Tips For a Nervous Rescue Grey?

[britmon]

I rescued a Congo African Grey a week ago who is very very nervous (I don't blame her, I would be too!) We talk and beep and whistle back and forth all day, share bird-safe meals, play a little bit, and are slowly building a very good relationship. We are starting clicker/target training tomorrow and I'm just looking for some tips from more seasoned bird owners on how to build her confidence. Unfortunately, she had a nail emergency her first night here that I fear has set us back quite a bit as far as trust goes. She bites her nails nervously which isn't the worst thing but, after getting a nail cut the day before in preparation for her coming home with me, she chomped one too short and it bled horribly so I had to towel her without properly building trust and training her not to be afraid of the towel. Besides what I am already doing, are there some things I can do moving forward to help build her trust? Thank you all!

[Wolf]

To be quite honest with you I would forget about the training for the first month and concentrate on just spending time with her so that she will learn that you care about her and are listening to her and begins to trust you. Perhaps I am going in circles, but the best way to earn her trust is simply to spend time interacting with her on a daily basis and it really takes a minimum of a month for your new bird to begin to relax and adjust to her new environment. After a month then begin with one or two short 10 to 15 minute training sessions.

[britmon]

I would totally agree if not for her nail biting problem. If we have another incident without making any training progress, I feel that she will trust me less, bite her nails more, and it will be a vicious circle. Thankfully I work at the rescue she came from so we have spent a good month getting to know eachother in that enviroment.

[liz]

I would totally agree if not for her nail biting problem. If we have another incident without making any training progress, I feel that she will trust me less, bite her nails more, and it will be a vicious circle. Thankfully I work at the rescue she came from so we have spent a good month getting to know eachother in that enviroment.

It is great that you two were cordial friends before you took her home. It sounds like she is trying to adjust. Where did she come from? Do you know any backround? I would not train yet, just teach what she needs to know in your house.

All rehomes, except Rambo, come into your life scared. Rescues are fearful of everything.
I don't use a towel. Hands are scarey but towels are worse. If you get bit just keep in mind that it was from fear not meaness.

Rambo has a foot problem. He has arthritis and dry scaley skin and does not like his feet touched. He will preen down to the blood. I use red palm oil. When he is on a perch or on my shoulder (we all have bird clothes) I use one finger to smear it on. He complains but I tell him he is a good boy anyway. It makes his feet feel better and keeps his attention away from preening.

And yes I know that a gray can bite just as hard as an amazon.

[Wolf]

If she will step up and remain on your shoulder or on your arm or hand, that would probably be the best thing that you can do to help her get past he fears, I know that with my Grey this was the single most important thing in her adjustment as it was what she wanted more than any thing else. It is still the single think that she wants more than anything, she wants to be with and/ or on me as much as she can. She didn't bite her nails excessively but she was almost completely naked of bodily feathers and had a couple of places that she had mutilated leaving large open sores, which no longer occurs.
I understand that you have spent some time with her already and this makes you even more important to her right now as at least you are familiar to her, this makes you her security blanket and can work in your favor with preventing her nail biting episodes. I am not there and don't know her like you do and because of this I am not trying to tell you what to do, but I am making suggestions based on my experiences with my own Grey lady who came to me with similar type problems.

[britmon]

I know a lot of her history but there is still a bunch of things we don't know. She had a big cage and ample attention for about 19 years before (with an iffy diet) she moved then she was stuffed in a tiny cage for a year, fed a horrible diet, and wasn't handled at all. There was horrible man (the woman's son) who attacked her cage with a machete and she was seriously traumatized. I'm pretty sure he was not nice to her in other ways but that was what inspired the rehome. She's already making so much progress but is terrified of hands and won't step up which is why I feel I need to start with some training. Obviously not trick training or anything fancy like that but just enough so I would be able to fix another nail without using a towel. As someone who has been bit by much bigger beaks, I'm not terribly worried about being bit hahaha.

I wish she would step up so I could spend more time with her that way I don't blame her though, I wouldn't step up for anyone either after all she has been through. I'm reading a lot about making birds flighted to help boost confidence. I'm pretty sure I know your responses to that but, as someone who has only had experience with clipped birds, I am definitely a little apprehensive about it. Especially considering the rescue I adopted her from would probably have a fit about it! What are your thoughts?

[liz]

A flighted bird is not as fearful as one who knows it cannot get away if it has too. A bird in flight has to be the most beautiful thing that I have ever seen. They are so happy.

Myrtle came from a terrible place also. She was clipped and so scared that she would shiver and cry. She kept testing her wings by jumping off the top of the cage. She could have climbed back up the side of the cage, instead she found and climbed me. From my shoulder, without hands, I took her back to step off on her cage. It wasn't long after that that she would step off her cage and on to my shoulder for rides. I still could not touch her.

My method must have worked. She now spends at least a third of her day somewhere on me. Sometimes hanging down the front of me to see what I am doing.

[Wolf]

I am in favor of giving her back her wings as it is beneficial in many other way as well. I understand where you are coming from about training and I think that I agree with your assessment, but I disagree with the type of training that she requires. I think that she need you to talk and sing to her a lot as this will help put her at ease and while you are doing this start offering her a high value treat such as almond pieces or pistachios. As she learns to take the treat from your fingers she will also be learning to trust you more, just don't ask anything else from her until she is comfortable with taking treats directly from you. Once she does this you can then hold the piece of nut or other treat in your other hand and offer it so that she needs to put at least one foot on your hand to reach the treat. you may even have to begin this step so that she can have the treat if she will stretch to get it at first and then progress to the point where she will step up for you and then back off before you attempt to move about with her on your hand. It is still training, but not in the same manner as you are probably accustomed to referring to as training.
At least this is how I would proceed with this bird.

[Pajarita]

My dear, for her to learn to allow toweling will take long months so don't even worry about that now. Her chewing on her nails is a stereotypy (OCD behavior) brought on by insecurity (brought on by the neglect, abuse and the trauma of her good home) and will disappear as she bonds with you and realizes this is her home where she will not be neglected and abused and where she will find a new human to love and there are no training exercise for that! So, again, what you need to do now is bond with her and make her feel as comfortable as possible in her new home and training sessions, an activity completely unnatural to parrots is not going to do that. Quite the contrary, it will add stress. Let me put it to you this way: training her now, regardless of how short the sessions, will be flooding. Period. You need to wait for the honeymoon period to end BEFORE you start the training and it doesn't mean one month either. It takes what it takes whether it's one month or one year. This doesn't mean that she won't be learning anything, mind you, she will! She will be learning about a better diet, her new schedules and routines, the lay of her new home and, most importantly, she will be learning to trust and love you. But none of these 'lessons' require a training session, a clicker or a target.

[britmon]

Thank you all for all of your advice! I guess it's just the extra-cautious-excited bird mom in me makes me want to be prepared for the worst. Seeing her so scared of me with blood everywhere on her first night here really took a toll on me as well as her. There has already been a decrease in her nail biting, she is taking treats from my hand, she even let me touch her beak earlier, and , as I am typing this, she is climbing down off her cage for the first time to check everything else out! Small steps are all I can ever ask for, especially from such a scary background. As someone who has seen so many rescues gone bad, I am so determined to make this one go as perfectly as possible. One good thing to come from her neglect: she has a good handful of her flight feathers back, I predict that she will be able to achieve some lift after her next molt! I will DEFINITELY need more help when that time comes due to my sheer lack of experience regarding that. You all are wonderful! Thank you

EDIT: To be clear, this means no training yet! Just making a happy healthy birdy.