Timeline of your birds progression

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pattiB
Posts: 139
Joined: Tue Sep 10, 2013 11:10 am

Timeline of your birds progression

Post by pattiB »

after you brought him/her home. Would you mind sharing those mile stone moments? Like
1. when they first came out of their cage
2, when they first stepped up onto your finger from their cage
3. when you could put you hand inside cage and have them step up to go elsewhere.
4 when you first gave scritches.
5. showers.
6. bird playing big time with the family
7. I could go on and on,,but for us newbies, and I probably speak for some, we'd LOVE to be inspired by your birds time line!
Thanks
AlphaWolf
Posts: 289
Joined: Wed Sep 25, 2013 7:06 am

Re: Timeline of your birds progression

Post by AlphaWolf »

That's a really wonderful idea pattiB, can't wait for someone to answer this post :wink: . Unfortunatley I have not reached any milestone yet :( , but I guess it's all about patience. :)
"Live with parrots and you learn to panic"

AlphaWolf
pattiB
Posts: 139
Joined: Tue Sep 10, 2013 11:10 am

Re: Timeline of your birds progression

Post by pattiB »

Thanks. We do however have to keep in mind that every bird is different. I just thought it would be fun to be inspired with reading on patience. I reallllllllly wanna scratch Gracie's head! lol...I'm not sure just when I should try? I don't want to go backwards at all. Do I wait on her to offer her head in a down position? I wish wish wish I could remember this all from when we had Coco (cockatiel) many many years ago. We handled him and played with him and scratched his little head. I just can't remember all the details..the way we ended up doing all that. lol
ellieelectrons
Posts: 2708
Joined: Mon Jul 19, 2010 1:17 am
Location: Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

Re: Timeline of your birds progression

Post by ellieelectrons »

Hi Patti

Sorry, I can't remember all of those milestones but I can remember how I trained Janey to like being pat on the head. I did it using treats. She'd be sitting on her play perch where I would regularly interact with her to learn tricks. I then put a pile of treats in my hand and as she put her head down to eat them I'd pat her on the head. However, I did gauge her body language as I did it and if she seemed uncomfortable I'd pull back. I probably started with just putting my hands in close proximity to her. Now, she asks me when she wants pats. Charlie on the other hand has never really liked pats. Occasionally he'll let me, either when I'm feeding him treats or when I pat Janey.

Ellie.
Doodlebug
Posts: 319
Joined: Tue Jul 16, 2013 7:14 am
Location: Suffolk, UK

Re: Timeline of your birds progression

Post by Doodlebug »

Nice topic :)

Mine is only a young one too (6 months, not handreared) so I've not achieved many milestones yet but i was so nervous/excited when he came out of the cage for the first time! I did this using the clicker and target stick, it took absolute weeks and unfortunately I can't say exactly which week it was but I can't remember ever being that proud (its a different kind of proud to what you feel for your children, for some strange reason!)

I have yet to get him to step up, he's a biter at the moment! But I did touch his back while he was distracted the other day, exactly how Ellie describes it. Sometimes we have to be sneaky :twisted:

I want scritches! And showers! And bigtime playtime haha! Oh well, one day... :)
Loo :)
InTheAir
Posts: 2040
Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2013 4:24 pm

Re: Timeline of your birds progression

Post by InTheAir »

I guess we look at Nilas milestones differently. We look at his physical goals he sets for himself and his prowess at solving foraging puzzles as his great achievements.

He was super tame when we got him and got annoyingly tame for a while, now we are back at super tame. He spent the first few weeks with us watching us from the curtain rails a lot, but he was happy to step up when we climbed up to get him. We knew he would start interacting with us when he wanted to.

Our milestones were things like him learning to fly a tight circle so he could land on shoulders instead of our heads when he wanted us (it took a few weeks for that to become reliable).
It took him months to learn how to do his signature death drop or beak hang of faith where he grabs onto a loose curtain ring and jumps off the railing so he ends up hanging from his beak and swinging. It's so cool, he worked on it for ages and had many stacks!
Every single foraging puzzle he solves is so amazing.

I guess the interacting one I had was when I realised the bird could learn to do anything I could explain to him. I can remember it quite clearly, I had just taught him to fetch his ring from the end of the perch where it was hanging and we were admiring how clever he is, we started discussing how cool it would be if he could hang the ring there himself. I showed him what I meant and he started figuring out how to do it straight away. He has made up his own technique that is a little akward looking, but it works.
Every time he learns a new trick I am super impressed by his intelligence and enthusiasm. He always picks them up faster than I expect!
Donovan
Posts: 833
Joined: Tue Oct 08, 2013 4:18 pm
Location: North Carolina

Re: Timeline of your birds progression

Post by Donovan »

The most significant milestone with my IRN was him learning to fly. He was 6 months old when I got him and it took forever for his flight feathers to come in. (another 6 months)

When he would try to fly he would just go straight to the floor. Then one day he tried to fly away I noticed he caught some air and landed on something intentionally.. Still it was down from him but the point is he control crashed onto it.

The very next day he was flying 15 ft down the hallway before landing on the floor. The day after that he was flying down that hallway and then up to his cage... so now he was a flyer.

