Used to step up perfectly but now will not do it.

So I have a wonderful little sun conure who is about seven months old. When I first got him he was about five months old or maybe 4 1/2 months and he came knowing how to step up perfectly. By that I mean it didn't matter if he was on your shoulder on your leg on the floor or on his cage he responded to the step of command almost 100% of the time. We were actually amazed at how well he did it. If you just put your hand in front of him and told to step up he would very calmly step up. I would say in the past month he has regressed to the point where you would not believe this bird used to know how to step up. He will still do it to get somewhere that he wants to go or get closer to a treat for example. But if he's on your shoulder or your chest he will just run away onto your back to escape your hands. If he's unable to run away he'll just cling onto the shirt and hang on for dear life. I don't want to grab him against his will or force him to step up but it's getting pretty frustrating to get him off my shoulder for example if I need to. I love the fact that before I could just put my hand there and he would jump off. Now is he doing this because of something I did wrong? Or is he just older and smarter and realizes that he doesn't have to step up if he doesn't want to whereas before he was just naïve and follow directions because he didn't know any better. Does that make any sense? Has anybody else ever experienced something like this? I don't know what to do but I wish I could get him back to how he was before.

Could be that your little guy has just developed a negative association to stepping up. For instance, he obviously enjoys hanging out on your shoulder. So go over in your mind what happens when you have him come off your shoulder. Chances are, it's because you need to go somewhere or you have to do something that wouldn't be quite feasible with a shoulder passenger. So you probably put him on his playstand, or return him to his cage. And since on you is where he wants to be, a negative association is born.

So my suggestion would be to make sure that coming off your shoulder is not always the end of interactive activities between the two of you. Use a treat to lure him off, and then make a big deal about him doing as asked. Then, after having him on your hand or whatever for a few moments, let him back onto your shoulder. The point is, you want to get him to the point where he doesn't automatically think of coming off your shoulder as a negative.

Also, you might want to have something fun for him at the ready as he comes off your shoulder. Maybe something shreddable on his playstand, or a foraging toy. And always give him lots of praise for doing as you've asked.

Stay put training would also come in handy, here.

Every once in awhile you have to go back to basics and reinforce/reteach them.

Step up. No bite. Laddering.

My tiel is like that sometimes too. I do think it's partly because they get more independent. The only difference is mine came trained and I don't even have to say up. For this reason I can't pet his belly. He either steps up or walks away.

Kalel said:

So I have a wonderful little sun conure who is about seven months old. When I first got him he was about five months old or maybe 4 1/2 months and he came knowing how to step up perfectly. By that I mean it didn't matter if he was on your shoulder on your leg on the floor or on his cage he responded to the step of command almost 100% of the time. We were actually amazed at how well he did it. If you just put your hand in front of him and told to step up he would very calmly step up. I would say in the past month he has regressed to the point where you would not believe this bird used to know how to step up. He will still do it to get somewhere that he wants to go or get closer to a treat for example. But if he's on your shoulder or your chest he will just run away onto your back to escape your hands. If he's unable to run away he'll just cling onto the shirt and hang on for dear life. I don't want to grab him against his will or force him to step up but it's getting pretty frustrating to get him off my shoulder for example if I need to. I love the fact that before I could just put my hand there and he would jump off. Now is he doing this because of something I did wrong? Or is he just older and smarter and realizes that he doesn't have to step up if he doesn't want to whereas before he was just naïve and follow directions because he didn't know any better. Does that make any sense? Has anybody else ever experienced something like this? I don't know what to do but I wish I could get him back to how he was before.

Click to expand...

Repetition is the key here. Just like you and I, we learn something new, if we don't practice it daily or now and then, we forget and have to re learn it all over again. A bird is no different. They forget too.

Thank you everyone for your replies.

Anansi, I think you are totally correct in the whole negative association thing. We usually let him hang around us for long periods of time and while stepping up is not ALWAYS the end of interaction, it IS quite often associated with getting him off of us because we have to do something where he can't be on us. So, I think you hit it dead on! Thank you. Now I guess I have to figure out a way where stepping up is more often than not a "fun" thing. By the way, by stay put training, do you mean to stay put on my finger once he has stepped up?

Birdman666, thanks for your input and it DOES appear like I will have to go back to basics LOL on a once perfectly trained bird. His refusal to step up actually hinders our no bite training. I'll explain how...so Lemon is very sweet but beaky. He loves to explore with his beak and sometimes he will bite too hard on an ear for example. We just hold his beak and remove it from the skin he is biting and tell him "no" or "no biting". But, there is the odd time where he has done a lunge and bite (a more of an intent to bite type thing rather than exploring with his beak) where I believe he needs to have a time out for his bad behaviour. I know some people will place the bird back in the cage for ten minutes while others will give him a "floor" time out where they put him down and turn away for a few minutes. However, getting Lemon off you for his punishment can TAKE a few minutes and therefore the punishment would not be immediate and I'm worried he won't know WHY he's being punished. Oh, and sorry this may be a silly question but what is laddering?

Thanks again!

You're most welcome! And stay put training is actually when you want him to stay put anywhere but on you. Where you might be able to walk away with the confidence that he'll remain where you put him.

Hawk, thank you for responding as well and yes, you're right. I will have to go back to basics I guess!

One more thing I forgot to mention about the negative association part of it is that Lemon absolutely LOVES being on chests, shoulders, etc. Could not being on us in that way in itself BE the negative association? Like for example stepping up onto my hand and getting head scratches and being talked to is better than being alone in a cage but could he maybe see it as inferior to being on my shoulder for example? Because if that is the case, perhaps it will be more difficult to convince him to enjoy coming off a shoulder, right? The only other option will be to make shoulders off limits (although I really don't mind him there as he's usually fine and it's easy for us to hang out for long periods of time that way). Yesterday, he was on my shoulder/chest/in my shirt for 4 hours straight. I find it hard to "beat that" for him LOL.

So I just thought I'd give you guys an update on the situation. I pretty much did exactly what Anansi recommended. I just praised him and give them a treat every time he stepped up. It literally took less than two minutes for him to get the idea that stepping up was not as bad as he thought it was. I had him stepping onto my hand and back to my shoulder and back to my hand over and over again. Wow! What an easy fix if you know how to approach it properly. I guess it's something that I'll just have to throw into the routine once in a while to keep him motivated to step up. Thanks again everybody for the fantastic advice.

Beautiful! I'm glad it wound up working out so well for you.

Do you have any pics to share of your little guy?

I tried to attach a pic. I hope it worked! By the way, he's back to stepping up like he used to! Thanks again

It worked! He is absolutely beautiful! And you can tell from the pic that he's quite a character, too. Love it! Thanks for sharing!

You're welcome! You are absolutely right about him being quite a character! He just HAS to get into anything and everything you are doing! Loves to squeeze into shirts, pockets, etc. Always hangs and plays upside down or on his back! I always joke that he's half bird, half monkey! We love how fun and entertaining our little clown can be!

I know mine runs away when he doesn't want to leave a place that I want to get him away from.