Adventures with Ziggy

Ziggy has been with us five days now. He is a Nanday/Sun approximately five years old.

When we first got him he was cage aggressive to everyone. Now I can scratch and pet him through the cage without bites. He will not come out of his cage on his own. I leave his doors open most of the time. I have taken him out fighting each day to shower him. When he gets wet he still reeks of smoke, so I think he still needs those showers. Should I be bringing him out against his will? I do give treats as soon as he's out. Once he is out of the cage he is sweet, kisses and preens my hair. He doesn't know step up but tries when he is out. He is also hard for me to understand with some of what he says. Are they normally hard to understand if you don't know what they are supposed to be saying?

I've done a search but can't seem to find anything that addresses Training to come out of the cage.

I've always advised AGAINST forcing a bird out of their cage against there will. There are exceptions (the vet etc).

When I first got Skittles his new cage back in October, he would not come out on his own, but rather 'wait' for my hand and then climb on. Now he will come out on his own. However, I do stick my hand in his cage and he still climbs on at my command.

I've never forced a bird out against their will and as a result I've never had to deal with cage aggression.

The best thing to do is 'coax' them out with treats etc. It may take time for this to work, but it will eventually.

As for the talking being hard to understand unless you know what they are saying, yes, I agree. Actually, my sun conure will say "hi", and "step up" for example. However, if you don't know that he's saying step up, it would be hard to decipher it. Conures voices tend to me more like merps, cheeps, grumbles rather than a clear voice of an african grey for example.

Good luck with the cage and showering issues!

Ziggy has come out of his cage! He still doesn't trust hands though.

[ame="http://youtu.be/rIzolz4cjko"]http://youtu.be/rIzolz4cjko[/ame]

This one you can here Buzz talking away in the back ground. You can also see Ziggy's reaction to my son.

[ame="http://youtu.be/FiMXEsk9v2s"]http://youtu.be/FiMXEsk9v2s[/ame]