Stepping up Cockatiel

Hi Steve, I bought a hand-reared cockatiel one week ago from a pet shop. They had him sitting on a stand at the entrance to the shop. When I went over to him he started chirping and talking. I noticed they had clipped his wings and the shop owner told me he was a year old and they had done this to stop him flying away. He also said he was a nervous bird and needed a lot of T.L.C. which he hadn’t time to give him. When I got him home I put him in a smaller cage as I already have a tame 21 year old cockatiel in a large cage. He is terrified when I put my hand in the cage and climbs frantically around the cage. When I do eventually get him out of the cage, he climbs up my arm and settles under my chin where he wants to stay. When I put him down again he just doesn’t want to come near my hand and frantically climbs on the cage bars. Should I not put him in the cage, and how can I get him to
step up on my hand? Thank you, Elizabeth

Category:
Behaviour and Training
Requestor Name:
Elizabeth L.

Hello Elizabeth, My name is Miranda DeVries and I am an avian trainer at Natural Encounters, Inc. I would first like to commend you on seeking help for yourself and your cockatiel so quickly.  It says a lot about your compassion for your bird 'family' that you want to make sure your new family member has a positive and reinforcing relationship with you.

There could be a variety of factors in your new birds past experiences that contributed to the behaviors you are experiencing today.  The good thing is the past does not equal the future, and we have the ability through new training to modify any behavior.

My first thoughts when reading your question is that you may need to get your bird a bigger cage, or at least find a way to give him more space when you interact with him. You say in your question that when you put your hand in his cage he acts terrified and runs away. This tells me that you putting your hand in his cage is a very negative experience for your bird. The only way your bird has to communicate to you that he does not like this is to run away. You are lucky that you have had your bird for only a short period of time because this running away could easily lead to biting when all his other escape options are taken away. By being more respectful and attentive to trying to give your bird more space when you interact with him, he will have more power over his environment in choosing to get away from your hand.

By giving this control or power over his environment it will make your bird more comfortable and thus start you both on the road to a more positive relationship. One of the most important keys to a positive relationship is a solid history of positive interactions, so our strategy will be to create as many of these as possible. A good first step towards making him more comfortable is to work on some training that can be done from the outside of the cage. When interacting with your bird from outside the cage you should always watch for body language that indicates the bird is uncomfortable with the situation. Some behaviors to watch for might be feathers slicked tightly to the body, eye pinning, open mouth lunging at people or the bars of his cage, flapping wings, or ruffled head feathers. If your bird displays any of these behaviors wait for an upright calm body behavior and offer a treat through the cage bars. The goal should be, though, to reinforce and walk away at first before the bird has the chance to display these behaviors. You're allowing your bird to decide whether or not he wants the treat without being in his space. You are also allowing your bird to choose to come to you instead of you chasing him all over his cage. For the treat, try finding something that the bird really enjoys - seeds, nuts, millet, pellets or maybe even a fruit or vegetable -- and then only use that item for training, and not as part of their regular diet so that it retains special value.

In your question you say that your bird chirped and talked when you walked over to him. To help build a positive relationship with him you can offer treats for certain sounds or words that you like. If you want to you can even try to put some of the sounds on cue. When trying to put a sound on cue you will have to use a training tool called a bridge. Here at NEI we simply say, 'good,' to cover the time between the desired sound and the delivery of a treat; it is called a bridge because it "bridges" the gap in time between the two. I would just do one sound first and when the bird starts to consistently do the sound try to add in the cue. A cue is anything you want that lets the bird know you want the desired sound. Try to do your cue just before he does his sound, if you notice that there is maybe some other behavior or vocalization that he consistently performs just before the desired vocalization.  Get comfortable with this and then cue the behavior before he has even offered it. Lastly, just reinforce the behavior when it follows the cue. I suggest you interact with your bird on this level until you have built up a positive enough relationship with him to move on to learning to step up. When your bird is consistently sitting calmly while you approach the cage or touch and open the cage door, this is an indicator that you are ready to move to this next step. Be careful to not be tempted to rush to get to this point, though.  One of the keys to successful training is to always train at the bird's pace, so taking your time and not being afraid to take a step or two back if progress slows are important things to keep in mind at all times.

