Training to Step Up

[AC04]

About a month ago we rescued Olivia. She seems to be adjusting well. I was hoping for some tips on how to train her to step up when I want her to. Right now she only steps up when she wants to. I can always get her to step up when she is in the cage. However once the door opens she won;t stay in. She will step up and if I don't take her out she figures a way to climb out. If she is on her cage top, sometimes I can't get my finger under her belly unless I force my way because she always drops her head to get pet. I also tried using a perch and she generally hates perches, she loves the top of her cage. Any tips?

 

[Spiritbird]

There is a kind and gentle way to teach the step us. You don’t need to force your bird to get results. (I am not saying here you are forcing) You can teach your parrot to look forward to stepping up on your hand using positive reinforcement. Not only will your parrot learn to step up, you will add to the bond that you have established with your conure. You may already be trying this with treats in your hands at the time. another thing to look for is what kind of mood your bird is in at training time. If the bird gives you a not interested body language such as turning away from you then stop the session and wait.

 

[AC04]

Thanks for the common sense advice. My only other issue is, she tends not to appreciate a food reward, very rarely will she take a treat from me. Slow and steady, hopefully she will come around.

 

[Dj tweet]

My tip would be to remove her from the cage and take her to a special training area ( bathroom etc ) somewhere with little to distract her and practice the step up
again and again and again working in 5-10 min intervalls 2-3x a day if possible
work with her there until she is preforming correctly each time then move to same room as cage and train from a chair or couch then move to top of cage a d eventually in the cage
this process works well for anything your trying to teach

 

[2Birds3Kids]

A couple of helpful things I did with my rescue parrot was to not allow her on top of her cage. I also do not have any perches for her that put her above my eye level. Another really helpful thing is to have a seperate sleep cage. I use a travel cage, covered for my ekkie to sleep in at night - that full 10-12 hours of dark sleep has made a big difference.

Since your parrot does like being out of the cage, make the reward for stepping up be getting out of the cage. Let her hang out on a perch. I made out of out of a two eucalyptus branches on top of a waste piece of untreated plywood. The base has to be at least as wide as the horizontal branch of the perch to stay steady. I really like having this b/c I can take my ekkie and perch her anywhere in the house. I also made her a window perch. And I made her a tree that I keep adding to - a swing, orbit, spiral rope, pine cones, toys...

I hope that helps.

 

[AC04]

Made huge progress today and she pretty much steps up everytime. I am going to have to think in order to recap what I did so that I can pay back the forums with some advice. I will post back with the details but just wanted to say thanks.