Finally found a potential food motivator!

I've had my little Maxi Pi Garrus for around six months or so now, sadly I haven't progressed to far on actively socializing him due in small part the apartment I live in making me worried about the landlord mostly in that I am allowed to have him just haven't been to sure on if the landlord understands that he needs out of cage time as well.. (I have been giving him daily attention however! And I am planning on moving to a better place when I am able to!)

But anyway I have been trying to find a food that he really will go after for some time, but while I've gotten him to nibble on a variety of different items like non-salted peanuts, pumpkin seeds, nutri-berries, ect. He never really -went- after them.

Lately though I've been giving him a mix of Goldenfeast dried veggies/fruits every now and then(They aren't his primary diet), in order to let him play with them, chomp on them since he does seem to have a preference for foods that go crunch.
Since I've been doing that I've noticed he always goes after the dried peas first when they end up in the mix. So i dug a few of them out the other night and offered him one only to be rather surprised when he actively grabbed it from my hand, and repeated it with another.

He's taken food from my hands in the past but never with quite as adamant gusto as with those peas. Its sort of ironic since personally I hate peas! But if it's something I can use as a treat to motivate him then I'll definitely oblige.


On another note he has also started talking recently within the last month which was a pleasant surprise. While I had certainly hoped he might start learning to speak it was never a motivating factor for getting him just a nice bonus!

So far his vocabulary includes
"Little Bird." "Pretty Bird." "It's Bedtime" "Good Morning."
At one point he was announcing to me "You're a pretty bird" which has had me stop saying that to him particularly and instead telling him "Garrus is a pretty bird."
He's also gotten rather fond of whistles, both shrill and quiet ones. Hoping that I can steer him towards the quieter ones but at times a parrot will be a parrot and just want to make some noise.

Glad you've found a new favorite treat, and a healthy one at that! What's your birds name?

As a renter with a bird, I understand letting him out could be intimidating due to poop or chewing, but he will eventually need to be step up trained and come out of his cage. Our amazon spends virtually all day, every day out. He has been potty trained, and signals us when he has to go. I keep his cage on a large, inexpensive rug so if he's on top of his cage and goes on the floor, it gets on the rug and not the carpet. Careful and constant supervision is key to the bird not causing damages. If you are watching your bird, they aren't able to cause damage. Best of luck and we'd love if you shared some pics of your little buddy!

HIs name is Garrus.
Yeah I'm mostly concerned about the poop on the carpet, while I do clean it up I'm still worried about potential stains or such. Though I have when he's been out had some rugs and towels put down to help mitigate that.

That is my goal though to eventually get a small place of my own where I won't be worried about a landlord breathing down my neck. And he can run around whenever I'm home. Fortunately furniture wise I own everything in the apartment beyond kitchen stuff so while I don't want him chewing up my desk it also won't cause a land lord issue if he does inflict damage to it!

I need to take some newer pictures of him, I currently just have some older pics of Garrus from a few months back.

Here's an older one taken probably back in october/nov somewhere around that time frame. He did not get up to the top of his playgym on his own, I had him on a stick and let him step down onto it. He is definitely a very cautious Pionus when it comes to new things.
It took me forever to get him to actually use his little rope ladder perch in his cage because it moves whenever he gets on it so he didn't want to touch it, not as outright solid as most of his other perches are.


I don't have him step up trained unfortunately but he will perch on a stick or rope perch when I'm holding it. One of the reasons I've been trying to find that one special food that'll hopefully motivate him so I can try and teach him to step up onto my hand.

Garrus is such a cutie, and a beautiful Maxi! I have a Pionus too, a Bronze Winged.
Good luck finding more treats that Garrus loves, and just use those for training "good boy" treats only. That will make it easier for him to learn to step up to you in order to reach the treat. The hardest part is patience! Good luck