Teaching your bird to step up willingly will be a very different process from simply scooping the bird up off the perch. It gives the bird the power to decide whether or not he wants to step up, and therefore gives him a stronger voice in the two-way communication that you have developed through the training outlined above. To begin training the stepping up behavior, we offer our birds a treat with our right hand and have our left hand held out palm flat and resting on a perch if possible between the bird and the treat.  We use a flat palm because it is a large, stable surface for them to stand on. The goal is to position the palm hand in such a way that it becomes a platform for the bird to step on in order to get to the treat that you have for him. The key is to keep your hands at enough distance from the bird that he must choose to approach them. That way you can give him a treat for every small step he makes towards coming towards and stepping onto your hand.  If you simply put your hands all the way into the cage, he won't have a lot of choice in the matter about whether or not to interact with you. With a small bird like a cockatiel, it is best to use tiny pieces of the treats so you can repeat your steps several times and make progress on the final behavior before the bird gets satiated and no longer wants to train.

Start by placing your left hand palm up on the perch away from the bird and showing him treats with your right hand; having your right hand over the left so you are giving treats for every tiny step the bird makes towards you and the treat. Make sure you give the bird the treat and don't try to bait or lure him with it because that is dishonest. You don't want to inadvertently damage the positive relationship you have built. It is important to rest your palm hand on the perch so that when the bird does put a foot on it, it is a very steady surface for him to stand on.  Slowly start moving the treat back so he has to approach your flat hand to get to it.  If he chooses not to approach your flat hand, take it as a sign that he is uncomfortable, and go back a step and remove your palm so that he simply is approaching the treat hand. Once he is comfortable to the point that he will approach you with your palm present, remember to rest your hand on maybe a perch in the cage so that your hand is very stable to step up on. To begin hold the treat in such a way that he has to put one foot on your palm to reach it. When he does this behavior you can bridge him by saying 'good' and giving him a treat. You can then build on this by positioning the treat so that he has to step onto your hand with both feet to reach it.

When doing these behaviors always allow your bird the option of stepping back off your hand. Keep the treats that you are giving your bird variable and hidden inside your closed hand once he knows treats are there so he never knows exactly what he is going to get for doing the behavior. Once your bird is comfortable stepping on your hand with both feet try increasing the amount of time he is on your hand. Do this by waiting a couple seconds before you reinforce him for stepping up, and then give him the option to step back to the perch if he wants to. Repetition is important for an animal to gain confidence in a new behavior, and if you see his attention starting to wane don't be afraid to end the session and try picking up again at that point later in the day. If he continues to show interest and step up without hesitation, you can begin to increase the duration of time on your hand slowly. Once he has mastered staying on your hand comfortably for a period of time try moving him around while on your hand. Keep your pace slow and steady. You can bridge and reinforce him for good body posture while on your hand. If he seems nervous at all allow him to step off and go back to making only very small movements with your hand. When your bird steps back off your hand you may not have to bridge and reinforce because he already knows that his cage is a positive place to be from all your trust building you did before training the step up, but if you find that he is hesitant to leave your hand (which is understandable given how you've helped establish it as a really fun place to be), you may have to offer treats for stepping off as well.

Once he is comfortable with the step up you can help him become comfortable with other perches (furniture, other perches, etc.) throughout your house by approximating him onto these objects basically the same way you did onto your hand through bridging and reinforcements and moving at his own pace. Don't be afraid to take steps back as needed, and to keep your sessions short in order to ensure that you don't lose the bird's attention span. As you make progress with each step, your bird should become more and more eager to interact with you, and therefore will likely be very eager to play "the training game" when the time comes!

Elizabeth, I hope this helps you and your cockatiel build a positive relationship. If you have any further questions I recommend our website http://www.naturalencounters.com or one of our many companion parrot workshops that are offered throughout the year.

Sincerely,

Miranda DeVries
Avian Trainer
Natural Encounters, Inc.