Little Guy has a Name / Training Update

Posted by raz on Jun 17th, 2008
2008
Jun 17

I’m continuing to practice flighted recalls with the Tiel, as is Hugh. He’s doing really well, but is still somewhat skittish in general. He’s doing great with the big birds though, even when he gets stalked by Carly or chased away by one of the macaws. Takes it in stride and finds a place to hang out peacefully, then sometimes flies back over to hang with the big guys. Calm and not easily intimidated! Thus his new name: Rocco (see link if you don’t know why.)

I’m also working on putting him in a carrier. He will go quite willingly into a small travel cage I use for Carly (it’s been his cage until I get a bigger one out of storage). This went surprisingly fast by giving him treats and meals in there. Now I’m working on an easier-to-carry carrier, a small plastic one with the metal front door. He’s been warier of this, particularly after I had to put him in and out of it twice fairly quickly one night last week when it was not trained solidly enough yet (and when I found myself at work with a dead battery). He got agitated with having the door closed the second time. But we’re getting it back on track. After letting him get used to being around it, then putting food on top of it, I’ve been offering him food inside the carrier, and am starting to place him inside when he is taking a treat from my hand. And tonight I was surprised to see that he had settled in for the night — not on a rope swing in the bedroom where he’s been sleeping — but out on the patio sitting just inside the doorway to the carrier. I was hoping he’d eventually find it cozy.

Here’s a picture I took this morning.

rocco_boing_june08

(No he doesn’t have an orange crest! That’s part of a toy.)

Training a Tiny Untame Tiel

Posted by raz on Jun 13th, 2008
2008
Jun 13

I’ve just started training a fully flighted, untame cockatiel that a neighbor found last week. I’m using methods I learned from the Bird-click group and Barbara Heidenriech’s workshop. Here’s a description of the first steps I’ve done. He did not like hands at all, and did not want to sit next to people. Each of these steps was done using very small increments, clicking and treating, and only moving on when he was very at ease with the previous step.

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