Training Babies - Motivation + Rewarding

Hi guys!

So Remi my 3.5 month Eclectus has been home now for almost 3 weeks. It's clear she is beginning to settle and relax, with lots of calm and contented behaviour.

I am interested in getting her used to the idea of training, even if it's just "clicker charging".

At the moment though, she shows zero interest in the typical kind of 'treats' - and I'm pretty sure this is because she's still interested mostly in mash as her main food. She's played with the 'treat' in her beak but usually just drop it.

She's OK with me giving head scritches but I don't think she relishes them. She'd much prefer just being close to me over actively touching her.

Has anybody with particularly young birds had luck developing motivation and focus for training without food rewards?
Or is this just a case of waiting until she's on completely solid food and showing more interest in food rewards?

I don't mind waiting. I'm just keen to begin as early as is feasible, because as a first timer a consistent form of communicating will help all of us as we figure each other out.

Opinions and experiences appreciated!

As a baseline, what exactly HAVE you tried in the way of treats?

Hi. From what I've read and heard about Ekkies, they are not usually fond of scratching, and if they do like it, its with the grain, unlike most other species of parrots, who like it against the grain of feathers. For a training treat, try small slices of pine nut. Its how I got Salty to do all of his stuff.

chris-md said:

As a baseline, what exactly HAVE you tried in the way of treats?

Click to expand...

I've tried:

• pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
• walnut pieces (I've noticed she grazes on these first)
• pine nuts (feels them and drops them)
• almond slivers

Haven't tried sunflower seeds yet. I only have the unshelled ones at the moment and was going to wait until I'd used them up to try the shelled ones.


Also Wrench you are correct. I know they aren't as scritchy as other birds but I've heard for some individuals affection can work as a reward.

My first cockatiel is both food and scritch motivated. I unintentionally taught her to station using scritches!

My conure on the other hand is more food motivated... he likes safflower seeds (which he has a difficult time eating) and dried bananas.

Sister you’ve not even scratched the surface of possible reward treats. My boy hates pumpkin seeds and is indifferent about pine nuts at best (eats them some times, throws them others). He does love almonds.

Some other things to try
Pecans
Hazelnuts
Banana
Sunflower seeds
Popcorn

You’ll find his kryptonite soon enough. Just keep trying.

So you guys don't think it's to do with her age?

I'm still only introducing solids which she only grazes at.

I guess I'll throw out the smorgasbord then.

Thanks for your advice!

I've seen baby birds (freshly weaned) trained with formula! If you're comfortable with making the formula and have a syringe for easy feeding you could give some of that.

Just wanted to post an update.

It's been a few weeks since I posted and I have tried the following as treats:

* Pumpkin seeds
* Walnuts
* Popcorn (and rice cakes which are just discs of smooshed popcorn)
* Pieces of unflavoured cereal
* Pine nuts
* Frozen peas
* Frozen corn
* Cooked Carrot
* Her dinner (vegie mash)
* Sunflower seeds (shelled and unshelled)
* Pecans
* Hazelnuts
* Mangoes
* Pistachios
* Bottlebrush seeds (for chewing)

These are the items she doesn't actively spit out. None of these generate more than a passing interest - which consist of her playing with them in her beak before dropping them.

The exception to the matter is her actual dinner which she is VERY motivated for if hungry (including ongoing screeching) which is her vege mash - but I don't think I should be restricting access to this food (core food) for training. Am I wrong in thinking this way?

I've been watching her eat and she doesn't seem to grasp chewing and breaking down solid foods for the purposes of actually swallowing (as opposed to shredding and dropping). Her main way of eating is just gulping it down with her head back (AKA baby bird style). Foods that are not mash, when offered, get scraped up in the beak if soft, or broken in to pieces, but very little of it goes in. I think this has a large part to play in her lack of motivation (for now). "Sure mum, it was cool chewing that popcorn into dust, but would I step up for another piece? ....naaaah."

I have also tried praise and snuggles - this seems to go down OK but she is not interested in actively working for praise and snuggles.

