Formerly Cage-bound CAG: Training step-up

I have a 16 y/o f CAG (Psittacus erithacus) that I adopted a few weeks ago. She is in good health but her previous owners did not remove her from her cage routinely, and she was cage bound. When I got her I put her into a new cage and she will come out of it if I have it open (indeed, lately she has become somewhat keen on coming out while I reload her foraging toys and fresh food in the morning, in spite of a mishap where she ended up trapped between the cage bottom bars and the waste tray and had to be rescued in a towel.)

So, it's safe to say she isn't cage bound anymore, but she also doesn't know any of the basic "husbandry" commands like "step up," so if she isn't going where she needs to go, I have to towel her and carry her there. She doesn't seem too bothered by it, but she's not exactly running up to the towel for snuggles either, so I've tried to avoid doing that unless absolutely necessary (as with the getting stuck incident above.)

I'd like to train my parrot to step up, for husbandry purposes (transporting her the second cage downstairs or the playstand/gym I'm building, cleaning her cage, taking her to a neutral area for further training) and to start her on being a bit better trained.

Unfortunately, in her cage at least, she is kinda bitey if I try to get her to step up. She will let me touch her head without biting, take treats, etc but if I try to get her to step up, she tries to bite me. I know she is actually biting because the first time she did it I thought "Oh, she is just testing out the perch" and let her keep at it, and she bloodied my finger. Maybe she just doesn't know her own beak strength. She doesn't seem able to effectively bite my arm, and it's more to her size preference than my finger anyway based on the branches she chooses to perch on in her cage, but she still appears to try sometimes, and never steps up no matter what delicious food I try to tempt her with.

So, is it okay to towel her to take her to a neutral location to try learning step-up there, or should I just keep trying to get her to learn in her cage? I haven't been trying very hard since I don't want to do anything that makes her conditioned to bite to defend her cage or something like that, nor associate her cage with stressful things.

Advice is appreciated.

I've done it.

Don't like the towel? Then step up nice...

As long as the bird doesn't get too stressed. If the bird is a plucker, I'd think long and hard about this. But if it's just normal stubborn and attitudinous CAG stuff... I would.

I've said this before and it is worth repeating here.

With something like a macaw or a zon, you have to set boundaries and reign in their behaviors... (Cuz the world is a toy, and we need to attack it with gusto! STOP THAT. NO THAT'S NOT YOURS. QUIT THROWING FOOD. DON'T TAKE THAT APART. DON'T BREAK THAT. GET OFF OF THERE...)

With a CAG... THE BIRD sets the boundaries, and you need to get them to gradually accept more and more, and expand their boundaries. But they are stubborn and may fight you when you push them. (There are times when you have to or they will fester.) Getting them to try it a few times. And even if you forced them to do it, it didn't kill them, and they end up actually enjoying the experience; THE NEXT TIME GETS EASIER. THE TIME AFTER THAT GETS EASIER. THE TIME AFTER THAT THEY MAY EVEN STEP UP... (or they may seek revenge and bite your finger. You never know.)

Hi I'm training my first ever parrot now so here is my experience from having him a month.

Use a perch to start with, get him to step onto that then give him his treat and praise word and put him straight back to where he is comfortable every time for now. My birds place is on top of his cage on a perch.

He will get used to your hands/arms more by doing this. My parrot was terrified of my hand and arms and always flew off scared but after 2 weeks of training with the perch he steps onto that every time and has even started hopping onto my hand, letting me pet him, move him about some.

Train him this 10 - 15 minutes a few times a day and give your bird time and he will get more comfortable with you, I know its hard and frustrating at first.

Once he used to the perch you use and stepping up every time you can try move him further away and soon as he turns to go back to his comfort spot just put him back and he will trust you for that.

I wouldn't towel him, I use treats to lure mine back, like the step up training and pop him back in his cage. Hope this helps, time and patience is key and the smallest bit of progress is a big step x

I was kind of assuming you'd tried using a perch and/or a hand first... and he wouldn't do it.

The other thing you can do is use an arm. What you do is take a small towel, wrap it around your arm with an ace bandage to secure it in place, then put a long sleeve sweat shirt on over the towel. NOW IF HE BITES, HE'S BITING A TOWEL AND IT DOESN'T HURT. BACK HIM INTO A CORNER, AND MAKE HIM STEP UP... Praise and treats! GOOD BIRD.

Then step up practice with the arm, and a travel perch. (I use the bathroom shower perch for this one because I can close the shower door and he has limited options to escape. Get him to the point where he consistently no longer bites the towel. Steps up, steps down, before trying it without the towel...

