Mixed signals

Icca

Well-known member
Feb 1, 2022
124
394
I've been following a thread here about interpreting if a bird actually wants a head scratch or if the behavior is indicating something else, and it got me thinking about a situation I'm having with my conure.
Quick background; rescue bird I don't know much about old life. Had her since March.
So where we are at now she will come out of the cage and climb to her play stand and is comfortable there. Took her awhile to even come out of the cage.
She targets climbing all over the cage and play stand and will step up onto a perch. Will NOT step up onto my hand.

So very recently she has she has started to climb off of the step up perch and onto my arm and straight to my shoulder. She will also climb onto me from off of her cage. Which seems like great progress but I still cannot step her onto my hand. She will lunge or fly away.
So I'm feeling confused on what to do next. Should I stop giving her access to climb on me? Or should I let her approach me in this way since it is something she is comfortable with?
 

WingDing

Well-known member
Nov 13, 2017
229
Media
1
530
Texas
Parrots
Toby - RS Eclectus
Midori - Nanday Conure
It is very common for birds to have fear of hands and/or feet. My Eclectus hates hands and he's been with us for all 4 years of his little life. One day, he decided that hands were bird monsters. He steps onto my upper arms and shoulders without problem.

Desensitization training is the first step, as I understand. I've been working on desensitization for months. Progress is slow, but our bird will now touch his beak to the knuckle of my first finger as a target. He will also accept a treat as a reward from my open hand, not from my fingertips. I still work on general desensitization to my hands every day as well as the target training with a stick and with my knuckle as targets. Some days are perfect, some days we regress.

Birdtricks has some good videos on fear of hands and desensitization. Just search for "birdtricks hands" in YouTube. Here's a good one:

Another good video here:
 

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