Ducorp's Cockatoo Fearful Behavior

xchxse

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Willow, a Ducorp's Cockatoo (age 4)
Hello all,

I have a 4 year old ducorp's cockatoo named Willow who has been with me since he was 7 months old. Previously in the years past, Willow would willingly step up out of his cage, but starting last year, he has become quite reluctant to step up out of his cage. He used to also thoroughly enjoy cuddles and scritches, but refuses to have hands touch him anymore. However, he loves being out with the family and dance when he does decide to climb onto my shoulder (which is quite rare). I used to force him out of his cage to be with us, which I now realize is a huge no no, and is most likely responsible for the reluctance of leaving his cage. Below are typical daily behaviors for Willow:

ā€¢ He talks through his cage, saying his favorite phrases

ā€¢ He does not bite, but will lean down and gently nudge your finger away with his beak when asked to step up from his cage

ā€¢ He will climb out of the cage, but refuses to leave it. When I leave the room, he screams for me to return (which I try to ignore, and re-enter when he quiets down). It seems apparent that he is fond of my attention. When I do re-enter the room, though, he immediately goes right back into his cage.

ā€¢ He shows apprehension whenever a hand is placed too close to him, and attempts to flee unless a treat is offered

I have been working with him a few times a week, just sitting next to his cage with the door open, and allowing him to be in control of what he does. It just makes me so sad that I can't get him to be with me and hang out around the house anymore. :(

I don't want to force him to step up, and I don't want to force him to do anything he is uncomfortable doing. I just feel lost as to how I should approach this situation, as I read so much conflicting information online.

Willow was taken to the vet a few months ago and is completely healthy.

Any input is greatly appreciated, thanks!
 
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ChristaNL

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It's bit late but.... puberty?
 
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xchxse

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If this is the case, what can I do?
 

chris-md

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Doesnā€™t sound like puberty to me.

This should be easily fixed. You need to learn to target train Willow. Itā€™s very easy, and target training can be used to help overcome a fear of stepping up.

While you work on this target training. The most immediate thing you can do is simply jackpot reward any step up. Itā€™s one thing to offer a favorite treat, maybe an Almond. To jackpot reward, you offer a full fist full of almonds. The bird needs to feel like it has won the jackpot by stepping up. There truly is a difference in the way A bird would react to one treat versus a bunch of treats.

Every step up is a training session from now on and must be rewarded handsomely when it does happen. Keep treats with you at all times

Is this only happening around the cage or Candace happen anywhere in the house?
 
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xchxse

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Willow, a Ducorp's Cockatoo (age 4)
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Doesnā€™t sound like puberty to me.

This should be easily fixed. You need to learn to target train Willow. Itā€™s very easy, and target training can be used to help overcome a fear of stepping up.

While you work on this target training. The most immediate thing you can do is simply jackpot reward any step up. Itā€™s one thing to offer a favorite treat, maybe and Allmond. To jackpot reward, you offer a full fist full of almonds. The bird needs to feel like it has won the jackpot by stepping up

Every step up is a training session from now on and must be rewarded handsomely when it does happen. Keep treats with you at all times

Is this only happening around the cage or Candace happen anywhere in the house?

anywhere in the house, but primarily his cage. Sometimes when we're outside in a tree, he will step up for me. I work with him and target train, but he shows absolutely no interest in wanting to step up.

My primary concern is that I want to understand how to approach the situation. Do I let him make the calls? Or should I show just a tiny bit of assertion?

For instance, like right now as I'm typing this he is chatting up a storm and just climbed over to me and is sitting at the edge of my bed and is talking to me, but will back off as soon as he is near me.

By the way, I'm in the baltimore area!

Thanks
 
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chris-md

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Hello fellow Marylander!

Youā€™re approach is going to be about 20% forced, 80% trained for now. Forced only in the sense that there will simply be times you need her to do something now and donā€™t have time to work through it. It sounds like with her you have some leeway for minor coersion when needed. Itā€™s not like sheā€™s ripping your hand apart.

To use targeting, you simply target her in the direction of your hand. Eventually, target her onto the hand. More specifically, she will have to step onto your hand to touch the target.

Make sense?
 
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xchxse

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Hello fellow Marylander!

Youā€™re approach is going to be about 20% forced, 80% trained for now. Forced only in the sense that there will simply be times you need her to do something now and donā€™t have time to work through it. It sounds like with her you have some leeway for minor coersion when needed. Itā€™s not like sheā€™s ripping your hand apart.

To use targeting, you simply target her in the direction of your hand. Eventually, target her onto the hand. More specifically, she will have to step onto your hand to touch the target.

Make sense?

Yeah that makes sense. The problem is, he does not want to leave the cage, and I have heard from many that you should not be sticking your hand in the cage, as it is their safe spot. However, I cannot get him to step up onto a perch outside of his cage. So should I just begin to target train to step up inside of his cage? What should I do if he begins to nudge me away? If I don't listen to him and respect his wishes I feel as though he will feel like I do not respect his boundaries, and am forcing him all over again.

Thanks
 

chris-md

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Two options:

More formally, you can target her out of the cage

More casually, you can sit with the door open and try to encourage her to come out at her own pace.
 
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xchxse

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Gotcha. Thanks, I'll try this.
 

EllenD

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Great advice given from Chris...got a question for you, just out of curiosity...you said you got Willow very young and he used to be very cuddly and love being petted, etc. I'm just curious if something happened to Willow around the time that he just stopped liking physical contact? Or was he not given much attention for a time? Sometimes understanding the reason why the bird is afraid of hands, physical contact, etc. can help you fix the issue as well. It's one thing if the bird has never been tame, stepped-up, allowed being touched, etc., but most of the time when a bird just stops allowing all physical contact, there is a reason...and sometimes not...
 