I have tried with a perch too, she wasn't keen on that either. Even branches from her cage that she's familiar with and will perch on when they're fixed to the cage.

I hadn't thought of wrapping my arm in a towel or wearing long sleeves. As it is she doesn't seem to be able to effectively bite my arm and just ends up jabbing at it with her beak on the occasions she tried, though there haven't been terribly many of these so I could just be lucky - I imagine with determined effort she could do it. I was afraid of putting her into a learned helplessness situation though by just enduring or otherwise resisting her ineffective aggressive/defensive behaviors for too long.

She's not a plucker. Her feathers are almost all in good condition (she has a few more frumpy looking ones, but only a few) and I don't think she has any history of feather mutilating or removing behaviors.

I'm leaning toward being okay with toweling her to take her places for training, especially since she's demonstrated no special distress relating to the towel (it's probably how her old owners handled her when necessity dictated removing her from her cage) but I really don't want to hurt her psychologically.

Bryce said:

She's not a plucker. Her feathers are almost all in good condition (she has a few more frumpy looking ones, but only a few) and I don't think she has any history of feather mutilating or removing behaviors.

I'm leaning toward being okay with toweling her to take her places for training, especially since she's demonstrated no special distress relating to the towel (it's probably how her old owners handled her when necessity dictated removing her from her cage) but I really don't want to hurt her psychologically.

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THEY GET TOWELED FOR GROOMING AT THE VET'S OFFICE, RIGHT?! AND THEY DON'T DIE FROM IT. AND THEY GET OVER IT FAIRLY QUICKLY...

If that's what it takes to get the bird to try it the first few times...

I've done that with mine from time to time. Only in his case it's a deliberate and willful streak. I'M NOT GONNA... LET'S SEE YOU MAKE ME!!!

Oh crap! He's getting the towel. PLAYING! I WAS JUST PLAYING WITH YOU... OF COURSE I'LL STEP UP! (Wait. I do get a treat, right?! Yeah.) THEN OF COURSE, I'LL STEP UP!

If I understand you correctly, she’s not stepping up from inside her cage. You also mentioned that she does often come out of her cage when you leave it open. Have you tried letting her come out and then asking her to step up? Sorry if I’ve misunderstood.


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Inger said:

If I understand you correctly, she’s not stepping up from inside her cage. You also mentioned that she does often come out of her cage when you leave it open. Have you tried letting her come out and then asking her to step up? Sorry if I’ve misunderstood.


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Yep. Let her step up from the door once she gets out.

Some birds don't like things getting poked into what is essentially their nest.

That may be a "boundary issue" with your bird. "KEEPA U HAND OUTTA MY NEST!"

Yeah, she doesn't step up if I let her come out of her cage first either, though the only good place for standing to step up from is the top of her cage, where she unsurprisingly likes being and doesn't usually want to come down from.

Thanks for all your input.

Birdman666 said:

Inger said:

If I understand you correctly, she’s not stepping up from inside her cage. You also mentioned that she does often come out of her cage when you leave it open. Have you tried letting her come out and then asking her to step up? Sorry if I’ve misunderstood.


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Yep. Let her step up from the door once she gets out.

Some birds don't like things getting poked into what is essentially their nest.

That may be a "boundary issue" with your bird. "KEEPA U HAND OUTTA MY NEST!"

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Yes, that’s what I did w/ Levi. My husband made me a wooden stick. I offered the stick with a treat and praise. We did that for a while building trust. Than eventually I stopped w/ the stick and offered my hand along w/ the treat.
Than I stopped the treat but still said, “good boy”. I’ve learned Patience is the key.

Good Luck.

She unexpectedly stepped onto my arm today, then repeated the feat several times! She was on the floor or on her cage, though (she had flown down from her cage on which she was playing) so who knows if she will learn to do it from actually inside her cage or if she will have to be let out first and then get on my arm. I suppose either works for me as long as she remains as keen on leaving her cage as she is now.

She wouldn't take the reward I offered (I think maybe she wanted to have her beak free to grab on if she started to fall? She seemed a bit nervous about it...) so I just praised her a lot while she was on my arm.

Thanks again for the encouragement.

Get this bird used to riding around on your arm. Just walk around the house with her for 15 minutes a day.

Sounds like a nervous/confidence issue to me.

Birdman666 said:

Get this bird used to riding around on your arm. Just walk around the house with her for 15 minutes a day.

Sounds like a nervous/confidence issue to me.

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That makes perfect sense given that her previous owners only transported her by toweling. I'll just take it easy and let her build up confidence. Thanks!

