I am forever going to subscribe to you! A wild lovebird caught me at work and was trying to come inside for the ac and the custodians let her get a little bit of relief from the AZ heat and then put her back outside. She did not leave the crack in the door all day to feel the nice cold air coming out. Finally my coworker and I approached her and she hopped right onto our hands and chirped with excitement. My heart melted and I ran to the closest pet store to get a cage and to look for her owner. A couple of nice aviary people in my area took a look at her pics and determined she is most likely wild, and now I have a lovebird. (The post is still up just in case we do find the owner) I've named her Leko, like the lighting fixtures we use in the theater that I work at. I have binged your training videos and have started implementing some of your techniques. It's only been 3 days of training and she already knows how to step up and I have taught her to step back from fingers that enter the spaces between the bars. I felt pretty hopeless in training an animal who is most likely smarter than me, but you've given me the tools and the confidence to give her a stimulating and caring home. also, she now has unlimited access to the ac. Thank you and keep up your amazing work!
Thanks a lot because I was going to buy a cockatiel bird, and they are extremely hard to work I have never trained a cockatiel before but they are always scared!!!😨, This really really helps out a lot thank you for this!!!
One day I will rescue a bird and I’m going to give that bird the best life all because I’m being trained by the very best. I watch all of your videos. I feel like a bird expert but without a bird. Ha ha! I’m obsessed
I started working on this from your tips when I got Tiki at 8 weeks old, he is now 4 months old and is doing awesome with target training!!! Great info Jamie for people wondering !!
❤it's so cool! No more wiping the my blue lovebird off my shirt into the cage. He's not even 1 & has learned to go back inside.! Thanks for helping us have a relationship. A real one.
Thank you so much for making this video! My conures do the target training great, inside their cage. However, when i let them out of the cage they run away from the target stick instead of touching it! Now, they'll come up and take treats out of my hand but, run from the target stick when i try to get them to touch it. Also, if i get to close, without a treat in my hand, they'll start flying frantically around the room. So much so, that the male started throwing up from all the flying around! Iv'e commented before what my situation is with them! Iv'e changed them from an all millet seed diet to fresh chop, pellets, sprouts, and healthier seeds such as oats, wheat, oat groats, etc... It took some time to get them use to eating it but, now they love it! Plus, i grow some of their veggies myself, in my garden, so they always have the freshest of veggies. I bought them a lot bigger cage, then what i got them in, after i got them. So, they have plenty of room now, and lot's of chew toys. But, the male still loves trying to bite me when i'm trying to train them to step up on my finger! I get one foot and that's it, no matter how far i keep pulling the treat back, they still WILL NOT fully step up with the other foot! Not sure what i'm doing wrong, or if they just don't completely trust me enough yet to do it. I would love any videos, you can make, on how to get them to trust my hand enough to step up with both feet. It would be wonderful, and greatly appreciated! I'm sure i'm making every mistake possible here! TIA, from what i can tell, y'all are awesome trainers! ❤🦜🦜
I’m currently bird sitting a Goffin who has a lot of bad habits and is an unpredictable hormone-a-saurus. 😬 I offered the target stick on the 1st day, and have continued playing Target several times a day. It certainly made letting her out of the cage a lot less stressful since I knew she enjoyed the game. (She does get 12 - 14 hrs of dark quiet sleep while at my house and I am doing my best to get her eating chop, the organic pellets and keeping anything that might stimulate hormones to a minimum.)
