Post by Bonesy on Jan 27, 2012 14:25:56 GMT
Seeing as the original forum went to pot and this was a popular sticky I thought I'd bring it on over here for others to continue using;
Taming & Training Tips
Chick Training Walk through; Can be used on Adults too but will take more time!
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All information & suggestions given in this article are my sole opinion & how I have found training multiple birds best to work.
User Discretion is Advised.
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Chick Training
Picking a bird:
Go to a breeder, see his cages, birds, are they clean? Are they happy? Are they reasonably priced?
NOTE : Budgies range in price from £5 for a poor show quality bird to up to £35 for a hand reared bird. Whatever you spend, choose one around 6 weeks to 8 weeks, this is the best age bracket to get them at.
Avoid pet shops at all costs, most shop birds are well over 4 or sometimes 6 months of age, & are too far gone usually to train as well as a young chick.
Look over all the birds. If you want a male, look for a purple-blue cere. Or, pink in lutino/white. Hens will be powdery blue, almost like dusted with talcum powder. As hens age, this will turn brown.
Lutinos can be hard to sex. I believe this was a hen (left). Right is My powdery-cered hen, at a few months old.
See the following Chick images for a male example colour.
Look for the bird that is calm, happy, preening, feeding, foraging in the cage. Avoid nervy birds that go mental when you come to the cage, avoid lethargic birds fluffy and sick looking, with a bobbing tail. These are not what you want to be taking home with you.
Wink at the bird you choose, talk soothingly, squint your eyes, the bird should begin to return this gesture if it is relaxed enough. Once you have your choice, it will be boxed in a card rectangle. These can frighten chicks so if you have a small carry cage, put a single perch in it, and place the bird straight from one cage to another instead of boxing.
Day one:
Once you bring your bird home, place him somewhere warm, draft free, and quiet. Cover half the back of the cage with a towel. Don't harass them, leave him for a good hour to settle in a bit. More if required.
NOTE : Supply a small pot of food, and a small dish of water. Accept your bird may not want to eat for a day after the journey! Don't be alarmed, this is normal for some birds.
After say two hours, come to the cage & talk soothingly to your bird, bring in the winking & squinting again, this is a vital communication between you & bird in the vital first few days. It means “I am no threat, I mean you no harm. I am calm, I am relaxed, I am happy.”
You can see the relaxed look on the birds face once they react to this.
NOTE : Humans are a predator animal, we have all the physical traits of a hunter. Birds, are a prey animal, their trust in us in unnatural, you have to prove you can be trusted and are safe!
There are two ways to complete the next section of this, which is entirely up to you. I personally get it over & done with the same day the chick arrives. Some leave this until the bird has settled over a few days. If you feel confident and patient, do it within the first day.
Come to the cage, wink & squint as mentioned, place your hand in the cage, and leave it there. Your bird WILL flap about & dart about the cage, this is normal. Hold your hand flat, and still, in the middle of the cage. You can, if you wish, fold three fingers into your palm and only offer forefinger to the bird, it's up to you.
This is an important stage and it's vital in my opinion it's done correctly.
Follow your chick SLOWLY and calmly around the cage, offering your hand in some manner. Don't make any grabbing motion, keep your hand as flat as possible. Wink, squint & praise your new bird for even as much as stopping & looking at your hand. Praise more so if they get on your hand at all, or even touch it. Praise & work in small steps, never expect huge chunks, they don't know what you want of them without being guided gently.
Repeat this until the chick will step onto part of your hand, begin saying “Up!” when he does so, this will later be base for you cues to him in training Step Up, and subsequent recall commands.
Once he will sit on you, place him back on his perch, praise & leave him for another hour. Repeat this for a good 4 hours with an hour gap if possible. Using the slightly stunned phase most chicks go through in their first day to advantage is sometimes useful as long as you DON'T push too hard.
NOTE : ALWAYS leave training on a positive note, if he's done what you wanted him to, even a bit of it, that's good enough. Don't push him too much at this stage.
If he sits across the wrong finger, on your arm, on your fingertips, praise him, it doesn't matter how he does it, just make sure he knows your hands are NOT the big scary thing he makes them out to be! All the more important is this step if your bird was caught roughly, which a lot of attendants will do sometimes.
NOTE : Your chick's droppings will be likely loose and green in colour for a day or two until he settles, this is normal. It should return to a brown/white thicker consistency once your chick eats normally again.
Once your chick has a good idea your hands are not such a scary thing, you can leave him for the night. Leave him in his cage, offer him a small bit of millet spray on the floor away from his perches, so he gets used to it. Some breeders chicks don't have millet spray too young.
Don't cover, let your chick go to sleep in natural light, have an early night yourself. Birds settle better when they feel the whole “flock” has gone to bed too.
NOTE : Some chicks will not sleep on perches, but on the floor, or up on the cage bars in a high corner. Accept your chick will likely do one of these things while he is unsettled. They will use the perches eventually.
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!IMPORTANT!
Night Frights, Or Terrors.
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Chicks especially are prone to something called Night Frights, or The Terrors.
Similar to a Nightmare in children, they awake startled, scared & frankly frightened mindless.
They will scream, squeak, squawk, and flap frantically about the cage from end to end, sometimes beating themselves quite hard on the bars.
It's very important you deal with these terrors in the right way now or your bird may end up with them for the rest of it's life.
Much the same as a child, you need to come in, turn on a light, reassure and calm them. Some will be so petrified they have to be cornered in the cage and held to stop themselves getting hurt, and allow them time to calm down enough to come two.
Hold the bird, wink, squint & speak softly, reassure the bird. Holding it also allows the heart rate to slow back down again, which can cause birds a fatal attack if they carry on too long.
Once the chick has calmed, let it go and observe it for a short period, wait for it to stop flapping about & settle once more before you turn off the light again and leave the room. After this, they should re-settle and go back to sleep after a while.
