New Conure, How to Train?

[Birder]

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[Calorious]

I got a conure 4 weeks ago.
He is very active and healthy, under 5 months old.
He comes to me if he sees that I have something food-related. He will eat treats (millet or fruit) from my hand, beyond that he is wary. He has stepped onto my hand twice and he was off just as fast.
I'd like to be able to work with him, but I know it takes time and patience.

I spend everyday with him. I am with him for most of the day, only taking breaks for necessities and chores. I talk to him and sing and read to him. He cocks his head like he is interested, and he gets excited and chirps a lot. He's been making new sounds lately.

Every morning he gets fresh food and water (along with veggies and fruits). I talk to him and let him out. I open his cage to allow him out and he goes in and out as needed. He is only locked in his cage when I cannot supervise and when it is bedtime.

He has lots of toys and he plays with everything. He recently learned basketball. Every time he made a basket, I praised and gave a treat.

I am proud and I feel like this is great progress. But what can I do to work with him further?

How can I encourage him to step up?
I can be vary patient but I would like to know if I am going about this the right way.

First of all, welcome to the forums to you and your conure.

Firstly, it seems like you are doing quite fine. But different parrots all take their own times to get used to their new owner(s). Sometimes, this could be because of their previous environment & owners (if applicable).
From what you are saying it seems like he's doing nothing but playing, eating, drinking and interacting with you. You should try and get it to start basic training with him first such as target training. You can move on to clicker training which should get him to step up as a way to tell him/her that they are doing the right thing. These two trainings should allow your parrot to begin trick training and also practice more of stepping up.

If your parrot doesn't seem to really care about you (because it's very independent in a pet store like my conure which I got from well, a pet store), you could try to hand-feed it for a few days straight. My conure used to care about nothing but food. So I took food away from it's cage and hand-fed it from morning to night and would only give it food when it's his bedtime incase he is still actually hungry.

 

[Birder]

He is very interactive and curious, very busy. When I first got him, he flew everywhere and had bitten me out of fear. It's gotten better. I haven't been bitten since. Each day he seems more comfortable with me.
I just got him to step up, and he has been consistent with it, but he only steps up on my arm- and only if a sleeve covers my hand. He does not like my hands unless there is food or toys in them. Hopefully this changes with time.

I will look into target and clicker training. I've read on them a bit and seen a lot of videos.
I will also try more hand feeding. My bird loves food. (Is it okay that he eats a lot? Only a little at a time, but he does eat often. I am rather paranoid because I heard that conures are prone to obestity, fatty liver, and kidney failure.)

Thank you for all the helpful advice!

Any other tips are welcome!

 

[wrench13]

Hand feeding his normal food is fine. But for training, figure out what his most favorite, special treat is, and that becomes your training treat. For my Salty, its small slices of pine nuts. Experiment a bit he may like something else more. But save that for the clicker and target training. Especially if your conure is food motivated. Some parrots are 'mmeeehhh' when it comes to food, and their owners have to come up with a different reward system.

 

[Talven]

Some parrots are 'mmeeehhh' when it comes to food, and their owners have to come up with a different reward system.

My GCC is like this. He will take the food from you and drop it so he can keep an eye on you. He's about 18mnths and I still don't know what works with him as a reward.

There is a forum section with some great advice and tips on training I would suggest you read through. It has been of immense help for me with my birds.