Stepping up?

[Alykins]

Gizmo has been getting better with the biting. Seems he does it less and less every day. I've been trying to teach him to step up, but I don't know how to go about it. So I need some advice that works. I haven't tried to get him out of his cage in a while. Because of the biting, I'd just sit next to his cage with the door open and let him come out when he wants to. He'll come out of his cage every day on his own, and will be back in his cage by bedtime without any fuss. But if I ask him to step up while he's out, he'll either come near my hand, look at it and then walk away, or he'll just bow his head and ask for scritches. It's very rare for him to step up when asked.

I also wanted to know, how much do you feed your birds? Like, how many times a day, and how much do you actually give them? I was told when I got the bird, that filling just the bottom of the food bowl with his feed is enough for the day. But looking around on websites, I've seen that people feed their birds more than one time a day?

[tielfan]

Will he step up on a stick? Many birds think sticks are less threatening than hands, and biting is a non-issue since no one will get hurt if he bites the stick.

My birds have food available all day long. Some people advocate feeding birds twice a day, in the morning and afternoon, but I think this is really more for rain forest birds who have abundant food in the wild and naturally feed twice a day. Cockatiels are from the Australian Outback, where food is not so abundant, and I suspect that they probably forage all day in the wild.

[lovinbirdies]

I had the same problem with Hedwig ... he would bite my hands any time they came near him, but I started working with him on click training a little bit every day, and now he comes right to me on command. It has only been a little over a week and now Hedwig runs back and forth in his cage to get to me ... although I do believe that he is in love with me, but at least he no longer bites me. If you want try looking on youtube for videos with Chet Womach ... he is awsome with birds. Good luck.

[sweetrsue]

if you put your finger on their belly in front of their feet it is natural for them to step up. They naturally will touch your finger with their beak first. It's a way for them to satbilize themselves.

[Alykins]

He won't step up onto a stick either. He'll just hiss at it and back away. If I already have him perched on my finger by some miracle, he will step up if asked to. But if I ever need to put him in the cage or get him off the floor, he won't step up when asked. He doesn't bite my hand if I ask him to step up, he just doesn't come near it. I need to know how to train him to step up either onto my hand or stick.

[r2pn23]

with my first cockatiel George he hated hands and fingers so we never did get him trained to go onto either. i ended up training him to go to a lounge pillow/cushion so that we had a way of carrying him around if we needed or wanted to, from that he gradually started sitting on my shoulder when he was in the mood

With BJ (who is more tame than George was when we got him) i still get times when ill ask him to go up on my hand and he puts his head down next to my finger for scratches instead. he is one stubborn little guy, usually if he gets enough scratches he'll step up onto my hand in his own time just keep trying to get him on your hand, eventually Gizmo will get the idea of what you want him to do