lovesbirds

Harley stepped up to my hand last night! :woohoo: My husband deserves the credit tho. He used a bit of trickery by holding the stick over his hand then when Harley went to step on the stick, he just moved his hand in place then lifted once Harley had one foot on him. Now he steps up to our hands right from the perch! check out the video...this is from tonight. http://members.aol.com/imakefights/harley.wmv The only thing that worries me is that Harley seems so scared when we get him out of his cage (which is not such an ordeal anymore :whistle:). When he is on the perch and stepping up he just shakes and shakes (and I know he isnt cold). But he still talks to us and has started mimicking us sometimes. I talk to him and click my toungue and he clicks back. Last night my husband had Harley on his hand and yelled upstairs to my son, "Bobby, come here" and Harley said "Bobby!". And I havent heard him making threats about the water bottle so much either. Im so glad you are making progress with Casper, Julia! Harley seems to like the Zupreem pellets. Once I started taking the sunflower seeds out of his seed mixture, he goes strait for the pellets and mostly ignores the seeds. He loves peas and corn, but wont eat any of the other fruits and veggies I leave him. All in all, I think we are doing good Steph

Harley stepped-up tonight! :cheer: Well, yesterday he got a little fiercer with his bites, so I decided to go with stick staining 1st. Yesterday we had a minimal amount of progress. He would get one foot on the stick then get off. If I lifted the stick he would step off and he puts his head down so that I cant get the stick under his belly. The first time today we worked, I would put the stick between his legs and lift gently. To keep his balance he would have to get on the stick. I was starting to worry because it is such an ordeal to get him out of the cage or off of it for training session. Poor thing was very stressed. Tonight, I offered the stick infront of him once and he did the head thing, so I put it between his legs and lifted. Then a few times after that he would get one foot on and I would left gently so he would put the other foot on and eventually he was stepping on with one foot then the other without me having to lift the stick. Im so Excited! Put him back on his cage from the stick and gave him some sumflower seeds as a treat (I have been taking them out of his sed mixture this week to wean him off the seeds). Now he is in there reprimanding himself - "Stop it!", "Harley, stop!", "Harley..." in a threatening tone, and his usual spray bottle threats I keep telling him things like I love you! and Mommy loves Harley! and Mommy loves me! I hope he starts saying that stuff. I dont know what happened to him that the previous owners didnt tell me about, half his vocabulary is threats:dry: But we did make great progress today:cheer:

Unfortunately we had to be out of town some of last week, but I had some one come over every day to feed the birds and take them out. Now that we are home, I started to train Harley to step-up. He flew off his cage earlier yesterday (he landed promply on the ground since he's clipped) but I didnt want to towel him (he hates that) so i tried to get him to step up to my arm from the floor but he just hopped right off. So I finally held him in both hands, under the wings and around his boddy. From the moment he was in my hands til I put him back on the cage his wings were flapping. Poor guy, kinda scared him, but he didnt bite. Later, I held him the same way to put him on the perch in another room. Since he wasnt biting before I opted to train him to step up to my arm instead of a stick. He really wanted me to pet and rub his head, so I did that first to try and calm him down-he was all fluffed up and shaking then I finally got him on my hand about 5 min later. I figured that was great progress and took him back to his cage to get over the stress. I plan on 2 training sessions today. He did bite a little yesterday, but not enough to really hurt or break the skin, not the way I know he can bite. The guy we bought him from had big scabbed over sores on his hands. I think he is coming to trust me. I sure hope so!

Excelent and unexpected progress last night!! He had a rought time the day before last because he got his nails filed, his wings clipped, then put in the shower. Poor little guy spent the rest of the day in the corner of his cage huddled like a rape victim But he did come out of it and talk to us that evening and yesterday he was back to his old self. He seems to be a night bird, he comes out and is talkative after 10pm. He beeps and whistles with warnings about the spray bottle in between, then he whined, "Harleyyyy, stop iiiit!" I couldn't help but laugh! He sounded like my kids when they fuss at each other (they are 7 and 8), then he laughed back he's such a card! When I got near his cage to put the cover on, he scooted closer to me on his perch and put his head down, so I very slowly, very varefully poked a finger in to pet him and spent the next half hour there with him It was so nice! Today was a repeat. He wouldnt take a cracker from my hand but when I put it in his bowl he walked over to get it and mumbles mmm, cracker. My husband offered him one later and he told him no cracker. He is such a clever boy! I can 't beleive those people didnt want this little jewel, Im so lucky!