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xchxse

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Great advice given from Chris...got a question for you, just out of curiosity...you said you got Willow very young and he used to be very cuddly and love being petted, etc. I'm just curious if something happened to Willow around the time that he just stopped liking physical contact? Or was he not given much attention for a time? Sometimes understanding the reason why the bird is afraid of hands, physical contact, etc. can help you fix the issue as well. It's one thing if the bird has never been tame, stepped-up, allowed being touched, etc., but most of the time when a bird just stops allowing all physical contact, there is a reason...and sometimes not...

I believe it could be due to a lack of attention. A few years ago my life became very busy, and our time together was cut down. However, I have considered this a few months back and have focused on trying to devote as much time as I can with Willow. I now try to spend at least 1 hour a day sitting near his cage and goofing around with him, which has been helping a lot. He used to not want to leave his cage, and would quiver whenever I approached. Now, he's comfortable enough to come out of the cage and sit near me, and even climb down to approach me (although whenever I turn around he immediately runs back).
 

EllenD

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Aug 20, 2016
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Senegal Parrot named "Kane"; Yellow-Sided Green Cheek Conure named "Bowie"; Blue Quaker Parrot named "Lita Ford"; Cockatiel named "Duff"; 8 American/English Budgie Hybrids; Ringneck Dove named "Dylan"
Great advice given from Chris...got a question for you, just out of curiosity...you said you got Willow very young and he used to be very cuddly and love being petted, etc. I'm just curious if something happened to Willow around the time that he just stopped liking physical contact? Or was he not given much attention for a time? Sometimes understanding the reason why the bird is afraid of hands, physical contact, etc. can help you fix the issue as well. It's one thing if the bird has never been tame, stepped-up, allowed being touched, etc., but most of the time when a bird just stops allowing all physical contact, there is a reason...and sometimes not...

I believe it could be due to a lack of attention. A few years ago my life became very busy, and our time together was cut down. However, I have considered this a few months back and have focused on trying to devote as much time as I can with Willow. I now try to spend at least 1 hour a day sitting near his cage and goofing around with him, which has been helping a lot. He used to not want to leave his cage, and would quiver whenever I approached. Now, he's comfortable enough to come out of the cage and sit near me, and even climb down to approach me (although whenever I turn around he immediately runs back).

Yep, that's most-likely it then...I know life is busy, but think about it this way:

Willow has the equivalent intelligence to a 4 year old human toddler. So he needs as much out-of-cage time as possible every day, as much human-interaction as possible every single day, and when he's inside his cage you must be certain that he has tons of not only different toys (rotated at least once a month to prevent boredom and to change-out chewed-up and destroyed toys), but also enrichment activities, such as things to simply chew on and foraging activities that make him think/work...

It's a good rule of thumb that any species of parrot needs at the very least 4-5 hours every day of out-of-cage time to keep from becoming bored, frustrated, angry, depressed, and from losing their bond to humans, or "their human". So if only an hour a day is actually helping, please, do your best to give him more attention every single day.

****And please remember, this does not have to be DIRECT attention or interaction with you, but simply whenever you're at home, let Willow out of his cage and in the SAME ROOM as you, regardless of what you're doing...If he doesn't already have one, please buy him (Craigslist is great for these) or cheaply build him a couple of T-Stands or Play-Stands, at the least one T-Stand that can be moved between rooms easily, and that you can hang some toys for him to work on/play with and some things for him to climb on off-of...So if you're working on the computer/surfing the net, get Willow's stand, get him up on top of it, and move him into the room you'll be in on it. Same thing whenever you're watching TV or a movie, reading a book, playing a video game, etc., get him on his T-Stand and move him into the room that you're going to be in. A really good one is when you're cooking dinner, parrots absolutely love to just be sitting in the kitchen with their people, talking to them while they make dinner, and also while they eat dinner...Eating YOUR DINNER with Willow is an excellent bonding activity, and after you finish give Willow a little of your dinner (bird-safe food of course). This could be a nice little treat that he'll look forward to every night. At nighttime before his bedtime, allow Willow to sit with you doing whatever you do...you don't have to be directly interacting with him during these times...It's a proven fact that parrots are much more likely to happily enjoy entertaining themselves in a healthy way if they are simply in the same room as their people are in...Which is exactly the reason that your parrot's main-cage should always be located in the "main room" of the house, where the "action" in the house is, or rather where the people in the house spend most of their time when they're home; usually this room is a living room, family room, den, etc. where the people who live in the house all congregate when they are home to watch tv/movies, to read books, play video games or board games, or just sit and talk...A lot of people buy a parrot and immediately put their main-cage in a spare bedroom, office, laundry room, down in a finished basement, etc., thinking that this will be the "Bird's Room", which can work well IF you have more than one bird for them to interact with all day and night, or if you make a strict habit of bringing your bird out of the "Bird Room" as soon as you arrive home every day...but most people don't do this, they just think that their bird is happily playing and entertaining themselves in "their own room", when the fact of the matter is that they don't want their own room, and simply just the act of having a bird's main-cage in a room away from where the people of the house spend their time, and making a situation where your bird can hear that people are at home and in the house, yet they are back in another room, alone and not being included in "the action", can not only cause the bird distress, frustration, anger, loneliness, etc., but it can also create a "mean" bird, which isn't actually a "mean" bird, it's a bird that feels like he's being left-out of his family...
 

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