Grabbing Gizmo with no strugle and holding him in 4 days

[Amjaid]

Hi Guys,

As some of you know Gizmo has been settling in well and is quite tame, he steps up, down lets me pet him when he is up for it but NO GRABBING! I've been seeing al these videos on youtube and how people grab their IRN with no strugle and the bird just allows it and i've been so dying to get Gizmo to do this but realised that it wil take time. Anyway after basic training like turnround and just trying different things ive managed to now grab gizmo for 5 seconds with his legs just hanging and he allows it. My technique is below and I have got my sister to now try this on her IRN and also working.

Day 1;
Sat on a chair with about 10 treats on my left hand and gizmo on my right leg with my right hand just behind. I give gizmo a treat with my left hand and while he is eating I give him a few pets and strokes on his back with my right hand fingers. when he stops eating i stop petting. I do this 5 times so I only have another 5 treats left in my left hand and now Gizmo realises that when petting stops food stops so I can tell he now wants my stroking so on the next 5 now rather then just using my fingers to stroke him im stroking him with my palms and feeding him continues treats with my left hand and when he finishes one I stop stroking and then again until finished and then I just give him a kiss and lots of praise and thats it for day 1

Day 2;
same position on the chair with 10 treats on left hand and Gizmo siting on right leg, he now loves this as he realises all other training he only gets one treat but this training must be special as he's getting one after another and obviousely realises whatever im trying to do I must really want him to do it.

So on this day same again but now im stroking him with my palms and every treat im changing the shape of my palm similar to the shape of when grabing a bird and stroking him while giving him treats with the left hand, after a 5th treat my stroking has now become much more tighter against his body and almost wrapping him with my palms and just letting him get use to a firm stroke with a full hand wrap.

Day 3;
10 treats again but this time as im stroking down with the full palm wrap I am pausing for about 3 seconds when palm is wrapped around him and then I just slide and stroke down, after the 5 treat now rather then just stroking him im giving him a treat and wrapping my right hand around him and then when he finishes his treat I stay on untill he wants to move and i let go and then another treat and grab again and he just now allows me to hold him for longer

Day 4;
10 treats again, I warm up by just starting with strokes and then back to grabs and then with every treat when I grab I do a lift and lift him about 1 cm and then down and follow with a treat but this time with vocal praise so he knows he is achieveing what I set out to. I then increased the lift height from 1cm gradually to about 10cm and now I can grab, lift him up and hold him for 5 seconds and then put him down.

I was so excited I wanted to post progress now but day 5 is now going to be grab, lift and tilt slightly backwards folowing the same treat process, I will continue tilting backwards until I got him on his back and then gradually realease my fingers so he is lying there....Fingers crossed, will keep you all updated!

Thanks,

[ellieelectrons]

Thanks amjaid

I had been trying something similar to this with Janey. I can get my hand around her body quite easily but I she freaks out when I try to lift her up and grabs onto whatever she is perched on at the time really tightly.... and if that's me, it hurts! lol

... but I might try again, exactly following your method and see how I go.

Thanks again.

Ellie.