started to say a few phrases, I never thought after 5 years that would happen. I always say, what's up little
bird to her , that's just my greeting to her,, now five years of this and she says that back to me. Parrots may say things that are fun, that they hear in context, like good birdie, hello. But not all parrots will talk, or one day they can really surprise you.

You do not want to ever grab them . This makes them afraid and fearful of hands. I trained my budgies to go back to their cages, and they are not tame . My new quaker Orbit still doesn't step up great due to fear if hands, but he is trained to go back to his cage too. I out his favorite yummy in there, I tell him time to go back, tgrn at first I would stand behind him and sort of motion fir him to go back, praise every time he took a step towards the cage. He learned really quickly and so did the parakeets.

I know I wrote out a lot if stuff and links fir yiu before. Its helpful to re read and visit them. You tube Bird
tricks videos have lots of grest training videos. Start with target training.

Whst part if florida are yiu in? I'm in north east Florida

 

[PapayaTheQuaker]

To Wrench13: Thank you for those treats! I have to check those out and see if he will like them. I have been able to teach him step up which is progress! and Hes very good at it too. So my goal now is to get these treats, put them in his food bowl so he associates me with it correct? That way I can basically lure him out with it right?

To Laurasea: Thank you for replying to my post. I've had him for almost two years now and I feel as though I am failing him. How much time do you spend with your Quakers? and how often do you let them outside of their cage?
So far, he know, "Papaya" "Step up" "Good papaya" and "Luna" (which is my dogs name). He knows his name and I feel he has associated the good papaya because I tried the verbal training when teaching him step up which he is able to do.

Alright, now I know! I just need to be able to learn to lure him out of his cage and step up when out of his cage. He steps up when he is nowhere near his cage. But if he is able to climb to the top of the cage and I try saying step up he will try to bite me.

I live in Central Florida!

 

[Laurasea]

mine are out every day, im stay at home, but if yiu work away from home you should aim for 4 hours, or all the time before bedtime.

Use ceiling hooks and hang those big spiral ropes and hoops so they hang 3 inches from tge bottom over the cage. Then yiu csn attach yucca chips or things to chew on them. Useing that vertical space above tge cage is great and birds really enjoy testing their gymnastics skills, and learn to love the dips and spins those do a little.

He is doing great with words!

Sounds like he aldo has claimed the top of cage as his territory, sometimes that happens. I prevent that, by rearrange perches on top of the cage and moving the toys up their around. Or train them to come down to an. eye level perch fir treats and step up.

My quakers seem to need a good hour devoted to just head scratches and snuggle a day, can spit up to 2 half hour session of just love. They are very social.

Also look into foraging ideas. A big portion of time mine are eating their veggies, which I seve in good size chunks, and climbing all their perches, and a good amount if time just hanging out with me.

Like you, im always trying to improve their lives and keep them busy.

 

[Laurasea]

This link, if yiu explore has lots if great stuff from behavioral and veterinarian tech, bird expert Panama Ckark . Dowm towards bottom she shows an areal jungle gym she created. Our feathered primates really rnjoy stuff like that, then "hide" attach " Easter eggs" beat stuff fir them to find, like military spray in a holder or toy to make harder to get out, little toys, chewable stuff, be creative
https://blogpamelaclarkonline.com/tag/parrots-and-flight/

 

[Laurasea]

o sometimes set out a plastic vtrsy with just enough water to float bottle caps. In tge caps I will put one seed. They learn to fish out tge bottle caps and get tge seeds. Doesn't matter that they have seeds in their cage, they like working fir them. I get stuff st the dollar store like tiny plastic drawers and hide stuff in them. It's easy fir them to learn to open drawers.