Hey Joe, I saw your post while looking for info to help me on my recently re-homed CAG, Harley. I also have a SI Eclectus and a Sun Conure. I didnt have any birds until Feb of this year, but I have spent a lot of time researching once I got my first colorful new "flock-member" I can recommend to you a book that helped me immensely: Parrot Training by Bonnie Munro Doane. Get it and read it cover to cover. It explains normal behavior, how to bring up a baby from a weanling, working with older parrots, how your behavior affects your parrot and gives info on obedience training, potty training, trick training while explaining why these are important. For instance, the primary reason for teaching a bird how to shake, or "high-four" isnt to impress your friends (or shouldn't be) but for you to spend quality time with your companion parrot. 15-20 min, twice a day staring with "step-up". I hope this will help you as much as it helped me

Thanks for the tips and support, everyone Harley didnt eat last night, but today spent time in his bowl eating seeds and picking out all the pellets He took an apple slice and some Cheetohs from our hands (very carefully) and had a nice time climbing on his cage. Cant get him in to be clipped til tomorrow and he has a gym ontop of his cage, so we let him come out and kept a watchfull eye on him as he threw little plastic golfballs off the top. At one point he even began to sing to us in a clear base *Swing Looo-o-o-o-w...* What a cutie! But FairY is right, he is very guarded and cautious. We dont want to startle him or scare him, but he is always ready when we are near just in case we decide to ambush I have a stick handy and while he doesnt seem to be afraid of it, he isnt too sure what our plans with it are, so it is on top of his cage for him to get used to. He is also molting right now, so the air is filled with little grey and white fluffies-we are watching him closely to make sure he doesnt start plucking. So far so good, I think! More as it happens...

Here are some pics of Harley. <br><br>Post edited by: lovesbirds, at: 2007/04/10 20:32

Hi, Im new to the forum and looking for some help and advice please. I have a Sun Conure and a SI Eclectus hen and today we added a Congo AG, Harley. Harley will be 3 years old on 4/17 and the couple we got him from were trying to get rid of him because they said he was mean. They got him from a breeder and he was on a seed diet and wouldnt eat pellets so they just kept giving him seeds. They say he wont step up and viciously bites. The man had sores all over his hands. Harley's wings are not clipped and he rarely got time outside of his cage because of that. The man also told us that the bird "would intentionally make noises his wife hated" and she would spray him with a spray bottle! We have had him home for about 3 hours. We are taking him to the vet first thing tomorrow for a check up and to get his wings clipped and nails trimmed. Tonight I gave him a mixture of 2 parts seed mix to 1 part pellet and added the same vitamin to his water that I give to my picky little Sun. He also got the same veggie mix as my Ekkie. He is not shy and beeps, whistles, and pings quite a bit. We were told he has a large clean vocabulary, but so far I have heard him say "Harley, do you want the spray bottle?" and "I'll get the spray bottle" and still "Your gonna get the spray bottle." He repeats these sentances in between his beeps and pings. I have also heard "Harley, stop it!" and some hellooooos. I plan to NEVER mention the words "spray bottle" around him and give him plently of love and baths and nutritious food, and once he is a little more used to us, he will get "step-up" lessons. It only took my Ekkie 2 10-minute sessions a day for a week to learn it. And we have to get the biting to stop. I know about the "evil eye" and the "dont flinch an inch" rule, so hopefully I wont get too many wounds on my hands But, please, any advice is welcome. Since getting my first bird in Feb, I have devoured as many books on the subjuct as possible, but Im sure many of you have taken in mistreated, "mean", and neglected birds and have experience and knowledge I can learn from. Harley's isnt a really bad case, but he came from a home where his owners didnt know some important bird basics and didnt bother to learn them either. So I would love any advice, stories, and help you all can offer. Thanks so much!