Thank you so much for making and sharing this video!!! I have a Timneh African grey (sorry for my spelling) 2 old people had her for 6 years and decided to rehome her since they both lived in a apartment she's doingreally good with her diet and she's finally allowing me to place my hand in her cage to switch out toys and perches but she's still refusing to come out of her cage so I'm definitely going to try this with her thanks alot❤
So what happens when you have a cockatiel who won't step up, who won't let you touch him, won't take treats and won't Target train? The only amount of contact he will allow is occasionally he'll jump on my shoulder and rub his head on my face, that is the only skin contact he will allow unless he's flown somewhere and he scared. I don't know how to get him to trust me more. He was a rescue a couple of years ago. Somebody found him outside in the middle of summer and I adopted him. It's taken two years for us to get to the point where he will rub his face on mine and let me pick him up when he's scared. 😢
I have a year old conure wasn’t trained owner let her fly and was still with parents. I got the conure she loves sunflower seeds refuses to take anything from the hand. I have gotten her to come out of cage sit on perch on top. She will sit on shoulder well back of your neck seems to love that you can go anywhere with her like that. She’s a year old I need to train flight, and basic training I think. I also will be getting. A brand new conure only weeks old. Any tips for my birds will be greatly appreciate Jaime (name similar) thanks for taking the time to read this
What do you do with a bird not really food motivated? We rescued a 24yo AG into our flock, and we’re struggling to find something she feels excited about.
I have Draco Malfoy's wand at home and will start to use it with this training and yell some spells meanwhile. Train my parrot and become a wizard. Dream come true.
My Quaker is not food or toy motivated. He won’t step up but if I call him to his cage, he comes. And when I say perch, he goes right down to the perch on his door. He loves me. He likes to have whispered conversations with me. If I’m talking to any of the other boys in my flock, he body checks them out of the way to be front and centre with me. But I don’t encourage that. I pick up the bird he pushed away and have quality time with that bird. He doesn’t bite me and lets me rub his head now. Maybe if he was a single bird, but I got him with his buddy, so he’s never been alone. I hope he will someday step up.
I started trying this and my conure when to bite the target. I’m trying to move it fast enough away before he bites it but what would you recommend doing if he now hard bites the stick? Thank you! These videos are great and I’ve learned a lot!
Huh. I totally wasn't aware that Loki is pretty well capable of level three targeting. I never made the connection that it could be used to get him back in his cage. We'll see how it works when he's feeling sassy.
Hi, I have learned so much through your channel, and I've had birds for decades. Now, I don't find target training so useful, and you always shaw it on tamed birds. I have just bought 3 month old IRN-4 days ago, and he is completely ignorant of that training method. Not only he has no clue to approach or touch the stick, he is not interested in neither the stick or the treat. He doesn't recognize the treat as a treat at all. And if he is out of the cage, even in the smallest rom, his target holder, stick and treat are not even in his range, only flying is. So.....taking a completely new bird, from the breeder, and taming it doesn't really look as clean and simple as you show it here, although, I adore your channel and have been one of you long time followers. And also, slightly obsessed with love of birds.
Hope you read this and can help. I inherited an 18 year old bird that has never been handled, or worked with that I can tell. There are very few treats that she likes and seldom will take anything from my hand except Cheese Its. What would you suggest as a treat? She is cage bound, she will not come out event if I leave the cage open for her while I'm cleaning it.
I have been trying target training on my lovebirds for 2 months and they are still as afraid of the stick as they were when I started trying. They got to a point where they play on my body when I'm laying down or even played on my head a couple of times, but they are so scared of all sticks and especially of my hands. Tried every trick I could find on youtube, nothing works.
I don't know anything about lovebirds but I was able to train my budgie to sit on my finger/palm in about 3 weeks using millet spray or seed treat sticks. Don't know if lovebirds like millet but to budgies this stuff is crack 😅. Also anytime he has a fit or gets scared I found that playing classical music on my phone will quickly calm him down (strings or piano). He will just sit calmly on a perch and close his eyes, also this is what allowed me to introduce light head scratches when I play him classical music. Hope something I shared helps. Good luck!
@@markadams5009 Thanks for the advice, but already tried the millets and even though they love them, if my hands are anywhere near, they won't go to them lol. I've spent hours just resting my hands calmly on perches with millets near them to make them comfortable and get them to come, but all they do is look at my hands and never approach haha! As for music, my lovebirds get excited with it. They start flying everywhere and chirp, which is nice to see, but music doesn't calm them, not even classical music.
