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My Galah has no interest in me?

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My Galah has no interest in me?

Postby justin742 » Thu Mar 31, 2022 6:06 pm

Hello & thank you for reading my post,

Back in Jan 2020, I saw an advertisement of a 5 y/o male galah (rose-breasted cockatoo) from a lovely elderly lady who had him since he was a baby. She was rehoming him because she was in the midst of battling cancer, and it wasn't looking so good. I took him in and she sadly lost her battle a week or so after he had arrived.

My mother used to have an umbrella cockatoo who was bonded with an amazon parrot, so I knew what I was going to get myself into & had some experience. I've been following Birdtricks on youtube for years, have recently started watching Flock Life's videos.

My issue is he still has absolutely no interest in me, and its hit or miss with men, but when it comes to women, it's like he instantly trusts them. I sadly can't reach out to the previous owner to see why this may be (other than he was raised by a woman or possibly a bad encounter with a man?), but I'm trying to do my best daily on training him with a pointer (currently using a chop stick) and clicker to reinforce good behavior, while also actively trying to recognize his triggers and what may be causing it, and I feel like we've hit a wall. He is so quick to loose interest in anything I do, even when there's nothing going on.

When he bites or throws a temper tantrum, I keep my cool, don't react, and simply just place him on his perch, or any place he can't directly interact with me, and ignore him for a couple minutes before resuming interaction. I have safe foraging toys, chew toys, ect. within his cage, and the areas he has access to on a daily basis.

My beautiful boy:
https://imgur.com/a/EJzmlLg
justin742
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 1
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Galah
Flight: Yes

Re: My Galah has no interest in me?

Postby Pajarita » Fri Apr 01, 2022 10:15 am

Welcome to the forum and I am sorry you are having trouble with your bird. Rehomed birds can't be treated like baby birds, they require a completely different protocol so maybe you were not aware of this and, by not following it, kind of messed up. First of all, I need to tell you that neither Birdtricks nor Flock life deal with rehoming protocol, they are more about training for tricks and even potty training, something that anybody who knows anything about parrots will tell you that is a cruel and dangerous thing to teach a bird. Personally, I would not recommend either site.

Now, let me tell you what I do with a 'new' parrot (all my parrots came from somebody else). First thing I do is NOTHING! I keep them in their cage for a few days, I cannot give you an actual number of days because it depends on the bird so it's a case-by-case all the time. With friendly birds that show an interest in the other birds and/or myself, it's only a matter of days because once they are eating the gloop, I let them out same as I do with the other birds so their schedule is: open the door to the cage when there is barely light in the sky, clean their cage, put fresh water and their breakfast, gloop and raw produce (one green, one veggie, one fruit - different ones each day of the week). Now, after breakfast is one of the two best times to interact with them because this is what they do in the wild but, with new birds, the only interaction is talking, singing, etc and, every now and then, give them a treat (which should be their personal high value item). This treat is not a reward or a bribe, it should be gift from you to him - you need to win him over, to woo him, to make him trust you, first, and later love you. There should be ABSOLUTELY NO TRAINING WHATSOEVER! And, correct me if I am wrong, but it seems to me that you have been trying to bond through training and, I am sorry to say, this does not happen. Yes, I know that trainers say that training bonds but it does not. If the bird is bonded to you and you train correctly (which most people does not know how to do regardless of what videos they watch because it implies accurately reading the bird's body language), training does strengthen the bond but it does not create it. You see, parrots don't belong to a hierarchical society, there are no leaders, no bosses in a flock, every bird is the same and, although there are bigger, stronger birds that might lord it over the smaller, weaker ones in terms of getting to the food first or getting the best nesting sites, nobody gives orders so, to them, obedience is not something that is genetically encoded like it could be for dogs, for example. Parrots are only incentivized by love for their owner first of all and, second, by food. When you train without prior bonding to the bird, the results are only short termed at best and backfire at worst because the bird does not trust you and ends up resenting your insistence in their obedience.

Now, I do not 'train' my birds, I teach them as we go along by repetition and praise. But what I teach them are not tricks, I teach them commands needed for cohabitation... things like 'Go home' for them to go back to their cages, 'Step up' and 'Step down' (self-explanatory), 'Come' and 'Go' (come to me and go somewhere else than my shoulder :lol: ), 'Be nice' when I need to separate two bickering birds, etc. I see my animals (I not only have birds, I have dogs, cats, rabbits and, now, a pig) as companions, as friends, so they can do whatever they want to do as long as they don't bite me. Mind you, I've gotten birds that were VERY aggressive but, eventually, they realized I was no threat to them and calmed down. This has taken up to five years for me to be able to handle them and there are some that even many years later, I still cannot truly handle but they no longer attack and they obey me when I ask them to go back to their cage or move from a perch so, as long as they are healthy and happy and I can clean, feed and water them, both them and I are happy.

One other thing, I do not agree with no reacting to a bite. For one thing, it's not only stupid, it's completely unnatural because a big, strong bird (you) would not simply ignore aggression from a smaller, weaker bird (your bird). For another, what, exactly are you teaching the bird? That it didn't hurt? That you do not mind getting bit? Me, when I get bit, I make a BIG fuss, I go "OWWW!" and making my hand into a 'beak' (I put mi fingers together with the thumb tip right under my middle finger) and making a loud CAW CAW CAW I put my hand over their head and make a sudden movement down -like a bird trying to peck the other bird's head. I never -ever- touch them but the loud and 'dramatic' reaction startles them and tells them that I am NOT happy. And they learn.

If I were you, I would go back to square one with your galah. Establish a good diet, a solar schedule (both ESSENTIAL with toos because they are what we call 'hormonal' birds - read, they can get aggressive if overly-hormonal when they get a diet too high in protein and a human light schedule), and a strict routine but do not train at all, simply allow the bird to do whatever he wants to do and interact with him as I explained above. Mind you, it is not going to take you a few days or even a few weeks for two reasons: 1) you missed your window when you first got him and he is now used to the wrong 'attitude' so you are not starting from zero, like I do with a new bird because I am an 'unknown', you are starting with a negative number so you have to work your way back to zero and then work your way up to a positive number. And 2) you are dealing with a galah which, for what I have observed and read about them (I never had one, I've cared for U2s, LSC, Citron and Goffin, not RB2 but I have a good friend who has one), they bond VERY deeply to one person and either ignore or bite the others (my friend's too loves her to pieces but doesn't like her husband or kids -which are all grown, not children who might bother the bird).

Let me know if there is something that requires further explanation.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes


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