When to start training, advice and a good training food?

[JonnyG]

I am after some advice on when and how to train my GCC. He has been at home a week now and has setteled in very well, hes happy to come see anyone in the house, flys between people, responds to calls and has no fear of anyone which is all good.

I have got him a play area and want to try and teach him to remain in this area, its a play stand that sits in the middle of the table in the front room. I know hes not going to just stay within this area but it would be good to try and keep him interested in it.

Also what is a good food for training? Seeds seem to just get dropped and he knows he can get seeds in his cage so its not much incentive. Is there a perticular food that drives conures crazy? Something like chocolate to woman would be good...

Cheer

Oh, heres another pic of him just after he decided to soak everything in the near vicinity:

 

[roxynoodle]

That's a very cute picture.

Birds do want to be with people. What I do is keep the play gyms near me. So if I'm working in the kitchen (but not boiling water or something dangerous to them), I bring the play gyms in there. If I'm on the computer, I set them on the coffee table where the computer is, or pull the tower up next to the table.

In order to train my Nanday initially though I had to clip her wings. In her case though I wasn't just teaching her to stay on her play gym, but also not to bite. If she could just fly back to me, putting her there and ignoring the biting for a few minutes wouldn't work. I had to make sure she was going to stay where I put her.

As for food, have you tried Nutriberries? My conure loves them.

 

[erik7181]

I use corn and pop corn as my treats, I think you could just sit with him in his area and just let him be nd i think he will eventully get it, but Im not sure he/she will stay for extended periods of time all birds are diffrent. but mine go where i go and my 2 year old will fly after me and fly in and out of all the rooms till he does.

 

[MikeyTN]

You start training now! Before they run you over. You should try to switch him to pellets and also feed fruits and veggies. Then use seeds as a training food. When they're that young, its best to clip them once they mastered their flight skills. Then you can train him to stay in certain areas better and he will depend on you to pick him up instead of flying. Eventually it can become more of a problem if you don't. Later on if you want his feathers to grow back, then let them grow back and see how he does. Unfortunately I can not use treats to train my Lory as his main diet is nectar. He is clipped but he would jump off his cage or stand and run after you like a little puppy dog chasing after you...lol....

 

[lene1949]

If you don't want your bird to fly around, you need to clip his wings...

You can train a flighted bird, but you can't really train him not to fly...