The best order in which to teach new things?

Adopted male budgie, he has been here for about ten days. New bird owner.
Is there a recommended order in which I should train him for the things I want?

He is like a cat and has a limited time in his schedule that he wants to dedicate to me. So today after the first hour of hanging out on my shoulder as I work on the laptop, he flew back into his cage and he is very happy doing his bird things and completely ignoring me.

There are many things that I want to teach him, but I don't want to overwhelm him with demands, we are still adjusting to each other. Should I work on one thing until we get it right most of the time, then advance to something else, or work on several things at once?*We are still on some of the basics, as I am quite certain he has been fed a diet of pure millet, never took a bath, probably never used a cuttlefish bone or toys or flew outside of a cage. So that is already a heap of new things, a whole new lifestyle.*

I am very grateful he came trained to perch on a finger and when he is flying around, he lands either on my outstretched hand or head, or on his cage.*Is attempting to teach him to land on hand on command too soon?

My main concern right now is that I will be visiting my parents in a few weeks for a few weeks. He is of course coming with me. I live in a very small apartment (about 240ft2), we will be guests on a mostly open floor plan top floor of about 1100ft2 and a high high ceiling. Scary or an unique opportunity to fly more, I don't know. I don't know if at our current place he lands on me just because it is convenient and how he would behave in a much bigger space.*

If he seems to trust you, I would work on stepping up. If you put your finger out, will he step on when you say it? You wan't want to push him with your finger (even that was one old-school way that they used to tell people to do it--it isn't a good idea). If you have a finger there and some food behind it will he step on for that? You don't want to stress him out or hurt the trust you have built, but without seeing how how he acts around you, it's hard to say if it's too early---You want to build and keep trust without scaring or stressing the bird, so you will have to judge how much you can do without pushing too far.

If he doesn't already, you definitely want him to EVENTUALLY learn that when you put your finger out and say, "step up" what it is you want him to do. Where you start on this process depends on whether he understands at all, how much he trusts you and whether he is comfortable with your hands.

So,if you were to put your finger there and he walked away, I would back it up further and maybe try starting with target training (which rewards them for touching a stick (as long as he isn't scared of sticks--like a chopstick or straw--again- only if you think that won't freak him out). If he isn't scared, he will likely touch it out of curiosity when it is near him, then make a sound (like a click w/ your mouth) the second he touches it , and give a treat right away. Once he gets that he has to touch the stick for the treat, you can move the stick to different places (over time) and he will try to touch it to get the treat, which means you will start being able to move him to those places as well...Over time, you could put out your finger, hold the stick behind it at which point he would have to step onto your finger to touch the stick

Everything will happen in gradual steps---so if you do target training, it is a long process in some cases-- you always want to keep training short/sweet/low-stress and try to end it on a positive note. Also, remember, if you reward with food, they will get full at some point, so don't do it so long that the reinforcer/reward loses its value to the bird.

The target training I talked about is related to clicker training but they aren't the same. The clicker could be any sound that tells your bird that they did what you wanted and a reward will follow, but you can make any sound as long as you keep it the same. Some people like to use an actual clicker, some people click with their mouths, some people use another sound entirely. When target training, people often USE a clicker, so that is the overlap, but you could use a clicker for other desired things even when you are not target training. Does that make sense? So..target training involves getting your bird to touch targets that you assign, and clicker training is teaching your bird that when it hears a special sound (click) that it has done what you want and a reward is coming.

Okay, that makes sense. Thanks.

He steps on the finger if I put it in front of him, no food necessary and I don't know if the previous owners used voice commands or not but doesn't seem to be required for the stepping up.

I tried to teach him - lift this object and you'll get a treat-. He caught on within minutes. Scary. I'll put some chopsticks to work then.

Here's a video of target training
some videos on target training :

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqtptXFyb2c"]YouTube[/ame]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=499lzd9hNMY"]YouTube[/ame]

Ok, so I am suspicious that he knows some of this already. Or, it took us about two minutes to establish that touching the tip of the chopstick means food. I'll get a clicker before we advance with the rest. Thanks for the help.

3001 said:

Ok, so I am suspicious that he knows some of this already. Or, it took us about two minutes to establish that touching the tip of the chopstick means food. I'll get a clicker before we advance with the rest. Thanks for the help.

Click to expand...

You don't even technically need a clicker--- you can just make the sound yourself if you want to..like a click with your tongue by positioning it right before that bony ridge on the roof of your mouth--the one behind your front teeth lol! I do a pretty decent clicker impression lo

Birds DO kind of remind me of cats in a lot of ways---although mine is like a cat-dog-child lol--she still has her own ideas about things and wants me to know those because, in her mind, they are SO obvious LOL!


Budgies are super smart---If he is food motivated and bold, he could have picked it up that fast (sounds like he trusts you- which is great!)
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSltVBW0I2k"]YouTube[/ame]
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYcWA_RNl1s"]One Phrase Leads to Another - YouTube[/ame]

You can also work on the ladder step-up method, which is basically stepping up onto your hands over and over almost like an escalator? Steps on, then steps to other hand, then steps to other hand.

Some progress happened in the meantime.

