'Step-up' Trouble

[FracturedPoem]

Hello,
I recently got a baby Pineapple Green Cheek Conure, and it's proving to be very difficult to teach him the "step-up" technique. He always jumps from my hand to my shoulders the first chance he gets, and refuses to leave that area. Any advice would be great.

 

[ottoman]

hold it in front of t perch and let him only can stand your arm hand and perch not shoulder work harder friend .
you will see happy end

 

[MonicaMc]

Hi FracturedPoem and welcome to PF! I know how you feel! Jayde, my newest conure, does that a lot, too!

Target training your greeny may be very helpful in teaching him to step up. Likewise, teaching a step up may be kind of like this.


2. Reward your bird for moving his head towards you.
3. Reward your bird for taking a step towards you.
4. Reward your bird for taking another step towards you.
5. If he doesn't run away, keep rewarding him for remaining where he's at. (if he runs/backs off, you may need to start over again)
6. Reward your bird for taking a couple more steps closer.
7. Encourage him to come closer yet again and reward him.
8. Reward your bird for touching you with his toe(s).
9. Reward your bird for putting a foot on you.
10. *JACKPOT REWARD* Give your bird lots of goodies for putting both feet on you!

 

[FracturedPoem]

Oh, he has no problem coming to me, he just would rather stay by my face on my shoulders or neck. It's very difficult getting him to stay on my hand without him jumping back to my chest to get on my shoulder, and he puts up a fuss when I try to get him back on my hand.

 

[MonicaMc]

Target training him would probably be beneficial. You could teach him to touch an object and once he understands that, you can then move onto following the target a short distance to receive a treat, then longer distances.


And if food motivated, he may very well step up for food.



I can get Jayde to step up off my shoulder back to her cage with ease as well as some other areas sometimes, and she'll also climb off my shoulder for food.

 

[FracturedPoem]

I'll give that a try, thanks. I'm still trying to get him to eat things other than seeds at the moment (like pellets and fruits), so I might have trouble rewarding him.

 

[MonicaMc]

Well, that's easy!

What are the first 3-5 seeds that he eats out of his dish every day? Is it sunflower seeds? Nuts? Safflower seeds? Corn? Peas?

Whatever the first 3+ items are, simply remove those items from his diet, and now you've got a training treat!

 

[FracturedPoem]

I'm not sure. I'll check as soon as I can. I do believe he likes the sunflower seeds though.