Trying to train my baby

Any advice or help is appreciated. I have a lilac crowned Amazon. Justice has been with me 3 wks and I am still having trouble getting her to get on my finger on the up command. She doesn't want to come out of her cage etc. I really want to keep her tame and would like to bond with her. Is there any advice on how to train her and get her to trust me? Please help Thanks��

Have you tried to find out what food she likes best? If you can figure that out maybe she will come out of the cage for a treat. Try leaving the door open and talking to her. Maybe put a chair next to the cage and just sit with her. If she is young she will probably come out sooner or later to explore. Was she in a cage for a long time before you brought her home? In your picture she is on a perch so it shouldn't be too hard to get her back on a perch. My amazon will come out eventually if I leave the door open. He has a play top but would much rather work on getting on the floor and into trouble, lol. If you can give me more details I can probably help you a little more.

Hi! Experienced trainers will use force out & reconcile later technique. However, if you can't handle the later part, I strongly suggest you stick to Paco's method and stay patient. Zons are too curious too stay in a cage with doors open for too long. Especially you have their fav treats on hand. Use a training stick. They tend to trust the stick first followed by your hand. This method save me lotsa blood from the nippy ones.

Wish you best of luck with Justice. Cheers.

First, it would be a good idea to figure out a training treat. This can be relatively easy to do. If Justice is on a seed based diet, then figure out what the first 3 items are that she eats out of her food dish are. Then, remove those 3 items from her diet. They will then be a highly valued food reward.

If she's on a pelleted diet, then you can use seeds and nuts for her rewards. Dried fruits can also be another training treat.


The reward should be small enough that she can eat it quickly and not get full of eating fast. One person was cutting up a sunflower seed into 6 individual pieces for an umbrella cockatoo. Tiny rewards! But it also must be big enough for your bird to be willing to work for it.


As far as stepping up, here's something I wrote for someone else on how to teach step up.



Instead of having step up be "one step" (i.e. bird steps up), make it into 10 steps.


1. Reward bird for looking at you.
2. Reward your bird for moving his head towards you.
3. Reward your bird for taking a step towards you.
4. Reward your bird for taking another step towards you.
5. If he doesn't run away, keep rewarding him for remaining where he's at. (if he runs/backs off, you may need to start over again)
6. Reward your bird for taking a couple more steps closer.
7. Encourage him to come closer yet again and reward him.
8. Reward your bird for touching you with his toe(s).
9. Reward your bird for putting a foot on you.
10. *JACKPOT REWARD* Give your bird lots of goodies for putting both feet on you!


BTW, you can train this from inside the cage or even from the top of the cage. Choose one area and work with him from there. Once he understands the name of the game, then work on step ups from other areas of his and your home! Just because he learns to step up from inside the cage doesn't mean he knows how to step up from on top of the cage.... or that he knows how to step up from furniture inside your home. As far as your bird is concerned, all of these cases are separate, regardless of the behavior you are asking. Birds don't always generalize the behavior they learned in one circumstance with other areas. You need to teach them to generalize by teaching a new behavior in various locations, once they understand the behavior in one location.

Thanks I've tried rewarding her when she touches the training stick but then she just starts to bite it. I've used gloves I don't know if that was a good idea or not but she hates that too. As far as I know she was handled every day at the pet shop and she is almost a yr old so still kinda young. Help plz..

Well it sounds like she went from a real nosey place to a quiet place she's probably just scared cuz of the quiet. I know when I left my abusive home and found peace I didn't feel comfortable because I was used to being abused. Just my two pennies:}

I'm lucky sweety likes my rings. I let him play with him as a reward. He is learning to leave my earrings alone. I wear rings on my left hand. There were none on my right.
If he's good I use my left hand if he's naughty. I use my right hand to remove him to "time out".
I have found nothing that Trisha finds rewarding. She was a pet store parakeet probably about a year old when we brought her home. I just give her freedom when she allows. She hides in her cage even with the door open.

Unfortunately gloves will often scare the bird. Have you tried leaving the door open and walking away? You might walk back in and she'll be out and about. When Paco is giving me trouble about coming out of his cage I either have him step up to a stick or I put my sleeve over my hand and have him step up. I think I'm missing something. Are you afraid of Justice biting you? Is she flailing when you go near her? I've fostered birds that won't step up before but they eventually do get on your hand if you persist. Maybe she'd rather step up to your arm instead of your hand? Paco prefers my wrist.

I have discovered that some birds and dogs don't like gloves because they were abused by somebody wearing gloves. Rehoming an older pet is full if new fears and old fears mixed together. When you learn what they like it gets easier and a bond grows.

The quirky thing about gloves is that if you train a parrot using gloves, then you remove your gloves, birds can flip out because they are still terrified of hands, but gloves are "ok".

Definitely do not train with gloves.

Justice is doing great. She now allows us to take her off the top of cage, to her perch stand. But sometimes would rather come see me on the couch.. lol she is a work in good progress thanks everyone for the great advice.