He now flies to my hand on voice command and this works if i call from another room too, out of line of sight. He also goes back to the top of his home cage or small cage on voice commands. But only if he feel like it. If he doesn't feel like it, he goes into his cage and is very happy to chirp to himself and ignore me.

The only part of training I haven't had any luck with is food related. I am trying different things, slices of food on the cage, chopped tiny, blended like a smoothie, with seeds mixed in or on top, feeding him from my palm, or instead of seeds in his usual food bowl... all this food is met with severe disappointment. He looks into the bowl, sees carrot and apple bits and does an upset yip.

Yay! Glad things are going so well!

LOL- I can relate. My bird is an attention-seeker and that is her biggest reward. She does like some foods, but mostly only the ones that are bad for her lol (she can sit by herself, but she wants to be a part of things and she loves enthusiastic praise)...or human food treats (which she rarely gets).

If it helps, mine took a year to try spinach (despite weekly exposures) and now likes it...but it took FOREVER...so keep exposing your bird to thing you want your bird to eat (even if there is resistance to those foods).

Aw, I am jealous of the shoulder perching!
I have two and they are spoiled with a bunch of "better" perches than me, so that never happens spontaneously in my house.
One of them will hop to my shoulder on command, but as soon as he has swallowed his treat he goes back to one of his other perches.

I've had mine since April and we've only learned step up (though I didn't bother to add a verbal command, they just do it), come, "get on the scale", using a target stick, picking up (and throwing) a ring, hop to my shoulder .. and they know to wait their turn. They pretty much know which name refers to which of them, but they don't always respond to their names so that's hard to tell. I guess they also know "lets watch tv" means lets chill on the perch near the couch for a bit before bed.

We're still working on "go home" .. they clearly know what it means, but they expect me to carry them there. They don't go on their own yet.
But I think my biggest struggle is having the two of them - they've been together since before they were weaned and they learn much slower when I have to try to work with both of them at once. Cypress knows more because he is more willing to spend one-on-one time with me, but we're usually still in the room with Citrine and can easily get interrupted by him.
I've tried taking one into another room for more quality time but they get pretty concerned about being apart so I haven't pushed it much.

It sounds like you are doing awesome with yours!
If I have any tips to offer, though, it would be to start with things that will make it easier to handle the bird if it gets sick or hurt. That was my *intention* with Cypress and Citrine but we got off track. I'm trying to circle back to it now.

I'm working on:
- Conditioning to be comfortable with a small syringe, preferably eventually taking a drink from it. They are *terrified* of it, so I'm having to use the target stick to encourage them to come near it and get a treat. Cypress will touch it with his beak at this point but Citrine will only tolerate looking at it from a distance.

- Letting me cover their back with my hand and eventually turn them over on their back.

- Letting me touch their feet not just with my fingers but with a small emery board/file.

- After all of the above I want to work on letting me touch/lift their wings too..


And I don't know if it helps, because mine were already on pellets, but the first new food I actually got them to try was brown rice. I put a little bit on a plate next to a little bit of pellets, and with some pellet powder sprinkled on it. Once they realized they loved that, I was able to mix a bit of other neutral colored things into the rice to prompt them to taste it, like seeds scraped out of a pepper. I did have to offer the rice to them every day for a week before anyone tried it at all.

The first produce I actually got them to eat was basil, hanging from the top of their cage so it dangled down near their favorite perch. I left it looking as much like natural leaves as possible. Now they will eat *anything* green as long as I hang it like that.
Basil, mint, romaine lettuce, mustard greens, asparagus, celery leaves, carrot tops..
They will not eat bright colors yet though.. no carrot flesh, no red or yellow or orange peppers..

Oh! Since I couldn't hang corn or peas, I got them to try those by stringing them with a needle and thread. I made a strand that alternated between some kernels of corn, some peas, and some leafy greens they were already comfortable with. Then I hung that the same way. Now they LOVE corn and will eat it right off a cob if I hang one in the cage.
(Just don't leave a string like that with them unsupervised in case they might get tangled in it)

Edit: Also, mine have never once ingested a fruit. Absolutely will NOT. I was hoping fruit would be a good training treat (all they really get motivated for right now is spray millet). But I tried fresh apples, apple sauce, dried papaya, dried shredded coconut, fresh strawberry, fresh cherry, fresh blackberry, fresh banana, dried banana, dried pineapple, dried mango ..
In fact, they love their classic nutriberries so I got some fruit-mixed nutriberries.. and they literally threw them on the floor. Didn't even pick off the seeds.

I should probably go back and try to put some brown rice in their chop (which they currently refuse to eat).. I stopped giving any to them because Cypress threw up one day. I wasn't sure what caused it, so I stopped all their newer foods and never picked that one back up.

I suggest setting a specific time for training every day or night, and keep to that religiously. Rn thru the tricks and actions he knows, and introduce new things in these sessions. Your gonna find that the more you teach the easier he will understand what you want from him. I work with my Salty every night and he gets new tricks in like 2 or 3 tries for most. Here is the latest trick i taught him, the dart board.

[ame="https://youtu.be/r1Z0dWHDqSk"]https://youtu.be/r1Z0dWHDqSk[/ame]


He has lots of videos, link is below.