vedwed
New member
I have a few questions regarding the teaching of the Step Up command.
First off, I am wondering how to go about teaching my amazon to step up, I have had other parrots and not had a problem with this yet. I have some books on parrots and have read and tried their suggestions, with no good end results, so my question is, being that Oliver is 4 years old (we have had him for a week or so now) maybe does he associate "step up" with punishment, or only in and out of his cage for wing clippings?
I do not know who owned Oliver before we found him in an exotic bird store, or if he was played with or socialized, the store owners said his previous owners (a woman and her young son) had to get an apartment and couldnt keep him. He says a few words but doesnt seem to like many of the toys we have for him, and will only come off his cage when he flutters down to the ground, or the couch, but he wont step up then either, we have to scoop him from behind when he tries to step over my finger.
I thought maybe we could use a different phrase, but that doesn't seem to work either yet. Maybe there needs to be more of a trust bond, I am not sure, and I have no problems working on building one. The only problem I have is that he wont step up on a stick either, matter of fact he is terrified of it, making it rather difficult to get him out of danger if it comes to that. We have dogs also in the house, and I do not trust all of them with our feathered family member yet, so I was hoping to learn a trick or two from some of the more experienced members here.
Thanks much for any input, it will really help
He is great once we get him off of where ever he flutters to
First off, I am wondering how to go about teaching my amazon to step up, I have had other parrots and not had a problem with this yet. I have some books on parrots and have read and tried their suggestions, with no good end results, so my question is, being that Oliver is 4 years old (we have had him for a week or so now) maybe does he associate "step up" with punishment, or only in and out of his cage for wing clippings?
I do not know who owned Oliver before we found him in an exotic bird store, or if he was played with or socialized, the store owners said his previous owners (a woman and her young son) had to get an apartment and couldnt keep him. He says a few words but doesnt seem to like many of the toys we have for him, and will only come off his cage when he flutters down to the ground, or the couch, but he wont step up then either, we have to scoop him from behind when he tries to step over my finger.
I thought maybe we could use a different phrase, but that doesn't seem to work either yet. Maybe there needs to be more of a trust bond, I am not sure, and I have no problems working on building one. The only problem I have is that he wont step up on a stick either, matter of fact he is terrified of it, making it rather difficult to get him out of danger if it comes to that. We have dogs also in the house, and I do not trust all of them with our feathered family member yet, so I was hoping to learn a trick or two from some of the more experienced members here.
Thanks much for any input, it will really help
He is great once we get him off of where ever he flutters to