MITHU NOT PINNING HIS EYES

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adil Zaman
Posts: 21
Joined: Wed Aug 21, 2013 1:00 am

MITHU NOT PINNING HIS EYES

Post by adil Zaman »

hi all after spending past two week spending loads of time with mithu trying to get somewhere with his trust,,, at first he was so scared that the slight movement and he would flap crazy in the cage,,,, then it got to the stage wer i cud place my hand near to him on his perch in his cage and he wud remain calm,,, and im so glad to tell u all that after alot of effort and time spent jst sat next to him and constantly trying i now can put my hand in the cage and rub his beak :wink: he nibbles on my fingure but nothing that wud hurt.... also out of cage he manages to step up onto a hand held perch then onto my finger but wen he is on my finger he bites hard on my finger/hand and draws blood.... the question is he allows me to scratch his neck and remains in one position,,, wen i scratch his neck he looks so calm no hissing,lunging or biting,,, he doesnt even pin his eyes,,, does that mean he is enjoing being scratched and is not scared??
AJPeter
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Re: MITHU NOT PINNING HIS EYES

Post by AJPeter »

I think the answer is yes he does like the neck scratch but it seems ot me you are rushing the contact go back and start again building trust between you, if Mithu is not sure what the outcome of your latest move he will defend his position by biting it means you are pushing him too fast.
AJPeter
zentoucan
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Re: MITHU NOT PINNING HIS EYES

Post by zentoucan »

adil Zaman
The Idea is to have your Bird come to trust you and that is achieved by having Daily trust and bond building sessions.
By using the following method you are showing your bird you want to be their friend and have no intention to do harm and food is a great motivator. Do not stick your hand into their cage. This is an invasion of their territory, big no no After all how would you feel if someone just walked into your house or room un-invited. Also watch the eyes, if the eyes are pinned then I would not put my hand near the bird as the bird could be over excited or aggressive, either way you will most likely be bitten.
If your bird bites you, do not yell, scream, cry, jump around or put on a show. The bird will see it as a great show and will be encouraged and reinforced to continue biting. This become unwanted reinforced behaviour or learned biting. The best thing to do is ignore it no matter how much it hurts. Leaving the room can work. Showing your displeasure on your face and saying no in a tone of voice that also conveys your Displeasure but you don't need to yell.

Anyway, first you need to find out what your bird's favorite food is. I suggest that you put around five different foods on a plate.
These can be a couple of sun flower seeds, pumpkin seeds, corn kernels, pine seeds and a couple balls of millet. watching, see which one he eats first. This will be their favorite food. Now that you know, you use this food as a training treat and you use it only for training.

I gather the bird is caged inside the house and probably in the living room. Don't put the bird in a room by itself. This is the method I used on Bluey with great results. You will need a clicker. Once you have accomplish this method you will need to continue interacting daily with your bird.

Day one: When the bird is in the cage, enter the room and go to the furthest point from the cage with the clicker in your hand. Approach the cage until the bird shows signs of being alert and/or frighten. Stop and just stand there and wait until the bird relaxes. Then click the clicker once and take two to three steps back. Wait two to three minutes, then approach the cage again until the bird shows signs of being alert and/or frighten. But make sure you get a little closer. Stop and just stand there until the bird relaxes then click the clicker once and take two to three steps back. Repeat this method until you are standing next to the cage. This can take about 15 minutes to do. Then walk away. Wait for around 20 to 30 minutes and repeat this method until you can walk up to the cage without the bird being scared. This could take 7 to 9 times. Once you have done this. With the clicker sit next to the cage and eat some food and have a spray of millet with you. When the bird shows interest and approaches you offer the millet and wait. When the bird takes some of the millet click the clicker once.
Once the bird gets use to taking the millet replace it with training treat. Feed the bird through the cage. This can be done in one day. Remember to click the clicker once every time the bird take the training treat.

Day two: Start by feeding the bird through cage. Do this for 10 to 15 minutes then wait 20 to 30 minutes. Open the cage door and offer training treats at the cage entrance. Be patient and remember to click the clicker once every time the bird take food. Do this for at least 7 to 8 times that day with 20 to 30 minutes breaks between.