You may have to deal with this once and a while as the bird is a chick, but they will usually grow out of it after a few months, and after reassurance during the frights.
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Day TWO/THREE:
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In the mornings, make an effort to greet your bird, speak to him, consciously make him feel like a part of YOUR routine. Once you've had breakfast, or even during breakfast, change his seed or top it up, let him see you eating, he will likely dive down to his bowl & eat just because you are, if he feels comfortable.
Check his droppings, they will as aforementioned probably be loose & tinted green. Observe him over the days, this should go back to a normal black & white over 3 days or so.
Repeat your hand acclimatising motions. Remember, no grabbing motions, just a straight flat hand, wink, squint, reassure. It's very important he learns sooner rather than later you are part of the family, you can be trusted, you are safe. Your bird will likely find his voice over the first 2-4 days. He will chirrup, often quite loudly, and may make an alarm call if he is in hearing distance of other budgies.
NOTE : If you have other budgies, keep the cages close, make sure the birds can see each other through the bars, but not touch. Treat all birds with Ivermectin for mites & scaly face, and allow a few days for it to work before you allow them contact.
It's important that if your chick calls out, you don't shout at him, don't holler, or yell “SHUT UP!” This will only serve to scare him & unnerve him to shout more.
If he calls, speak softly, start saying his name, or a plain pet name, like Birdie, Chickie or Fluffle (my generic terms for fluffy chicks!)
If he hears you communicating with him, he will be less likely to continue shouting for you.
It may take him a few days to get used to the idea you are a safe flock member, but give him time.
NOTE : To begin basic shouting training, wait until the bird has stopped calling before you pay him any attention. Even so much as a glance. Ignore him if he is doing it too much and speaking to him 3 times does nothing. Turn your back & wait for him to fall silent for 3 seconds. Then, turn, wink, and praise him. Keeping up this routine means as he gets to his “teen” later on (sexual maturity, basically) he wont learn that screaming after you will make you pay him attention!
You can now begin offering him toys & things to play with now he has settled. Pick small things, with bells & shiny parts. Chicks are very easily amused by simple things. They will love to chew at this age, so supply wood for them to chew also. Cat bells, swings, beads and wooden sticks are the best to start with.
A cat ball from the pound shop is an ideal & cheap example.
Here Spud can be seen tugging Mikko's swing after sneaking into their cage.
Also give small 1inch chunks of millet spray on the cage floor. Soak them prior to feeding to remove dust.
Once your chick knows what millet is (and how good it tastes!) you can use it to bribe him into staying on you for longer.
Use small segments of millet, and begin offering them only from your fingers, until he accepts bites of it. Praise him and do the wink thing to him to reassure him.
Over time, as he gets better at stepping up you can feed him this on your hands, he will then see your hands as not only a secure & safe place, but see you & adjoining parts as a means to get a nice treat once & a while.
Once he's eating millet & seeds without trouble, you can start offering small bits of dark green lettuce, spinach, apple & grass heads. Get him into greens & fruits as soon as possible, and I'd also recommend giving egg food this young to get them used to it.
NOTE : This is the IDEAL age to offer new foods, a chick is always roaming, chewing, nibbling, tugging, so use this phase as means to offer him as much fruit & veg as you can. Don't worry if he's not eating it, and dumping it on the floor. Give him time to appreciate it has a taste & to eat it properly!
Over time, he will change from simply tearing & rolling the greens in his mouth, to taking chunks & swallowing them.
If he is now accepting your hands, you can secure the house, close doors/windows, cover mirrors or glass, and place a ladder into the doorway of the cage door. Allow him to see this for himself. The ladder is important as it shows him there is an easy way in & out, as well as a good landing platform and something holding the door open.
You can use either metal ladders, or short wooden ones.
NOTE : When he comes out, he will probably not have flown distance before, so keep in mind your chick will be VERY uncoordinated & clumsy, maybe even flying into things & falling off what he lands on. Give him time. Stay around, talk to him, pick him up if he falls to the floor. Let him land on you if he wishes to. DO NOT CLIP HIS WINGS. He needs to fly, and fly properly.
Keep the food/water inside the cage so he knows this is “home” to return to if he wants it.
If he doesn't return to his cage himself, get him to step up, then quickly bring him to the level of the door & try to lean over him a little so he cannot bolt back upwards off your hand. Failing that, try to gather him in your hand gently if possible, and sit him back in the cage.
After 5 mins or more, let him out again, and repeat, he will soon have no worries about going “home”. I often say “Home!” to my birds when they are being put back away, so they know it means “Go home to your cage.”
After a time, he will get used to going home himself.
Put up ash or willow branches, washed & dried, on the cage to there is something to play on/in and forage about on. Clip treats like apple or spinach to the branches so he can rummage & find them after a while.
This is basically it, the rest is bonding between you & bird. Remember he is a prey animal, you are a predator animal. He needs YOU to reassure HIM to trust and love you!
Happy taming!
(The rest of this article is more in depth and I have included it as good brain fibre for those who want to train and tame, AND understand how and why their animal reacts how they do, this applies not only to birds but most other animals we have in our homes!)
It's a long read so get a cuppa and have a read!
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The Importance Of YOUR Rules
This is optional but I find it very important in MY training.
YOUR rules. YOUR time.
Birds will often try to do their own thing in their time, but showing them that it's YOU making the moves and deciding the processes is important to being not only a consistent trainer, but also a head member of the flock. Please see the section below for more detailed behavioural blather.
When your bird steps up and shoots off your finger real fast, this is HIM making his own decision that he doesn't want to be there anymore.
In order for YOU to be the head flock member, you need to remind him that it's now on YOUR terms. He gets off when YOU tell him to.
Now, this isn't as hard as you think. You basically need to shape what he does.
So, you ask step up, he gets on, now, this section is crucial. As SOON as he gets on your finger, say "Down!" and plop him back on a stick as quickly as he got on you.
Bam. Step One. Complete.
