What's the real way to train a parrot?

[aabdullah]

Hi guys! I'm new to this forum, and I would just like to seek assistance. I've seen many articles and watched many videos that say that you should never, ever use negative reinforcement with a parrot, and also to never hold a bird. But contradicting that, I went to a local pet store the other day, and they had a quaker parrot that was hand-trained at the store, and I asked them how they did it. What they said was that they would grab the bird in their hands and pet them gently, then put them back, then repeat. Then they would teach the bird to perch on their finger. Prior to this, they also hand trained a pionus parrot. The quaker parrot was also very young. I was wondering what was the most effective way to train a parrot, because I have tried many times to train my cockatiel to like me and bond with me, but if I don't have a treat in my hand, he will not step up. I considered using the method the pet store uses, but...I guess I just do not know which method to do. The majority of people use positive reinforcement, and watching them motivates me to train my cockatiel, but he has not improved. Can someone or some people please clear this up for me. It'd be GREATLY appreciated.

[Wolf]

The way they did at the pet store will work if the bird is young enough, but it also has some major drawbacks in that if you continue using those methods they will backfire and you will have to start all over from the beginning using the correct methods as the bird will regress and also not trust you any more. Flooding is never a good choice of training methods to use.
I, for one will be happy to help you with your bird in any way that I can. But first tell me about your bird starting with his age and continuing with how much time you spend with your bird, his diet and sleep schedule.

[aabdullah]

age and continuing with how much time you spend with your bird, his diet and sleep schedule.

When I got Koki, he had just been weaned, and now I have had him for about four weeks. I leave the house at 7 and get back at 4. I usually spend an hour with him, with brief ten-fifteen minute training sessions scattered throughout the day. He eats seeds and pellets, and although I remove his food bowl with seed in the day and replace it with fruits and veggies, he doesn't touch them. He goes to sleep when my sisters go to bed, since they are the loudest, and that's usually around 10:00 to 11:00. He also shares a very large cage(big enough for a macaw) with three parakeets, and they have little to no quarrels everyday; they go about their business, and he goes about his.

[Wolf]

Ok, you haven't had him very long and are doing better with his diet than many people do especially this early on. I feed my birds gloop, which is a cooked mixture of white beans, lentils, pastas, brown rice and mixed vegetables, for breakfast at which time I also give them fresh veggies and a little fruit so that they have enough to nibble on all day long. I then give them a seed mix for their evening meal and remove it after they go to sleep. The birds that you have really love sweet corn and leafy green veggies. Spinach is a good one to avoid though as it is too high in iron for their system. I think that the high protein seed mix in the morning is why they don't eat their vegetables. Pellets are just ground up seeds pressed together with a binder under pressure and heat, so they serve the same dietary niche as does the seed mix.
I think that them being up til 10 or 11 at night is much too late for them. My birds get up with the sun although they are also exposed to the predawn twilight and get sunlight all day long and I feed them just before dusk and they go to sleep a little after full dark. This keeps their endocrine system properly attuned to the length of the days as well as to the proper season or time of the year.
I hope that this buddy system with the budgies continues to work for you and Koki, but I would continue to watch for signs of discontent as budgies have been known to pick on cockatiels. The cage size probably helps a lot as they will not feel so crowded. The only drawback that I see is allowing free time out of the cage, so I really must ask how do you arrange for this?
I am thinking that at this point you have not gotten to the point of letting them out to fly about, probably because they don't yet step up for you which is the basis of this thread. You are doing training sessions with him throughout the day. Do you also do this with the budgies? What are you training them to do at this time?

[aabdullah]

The first thing I will answer is the statement about the birds going to sleep at ten. I can't help this because no matter how hard I try, I can't have everyone in the family leave the living room at the same time. Maybe to solve this, I could put something over the cage?

The second thing I will address is that for free time outside, they don't really get one daily because of them not coming back in. I also do training sessions with the budgies, although they are NOWHERE near as cooperative as Koki, and even he's not that cooperative. The budgies will eat out of my hand, but won't step up.

I'm probably sounding redundant, but I would really like to know if I can use the flooding method with Koki, because I haven't yet.

Thanks!

[Wolf]

Perhaps you could get another cage for them to sleep in placed where they would not be bothered by everyone. I don't think that just covering them will work.
Budgies are a bit more skittish by nature to begin with, but they would all benefit greatly from a good nights sleep as well as time to fly. The more time that you spend talking to them and interacting with them one on one the more that they will trust you. The more that they trust you the more likely that they will step up for you and want to be with and on you.
Especially, due to the fact that the issue that you are wanting to address is a trust issue and is one of the basics to developing a good foundation for a developing bond flooding is the worst thing you could consider doing.
Although, I am fascinated by my birds now, when Kiki first came to live with us I did not want a bird in the house ever. The only reason that I took her in was that she could not survive the temperature of the season for another night as it was still spring her in the mountains and she is a tropical bird. She had some major issues, which I soon learned about the hard way, and being able to trust was a big one with her due to the lack of proper care she received from prior owners. In fact every bird that I have today was abused in one way or another, but I have never had to teach one of them to step up for me, as soon as they realized that they could trust me, I became their favorite place to be. They spend the day going in and out of their cages at will but when it is time to go to bed I must put each of them into their cage because they would rather go to sleep perched on me. Even though they will chase each other off of me during the day they will all perch on me to go to sleep at night if they can. Try this link and the training contained in it for your birds, [ viewtopic.php?f=11&t=227 ] .