Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 11:53 am Post subject: Hand Training
Hi there, new to the forum so I apologise if this is the wrong place for this or if I have missed something but I wondered if anyone could give me advice on hand training my new kakariki.
I'm a first time owner of a bird, little Faust is a happy, seemingly sociable little birdie who I have now owned for a week. Baring in mind that he was aquired at a 'Pets-at-home' store, and so almost definately not hand raised and so I had some questions about hand training.
I have found one website which offers a hand-training plan but just wanted to see if there were any other guides or training plans avaliable, his cage is on the larger side so he is not cramped up but I want to start letting him fly free in the room as soon as possible, but have heard that you should have parakeets handtrained before you do this.
Any help much appreciated, should have pics of the little guy up fairly soon.
if you look through the kakariki pets section you will find lots of info on this subject and lots of ideas that others on the site have used also to your left on the screen there is a seach function if you type in taming or hand tame some stuff will come up
Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 9:55 pm Post subject: training
I can recommend to all parrot owners books written by Mattie Sue Athan (sp?) She writes about all parrots so you kinda have to sort out what might be good for a Kakariki but she does mention them. All of her advice is relevant though. -just on a small scale
The main thing I have learned with my new Kak- a male-is that he is very territorial and fights me like crazy, he started at about 6 months of age.
If I take him out of eyesight of his cage he calms down.
Mattie Sue starts her problem birds (doesn't matter what the problem is) by learning step ups. You start by putting a stick in front of them and asking the bird to step up. Then you have them step onto your finger from the stick and/or another stick. This can take minutes or weeks depending upon the bird.
Ignoring bad behaviour is another big thing to learn in training parrots. If you have a biting bird, you have to ignore the threats and actual biting for them to get over it. She writes that biting is not a natural behaviour in the wild, so you have to decide that the bird will stop when he gets used to you and doesn't feel threatened any more. -Let me tell you this is hard when you are working with a cockatoo or a Kakriki that draws blood-
The other things that she tells you about that is important is not to reinforce bad behaviour by laughing or smiling at inappropriate moments- such as when your partner gets bitten...
maybe you can imagine if you withdraw your hand quickly to avoid biting this is reinforcing biting too. Flinching is a no no too.
In any case, her books are usually available in good bookshops and on the net, and are reasonably priced. good luck! K
I have tamed cockattos from the bush, to small birds and even dogs (I dont like dogs)
Its all in watching body language...back off before they do
Never force then to do anything, give them a good reason to do it themselves.
I do not use the commonly accepted "reward with a bit of food" thu food is often used to give them a reason.
And trust...
A lecturer I had when studing Industral pschology....BEFORE the days of politically correctness BS...said "there is no difference between young children, staff, and a pet dog" nearly 40 yrs on, and I still fully agree with him.
They all do things because they have a reason, and all push boundries.
They question then follows "whose boundries" and if they are ours, who is responsable to maintain them?....you!
If a boundry has been allowed to be overstepped it take 3x times the effort to maintains, just to get that boundry back.
A truely lazy person will therefore maintain the boundaries rather than let them be over stepped...It is not lazyness that causes boundries to be over steped...it is stupidity. _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
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