Down now means get off your finger/you/object.
You've now also made him get off on YOUR terms.
Breaks down into bits nicely, doesn't it?
Next step, the same, just add another couple of seconds. Down. Praise. Reward. Repeat. Ad lib, but add more time.
He figures, he jumps off before you say down, there isn't any real benefit to doing so. However, if he waits for you to TELL him down, he gets a bonus for it. A food-orientated bird like a parakeet or parrot will soon find more merit in the reward system than in "I'm going to do what I like!" system of his own. It also teaches him to follow your commands. You've effectively taught him that you run the show. Your bird will now find time ON you more beneficial than time off your hand.
See below for a perfect pictures of what this training can achieve;
This process is also useful for moving a bird in & out of a cage door.
Many birds find doorways daunting, and can we really blame them? In a wild scenario, predator with a prey animal in or on the hand is usually about to eat said animal once it starts making it's way into a confined space, usually the mouth for most prey animals unfortunate enough to get captured in the wild. Enclosure is a mentally negative thing in the animal world, but us humans don't see it as much a deal. Why you might ask. Well, simply put, it is a non event to us. We sit nestled nicely at the very tip of the food chain. That little opposable thumb we evolved seems to have made us as a creature pretty care free and easygoing.
Birds don't know that, so we have to use complex reverse psychology and reward systems to rewire the brain into another way of thinking around us. This brings me to my next point...
Mental Manipulation, Reverse Psychology, and the Premack Principles
Mental manipulation probably sounds difficult, awkward or abusive, but, trust me, it's not. Psychology is very simple once understood and opens so many door previously thought locked in the animal's mind.
Firstly, and the most commonly used, is the Premack Principle. Also called Grandma's Rule. "You eat your greens before your desert!" Basically equated: You complete me a less likely behaviour and you will be rewarded with the more probable behaviour.
Originally the term derived from a 50's to 60's study of monkeys by Professor David Premack, in that more probable behaviours will reinforce less probable behaviours. This is also known as Operant conditioning, which is the use of consequences to modify the occurrence and form of behaviour, this is because when you modify not behaviour but instead modify the environment (antecedents and consequences) that then results in the behaviour changing.
So, literally put, your bird gets to step down (the probable) only when you tell him to (less probable) but, is rewarded for the less probable. Therefore, you have just conditioned him by reversing his psychology on the situation. He now knows if he waits for you to ask him to get down, he gets a better deal out of it. You now have a bird who is happier to stay on your finger.
This can be immensely helpful as mentioned above when dealing with gates or doorways. The more probable behaviour given that situation is to move away from the confined area. The less likely behaviour is to stay put & deal with it. You have two manners or dealing with situations like this.
a) You can reverse the psychology and ad-lib the process until you achieve what you desire.
Reward once the bird reaches the comfort zone close to the door. Bring the bird back away from the door, and re-present until the fear bubble decreases in size each reward item. The negative cause then becomes a positive. Reaching the door becomes means for a reward, and the desire to move away from the object is met immediately, by moving back. This is also similar to the premack.
b) You can use mental redirection, (cue or reward) to achieve mental distractions (taking the mind away from the current thought process, like fear or apprehension) to the negative stimulus (the doorway). So, translated into layman's terms, you use a keyword with a reward to distract the bird from the fact it's coming through a door, and then once clear, you reward. The door later becomes a non-event.
c) You can block the behaviour from happening.
This means you could place your thumb firmly on the foot of your bird & very quickly draw them out swiftly from the cage door. The negative stimulus was too quick to cause much of a mental reaction, and the physical block stopped the bird from even having a chance to react in the probable manner, which would have been flying away. The bird, once repeated a few times, begins to see the door as a non-event. By blocking the behaviour, the animal is less likely to feel fear as it never followed through with what it's original plan was. This manner can't always be used in all situations, but is a quick solution. It's however rarely as long lasting as mental training. This is physical blocking causing redirection.
Now, the nature of your bird plays a very LARGE part in how you deal with this or similar scenarios. You need to know if your bird is being disobedient, genuinely fearful, or simply acting in his natural manner that his brain has told him to.
With fearful birds, manner a) is your best bet, breaking down the frightening scenario into mentally manageable blocks and stages.
With dominant or naughty birds, you can use b) or c), teaching them there is either a reward for doing the desired thing, or simply not allowing them time to react.
With naturally skitty birds, like those from a wild or aviary like situation where you want to do it quickly without hassle, option c) works a treat.
Once you break down the reactions you'll know better how to respond to it.
Another prime example is screaming. Attention behaviours are often accidentally encouraged. Bird screams, we come in to shut them up. Bird learns to scream for a reaction from human. Behaviour now ingrained.
This is prime candidate for Reverse Psychology or Premack. By ignoring the screaming from a close range, you can wait for the screaming or attention seeking behaviour to stop, THEN turn and give affection, love or praise! Bird then re-learns that he gets more of his desired reaction if he stops the previous behaviour.
You could also use a negative reinforcement for this behaviour, something undesirable to accompany the behaviour you don't want.
You could perhaps use a bottle of coins shook around, making a sharp noise to the bird (tsst, HEY or oi!), or a water pistol to squirt a firm jet of water at the rear end of the bird. The shock of this could stop the scream just long enough for you to praise just that, stopping. You can them repeat this to achieve a non-screaming bird.
Keep in mind with noises you need to be the LAST one to make a noise to achieve results. So even if the bird makes a single "tweep!" after you, you need to follow that with your sharp "Tsst!" or whichever to achieve "I have the last word here!" effect. If you don't do this, you're wasting your time trying, you're simply joining in!
The Behavioural Tricks and Corrections
Birds, like any animal, have hierarchy, there is always someone at the top, called the Alpha or the Leader. Animals that work in packs, herds, shoals and flocks all have the same basic structure. Just think of the old fashioned term "Pecking Order". That about sums it up. Pecking Order is important, because those with a "place" in that order are comfortable, settled, though at any time they can and may attempt to move UP the order, or even down, as required.