Day three: Open the cage door and get the bird to the entrance with training treats and remember to click the clicker once every time the bird takes food. Now instead of using training treats you go back to the spray of millet. With the clicker and millet in the same hand and with your other hand make it into a pistol. Focus the bird attention onto the millet and then bring the pistol hand up very slowly to the feet of the bird. Your finger must be parallel to the perch and level with the bird's feet. Don't touch the bird. Don't remove your pistol hand from this position. Now move the millet so it out of reach of the bird. The bird will have to step forward to get to the millet. Therefore stepping up onto finger. At first don't expect the bird to step up onto and/or stay on your finger at first and there is a possibility you could get bitten then again you might not. Do this for 10 to 15 minutes then wait 20 to 30 minutes and repeat this method again at least 7 to 8 times that day. You will need to continue doing this daily to reinforce the behaviour of stepping up.
TIP if the bird doesn't take the training treat within 15 to 20 seconds. don't click the clicker and remove the treat from the bird's sight for 5 to 10 seconds, then re-offer the bird the training treat.

Of course there is the possibility that you might not achieve the results for each day session just continue that part of this method the next day. I achieved results in three days with Bluey but I spent a lot of time with Bluey to achieve these results.

Remember not to force the bird. The idea is to train the bird to do what you want without force. Every interaction you have with your bird is a trust and bond building session and always finish any interaction on a positive.

Of course it's up to you how you train your bird but over the years I have used many methods some good, some bad. but found this method achieves excellent results in a short time. But like anything worth achieving, you need to apply time.
If you want to build trust and bond with your bird then you must use some type of reward system whether it's food or vocal praise.
alterative methods which don't use reward system take a very long time, lack in clear communications between you and your bird, giving results that will be mediocre at best.
If you decide to use this method please give feedback with your progress.
adil Zaman
Posts: 21
Joined: Wed Aug 21, 2013 1:00 am

Re: MITHU NOT PINNING HIS EYES

Post by adil Zaman »

thanx aj peter,,,, and zentoucan i really appreciate ur indepth explanation i have took on board everything u have explained and will keep u updated the only problem is mithu only eats sunflower seed if i remove that and replace his food by something else he wont eat so im stuck???
AJPeter
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Re: MITHU NOT PINNING HIS EYES

Post by AJPeter »

You could try two bowls one for sunflower seed and one for pellets or other type seeds. When l first got Billie she had been eating a diet only of sunflower seed for years and no fresh fruit of veg. But she quickly made the change when she found what l offered was more interesting. A water bottle with ball bearing feed is a must it keeps the water clean and available on demand they soon get the hang of supping from the tube and this woudl free up one of the bowls.
zentoucan
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Re: MITHU NOT PINNING HIS EYES

Post by zentoucan »

adil Zaman
you need to improve Mithu diet. So I would focus on changing Mithu diet before commencing a training schedule. If the bird's diet is unhealthy, than the bird is unhealthy both physically and mentally. This will not achieve good results in training. Your birds diet should consist of vegies, fruit, nuts, seeds and a small amount of protein (chicken). calcium is also required, especially for hens. My birds are fed a diet that's consist mainly of vegies than fruit than nuts than seeds and around once a week protein. There is a cuttlefish bone in their cage and they can eat this when they desire. I don't feed Delfin and Bluey the same vegies and fruits each day.

I suggest they you remove Mithu food bowls when Mithu is put to bed. Leave the water bowl or water bottle. In the morning offer some food to Mithu through the cage. Offer a piece of broccoli or carrot. If Mithu eats it, bonus if not move on. I would reduce the amount of seed slightly and replace that amount with chopped vegies, fruit and pellets. Chop the vegies and fruit to around 3mm to 5mm cubes, that's around the same size as sunflower seeds. Then put the food bowl back in the cage. Repeat this each day and slightly reduce the seeds and increase the vegies, fruit and pellets. Until you reach a ratio where there is more vegies, fruit and pellets then seeds. That's the danger of sunflower seeds. Birds love them. But the sunflower seed diet cause health and mental problems which can shorten the life span of a bird.

in hot weather, every 2 to 3 hours I would be checking and if needed replacing any vegies and fruit. also don't just fill up the food bowl. you don't want over feed the bird. Instead start using foraging toys. This is good for the mental simulation of the bird. Look on the internet for suggestions on how to make foraging toys. Pine cones are good start.

AJPeter the water bottle is a great idea
adil Zaman
Posts: 21
Joined: Wed Aug 21, 2013 1:00 am

Re: MITHU NOT PINNING HIS EYES

Post by adil Zaman »

Understood il work on changing his diet thanx again ur a legend
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