Training diet questions...

[brucey]

Im trying to get George, my b&g more motivated to train. ive had him since june now, hes 13 months old. he already is doing a few basic tricks like wave, shake hand and not yes etc. when i take him out his cage onto his stand, all his food is in his cage, so after an hour or so when hes peckish he's egar to do tricks for nuts. when hes full, he'l still do the tricks but hes not as interested, he usually does the trick with a little delay, and just drops the nut. he doesnt show as much interest. I also had him outside for the first time today, only for a few mins because it was snowing, but he was wary.. he just wanted to sit on my arm when he was outside but its always hard work trying to get his harness on him, he trys best he can to avoid it. i thought that if i could get it on him just once and take him out he might learn that if he will just persivere, he will learn that it will lead to him going outside and that could be the 'reward'. I never force him too much as i dont want him to learn to hate the harness, so i will only try for a few mins each time and if i fail, i fail.. overall hes a lovely gentle bird, he has a lovely nature for a parent rared (not hand rared) and hes never bitten anybody. I dont think hes fully bonded to me yet, as he always would rather get away from me wether hes on the stand or in the cage, rather than step up, i always have to block his way with my other hand, then he steps up nicely.

past few days, ive started changing his diet to try and motivate him more for training. less nuts and food he will see as treats and learn to earn them happily. So ive changed his food to a 'high quality seed blend' so it says, and its supposidly vet recomended, ive posted a pic below, and he has a dry fruit and veg mix which i have no doubt its healthy, and he also has fresh fruits every day consisting of grapes, satsumers and apples etc. Ive also posted a pic below of the foraging toy he eats out of, which has 4 little compartments filled with food. i fill 2 of these with the vet recommended mix, one with dry fruit and veg, and one with a typical parrot seed mix, like monkey nuts and sunflower seeds and so on. ive also ordered these books- Bird Tricks Natural Feeding Program
which i thought look good, as i live uk the uk ill have to wait a little while for shipping as they came from USA.
My intentions are only feeding him typical seed mixes as treats so he will want to train. and of course in small quantities as i know they are fattening. Does anyone think ive missed anything out that will help? or am i thinking along the wrong lines when it comes to a 'training diets'? And also ive noticed on another thread that people are preparing and freezing fresh veg mixes in small bags, would you steam cook these or just give them uncooked?

 

[MaraWentz]

Erin has a training treat. She has access to her food all day, even during training, but we have a specail treat to train with that she NEVER gets other than out of my hand from training. It will never be found on the bottom of her cage, in a treat holder, or food bowl. Her FAVOURITE treat is pine nuts- therefore we use pine nuts as her specail treat (it took 3-4 months to find out that pine nuts was her crack- so if you havent found that crazy treat yet- dont worry, it takes time). As soon as we break out the pine nuts she drops what ever she has- food, toy, etc and comes over and starts preforming tricks without asking and squealing in delight.

 

[MaraWentz]

Oh and I bleieve steaming veggies are the best.