Hi! My Mealy Amazon is 1 year old and we got him/her from a breeder about 10 days ago.
He is warming up very slowly to his new cage and environment.
It took him 3-4 days to try and nibble the toys and he is always reluctant to step on new perches unless it is placed in his cage for 4-5 days.
We followed the general advice of leaving him rather undisturbed in the cage for the first week, only talking and giving treats when we get nearby.
After a week, we tried to open the cage door and talk/train with him twice a day. He seemed quite happy about it!
He is willing to eat from me and my husband's hand, will let us touch his beak gently and briefly, and shake hands with us now. He never suddenly bites strongly, but he hates it when we try to touch any other parts of his body.
We briefly cleaned his cage with him inside the cage everyday, but after 10 days the cage needs to be more cleaned more thoroughly, so we need to let him out of the cage, and there comes the problem...
He would climb out via the open cage door to the top of the cage.
But once he gets up there, he has no idea how to come down.
When the door is shut, he can climb down the door and reach bottom of cage, but with the cage door open and not as stable as when it is shut, he dares not climbing down like that.
We introduced ladder of different sizes, he just eyes them dubiously and would not use them.
We tried to ask him to step up a perch, but he would only place 1 foot on it, not trusting enough to shift his weight on the perch.
He is also unwilling to step up to out hands and let us pick him up, even though we made effort to keep out hand very steady. He refuses to step on our shoulder as well.
When he gets really desperate to get back into the cage, he made a leap...He couldn't fly properly so he was scared when he landed roughly. It was a sudden leap so we didn't catch him in time.
After that, he gave up trying to go back and just stayed on top of the cage no matter how sleepy he was.
We had to grab him gently and put him back, but obviously he was pissed about it.
Any suggestions on how to teach him going back to the cage in a peaceful manner?
He is warming up very slowly to his new cage and environment.
It took him 3-4 days to try and nibble the toys and he is always reluctant to step on new perches unless it is placed in his cage for 4-5 days.
We followed the general advice of leaving him rather undisturbed in the cage for the first week, only talking and giving treats when we get nearby.
After a week, we tried to open the cage door and talk/train with him twice a day. He seemed quite happy about it!
He is willing to eat from me and my husband's hand, will let us touch his beak gently and briefly, and shake hands with us now. He never suddenly bites strongly, but he hates it when we try to touch any other parts of his body.
We briefly cleaned his cage with him inside the cage everyday, but after 10 days the cage needs to be more cleaned more thoroughly, so we need to let him out of the cage, and there comes the problem...
He would climb out via the open cage door to the top of the cage.
But once he gets up there, he has no idea how to come down.
When the door is shut, he can climb down the door and reach bottom of cage, but with the cage door open and not as stable as when it is shut, he dares not climbing down like that.
We introduced ladder of different sizes, he just eyes them dubiously and would not use them.
We tried to ask him to step up a perch, but he would only place 1 foot on it, not trusting enough to shift his weight on the perch.
He is also unwilling to step up to out hands and let us pick him up, even though we made effort to keep out hand very steady. He refuses to step on our shoulder as well.
When he gets really desperate to get back into the cage, he made a leap...He couldn't fly properly so he was scared when he landed roughly. It was a sudden leap so we didn't catch him in time.
After that, he gave up trying to go back and just stayed on top of the cage no matter how sleepy he was.
We had to grab him gently and put him back, but obviously he was pissed about it.
Any suggestions on how to teach him going back to the cage in a peaceful manner?