Gimli enjoying a head scratch

Two months ago she wouldn't even accept treats from my hand (or anybodyelse's) or even having any hand near her (hands are scary) -- let alone having her head scratched!

So here she is two months later enjoying a head scratch(!) And totally disproving David Alderton's statement "[Red-rumped parakeets] will not become hand tame. Only suitable as aviary birds" in his book "The Cage Bird Question and Answer manual" published in year 2000.

So, I'm sorry Mr. Alderton, but your statement sucks because Gimli would hate being stuck in an aviary far away from her human friends and the mental stimulation her training gives her (not to mention that she finds it fun!). Mind you though, to his credit, he has good general advice on housing birds and what to feed them.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• clicker
• training
• positive
• reinforcement
• operant
• conditioning
• bird
• red
• rumped
• parakeet
• pet
• gimli

[Riolugia]

how do you allow gimli to head scritch? D:

I can't head scritch mine T_T

he's even afraid of millet seed D:

but he's a cutie too :3

and I dun wanna force him to have a head scritch either D:

what should i do? D:

[wyvern10]

I couldn't head scritch Gimli either from the begining. In fact She wouldn't even take food from my hand. I used a similar technique as shown in the video "bulding trust with you bird" (do a search on you tube for it) to get her to take food from my hand. Then I taught her to accept me touching her head in exchange for a reward. Slowly she accepted this and even found it rewarding! Another good video: "Parrot Training Video THE 'Power Pause' Technique"

[ghoxommok]

how do with my you do that man pls rply if i do that with my redrumped I would be looking for another finger

[wyvern10]

Well Gimli used to be aggressive when it came to petting. So what you can do instead is use the "withdrawal of your hand" as a reward for being calm and not lunging for your finger. You can even combine this with a food reward.

[wyvern10]

Find how far away you can hold your hand and your bird remins calm. Take you hand as close as possible to your bird (with it still reminaing calm and not lunging for your finger) say "good!" (or if you have a clicker "click" it) and then withdraw your hand. The withdrawing of your hand is actually a reward in itself, but I combined this with a millet reward. Repeat this and sucessively bring your hand closer and closer. Good luck!

[Avatinfernus]

Hah, I wouldn't believe red rumps to be evil birds that can't be tamed either ;p

[wyvern10]

So, I pick them out of her food and give them to her as treats instead! A great video to watch is "building trust with your bird" (to find it: type "building trust with your bird" in the you tube "search" field and watch the first video) Good luck!

[wyvern10]

They are probably are scared of you(!) I know this may sound strange, but birds are essentially "prey" animals (in the wild they get eaten by other things). Give them time and find out what kind of foods are their favorite (if you give them a seed mix, check out what the gobble up first), I found that Gimli likes sunflowers seeds.

[SayOk77]

i just got 2 parakeets and it seemed like they dont like me!! how do u get them to like you???

[metallicvegangirl]

i can't even do that with my parakeet!