A flock alpha bird is the big-i-am. The decision maker, the most important one. The Alpha says where they go in the wild, the alpha determines food locations, water, what's safe and what's not. Who breeds, who watches, who feeds. The alpha has a big job to do, and for that, they need to be big, bossy and hard to get that position.
Mostly, it's a hen who leads most flocks, she's sometimes called the matriarch. To the untrained eye, she can seem vindictive, bossy, nasty and aggressive. In some sense, yes, she is, but she needs to be. The head bird eats first, drinks first, and claims all the best spots in the trees. This is HOW they determine who's boss. The same as an alpha wolf would get prime pick on a kill carcass, head budgie gets to the feeding station first. Whomever tries to barge in, is being rude, and not waiting their turn. This means re-claiming the item to re-establish alpha.
Birds do something I call "bluff". It's a charge and a buffing of the feathers that makes them look imposing and serious. This is always accompanied by an open and defensive beak.
This is where I observed, developed and shaped my training technique, "The Flying V" , which is a motion with the thumb and forefinger to imitate the action of an alpha animal bluffing at another to assert dominance. I'll come back to this later!
The animal being bluffed at is required to "move the feet" to accept that, whatever reason or item, has been given up and claimed by the alpha. If the offender does not move, the bluff becomes serious, and the alpha is required to surge forward and initiate physical contact. The second bluff is often sufficient to ascertain the point, and the offender moves, however some more bold birds will stand their ground and this is often where squealing and beak contact is made.
Physical wrestling is rarely as bad as it looks, and you might be surprised by just how many people take offence to squabbling birds and try to break them up. Animals don't usually go at each other without good reason.
Just the same as why that dog bit you when you were a child. You didn't know it at the time, but there was obviously a reason why that dog felt the need to follow through after a bluff to make contact. You were either in his territory, in his personal space, you were making the wrong type of eye contact, or you simply didn't FEEL right. Perhaps you were noticeably scared or apprehensive, animals can pick up on that in seconds, and that is a big weakness to an animal, and warrants "correction".
Unfortunately with dogs, their system is much more complex and revolves around contact with paws and teeth, but only AFTER verbal warning & physical signs. We never know what they tell us, so to the animal, we are disobeying that request they just made. That makes you prime target for an attack. It's basically disrespect.
If you've ever watched a wolf pack on the TV, you'll note the alpha attempts to warn the puppies that they are getting over the top. Teeth curling, growling, low stances, yapping or paw contact. If this is not adhered to or noted, the whole thing changes, the higher dog jumps and grips the scruff or neck area with his teeth, and he will manipulate that puppy into a submissive position on the ground. That was his negative correction for disobeying the rules.
However, when a puppy gets it right, frequently the other pack members with regurgitate food to reward a behaviour, or may groom or play to praise. This is the good old fashioned positive reinforcement we know so well.
Now, you may be thinking, why is she rattling on about dogs..? Surely it's not relevant. Trust me, it is.
This is the exact same behaviour birds practice, and, when you see a big macaw charging at you with beak agape and sinking it into the nearest available flesh, you'll probably be thinking "...without warning!"
He probably gave you ample warning it was about to happen, you just never knew what you were looking for enough to read it.
When it's a budgie, or a cockateil, we might laugh at a maw and bluff like that. The bigger the animal, the more imposing that action becomes, until it reaches a point where it becomes dangerous, roughly at Senegal or Hahns Macaw sort of size. That bird could cleave chunks from your skin if they wished to, or claw an eye out. Just because a budgie or a teil challenged you, doesn't mean you cant reassert yourself and correct that bird. You must, it's mentally important.
The same as many dog owners with small Chihuahuas, Yorkies or Jack Russels allow their dog to be out of control because of it's minor size, if that dog was suddenly a rottweiler or god forbid a mastiff or dane, there would suddenly be uproar, that animal would be dangerous.
The same applies here. Don't let size of an animal make you lax or lazy on correcting bad behaviours.
Also, never bother with the Positive-Only approach. This is mentally problematic. All animals brains are designed to function from negative action, positive action. Can you guess why..?
NEGATIVE reaction is like saying "No.. that is INCORRECT! Try again..." and it's a very important aspect. It makes the brain do just that, try again. And the brain also then learns, that action was not the right one for that request. Brain pumps up new knowledge. When we praise with a POSITIVE reaction. This then says "YES! Correct! Action Complete!". The brain isn't as forthcoming with learning and KEEPING what has been learned in place when positive only is practised. Having worked with many birds, you frequently find with POS-ONLY that a behaviour you labelled as incorrect to achieve the reward, will be frequently re-offered even when it's not the one you wanted, and they KNOW which ones GOT them the reward, but the re-offer the useless behaviour because it's not been labelled as otherwise with negative consequence.
I'd like to make a point here of stating negative consequence does NOT have to be anything nasty. People get this image in their head. It's a stereotype again.
Negative consequence or reinforcement can be anything from "Tsst!" or "Hey!!" up to a firm bop on the beak with your finger if say a chick is biting you hard. I use water sometimes as a negative consequence when my birds disobey a request to be quiet for example. They get a plant mister to the bum if I can't reach them. Positive is then incorporated with lots of praise and treat time for everybody.
This means I am capable of silencing & controlling all 8 of my budgerigars from the same room, or ANOTHER room, with a simple sound or hand gesture. This is because my training is even, and effective. They respect me, I respect them. I am also the Alpha "flock member".
As with training any animal, I like to incorporate a Piggy-bank Theory. Your negative consequences are like taking a coin out of the Piggy. Positive consequences are like popping a coin in. You need equal quantity of reward to negative ratio at all times, this is vital. You can even have a higher reward ratio if you want, but you MUST never EVER let the negative ratio overtake, this makes your animals lose faith, trust and respect in you. You never want them to jettison that, ever.
