#taming ask

first would be a vet check, severe aggression can arise if an animal is in pain, I'd want to rule that out first before all else.

Aggression is a symptom of something else, usually it's fear-based even if you aren't seeing typical fear body language. Lots of birds have their boundaries pushed for so long that they just stop presenting the warning cues since they never work to make people stop and that's where you'll get cases where the bird will just jump straight to aggression to get their desired result. You may also be seeing aggression because they're stressed out, territorial, hormonal, or a variety of other reasons.

While we can't always know why the behaviour is occurring we can work with what we see in the moment. You approach the cage, they present aggressive behaviour to make you leave.

The Antecedent is you approaching, the Behaviour is lunging, the Consequence is you back away.

You can arrange yourself to work under the bird's threshold and reshape the sequence. Find the distance away you can be that doesn't trigger aggression and reinforce that calmness with whatever they find reinforcing. This can mean approaching the cage, clicking for calm, and then walking away if you leaving is what they want.

Now the Antecedent is you approaching, the Behaviour is soft body language, and the Consequence is you leave. They still earn the goal they wanted without needing to aggress to do so, calm body language should become more frequent.

(2/2) my hand in the cage. When i saw that she was comfortabel with it, i started presenting her treats again. Now she will step up, and will sit on my finger as long as i have treats but sometimes she takes a bite, freaks out and hops back on her perch. She will come out of her cage but only by herself, if i want to take her out, she will freak out when were almost at the cage opening... Outside her cage she is not that scared and plays w/her toys right next to me. Do you have any tips?

Mostly this is going to be working on building trust, the cage is a safe spot for her and leaving it puts her at risk, wide open area where anything could attack her, she likes the cage because it’s safe so leaving it is really going to have to be dependent on her choice. You could try station training or target training to cue coming out of the cage so they will be prompted to do it but leaving is still their choice.  

Work on step up training some more, hold your hand as an extension of the perch, treat held so they have to walk or stretch over the hand to get it and let them shimmy on to it in small approximations. Jumping on eating and running away can be good or a bad sign depending on the context, in the beginning it can mean they’re stretching their boundaries and testing the waters but if they’re presenting a lot of comfort then doing that randomly it can be that you did something to prompt the reaction (moving, talking).  

Once they’re really solid on that you can try moving, lift up a small bit or a gentle shimmy, treats, a bit more if they’re comfortable, etc.etc.etc. working on moving them out of the cage if they would like.  You could also get them to step up inside the cage when they’re fully comfortable then luring them down your arm so they walk out.  a lot of options.

Taming is a pretty unanimous concept the only thing that commonly varies is how a bird progresses since they are all individuals they may get used to different things easier than others. (i.e target training vs stick training vs habituation vs step up taming), all processes can be used on any bird, just depends how you are able to apply them depending on how each bird reacts, essentially you can apply almost any taming method to anyone it just depends how capable you are as a trainer and how well you understand their body language. (yes some birds may not take well to certain methods but it is mostly quality over quantity sort of thing, you can use one taming method really well and have it work on multiple occasions or you can try hundreds of different things for whatever works fastest but may not be the best [force, learned helplessness, etc.], I could use stick training with a bird who is deathly afraid of sticks, it would still work if I applied it correctly without fear but it may take longer than using step up training, for example, still works well just takes longer, still a perfectly useful method if you use it correctly).  

Zeeby I reared, I raised her from a spiky bab to where she is now so the taming was just conditioning, habituation, target training, and mostly the time spent with her between feedings, making experiences positive, exposing her to a lot of things and just bringing her up knowing that people are positive.  Mia was a pet store bird so she was technically already tamed but quite skittish and fearful, taming for her was just giving her space, offering treats, leaving her alone when she wants space, not forcing her in to things to undo the fear she had learned from what was probably a forceful taming method, she gained the most progress once she grew her wings back, she was able to have more control of her actions and feel safe leaving if she was scared which prompted her to be more comfortable exploring uncertain things. Flippy was just habituation and step up training, put food near the wall of the cage and stand a distance away, move closer once they’re comfortable and work your way up to having the hand in the cage and getting on to it.

http://flock-talk.tumblr.com/post/108773533733/a-few-days-ago-i-gained-ownership-of-4-young 

http://flock-talk.tumblr.com/post/116980601993/hi-i-have-been-extremely-interested-in-getting-a

It takes time to build up the trust necessary for these things, if you’re constantly trying to stroke him (most birds actually don’t like being touched) or commanding him to step up and he doesn’t want to, he’s going to tell you ‘no’ through his body language, in this instance hissing.  The more you push those things, the more you try to touch him or force a step up, the less lenient he’s going to be and there will be more reason to be fearful.  Stop trying to touch him and push his boundaries and break it down to smaller steps to properly teach him the basics and start building a relationship.  You want him to associate stepping up with positivity, treats, all sorts of fun things, not being chased around, displeasured, or uncomfortable.

Target training is a good place to start to help show a bird that your hands are positive experiences and target training is great for teaching step up because you can encourage the bird to move to a designated location without force. A proper step up should look like this, notice how I offer her my hand and she makes the decision to step up, I don’t push in to her, stepping up is a question more than it is a command. This post goes over an alternate way to teach step up that birds tend to take to very well as you can progress in smaller increments.

Stepping up is completely their decision, if they don’t want to step up it’s because they’re having more fun where they are than they think they can have on your hand. 

Part of the problem is that there’s two of them, they will be much more likely to want to sit with one another, still completely possible to get them to socialize more but it will take more time and work on your part.  If they want to leave, let them, provide plenty of treats and rewards to motivate them to want to spend more time with you, doing target training and other basic concepts like that will really help them associate you with positive things as well as learn how to communicate with you better.  Focus on their body language, move at their pace and they’ll come around.

treats and motivation

a guide to a successful training session

target training

bonding with multiple birds

taming