Taming Advice

I'm not really sure where this fits. Is it behavioural or training? So when in doubt post in the category for the bird itself. Worst case I've made some work for the mods

So here is where I find myself with Opal. She will now take a small ball of millet from my fingers through the bars. Millet only, anything else is ignored or tossed to bottom of the cage. She is starting to beak my fingertips and is willing to bury her head into the 3in deep ss feed buckets that came with the cage while I am sitting next to it. She will come to the door if it is closed and take millet from me. Great progress so far especially as I haven't had her for that long really.

How do I move to getting her to take millet from me with the door open? Do I go back to the very long sprays and slowly reduce the length? How do I go about teaching her to step up? Target training first and then use that to go to stepping up? I'd like to be able to get her to step up ASAP and could use any help or advice anyone has.

The reasons I am wanting to get her to step up ASAP are pretty straight forward. I am doing the best I can to keep her occupied with toys and "shreddables" to keep her happy. I've noticed that she is at the point of trying to get out of the cage. She will grasp the side with both feet and try to force her head through the gaps flipping upside down when it fails. Not the ideal situation. Until I can get her to step up I can't let her out.

She managed to get out the other day when I got distracted and it turned into a total disaster. The only good thing was that the dogs were crated at the time. My JRT recognises the beep of the scanner used by the local courier. If she hears it she thinks they are coming to the door and goes nuts. Any beep sound and she reacts. Opal is nervously exploring and the guy across the road reverses his truck up the drive. Truck has reverse beepers, dog goes berserk in the crate, Opal freaks out and makes a beeline directly under the table with the computers on it. Straight in amongst the cables.

I've had other birds do this and willingly stepped up to get back to some security. Opal on the other hand doesn't trust me so she is trying to bite. Fair enough she's terrified. Dog is going even crazier because she wants to know what the bird is doing. Opal is so scared she just bites whatever is nearest to her. Which of course was the power cable. In the end I had to grab a pair of leather gloves so she could bite them. While she was latched on I could drag her out. Then I had to put the gloves on to grab her to get her back in the cage.

Never again will she be let out of her cage with out better control. The risk to her well being is just too high. Thankfully she is currently not flighted or it could have been so much worse.

Good question of fit as cockatoo behavior is a unique genre! I can move entire thread at your discretion if insufficient response.

I'd suggest working a bit longer with Opal in cage, alternating millet with other treasured items such as almond slivers or bits of walnut. You need a baseline of trust before progressing. Lack of progress with door open may signify a tendency of cage-bound territoriality. Is it possible to remove Opal from cage and work with her on a play stand in a secluded room? Potentially too many distractions at present, though I recall mention of very limited space.

I get what you mean, but I don't think you should let that experience prevent you from letting her out in the future! You were totally unprepared (you said so)-- this wouldn't have happened if you had planned it-- like you said, it happened in error, so you were tense (which THEY TOTALLY READ) , you hadn't blocked off dangerous places and you hadn't put the dogs out of ear-shot...Cockatoos are practically psychic and unless you are 500% confident to the depths of your soul, they will sense that fear/nervousness because they can literally see the color changes in our skin tones when our blood starts pumping. Plus, if she weren't clipped, maybe she wouldn't have flown into the cords-- that is a shadowy space and a good hiding spot...but a flighted bird probably wouldn't have felt trapped or quite so scared....

I feel like this is an example of confirmation bias...

Have you ever seen "The Neverending Story"? If so, cockatoos can be a lot like those sphinxes with the laser eyes lol! The ones who know how you feel in the depths of your soul.

As much as I hate Dr. Phil, I guess after some time goes by, the best thing you can ask yourself is: "How's that workin' for ya?" and if it isn't, I would suggest a different approach. I am afraid that you are being too cautious and that you will end up with a high-strung bird....but again, if it is working, then that is not the case-- I just don't like the way this whole situation panned out.

Birds can get cage-bound when they are in their cages for too long. That is my serious fear...She has been locked up for a very long time, so of course she reacted when she got out-- it's like giving a kid who has never had a beer in a supervised setting a whole bottle of vodka without any parameters...Plus, again, if this had been planned, you could have prevented half of this, and you would have been calmer, which would have made her calmer (doesn't matter how well you think you hid it-- it's very clear you are terrified to let her out)...That hesitation and panic definitely transfers in moments like that.

She didn't step up because she was under a table...I have said many times how important it is to block off shadowy spaces because they don't want to come out of them...plus, she WAS scared...she never had been in outside of her cage, so she got scared when a sound frightened her.....Shadowy feels safe and nest-like...Therefore, you were NOT the safest space, but if you blocked it off and she flew into the open, I bet money she would have stepped up.

Scott said:

I'd suggest working a bit longer with Opal in cage, alternating millet with other treasured items such as almond slivers or bits of walnut.

Click to expand...

Anything aside from millet is an affront to her sensibilities and promptly spat out on floor of cage. The seed mix she is offered along side her pellets is a mix of millet, hulled out, safflower and sunflower. This is the seed mix that I have on the play gym for my other birds as a treat. She only eats the millet and then complains she is out of food.

I've tried cashew, almond, walnut, Cheerios, Sunflower and Safflower. I even tried a small piece of bread from my sandwich when she showed curiosity in what I was eating. She investigated it gently bit my finger and moved to the far side of the cage turning her back to me.

She knows what she likes and will accept no substitutes.

I thought I would try again yesterday evening. About an hour before the birds bedtime I sat on the floor in front of her cage and opened the door and hung a bit of millet over the edge. To my surprise Opal came down and dug right in. Much closer and she would have had to sit in my lap. Still super skittish about hands but willing to come to the door at least.

Another thought- When I was learning to ride a bike, I was scared to lose the training wheels. Once we took them off, my mom would hold the back of my bike seat as I rode..One day, she let me go and I was doing great until I realized she wasn't there...Then (of course) I looked back, freaked out and crashed. If you always hold the bike and never remove the training wheels, then you are sort of stuck...because no one wants to let go of that stability/control...

Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith in order to get where you want to be...Sure, I fell...But I know how to ride a bike to this day (and it was only my hesitation that caused me to crash)...and I am not afraid in the least to ride a bike today (despite my anger at the time).

If she hadn't let go (despite the risks) I would have never been able to do it on my own-- we both HAD to have that experience. Of course, I was mad and said, "YOU LET GO OF ME! LOOK WHAT HAPPENED BECAUSE YOU DID THAT *CRYING*" (with a bloody knee lol)

But, there was wisdom in her decision...and I didn't stop riding the bike, despite that experience.
You cannot know if someone can ride a bike without training wheels unless you let them TRY to ride a bike without training wheels...This cage is like the training wheels...and you are going to likely have to let go of the bike at some point..I know my mom was scared, and I was scared, but I wouldn't have EVER moved forward on unless she had let go...
My mom didn't just let me go free-wheeling down a mountainous dirt path (which is the equivalent of a bird out for the first time with a doorbell/beeping truck, barking dogs and unrestricted access +scared mother)...She planned this, so the path was safe, and she was calmer than she would have been if I had just randomly flown down the road on my bike...

The difference is, a kid can go a lifetime without knowing how to ride a bike, but your bird is not going to be okay in that cage forever, and if things don't progress, the risk is going to get bigger over time because the fear of leaving the cage will only increase with time.