I have an overweight (~565g, should be ~525g) and bored ~30 year old female YNA. I have read through the stickied Amazon posts, and I can't figure out how to fix boredom without weight gain. The vet says I can no longer cut food and need to get my bird to be active. The active behaviors I want are encouraged with treats, but I can barely encourage them with the treats I've given her and ultimately she gains weight because the calories she ingests from the treats are more than the calories she burns from any activity she did.
Not to mention that the simplest foraging toys (again, more calories ingested than burned) and most toys in general frustrate her to no end - if she isn't scared of it first. Target training to get over fears works up until the toy is on her cage for about 10 seconds and then she does an emotional 180 and attacks it. The only time I've seen her burn energy is when she's trying desperately to remove toys from her cage that are quicklinked to the bars. I would like her to burn calories through something other than aggression, of course. The things I've tried or want to try are listed below in more detail.
1) Flight training. Getting her to flap her wings leads to her hating whatever object she was perched on during the practice, despite the frequent use of a clicker and treats. If it was my arm, she won't step up for a week. If it was a stick, the stick now induces a fear response. The description in the sticky of holding your bird and lightly tossing them onto a bed is light years away from us right now. I've also tried target training and sloooowly inching 2 perches apart until the bird flies between them. No success - just a very frustrated bird that won't even step up afterwards.
2) Foraging. Teaching her with the simplest foraging toys doesn't seem to be working, and again she ends up consuming more calories than she burns anyway. I don't want to starve her by moving her regular pellets or fresh food into a place that's just going to frustrate her. I got her used to skewers but in moving them slightly farther away from her food bowl each day, I've found a limit of a few inches from her food bowl before she just ignores the skewer entirely. She doesn't like leafy greens or most vegetables for that matter, so that puts further restraints on the foraging options.
3) Toys. She has some wood blocks that she sometimes chews, and 1 puzzle toy that dispenses a treat that she solves in about 30 seconds as she's had the toy for years. She had bells for a bit but she only attacks them when she's overstimulated or angry that she's not on my arm. She ends up biting her own legs, and has even thrown herself off the cage in the process of attacking one of the bigger bells, so those have been taken away. Overall, she doesn't understand most toys and my exaggerated attempts to show her how much fun *I* think they are don't interest her. On top of that, she's scared of most things. If I do get her to be comfortable with an object with target training (no fear response, reaching out to the toy slowly to inspect it, maybe lightly checking it out with her beak/tongue, and then general disinterest where she goes back to standing upright and is looking at my hand for more treats) she will continue to act curious of it when it's placed on her cage, and then a few seconds later she'll do an emotional 180. She'll run at the toy, attack it, and throw it overboard.
4) Target training. I can get her to bite the end of the stick, but all tricks seem out of reach for her short of getting her to walk between two perches as mentioned above. Also again with the treats and her being overweight. I tried using fruit instead of almonds for treats, but she doesn't recognize her favorite fruits when they are cut up small enough to be treat rewards. I use pieces of almond slices instead of fruit but limit the training to 2 or 3 times a week because of it.
5) Climbing. Something I think she would be good at but given how scared she is of most new things, I can't imagine her being happy with a huge net or ladder that's bigger than her. Besides, I need to encourage her to climb the net and again I'm left with food being the only thing that encourages her to move or explore. I also rent my place, so my ability to drill things into the walls is limited.
Ultimately my two questions are: 1) What am I supposed to address first, and 2) How?
Not to mention that the simplest foraging toys (again, more calories ingested than burned) and most toys in general frustrate her to no end - if she isn't scared of it first. Target training to get over fears works up until the toy is on her cage for about 10 seconds and then she does an emotional 180 and attacks it. The only time I've seen her burn energy is when she's trying desperately to remove toys from her cage that are quicklinked to the bars. I would like her to burn calories through something other than aggression, of course. The things I've tried or want to try are listed below in more detail.
1) Flight training. Getting her to flap her wings leads to her hating whatever object she was perched on during the practice, despite the frequent use of a clicker and treats. If it was my arm, she won't step up for a week. If it was a stick, the stick now induces a fear response. The description in the sticky of holding your bird and lightly tossing them onto a bed is light years away from us right now. I've also tried target training and sloooowly inching 2 perches apart until the bird flies between them. No success - just a very frustrated bird that won't even step up afterwards.
2) Foraging. Teaching her with the simplest foraging toys doesn't seem to be working, and again she ends up consuming more calories than she burns anyway. I don't want to starve her by moving her regular pellets or fresh food into a place that's just going to frustrate her. I got her used to skewers but in moving them slightly farther away from her food bowl each day, I've found a limit of a few inches from her food bowl before she just ignores the skewer entirely. She doesn't like leafy greens or most vegetables for that matter, so that puts further restraints on the foraging options.
3) Toys. She has some wood blocks that she sometimes chews, and 1 puzzle toy that dispenses a treat that she solves in about 30 seconds as she's had the toy for years. She had bells for a bit but she only attacks them when she's overstimulated or angry that she's not on my arm. She ends up biting her own legs, and has even thrown herself off the cage in the process of attacking one of the bigger bells, so those have been taken away. Overall, she doesn't understand most toys and my exaggerated attempts to show her how much fun *I* think they are don't interest her. On top of that, she's scared of most things. If I do get her to be comfortable with an object with target training (no fear response, reaching out to the toy slowly to inspect it, maybe lightly checking it out with her beak/tongue, and then general disinterest where she goes back to standing upright and is looking at my hand for more treats) she will continue to act curious of it when it's placed on her cage, and then a few seconds later she'll do an emotional 180. She'll run at the toy, attack it, and throw it overboard.
4) Target training. I can get her to bite the end of the stick, but all tricks seem out of reach for her short of getting her to walk between two perches as mentioned above. Also again with the treats and her being overweight. I tried using fruit instead of almonds for treats, but she doesn't recognize her favorite fruits when they are cut up small enough to be treat rewards. I use pieces of almond slices instead of fruit but limit the training to 2 or 3 times a week because of it.
5) Climbing. Something I think she would be good at but given how scared she is of most new things, I can't imagine her being happy with a huge net or ladder that's bigger than her. Besides, I need to encourage her to climb the net and again I'm left with food being the only thing that encourages her to move or explore. I also rent my place, so my ability to drill things into the walls is limited.
Ultimately my two questions are: 1) What am I supposed to address first, and 2) How?