More to come on this page soon!
Soph.
Taming & Training Tips
Chick Training Walk through; Can be used on Adults too but will take more time!
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All information & suggestions given in this article are my sole opinion & how I have found training multiple birds best to work.
User Discretion is Advised.
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Chick Training
Picking a bird:
Go to a breeder, see his cages, birds, are they clean? Are they happy? Are they reasonably priced?
NOTE : Budgies range in price from £5 for a poor show quality bird to up to £35 for a hand reared bird. Whatever you spend, choose one around 6 weeks to 8 weeks, this is the best age bracket to get them at.
Avoid pet shops at all costs, most shop birds are well over 4 or sometimes 6 months of age, & are too far gone usually to train as well as a young chick.
Look over all the birds. If you want a male, look for a purple-blue cere. Or, pink in lutino/white. Hens will be powdery blue, almost like dusted with talcum powder. As hens age, this will turn brown.
Lutinos can be hard to sex. I believe this was a hen (left). Right is My powdery-cered hen, at a few months old.
See the following Chick images for a male example colour.
Look for the bird that is calm, happy, preening, feeding, foraging in the cage. Avoid nervy birds that go mental when you come to the cage, avoid lethargic birds fluffy and sick looking, with a bobbing tail. These are not what you want to be taking home with you.
Wink at the bird you choose, talk soothingly, squint your eyes, the bird should begin to return this gesture if it is relaxed enough. Once you have your choice, it will be boxed in a card rectangle. These can frighten chicks so if you have a small carry cage, put a single perch in it, and place the bird straight from one cage to another instead of boxing.
Day one:
Once you bring your bird home, place him somewhere warm, draft free, and quiet. Cover half the back of the cage with a towel. Don't harass them, leave him for a good hour to settle in a bit. More if required.
NOTE : Supply a small pot of food, and a small dish of water. Accept your bird may not want to eat for a day after the journey! Don't be alarmed, this is normal for some birds.
After say two hours, come to the cage & talk soothingly to your bird, bring in the winking & squinting again, this is a vital communication between you & bird in the vital first few days. It means “I am no threat, I mean you no harm. I am calm, I am relaxed, I am happy.”
You can see the relaxed look on the birds face once they react to this.
NOTE : Humans are a predator animal, we have all the physical traits of a hunter. Birds, are a prey animal, their trust in us in unnatural, you have to prove you can be trusted and are safe!
There are two ways to complete the next section of this, which is entirely up to you. I personally get it over & done with the same day the chick arrives. Some leave this until the bird has settled over a few days. If you feel confident and patient, do it within the first day.
Come to the cage, wink & squint as mentioned, place your hand in the cage, and leave it there. Your bird WILL flap about & dart about the cage, this is normal. Hold your hand flat, and still, in the middle of the cage. You can, if you wish, fold three fingers into your palm and only offer forefinger to the bird, it's up to you.
This is an important stage and it's vital in my opinion it's done correctly.
Follow your chick SLOWLY and calmly around the cage, offering your hand in some manner. Don't make any grabbing motion, keep your hand as flat as possible. Wink, squint & praise your new bird for even as much as stopping & looking at your hand. Praise more so if they get on your hand at all, or even touch it. Praise & work in small steps, never expect huge chunks, they don't know what you want of them without being guided gently.
Repeat this until the chick will step onto part of your hand, begin saying “Up!” when he does so, this will later be base for you cues to him in training Step Up, and subsequent recall commands.
Once he will sit on you, place him back on his perch, praise & leave him for another hour. Repeat this for a good 4 hours with an hour gap if possible. Using the slightly stunned phase most chicks go through in their first day to advantage is sometimes useful as long as you DON'T push too hard.
NOTE : ALWAYS leave training on a positive note, if he's done what you wanted him to, even a bit of it, that's good enough. Don't push him too much at this stage.
If he sits across the wrong finger, on your arm, on your fingertips, praise him, it doesn't matter how he does it, just make sure he knows your hands are NOT the big scary thing he makes them out to be! All the more important is this step if your bird was caught roughly, which a lot of attendants will do sometimes.
NOTE : Your chick's droppings will be likely loose and green in colour for a day or two until he settles, this is normal. It should return to a brown/white thicker consistency once your chick eats normally again.
Once your chick has a good idea your hands are not such a scary thing, you can leave him for the night. Leave him in his cage, offer him a small bit of millet spray on the floor away from his perches, so he gets used to it. Some breeders chicks don't have millet spray too young.
Don't cover, let your chick go to sleep in natural light, have an early night yourself. Birds settle better when they feel the whole “flock” has gone to bed too.
NOTE : Some chicks will not sleep on perches, but on the floor, or up on the cage bars in a high corner. Accept your chick will likely do one of these things while he is unsettled. They will use the perches eventually.
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!IMPORTANT!
Night Frights, Or Terrors.
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Chicks especially are prone to something called Night Frights, or The Terrors.
Similar to a Nightmare in children, they awake startled, scared & frankly frightened mindless.
They will scream, squeak, squawk, and flap frantically about the cage from end to end, sometimes beating themselves quite hard on the bars.
It's very important you deal with these terrors in the right way now or your bird may end up with them for the rest of it's life.
Much the same as a child, you need to come in, turn on a light, reassure and calm them. Some will be so petrified they have to be cornered in the cage and held to stop themselves getting hurt, and allow them time to calm down enough to come two.
Hold the bird, wink, squint & speak softly, reassure the bird. Holding it also allows the heart rate to slow back down again, which can cause birds a fatal attack if they carry on too long.
Once the chick has calmed, let it go and observe it for a short period, wait for it to stop flapping about & settle once more before you turn off the light again and leave the room. After this, they should re-settle and go back to sleep after a while.
You may have to deal with this once and a while as the bird is a chick, but they will usually grow out of it after a few months, and after reassurance during the frights.
