Advice please!

[LegendClappitao]

Hello! I have a 6 month old sun conure named Phoebe. I have a couple of curiosities to satisfy.

Whenever I look in her direction while she’s in her cage, she stops whatever she’s doing and comes to the closest point to me. She flaps her wings and bobs her head like a baby.

But when she does this, and across the board, she won’t come out of her cage without a treat, unless she really wants out.

My questions are, what is the explanation behind her behavior? I don’t want to have to offer her a treat almost every time I take her out of the cage, what can I do?


Another question, she has a learned fear of hands. How can I work on that with her? She’s starting to get some pin feathers and I’d really like to help her with them if I can get her to let me.

She hates hands near her, but sometimes she’ll lay in my hand on her back. I figured this out when I had to check under her wings after a bad fall. After checking for anything of note, she let go of my finger and just laid in my hand. But any sudden movement and she’ll scramble to her feet. Is this a sign of trust? How can I work on her being more comfortable with this?

 

[wrench13]

How long you had her? Hand familiarity can take quite some time, depends on the individual bird. PATIENCE!!

 

[nkrbkr]

Try target training to start building (or rebuilding) trust. It keeps your hands at a comfortable distance, and is an excellent way to communicate with your bird. Eventually, you can try using the target to get her to step up onto your hand, go into a carrier on her terms, etc. It has lots of useful applications, as she will learn that touching her beak to the target stick, wherever it may be, will get her a treat.

 

[LegendClappitao]

How long you had her? Hand familiarity can take quite some time, depends on the individual bird. PATIENCE!!

I’ve had her for a couple months now, she’s fine with stepping up at least when she’s outside her cage.

 

[LegendClappitao]

Try target training to start building (or rebuilding) trust. It keeps your hands at a comfortable distance, and is an excellent way to communicate with your bird. Eventually, you can try using the target to get her to step up onto your hand, go into a carrier on her terms, etc. It has lots of useful applications, as she will learn that touching her beak to the target stick, wherever it may be, will get her a treat.

Yeah I've done some target training, but not as much as I should probably. She steps up perfectly fine when she’s out of her cage btw