Loving Luna

[Luna]

Welcome to Luna's training journal!

About Luna:
I got Luna at a reputable pet shop in Toronto on March 11, 2011. I'm not 100% sure about her age, but she still has her baby-bars so she's probably only a few months old. To my knowledge she was never hand-reared.

About Us:
My boyfriend and I are in our mid-20's and love animals. (He is called Luna_Daddy on this forum.) His family owned birds throughout his life, including a yellow-headed amazon! I am a newbie to birds, although I am absolutely loving it so far! We both hope to form a bond with Luna someday.

So far...

We got Luna exactly one week ago, and she's settling in very nicely. She chirps, grinds her beak, preens, eats well, and doesn't mind our hands inside her cage (as long as we move slowly). We've been spending lots of time talking to her and blink-bonding so far... and she consistently eats millet out of our hands! :)

Today, Luna stepped-up for me for the very first time! :D She sat munching away for at least 10 minutes. Eventually, my arm got so tired that I had to drop the millet in hopes that she might step down on her own! (I wanted her to stay in control of the session.) But even after the millet disappeared, Luna just kept her little feet on my finger. :love: She just relaxed there and enjoyed perching on something soft and warm. :happy4: Finally, I brought her up to her rope-perch and she dismounted with confidence! :proud:

I am so proud of my Luna. I think I am getting pretty good at reading her subtle body-language and putting her at ease. This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. :giggle:

[louara]

This is a very nice idea :) Seems to me like the two of you are meant for each other :)

[Luna]

Day 9:

Woke up this morning and had breakfast next to Luna. Did some talking and fed her a little millet before heading out for 2.5 hours.

In the afternoon she was very excitable - making lots of noise and moving around the cage a lot. At this point she was not very receptive to any training sessions, so I just let her be hyper and searched "Talk Budgies" in the living-room with her!

Spent the evening studying on the couch next to her cage. Talked to her from time to time and sung to her a lot. She was more skittish than usual though, so I just sat with my hand in the bottom of her cage for a bit without doing anything more.

Decided to have a real session once she seemed more relaxed. Fed her some millet and then tried some stepping-up. She sat with one foot on my finger for a while, but I didn't push her to step up completely considering her mood today! I don't want to push her beyond her comfort zone.

Hopefully there will be continuing progress next week! But I worry sometimes that she will regress when I spend more time at work (Monday to Thursday). I wish I could just spend every day at home with her!

[Leel]

Bonding seems to going well, she sounds so sweet :)

[Luna]

Just a quick update because I wanted to post a nice photo of Luna!

Still working on the bonding/taming. More details coming soon!

[Budgiekin]

Luna is absolutely lovely! I think I am going to have to steal her... I mean visit her. Toronto isn't all that far away from Ottawa you know... :P

[Luna]

Big update!:p

So, I've started clicker-training with Luna, and on the very first try she was chasing the target around the perches in her cage! I was so proud of her. She really is the smartest little birdie ever! We've been practicing for less than a week, but she's totally got the hang of it. I think that clicker-training is fantastic, because it gives birds their own power and autonomy. I've actually noticed a huge difference in her level of confidence!

In fact, tonight I got Luna to REPEATEDLY step up to get millet from my hand. (No stomach-nudging required). She willfully shuffled onto my finger every time. :D I consider this a huge success!!!!!!! :wow: I gave her tones of praise and a fair amount of millet too! hehe.

I can tell that she feels very proud of herself, and I think she enjoyed the interaction a lot. She's been sitting there grinding her beak and blinking with me for 15 minutes since our training session ended! I've never seen her so content!

I'm so glad things are progressing. When I can reliably get her to step up, I will let her out of the cage for some flying-time! Can't wait!!

I love Luna so much it hurts! :loveeyes:

[Dries]

Lovely bird! You are doing great; I don't have so much patiece to do what your are doing.

[Luna]

Day 28:

Cleaned the cage this morning and practiced the step-up shuffle a few times. (That's what I call the technique where I get her to shuffle sideways onto my finger from the end of her other perch... so my finger becomes and extension of her perch). All went well, and my boyfriend successfully practiced with her too.

Tonight she had a big training session of "shuffle-step-up" I'm getting her to gradually step forward/up instead of sideways onto my finger. I'm gradually increasing the distance of my finger to the perch, so she actually has to decide to dismount her perch and climb onto my finger. It's going so well! I had her stepping up onto my finger, then I would let her munch millet while I looped my hand behind her rope-perch. Then I would say "step up" again and get her to mount the rope, followed by another big millet reward. We continued this cycle quite a few times... I hope she didn't get dizzy!:p (Don't worry, I was moving very slowly.) I totally think she's getting the idea that "step up" means step up and forward from one perch to another.

I hope that soon I will be able to get her to step-up from any of her perches! Right now she will only do it from the original "shuffle" perch.:o Birds are so particular!:rolleyes:

I feel that she is gaining confidence! I really hope that I can get her completely tame someday. I definitely have the patience and persistence! It would be so rewarding!

[Luna]

Ah! Another update. Just gave Luna a bedtime snack (millet)... and attempted to give her a scratch! She finally let me! It was amazing. I'm not sure whether she was tolerating it, or loving it... at times she was blinking slowly and turning her head to the side so I think she was feeling good. But then again she nipped at me once or twice (never actually bit me though, she's not a biter). I think she was feeling torn between "I'm a little freaked out by this" and "wow that feels so good on my pin feathers!" (she's moulting).

Either way I'm ecstatic! :D I think Luna might be fully tamable one day!