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Day TWO/THREE:
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In the mornings, make an effort to greet your bird, speak to him, consciously make him feel like a part of YOUR routine. Once you've had breakfast, or even during breakfast, change his seed or top it up, let him see you eating, he will likely dive down to his bowl & eat just because you are, if he feels comfortable.
Check his droppings, they will as aforementioned probably be loose & tinted green. Observe him over the days, this should go back to a normal black & white over 3 days or so.
Repeat your hand acclimatising motions. Remember, no grabbing motions, just a straight flat hand, wink, squint, reassure. It's very important he learns sooner rather than later you are part of the family, you can be trusted, you are safe. Your bird will likely find his voice over the first 2-4 days. He will chirrup, often quite loudly, and may make an alarm call if he is in hearing distance of other budgies.
NOTE : If you have other budgies, keep the cages close, make sure the birds can see each other through the bars, but not touch. Treat all birds with Ivermectin for mites & scaly face, and allow a few days for it to work before you allow them contact.
It's important that if your chick calls out, you don't shout at him, don't holler, or yell “SHUT UP!” This will only serve to scare him & unnerve him to shout more.
If he calls, speak softly, start saying his name, or a plain pet name, like Birdie, Chickie or Fluffle (my generic terms for fluffy chicks!)
If he hears you communicating with him, he will be less likely to continue shouting for you.
It may take him a few days to get used to the idea you are a safe flock member, but give him time.
NOTE : To begin basic shouting training, wait until the bird has stopped calling before you pay him any attention. Even so much as a glance. Ignore him if he is doing it too much and speaking to him 3 times does nothing. Turn your back & wait for him to fall silent for 3 seconds. Then, turn, wink, and praise him. Keeping up this routine means as he gets to his “teen” later on (sexual maturity, basically) he wont learn that screaming after you will make you pay him attention!
You can now begin offering him toys & things to play with now he has settled. Pick small things, with bells & shiny parts. Chicks are very easily amused by simple things. They will love to chew at this age, so supply wood for them to chew also. Cat bells, swings, beads and wooden sticks are the best to start with.
A cat ball from the pound shop is an ideal & cheap example.
Here Spud can be seen tugging Mikko's swing after sneaking into their cage.
Also give small 1inch chunks of millet spray on the cage floor. Soak them prior to feeding to remove dust.
Once your chick knows what millet is (and how good it tastes!) you can use it to bribe him into staying on you for longer.
Use small segments of millet, and begin offering them only from your fingers, until he accepts bites of it. Praise him and do the wink thing to him to reassure him.
Over time, as he gets better at stepping up you can feed him this on your hands, he will then see your hands as not only a secure & safe place, but see you & adjoining parts as a means to get a nice treat once & a while.
Once he's eating millet & seeds without trouble, you can start offering small bits of dark green lettuce, spinach, apple & grass heads. Get him into greens & fruits as soon as possible, and I'd also recommend giving egg food this young to get them used to it.
NOTE : This is the IDEAL age to offer new foods, a chick is always roaming, chewing, nibbling, tugging, so use this phase as means to offer him as much fruit & veg as you can. Don't worry if he's not eating it, and dumping it on the floor. Give him time to appreciate it has a taste & to eat it properly!
Over time, he will change from simply tearing & rolling the greens in his mouth, to taking chunks & swallowing them.
If he is now accepting your hands, you can secure the house, close doors/windows, cover mirrors or glass, and place a ladder into the doorway of the cage door. Allow him to see this for himself. The ladder is important as it shows him there is an easy way in & out, as well as a good landing platform and something holding the door open.
You can use either metal ladders, or short wooden ones.
NOTE : When he comes out, he will probably not have flown distance before, so keep in mind your chick will be VERY uncoordinated & clumsy, maybe even flying into things & falling off what he lands on. Give him time. Stay around, talk to him, pick him up if he falls to the floor. Let him land on you if he wishes to. DO NOT CLIP HIS WINGS. He needs to fly, and fly properly.
Keep the food/water inside the cage so he knows this is “home” to return to if he wants it.
If he doesn't return to his cage himself, get him to step up, then quickly bring him to the level of the door & try to lean over him a little so he cannot bolt back upwards off your hand. Failing that, try to gather him in your hand gently if possible, and sit him back in the cage.
After 5 mins or more, let him out again, and repeat, he will soon have no worries about going “home”. I often say “Home!” to my birds when they are being put back away, so they know it means “Go home to your cage.”
After a time, he will get used to going home himself.
Put up ash or willow branches, washed & dried, on the cage to there is something to play on/in and forage about on. Clip treats like apple or spinach to the branches so he can rummage & find them after a while.
This is basically it, the rest is bonding between you & bird. Remember he is a prey animal, you are a predator animal. He needs YOU to reassure HIM to trust and love you!
Happy taming!
(The rest of this article is more in depth and I have included it as good brain fibre for those who want to train and tame, AND understand how and why their animal reacts how they do, this applies not only to birds but most other animals we have in our homes!)
It's a long read so get a cuppa and have a read!
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The Importance Of YOUR Rules
This is optional but I find it very important in MY training.
YOUR rules. YOUR time.
Birds will often try to do their own thing in their time, but showing them that it's YOU making the moves and deciding the processes is important to being not only a consistent trainer, but also a head member of the flock. Please see the section below for more detailed behavioural blather.
When your bird steps up and shoots off your finger real fast, this is HIM making his own decision that he doesn't want to be there anymore.
In order for YOU to be the head flock member, you need to remind him that it's now on YOUR terms. He gets off when YOU tell him to.
Now, this isn't as hard as you think. You basically need to shape what he does.
So, you ask step up, he gets on, now, this section is crucial. As SOON as he gets on your finger, say "Down!" and plop him back on a stick as quickly as he got on you.
Bam. Step One. Complete.
Down now means get off your finger/you/object.
You've now also made him get off on YOUR terms.