Because of this, my training feels mostly on her terms - she'll do commands - sometimes - if she's curious (like wanting to chew on a target stick) or because she wanted to do it anyway (like stepping up). As soon as she's disinterested I might as well be asking my hallstand to step up.

As a result, I have no idea if my training is actually doing anything...

It depends on how you train. You *CAN* use a bird's food to train them with, without restricting their diet.

I've hand fed some of my birds seeds and pellets by hand, and at least one actually came to prefer me feeding her in this way over eating from a dish. ("contrafreeloading" - sort of) She would never starve herself, but she did 'demand' this kind of interaction between us. I never kept it up though...

Birds who are trained in shows may receive half of their diet or more from training. They aren't starved, as the birds are willing to work for their food and are kept at healthy weights.



You don't have to withhold her food at all! But you can try training right before feeding her or perhaps even during! Make it a great experience for you both!

I wanted to post here again to provide an update.

I've been able to get some motivation for frozen peas, she'll work pretty consistently with those. She'll intermittently accept praise and smooches for good work but peas are much more consistent.

I have not been able to drum up any enthusiasm for nuts, sunflower seeds, dried fruit, pine-nuts or other 'standard' treats. In fact I have a whole bucket of 'treats' (given to me) which is going unused. :-(

I also know junk food will work (eg chips) but I will only use those as an absolute last resort.

Just thought I'd update in case anyone comes looking for this info in the future - if the 'normal' treats aren't working just keep an eye on what they want to steal from you most often, that's usually the ticket. Remember to exclude it from their normal diet so it's worth working for!

@Monica - I'm not too keen on weight management/ restricted feeding at Remi's current age, apart from excluding her treat foods from her diet. I am still working on developing interest in all foods (coming off abundance weaning). Instead, I am thinking about working around natural feeding times, like you suggested, or watch for her natural interest in training in normal contexts and use that to my advantage. Thanks for the advice though!

Hi I did tricker training with my Quaker with chit chat seed. Yet he wasn't bothered with millet yet it's the same thing. My new bcc is very food motivated so we found a grape cut up very small is working at the moment.both have free flight.they both come out seperetly as the bcc went over after two days and gave my Quaker a nip. Sky is okay.hes not fussy on him but their cages are next to each other so their good chatting. The bcc comes on the hand but that's it.only had him three weeks.

Can't tricker train the bcc as he's out the door of his cage.tried him on the stand but he's away to his cage.i don't want to catch him and scare him.i can do anything in the cage and will take from the fingers.maybe it's too early as yet.i don't know am only guessing.am not giving up.

Sam, I’ve used training around meal times as a method. Might spoil the dinner but it gets their attention on training.

Motivation can wax and wane at different times of the day. I was watching a birdtricks video on YouTube, they are in the process of training a handicapped macaw. If memory serves they have a hard time getting the macaw to do anything early in the morning (8-9am or so I believe). So they simply don’t do any training sessions in the morning.

Try different foods at different times of the day. And tied to meal time. Using natural hunger cycles can work wonders.

I would give it a little more time. My personal experience of this is my 3 month old Caique, was in a similar spot a week ago and wouldn’t take anything as a treat. He could not grasp food properly and struggled to chew through hard foods. I knew he was ready for training when he started to eat the harder foods like carrot.
Once he was able to do that then I found what treat worked best for him and funny enough that was sunflower seeds.

I am confident all will work out.
Time is your best friend

I would not recommend weight management/restricted feeding but training before meals can certainly help. (one reason I don't recommend BirdTricks - as weight management is a method they have used to train parrots)


Here's a video of contrafreeloading. I'm feeding a cockatiel by hand who is *NOT* used to humans (may have been a pet at one time, but then was ignored and not handled) so she's very unsure. However, right behind and below her is another cockatiel feeding out of a dish. She *CHOSE* to eat from my hands instead of eating out of a dish where she could have avoided me if she really wanted to.


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9w9w8nMRmw"]Hesitant Faye - YouTube[/ame]