Mark, I’ve been thinking about this lately (had rescues on the brain) for cases like this, if you manage to get an untamed bird out, what is your method to get it back in when you’re done without undoing all the trust you’ve developed? This is assuming the bird is uncooperative and doesn’t want to go back. Or is this simply just not an issue with cage bound birds?

I'm fairly certain a cage bound bird would relish getting back to the cage more than anywhere else in the house!

I'd opt for just using whatever method they tolerate for transporting and try distracting with copious treats along with a load of treats sat in plain view inside the cage

Bryce said:

Yeah, she doesn't step up if I let her come out of her cage first either, though the only good place for standing to step up from is the top of her cage, where she unsurprisingly likes being and doesn't usually want to come down from.

Thanks for all your input.

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WHEN THEY DO THAT, GET A CHAIR.

They know the difference between being in a position to control them, and NOT being in a position to control them. EVEN UP THERE, I'LL JUST GET A CHAIR AND A TOWEL BIRD... Please don't make me do this the hard way... step up nice....

I don't know. My birds all WANT to be picked up. I have the opposite problem. I walk by a cage top, and a foot goes up in the air...

She's really progressing fast. She stepped up onto my hand from inside her cage this morning. I'm going to build her a perch / play stand this weekend so she can have somewhere fun to go in my office, and hopefully generalize from stepping up onto my hand to stepping up onto any perch.

She tried to get up on my shoulder but I didn't let her. She seems to be getting more confident about riding on my arm and hand, though, so that's good.

chris-md said:

Mark, I’ve been thinking about this lately (had rescues on the brain) for cases like this, if you manage to get an untamed bird out, what is your method to get it back in when you’re done without undoing all the trust you’ve developed? This is assuming the bird is uncooperative and doesn’t want to go back. Or is this simply just not an issue with cage bound birds?

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CAGE BOUND birds are cage bound because THEY DON'T LEAVE THE NEST, AND DON'T YOU DARE TRY TO TOUCH... THAT'S MINE!!!

They WANT to go back. What happens is the cage is their place of safety, their world gets reduced to THAT. This is all I have. This is my home. If I lose my nest, I lose my source of food, water and safety... I will defend it to the death. And I'm not coming out.

What you have to do is gradually EXPAND their view of the world, and it's a shock to them at first, and they will fight you tooth and nail... and they will be fearful at first. [FIGHT OR FLIGHT - they bite, and they try and run back to their cage.] It's normal.

THIS is one of the reasons why you work with cage bound birds in another room away from the cage. (The other reason is territorial aggression. PROTECT THE NEST FROM INTRUDERS!) In fact, the first thing I do is put them in another room on a playstand NO CAGE... A few days of no bars... people walking by... other birds... scarey objects... and just keep putting them back down on the playstand.

AFTER A DAY OR TWO... NOT SO SCARY ANYMORE. I GOT FOOD AND WATER DISHES HERE TOO... Those people I was afraid of, stop and talk to me, bring me treats, scratch my head... those other birds don't attack me, and want to interact with me.... IT'S ALL VERY NEW, BUT I KIND OF LIKE THIS...

Eventually... you reverse the process... Sometimes it takes a few days. Other times it takes a few weeks. Some cases take a few months... depends on the bird, and what it's been through... BUT THAT IS HOW IT'S DONE.

Bryce said:

She's really progressing fast. She stepped up onto my hand from inside her cage this morning. I'm going to build her a perch / play stand this weekend so she can have somewhere fun to go in my office, and hopefully generalize from stepping up onto my hand to stepping up onto any perch.

She tried to get up on my shoulder but I didn't let her. She seems to be getting more confident about riding on my arm and hand, though, so that's good.

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Yeah. Consistency is the key.

Once they do it the first couple of times, and understand that it's not threatening, then they allow it.

When it happens consistently, they know the boundaries, they know what to expect, and when to expect it. Then you gradually expand what they allow from there... as they get more and more comfortable with being out, and being with you.

Just a little bit each day...

Mark, let me refine my question because while I mentioned being cage down I did not in my head imagine a scenario where the bird is afraid of coming out of the cage.

When I say untamed, I think I may have a bias in perhaps smaller birds like conures who are much more flighty.

Let me step back and ask, the majority of the larger birds that you rehabbed, where any of them untame but not cage bound, And how did you deal with getting them in and out of the cage without damage to the training?

Quite simply, the scenario i’m imagining: you’re working with a bird on the stand in a separate room and you finish up. How do you get the bird in gauge if you won’t step up to your hand