clip or not toclip?

[neomymikey]

i want to start to train my irn he was given to me as a unwanted pet he chats a little and mimics a few sounds wolfwhistles he happily sit on my shoulder or my head sometimes he will step up but he will NOT let me touch him!!!!
He just flys away is it best to et my little mans winged clipped so ican further his one on one training can they grow back after a while???
thanks x

[ellieelectrons]

Clipping can make it easier to train your bird... but it is a personal decision as to whether you want to clip.... and in some countries in Europe it is illegal to clip your bird's wings.... but you are right, the good thing about clipping is that you can always let the wings grow back.

Are you trying to train your bird using treats? Will he take treats from your hand? If he doesn't, that is the first step in training. There are a number of ways people on this forum have described training them to take treats... but thought I'd ask if you are there yet before describing these.

Ellie.

[neomymikey]

He will take treats from my hand raisins does the trick!!! He does step up but wont let me touch him and smooth him

[ellieelectrons]

He does step up but wont let me touch him and smooth him

Some birds will never be comfortable with being touched. Our female is (but only when she wants you to) but our male isn't. Perhaps you could try some other behaviour trainings?

Having said that, last week someone posted a link to a Chet Womach video that seemed ok and could work for what you are doing. When I train our birds, I reward them for behaviour approximations. For example, when they were learning to wave, I would reward them for any movement of their foot (as soon as they moved their foot, I would say wave, give the hand signal, say "good bird" and give them a treat). The very slight difference in the Chet Womach video was that he was rewarding the bird for being calm. If you were to use this technique, you would start by moving your hand towards the bird but stop when the bird begins to look uncomfortable (this may be when it is still quite a way from the bird). When the bird calms down, then give the bridge signal (when I train, I say, "Good girl" or "good boy" whereas Chet uses a clicker) followed by the reward (in Chet's video the reward was that the hand went away but if your bird isn't that freaked out by your hands generally and likes taking treats from your hand, I would give him a reward). Do several short training sessions in a day and see how it goes. Your bird will let you know when he is tired of training. If you are using raisins as your treat, you may like to cut them into small pieces so it takes longer for the bird to get full.

Good luck.

Ellie.

[jimmyjack]

just dont sign up or express interest in chet womach - the emails DO NOT stop.

i clipped my birds wings yesterday. hes about 3 months old and a very good flyer. he was starting to become quite cheeky, knowing he could zoom off - getting into things he wasnt allowed, deliberately avoiding us around bedtime, and other unrulely things. not bad, just cheeky. i intended on clipping him once our other, iggy, accepted him and stopped attacking. but since he was clipped, its as if his spirit is broken. still early days (only one infact!) but i am somewhat doubting if it was the right thing to do.

i only intended on doing the one clipping, and then after hes properly trained, let them grow back. thats where im at now i guess. something to think about anyway

[ellieelectrons]

just dont sign up or express interest in chet womach - the emails DO NOT stop.

Yes, I should have also added... I don't advocate all of Chet's techniques... some of them I don't agree with at all... and I also don't like his marketing style! I also haven't bought any of his products so my opinions are based on some free stuff I've seen.

My fav professional bird person is Barbara Heidenreich. I have bought 3 of her DVDs and been to a live workshop and regularly read her blog.

My two are at the stage of requiring another clip too. I'm resisting for now - there's been a couple of times when they've flown on the fridge or launched at us when we didn't want them too.... but for now I'm going to try to keep them unclipped and see how they go. If they get too unruly (eg. sit up on the high ceiling fans and chew the cables) then we will clip them.

Ellie.