Breaks down into bits nicely, doesn't it?
Next step, the same, just add another couple of seconds. Down. Praise. Reward. Repeat. Ad lib, but add more time.
He figures, he jumps off before you say down, there isn't any real benefit to doing so. However, if he waits for you to TELL him down, he gets a bonus for it. A food-orientated bird like a parakeet or parrot will soon find more merit in the reward system than in "I'm going to do what I like!" system of his own. It also teaches him to follow your commands. You've effectively taught him that you run the show. Your bird will now find time ON you more beneficial than time off your hand.
See below for a perfect pictures of what this training can achieve;
This process is also useful for moving a bird in & out of a cage door.
Many birds find doorways daunting, and can we really blame them? In a wild scenario, predator with a prey animal in or on the hand is usually about to eat said animal once it starts making it's way into a confined space, usually the mouth for most prey animals unfortunate enough to get captured in the wild. Enclosure is a mentally negative thing in the animal world, but us humans don't see it as much a deal. Why you might ask. Well, simply put, it is a non event to us. We sit nestled nicely at the very tip of the food chain. That little opposable thumb we evolved seems to have made us as a creature pretty care free and easygoing.
Birds don't know that, so we have to use complex reverse psychology and reward systems to rewire the brain into another way of thinking around us. This brings me to my next point...
Mental Manipulation, Reverse Psychology, and the Premack Principles
Mental manipulation probably sounds difficult, awkward or abusive, but, trust me, it's not. Psychology is very simple once understood and opens so many door previously thought locked in the animal's mind.
Firstly, and the most commonly used, is the Premack Principle. Also called Grandma's Rule. "You eat your greens before your desert!" Basically equated: You complete me a less likely behaviour and you will be rewarded with the more probable behaviour.
Originally the term derived from a 50's to 60's study of monkeys by Professor David Premack, in that more probable behaviours will reinforce less probable behaviours. This is also known as Operant conditioning, which is the use of consequences to modify the occurrence and form of behaviour, this is because when you modify not behaviour but instead modify the environment (antecedents and consequences) that then results in the behaviour changing.
So, literally put, your bird gets to step down (the probable) only when you tell him to (less probable) but, is rewarded for the less probable. Therefore, you have just conditioned him by reversing his psychology on the situation. He now knows if he waits for you to ask him to get down, he gets a better deal out of it. You now have a bird who is happier to stay on your finger.
This can be immensely helpful as mentioned above when dealing with gates or doorways. The more probable behaviour given that situation is to move away from the confined area. The less likely behaviour is to stay put & deal with it. You have two manners or dealing with situations like this.
a) You can reverse the psychology and ad-lib the process until you achieve what you desire.
Reward once the bird reaches the comfort zone close to the door. Bring the bird back away from the door, and re-present until the fear bubble decreases in size each reward item. The negative cause then becomes a positive. Reaching the door becomes means for a reward, and the desire to move away from the object is met immediately, by moving back. This is also similar to the premack.
b) You can use mental redirection, (cue or reward) to achieve mental distractions (taking the mind away from the current thought process, like fear or apprehension) to the negative stimulus (the doorway). So, translated into layman's terms, you use a keyword with a reward to distract the bird from the fact it's coming through a door, and then once clear, you reward. The door later becomes a non-event.
c) You can block the behaviour from happening.
This means you could place your thumb firmly on the foot of your bird & very quickly draw them out swiftly from the cage door. The negative stimulus was too quick to cause much of a mental reaction, and the physical block stopped the bird from even having a chance to react in the probable manner, which would have been flying away. The bird, once repeated a few times, begins to see the door as a non-event. By blocking the behaviour, the animal is less likely to feel fear as it never followed through with what it's original plan was. This manner can't always be used in all situations, but is a quick solution. It's however rarely as long lasting as mental training. This is physical blocking causing redirection.
Now, the nature of your bird plays a very LARGE part in how you deal with this or similar scenarios. You need to know if your bird is being disobedient, genuinely fearful, or simply acting in his natural manner that his brain has told him to.
With fearful birds, manner a) is your best bet, breaking down the frightening scenario into mentally manageable blocks and stages.
With dominant or naughty birds, you can use b) or c), teaching them there is either a reward for doing the desired thing, or simply not allowing them time to react.
With naturally skitty birds, like those from a wild or aviary like situation where you want to do it quickly without hassle, option c) works a treat.
Once you break down the reactions you'll know better how to respond to it.
Another prime example is screaming. Attention behaviours are often accidentally encouraged. Bird screams, we come in to shut them up. Bird learns to scream for a reaction from human. Behaviour now ingrained.
This is prime candidate for Reverse Psychology or Premack. By ignoring the screaming from a close range, you can wait for the screaming or attention seeking behaviour to stop, THEN turn and give affection, love or praise! Bird then re-learns that he gets more of his desired reaction if he stops the previous behaviour.
You could also use a negative reinforcement for this behaviour, something undesirable to accompany the behaviour you don't want.
You could perhaps use a bottle of coins shook around, making a sharp noise to the bird (tsst, HEY or oi!), or a water pistol to squirt a firm jet of water at the rear end of the bird. The shock of this could stop the scream just long enough for you to praise just that, stopping. You can them repeat this to achieve a non-screaming bird.
Keep in mind with noises you need to be the LAST one to make a noise to achieve results. So even if the bird makes a single "tweep!" after you, you need to follow that with your sharp "Tsst!" or whichever to achieve "I have the last word here!" effect. If you don't do this, you're wasting your time trying, you're simply joining in!
The Behavioural Tricks and Corrections
Birds, like any animal, have hierarchy, there is always someone at the top, called the Alpha or the Leader. Animals that work in packs, herds, shoals and flocks all have the same basic structure. Just think of the old fashioned term "Pecking Order". That about sums it up. Pecking Order is important, because those with a "place" in that order are comfortable, settled, though at any time they can and may attempt to move UP the order, or even down, as required.
