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JHFcyclist
11-12-2009, 10:48 PM
This is a great option as it will allow us to look back and see how our little guys have been progressing.

Tweety is my little guy that I bought from a local pet store the first week of October, I believe. He had his baby bars down to his cere and super dark eyes. Now, his eyes are developing the white ring and a few of his bars seem to have faded.

When I got him, I made some major mistakes with training but for the first four weeks or so I was pressing into his belly to make him step up, was letting him have access to millet at all times and he wouldn't eat anything other than his seed.

About a week or so ago, he bit me and I searched out help immediatley and got terrifice feed back on some corrections I could make. The first thing I did was clean out his millet supply such that the only time he got it was from me and for doing something I wanted him to do.

The second thing I did was really focus on his body language... who new that him opening his beak was NOT a cute gesture and a sign of irritation? :o.

Lastly, I introduced him to Beak Appetite's Veggie Delight and put just a touch of millet on it to get him intereted in it.

As of today, Tweety eats his veggies now and has branched out to red leaf lettuce. He'll take a little chunk of it and jam across the counters... it's hillarious to watch him run with his lettuce.

He is also more willing to come to me since I've been millet training him and not pressing onto his belly. He allows me to pet his breast bone, his feet and sometimes allows me to lightly blow on his feathers. He perches on our shoulder and seems to enjoy us now that we know there are times to give him his space and let him be.

His biting has been extinguished because I've been responding to his body language. He's no longer lunging at me but we've gotten it down to a very slow beak opening... I want it to get to leaning and so on so he understands I'm trying to respect him and his space.

Will update on his success but I'm not sure I'll have fancy tricks, I'm wanting to bond with him first and get him to trust me despite the wreckless training I started on.... (Don't listen to pet shop clerks who say they are the bird handlers and they are feeding the fish) :rolleyes:

:budgie:

JHFcyclist
11-13-2009, 11:08 AM
Tweety's Log Stardate 11-13-09

Morning Training: Like I said, just trying to get my little dude use to positive training now and a specific routine. Was changing water dishes and such and didn't notice any beak opening but when I went for his food dish there was a bit of a lunge there. I think I may have missed some language before that. Placed a small ball of millet on the back of his cage so that I could get his dishes, paper and such changed.

Prepared his veggie delight infront of him and he started running back and forth on his perch in excitement and then came down to see what all the good smell was about. I placed his dish back in his house and he quickly started to munch away without sprinkeling millet. However... lol... he saw me with some lettuce and promptly hopped out of his cage and into the bowl of lettuce! Ate some and moved to the bowl of brown rice and ate some then jumped up on me without millet as an incentive. Not sure if I should have rewarded this kamakazi behavior but I did so once he was on me just to let him know that I have millet and therefore he might want to chill with me. I placed him on his favorite perch and we practiced him coming onto my finger for the millet and stepping off of my finger for the millet until one ball was destroyed... maybe 5 or 6 ups and downs all together and then I let him play. Will go back to it this afternoon.

Do I need to weigh him before and after training?

Flight
11-14-2009, 07:12 PM
Hi JHFCyclist,

You are doing good, keep at it! In regards to weighing before and after training, I only do that because it let's me monitor the birds diet, and behavior(hunger drive) more closely, I plan to do more extreme training later down the road, so I use weight management as my guideline. If you have a little buddy for just chillin' around the house I wouldn't worry so much about it.

JHFcyclist
11-22-2009, 02:34 PM
Progress! It's been slow since I changed from pressing against his belly, but he looks much happier, he's making his own decisions to come to me and best of all... HE HITS THE MOTHERLOAD! This is his first weekend in the apartment and he seems to be enjoying it!

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh213/JHFcyclist/th_Tweetymillettraining.jpg (http://s257.photobucket.com/albums/hh213/JHFcyclist/?action=view&current=Tweetymillettraining.flv)

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh213/JHFcyclist/th_Tweetyhitsmotherload.jpg (http://s257.photobucket.com/albums/hh213/JHFcyclist/?action=view&current=Tweetyhitsmotherload.flv)

tilly
11-22-2009, 02:49 PM
great videos and the training is really paying off.

louara
11-22-2009, 06:28 PM
You are both doing great, keep up the good work:)