Hey nattyd, The very first things I want to say is this....Please just sit back and remember baby steps, as training definitely isn't a race. 2nd, and I was just reminded of this the other day, reduce your expectations, meaning, if your bird never talks, it's okay, if it never tames, it's okay, if your bird doesn't do anything other than be a bird in a cage, then that's fine too. When you start from this point, there are no disappointments, only excitement if he/she accomplishes anything, other than sit in a cage, eat and poop and look beautiful. This is the best place to start, and you'll never be disappointed, because honestly, bird owners require too much of there bird. So start here, first feed your bird, and be diligent, figure out the first thing your bird grabs.....a nut, a sunflower seed, whatever it is.... This immediately tells you what your birds favorite food is. 2nd, remove that particular item from his/her daily feedings, and use that particular item for training treats. Now each time you walk by your bird or interact with your bird, drop a treat into his food dish, what were trying to accomplish is every time your parrot sees you, he gets a treat, so he sees you, something good happens. He will at some point start getting excited to see you, and quite excited to receive the treat. Try scratching his head, if he bites, no treat, if he allows it, he gets a treat. Still when you interact with him, pass him a treat, and at some point he will allow you to hand feed him, build your bond, and start the trust cycle here.
So now lets talk about Yoshi and toys. Yoshi wild or domestic, it doesn't matter, has a natural instinct to maintain it's beak. Birds use chews in the wild to naturally trim their beak, they chew. Place a toy in the cage, if the bird is freaked out by that toy, try another toy, and so forth until you find what your bird likes. There are chew toys, their are shredding toys and their are foraging toys, thats how I classify them in my mind, The chew toys are wood, leathers, things like that for the bird to chew on, make sure the wood, leather is appropriately sized for your bird to be able to chew on, domestically, or wild either way it's natural for these guys to chew. Second lets talk shredding toys, I know you've seen them on line at different parrot outlets, it's usually a hanging toy, usually made of paper and stuff, it is made for your bird to destroy. A toilet paper empty roll, paper towel empty roll, be creative, use your imagination, make it playful for your bird, youtube it and get ideas, follow the suggestions, and make your own, I even see pinatas for birds, and that is a shredding toy, you can also hide treats in them. The foraging toys are toys made to conceal treats, birds love to forage, and they do that in the wild. They love moving things out of their way to get to their food, parrots aren't dumb, they have a natural instinct to do this. My Mother had a little girls purse, she hung it in her Moluccan's cage, she would hide treats in that purse, When her Moluccan was in it's cage, he immediately ran across his perch, used his head and beak to open the little flap, and stick his head in that purse and get himself a treat, He loved that purse! If you search foraging on line, theirs a list of puzzle games, if the bird moves an object to a certain position, the treat drops out, you just want to make sure you start with a simple puzzle treat game for your parrot, then make it more difficult, all the way he's learning, brain development and he's getting better, this keeps him busy for hours. I hope this helps in building trust and a bond with your parrot, the three classes of toys and what they are made to do, and I hope you'll use these ideas to occupy your parrot. I've read many places to keep only two toys in a cage at a time, usually to prevent crowding. So out of the three classes of toys I've described, figure out which two classes your bird likes most, then every two weeks switch those two toys out for two more toys of different class, during those two weeks your bird will forget about the toys you've removed, and play with the new ones, and again in two weeks exchange those toys out again, with the two toys you removed two weeks prior or with two toys your bird hasn't seen before. Either way rotation of toys is important, and will keep your bird busy, will keep your bird active and will keep your bird from becoming bored. 3 things you want to prevent at all costs, (1) Boredom (2) Tired, make sure your bird is getting 10-12 hours of uninterrupted sleep daily, it's very important for your birds immune system and general health, I see Noodles123 talk about this very often with new parrot owners, it's very important, and worth the mention again. (3) Hunger, make sure your parrot is eating healthy foods, which mine has a mixture of seed, pellets, then in another dish has fresh sprouts, veggies all chopped up for her to eat. In with her seed and pellets are nuts, and sunflower seeds mixed in, so she has several varieties of food, and several choices. I want her to eat many different kinds of veggies, different textures, different tastes, and sometimes your have to experiment with sizes and shapes. You will get the hang of it, but these items are very important for your parrot, so your bird is getting proper rest, proper nutrition, and you have toys to reduce boredom. This should be very helpful in now proceeding to taming, and training. Hope this helps, and hate that it's so long.