A flock alpha bird is the big-i-am. The decision maker, the most important one. The Alpha says where they go in the wild, the alpha determines food locations, water, what's safe and what's not. Who breeds, who watches, who feeds. The alpha has a big job to do, and for that, they need to be big, bossy and hard to get that position.
Mostly, it's a hen who leads most flocks, she's sometimes called the matriarch. To the untrained eye, she can seem vindictive, bossy, nasty and aggressive. In some sense, yes, she is, but she needs to be. The head bird eats first, drinks first, and claims all the best spots in the trees. This is HOW they determine who's boss. The same as an alpha wolf would get prime pick on a kill carcass, head budgie gets to the feeding station first. Whomever tries to barge in, is being rude, and not waiting their turn. This means re-claiming the item to re-establish alpha.
Birds do something I call "bluff". It's a charge and a buffing of the feathers that makes them look imposing and serious. This is always accompanied by an open and defensive beak.
This is where I observed, developed and shaped my training technique, "The Flying V" , which is a motion with the thumb and forefinger to imitate the action of an alpha animal bluffing at another to assert dominance. I'll come back to this later!
The animal being bluffed at is required to "move the feet" to accept that, whatever reason or item, has been given up and claimed by the alpha. If the offender does not move, the bluff becomes serious, and the alpha is required to surge forward and initiate physical contact. The second bluff is often sufficient to ascertain the point, and the offender moves, however some more bold birds will stand their ground and this is often where squealing and beak contact is made.
Physical wrestling is rarely as bad as it looks, and you might be surprised by just how many people take offence to squabbling birds and try to break them up. Animals don't usually go at each other without good reason.
Just the same as why that dog bit you when you were a child. You didn't know it at the time, but there was obviously a reason why that dog felt the need to follow through after a bluff to make contact. You were either in his territory, in his personal space, you were making the wrong type of eye contact, or you simply didn't FEEL right. Perhaps you were noticeably scared or apprehensive, animals can pick up on that in seconds, and that is a big weakness to an animal, and warrants "correction".
Unfortunately with dogs, their system is much more complex and revolves around contact with paws and teeth, but only AFTER verbal warning & physical signs. We never know what they tell us, so to the animal, we are disobeying that request they just made. That makes you prime target for an attack. It's basically disrespect.
If you've ever watched a wolf pack on the TV, you'll note the alpha attempts to warn the puppies that they are getting over the top. Teeth curling, growling, low stances, yapping or paw contact. If this is not adhered to or noted, the whole thing changes, the higher dog jumps and grips the scruff or neck area with his teeth, and he will manipulate that puppy into a submissive position on the ground. That was his negative correction for disobeying the rules.
However, when a puppy gets it right, frequently the other pack members with regurgitate food to reward a behaviour, or may groom or play to praise. This is the good old fashioned positive reinforcement we know so well.
Now, you may be thinking, why is she rattling on about dogs..? Surely it's not relevant. Trust me, it is.
This is the exact same behaviour birds practice, and, when you see a big macaw charging at you with beak agape and sinking it into the nearest available flesh, you'll probably be thinking "...without warning!"
He probably gave you ample warning it was about to happen, you just never knew what you were looking for enough to read it.
When it's a budgie, or a cockateil, we might laugh at a maw and bluff like that. The bigger the animal, the more imposing that action becomes, until it reaches a point where it becomes dangerous, roughly at Senegal or Hahns Macaw sort of size. That bird could cleave chunks from your skin if they wished to, or claw an eye out. Just because a budgie or a teil challenged you, doesn't mean you cant reassert yourself and correct that bird. You must, it's mentally important.
The same as many dog owners with small Chihuahuas, Yorkies or Jack Russels allow their dog to be out of control because of it's minor size, if that dog was suddenly a rottweiler or god forbid a mastiff or dane, there would suddenly be uproar, that animal would be dangerous.
The same applies here. Don't let size of an animal make you lax or lazy on correcting bad behaviours.
Also, never bother with the Positive-Only approach. This is mentally problematic. All animals brains are designed to function from negative action, positive action. Can you guess why..?
NEGATIVE reaction is like saying "No.. that is INCORRECT! Try again..." and it's a very important aspect. It makes the brain do just that, try again. And the brain also then learns, that action was not the right one for that request. Brain pumps up new knowledge. When we praise with a POSITIVE reaction. This then says "YES! Correct! Action Complete!". The brain isn't as forthcoming with learning and KEEPING what has been learned in place when positive only is practised. Having worked with many birds, you frequently find with POS-ONLY that a behaviour you labelled as incorrect to achieve the reward, will be frequently re-offered even when it's not the one you wanted, and they KNOW which ones GOT them the reward, but the re-offer the useless behaviour because it's not been labelled as otherwise with negative consequence.
I'd like to make a point here of stating negative consequence does NOT have to be anything nasty. People get this image in their head. It's a stereotype again.
Negative consequence or reinforcement can be anything from "Tsst!" or "Hey!!" up to a firm bop on the beak with your finger if say a chick is biting you hard. I use water sometimes as a negative consequence when my birds disobey a request to be quiet for example. They get a plant mister to the bum if I can't reach them. Positive is then incorporated with lots of praise and treat time for everybody.
This means I am capable of silencing & controlling all 8 of my budgerigars from the same room, or ANOTHER room, with a simple sound or hand gesture. This is because my training is even, and effective. They respect me, I respect them. I am also the Alpha "flock member".
As with training any animal, I like to incorporate a Piggy-bank Theory. Your negative consequences are like taking a coin out of the Piggy. Positive consequences are like popping a coin in. You need equal quantity of reward to negative ratio at all times, this is vital. You can even have a higher reward ratio if you want, but you MUST never EVER let the negative ratio overtake, this makes your animals lose faith, trust and respect in you. You never want them to jettison that, ever.
More to come on this page soon!
Soph.