This was a milestone because he became a significantly different bird at this point.. more cocky, more confident, and even -less- willing to be touched. (no problem going to my finger or taking food or hanging out with me or playing games.. just no petting).

I tried teaching him to talk throughout all this. Every time I came home from work I would walk in and say "hey what's up".. he never even attempted it. I tried other things.. for weeks and months at a time with no effort on his part, so i gave up teaching him to talk.

One thing I was trying to teach him was "treat" and "thank you".. I'd say treat while offering him one, and then say thank you when he took it. I was hoping that he would learn to say thank you for being handed something.
So one day I'm sitting around and he lands on my shoulder and says 'Thank you" clear as day. I assumed he wanted a treat so i gave him one. He never said thank you again.

He learned his vocalizations from youtube playlists, which i learned later was a bad thing to do. If you want a bird to talk don't teach them to whistle first.
Redzone
Posts: 108
Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2013 2:27 am

Re: Timeline of your birds progression

Post by Redzone »

That "don't whistle if you want to teach your bird to talk" is an old wives tale ;)

Not all birds will talk, but whistling wont prevent them from trying it.
ranechild
Posts: 295
Joined: Mon Apr 01, 2013 12:57 pm
Location: Baltimore, MD

Re: Timeline of your birds progression

Post by ranechild »

Fats is 7 months old today and i can say with certainty that teaching whistles first won't prevent talking.
Also, Fats does not like to have scritches. I'm getting closer to encouraging him though. One time and one time only, after his bath, he let me work on some of his pin feathers on the back of his head. He even seemed to enjoy it. I was THRILLED!!!!
Skyes_crew
Posts: 1946
Joined: Thu Feb 28, 2013 12:49 pm
Location: Hawaii

Re: Timeline of your birds progression

Post by Skyes_crew »

I used to use the term teaching your bird to talk. But recently I've changed my way of thinking to encouraging your bird to talk. I think where some people go wrong is that they pick a few words that they want their bird to say and they repeat just those words to their bird. If you've ever listened to the birds in the trees in the hour before dusk you hear the loud chatter going on. Birds are social creatures. If you only own one bird, you must replace the flock they are lacking. That includes that social chattering. Talk constantly to your bird about everything and anything. Birds will pick up the words they want to repeat. Then you can mold the words into phrases. But if the bird is left to the quiet too often, I believe he loses his desire to try.
I am owned by my birds...and I wouldn't have it any other way :D

Image
Donovan
Posts: 833
Joined: Tue Oct 08, 2013 4:18 pm
Location: North Carolina

Re: Timeline of your birds progression

Post by Donovan »

I agree that they say what they want to say. Mine has been saying peekaboo regularly the last couple of days. First time I said it to him he seemed completely amazed by it. Even now he responds better to peekaboo than he does his name, (Bell).

Also I heard that birds like the "k" sound and another letter. Can't remember the other one
Dixie-1
Posts: 103
Joined: Fri Aug 23, 2013 12:59 pm
Location: St. David Az.

Re: Timeline of your birds progression

Post by Dixie-1 »

We picked Quinn up right after he was weaned, put him in his cage when we got home and left him alone except to observe that he had found his food and water and was eating. The next day we opened the door and let him discover his way around. When we open the cage door he comes right out probably around day 3 or 4 he met hubby's finger in the door and heard up, so he hopped right up on his finger like "its about time" Ha Ha ! I think because we are home a lot and the fact that his cage is right in the living room with us has helped a lot. Our worse problem is he loves to harrass the dog, who sorta just tolerates him ! We would NEVER leave them alone for a second ! :shock:
Just takin a break !

Image
Kimma
Posts: 87
Joined: Tue Oct 15, 2013 9:46 pm
Location: Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia

Re: Timeline of your birds progression

Post by Kimma »

I'm curious about the really early milestones.

I'll be getting my bird when zie is almost 6 weeks old. Will zie be able to climb and perch by then? If not, when do they get strong enough/learn to do that? About when do they learn to fly?

Will I need to get a bed/box for hir?

I'm thinking now I better keep a baby book to record all this stuff :)
Chewy78
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Nov 02, 2013 9:52 pm

Re: Timeline of your birds progression

Post by Chewy78 »

Hi there, I am just new to this forum, but I can tell you that we have reached a lot of milestones since I got my Frankie 4 days ago.
The first day he was screaming, biting and flapping everywhere. Snapping at us if we got too close.
The 2nd day, he was taking treats from us (after the first 100 tries lol) and stepping out of his cage (we have a playtop cage)
The third day, he was hanging out on my shoulder and we watched tv.
Today, the 4th day, he is following me all around the house and has now been cuddled up to my head for the last hour while I have been reading this forum, lol. However I am still afraid of him biting my ears, lol, and he has tried a few times, but I "Squak" loudly at him and he instantly stops. :)

I was aware he was wild and untrained when I bought him last Friday, but honestly I was so shocked at how loud, frantic and snappy he was when we got him home. I truly never thought he'd change this quickly, but we spent a whole afternoon on the 2nd day taking turns and talking to him gently. With his biting, I am shocked, but the "squawking" at him actually worked! They seem to be crazy intelligent!
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