Do you have any tips when it comes to skiddish birds? My bird isn't scared of me but anything unfamilar or a loud noise and she losses it. When I say loses it I mean she starts flying around the room and many times she has flown into things. She also seems very exahused after she starts breathing hard, falling over, and holding her wings out. I love having her our but haven't been lately because I'm terrified she is going to seriouly hurt herself.
Good Morning Jamie We got Bluey a 4 month old Alexandrine 7 weeks ago. He Contact calls and dances around in his cage but as soon as we approach to say hello or even just changing food and water he flies to the top corner of his cage and just hangs there. I'd love nothing more than to spend endless hours with him outside the cage but can't get close enough for him to know he can trust me so can't let him out as won't be able to get him back in. Can't use treats as can't get close enough to offer them. He came from an Aviary and as I understand it wasn't handled. Any advice how to get closer would be greatly appreciated
I know how you feel! I rescued two green cheek conures a year ago, that had never been handled, and i still can't get them to trust my hand enough to fully step up on it! They started out the same way, you're describing, every time i got near their cage. Now, what i done to get started, was Googling what some of their favorite treats are, and putting a flat perch inside their cage, i got from Amazon. Then, i would set the treat on that flat perch and walk away! Then, after seeing the birds come over to see what i left them, they ate it. After doing that for a couple of weeks, i started pulling a chair up to that side of their cage, and i would just sit in it, and put that treat in on that flat perch, and just sit still and watch them come over and get the treat. Sit very still and don't make any sudden movements! This is letting them get use to your presence around their cage. After doing this every day for a couple of weeks, instead of sitting the treat on the perch i started holding it in two fingers and sticking it through the bars of their cage to see if they would come get it from my fingers. If they don't then take the treat, don't leave it on the perch. Keep doing this every day, until they come over and take the treat from your fingers. After doing this for a couple of more weeks, start trying to get them to touch the target stick. The second their mouth touches the stick, click and move it away and offer the treat. Make sure the treat stays so they can see it, but not get it, while your getting them to touch the stick. Keep doing this through their cage for, you guessed it, a couple of weeks. After that, then you should be able to move the target training to inside the cage. Don't put the stick up close to them but, towards another perch so they can come over and touch it to get their treat. Make sure they see the treats so they'll know they're getting that reward if they come touch the stick! I hope this helps you, it worked for me, and it definitely was a long, frustrating process but it worked! Keep in mind that the more you hang out around their cage, just being near them, the quicker they'll get use to you ❤🦜🦜
I have a baby ring neck.. he is really unsure..ive been bitten twice so now I'm kind of leary.. won't go back to cage. How long does it take for target training to work?
Hi I have a green cheek! She is so adorable. I wish I saw your video. I bought her a very nice large cage. When I got her at 5 months old, she (Baby) I bought her a little warm home I put on top of her cage. Now she is not used to being in her cage. She gets very fussy rated that the cage is not open. Big problem is she waits for be on the floor or behind a door. I am so scared that I will step on her or crush her. What can I do?
How do you get a fearful cockatiel to do this! Ive had my wee boy for 3 months and hes just so scared of my hands! He will let me go near him but as soon as my hands are in vision he freaks!
I handled my galah on my hand for the first time today, then he started preening me, first it was fine, then the nibbles started to get really hard and aggressive, did he get angry at me? What should i do here? I put him down afterwards and he still let me pet him and stuff
BECAUSE ITS A DEMO OF THE PROGRESSIONS OF TAMING A BIRD. There’s no “Yeah, but”, you didn’t score a “Gotcha!” You just completely failed to understand why the information is being presented the way it is.
You need some sound to indicate they did the correct thing. It could be a phrase, a pen click, a dog clicker, so long as it is always the same and very easy to do
