http://www.parrotscanada.com/

[bebo08]

Hi ...

I found that my Timneh "Keemo" formerly known as "bebo" is an untamed TAG ... i bought him 9 days ago and his growling behaviour has improved as he stopped growling that often .. on the contrary he started to accept eating from my hand and sort of enjoy it.

I've been reading around in the past few days regarding taming unhandled birds and came through many tips and recommendations about the do's and dont's ...

my very worry now is that i found there are 2 extreme theories regarding teaching your parrot the "step up" command

1) somewebsites say give your parrot the time talk to him and read stories make him get used to your hand then 1 or 2 months later start training the "step up" command

2) the other websites say that you should give your parrot maximum 10 days and then start the training and the bird should be worked with as soon as possible, because the older a bird gets and the more ways it learns to avoid you, the harder it will be to tame....

i found this website http://www.parrotscanada.com/ which basically a supporter of theory # 2 .....

can you please advise which thoery is the correct one and if the training in this website under the section "for the new bird owners" makes sense or nothttp://www.parrotscanada.com/birdown...birdowner.html<br><br>Post edited by: bebo08, at: 2008/12/20 07:42

[Carolyn]

Mika arrived to us at 3 months, I started his step up training on his second day of arrival. Everytime he was out of the cage we would practice our "step up then praise and treat", I also added the step down when I placed him back to where I wanted and again praise and treat. I also started the step up while he was in the cage so as he would get very used to my hands in the cage and then placing him back in the cage with a step down. For the first couple of weeks there was always lots of praise and treats and slowly I started to not give treats evety time but still lots of praise.
In most of the books or papers I have read is that step up is not only the most important part of your training it is also a building block of where you are going with his training. So most important.

Now 5 months later I very seldon even say step up, I just offer my hand to where ever he is and he already has his foot raised to jump on. Now that he is getting a little older and a lot bolder there are times when he will move away from me when my hand is offered, but with a stern "No please step up" he on and off we go.

Hope this helps

Carolyn & Mika

[bebo08]

Thank you Carolyn ... did Mika scream or bite when you used to teach him the step up/down?

well for me i cannot force my hand as Keemo will just bite and cause severe injuries ...

I use the perch to teach him the up command however he will protest for at least 15 minutes and keep on biting the perch before he steps up and when he does step up he will stand still for 1 minute or less then he will flyaway ... you should see the trails he leaves on the perch after each training session ....

I am not desperate ... on the contrary i am determined on gettin' him tamed ... yet his aggressive approach in fighting the perch is just heart breaking...

[Dave007]

I read the material on the website you posted. As a matter of fact, Iread many more sections than you were curious about. I found that much of it is true and much of it is untrue. The major problem concerning what the author puts out and what the reader checks through is that the whole website pertains to *parrots*. All different types of parrots but nothing that pertains to one particular species. What's printed there is generalized information. The reader needs to try different things and those different things may not work with your type of bird which will give you a false feeling of failure. What will work with a conure or quaker may not work for an amazon or grey or ecklectus.
There's many websites that are similar to this one but their main focus is to get people to learn about generalized ownership of parrots because they may be novices.
My opinion is that since you belong to a grey board where many members have had the same problem, you'd probably get much more specific information from other grey owners. Other grey owners can tell you different personalized methods to use in case you fail when trying out specific things.
If a person were to purchase a Rosella and read the information concerning food, they wouldn't find anything applicable to a rosella's diet yet a rosella is a parrot.
Another thing that they talk about, which I totally disagree with is the place to teach a bird how to step up which is the bathroom but stop and think about that for a minute. Think about the material that walls are made of in a bathroom, the ceiling of a bathroom, the floor of a bathroom, the tub in a bathroom, the glass mirror in a bathroom, the toilet bowl in a bathroom and to add to the confusion, the soft bendable shower curtail that a bird cant grab hold of which will cause the bird to slide down and bounce off the edge of the tub. Think about the faucets both in the sink and the tub which will also contain shower heads. Do you really want your bird crashing into areas where serious injury can occur?
It's just my opinion but I feel you'd do better on a grey board because you're talking a TAG that is simply more nervous and less behaved and less trained .There's loads of people here that have that exact same problem and have tried different things because they were given different things to try.

PS--Although you didn't use these words, I'll simply say that there's a huge difference between * wild caught* greys and untamed greys. many untamed greys have been mistakenly called * wild caught*
Wild caught birds are the ones that have been caught in the wild and eventually make their way into a person's home.
In the US, there's a strict ban concerning the importation of parrots into this country and that ban was put into effect in 1992.That's almost 17 yrs ago ago.

Post edited by: Dave007, at: 2008/12/20 19:17<br><br>Post edited by: Dave007, at: 2008/12/20 19:26

[Tycos_mom]

I like the bathroom for training purposes when it comes to irds Dave is right about the hazards though. if you are going to use the bathroom you must take certain precations such as making sure the toilet lid is closed and covering the mirrors towel racks should be made so the bird can grip them should it choose to land on it the shower curtain should also be closed and on the outside of the tub. Put a cushion in the sink and cover the counter with a large heavy towel. The bathroom is normaly the smallest room in the house and thats why I prefer it for traing the bird cannot go far away from you in the bathroom. Also when I get a new bird I get the vet to give it a wing clip its the only clip my birds ever get but I do this so they can get used to the other birds without haveing them mabie landin on another birds cage and getting hrt and another bird getting hurt it just gives them a chance to get educated and to be accepted into the flock and traning the bird is much easier if they can't fly to far. It also gives me a chance to teach the birds about any danger such as windows and mirrors I take them around the house and show them that the mirrors and windows are solid. I get them to beak each window and mirrow and I do this everyday for the first month or so and them after that I do a refresher once a month just to make sure they remember I have a sun room in my home and it has 8 verylarge windows as well as a sliding glass door to go out to the sundeck. Not all birds are the same when it comes to training so I've found Grey are very sensitive and very intellegent you must first earn your birds trust before any real training can begin. That does not happen overnight it take patient and allot of genuine love and attention. if you are not genuine with your Grey your bird will know. You have to love your bird even after its bit you a hundred times your bird will know if you are getting discourage so you have to make sure you can feel only love for the bird when you are spending time with it. Sooner of later your bird will show you that its ready to start something new he will let you know when he finally trusts you.

[ZahrasMom]

We were advised by our breeder to start the step up training right away and Zahra actually took to it really well right from the start.

[bebo08]

i like the name Zahra .... i believe you understand what does it mean, right?