Recall Training :]

afinch · Post by **afinch** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 12:35 pm

The two babies are still doing well and learning how to navigate life alongside their human roommates. Fortunately, they're still obedient, and will fly to your hand when recalled with a snap of the fingers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbIVeDtdH2o

Post by **delray** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 12:42 pm

afinch that's awesome. I really want to tame a finch one day, it makes having them that more fun.

afinch · Post by **afinch** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 4:49 pm

I hear ya. I think I might try to tame a couple of my CFW babies in the future. Maybe later in the year when I'm done with all my traveling. Once you commit to this you can't go anywhere for at least 6-8 weeks in a row lol.

Post by **lovezebs** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 5:27 pm

afinch
That is so cute. Not sure if it lasts with finches though. I know that it works well with hook bills, but don't finches out grow it at some stage?

afinch · Post by **afinch** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 5:49 pm

Lovezebs, not if you keep conditioning them for it, or so I've heard.

Post by **lovezebs** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 7:04 pm

afinch
That's good to know. I suppose you have to start with infants.

Sam007 · Post by **Sam007** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 7:35 pm

They are very cute. I love them very much.

afinch · Post by **afinch** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 7:48 pm

lovezebs I think so. I tried with two parent-raised babies in the past, and I had to work with them every single day to keep them tame'ish. If I skipped a day or two, they would regress rapidly. Also, if someone spooked them or handled them, it was almost like starting over.

These two, on the other hand, know nothing else since day 1. I am completely imprinted on them, and whatever slot in their brain was reserved for their parent birds (and other birds in general I guess) seems to now be occupied by us. With them, I actually have the opposite problem - it's harder to get them to be independent from me than the other way around. They are now two months old, and given the choice they will always prefer to be on or around me than anywhere else. When I come home and let them out of the cage, they run up to my shoulders and start doing that little dance ritual thing to me. Then they start preening my facial hair and making those roosty noises. I no longer hand feed them and they have long stopped begging/expecting food from me. They just treat me (and my wife) as other flock members. Ironically, they have zero interest in the other zebras we have. They never go to their cage or interact with them in any way. They probably don't know they're zebras themselves and just think they're humans like us lol.

I wonder if this will continue to be the case. I read somewhere that if you maintain that up to 1 year of age, it should be fixated for the rest of the bird's life. Though I really think that as long as you don't house them with non-tame birds that can teach them to fear humans and you don't give them reasons to fear you, nothing should change. We'll see. I'll keep you posted.

MiaCarter · Post by **MiaCarter** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 12:20 pm

Consistency is really the key, especially for that first year of life.

If you were to tame them consistently for the first year, then ignored them for a few months, they would regress and lose their tame-ness. (This is true for any animal, even cats and dogs.)
But once they've been tamed, it's always much easier to return them to that state.

The other birds can have a huge impact too. If they're with a bunch of flighty, super frightened birds, then they're apt to be the same. (Which is totally understandable. If you walked into a room and saw two people looking absolutely terrified and acting very scared of something, you'd likely feed off of that emotion and start feeling the same way, even though you haven't actually experienced anything frightening.)

The trick is to ensure that they view interactions with you as rewarding. Defining "rewarding" for the individual is the key, really. Some view the actual interaction and attention as inherently rewarding. afinch had a really good example of this in the video where he was rubbing their cheeks and they were clearly loving it.
Others are more food-motivated.
With most, you use a combination of the two.

Personally, I only work long term with the birds who find human interactions inherently rewarding - the ones who enjoy the interaction.
If they don't find you enjoyable and they're only in it for the food, then it's just.....just not as rewarding, I guess?
I don't want to "pay" a bird to be my friend. So if you don't want to be my friend, I respect that. That's perfectly okay.
For those guys, I just work to maintain them in a semi-tame state. It just makes life a bit more enjoyable and less stressful for them when they're not terrified of you.

afinch have you tried using a clicker?
That would be fun. "Click, Click" and a flock of birds comes zipping toward you!
Ha!
I've gotta try that.

afinch · Post by **afinch** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 12:49 pm

Mia that made me laugh.

I tried the clicker for a while when I used to train my parrots. But then I found that they were responding just as well (or even better) to my vocal encouragement and just used that. My sun conure used to be a sucker for the phrase "good girl". So much so that when she did something good and I didn't reinforce her, she would say it to herself. And if she thought she did a realllllll good job, she would keep saying it until I agreed with her and said "yes, you are a good girl".... lol

MiaCarter · Post by **MiaCarter** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 2:18 pm

afinch -- Ha, that's hilarious about the "good girl" sun conure!

I tend to do that too -- use vocalizations instead of the clicker, especially with the hookbills, who are just so darn smart and can learn tons of different tricks and behaviors.
But the clicker can be good for the more....what's the word....simpler?....the simpler birds who only learn a couple different things.

A funny OT aside that came to mind when thinking of "simple" birds.
I had an african grey for about 9 months as a foster and this bird was the opposite of simple. She was most verbose creature ever. I never "taught" her a word. She just picked them up.
Oh. My. Goodness. I never realized how many little catch phrases and random made-up words I have. She picked up each and every one of them. The things I say to the dogs and cats were the funniest. As she'd hear me say something and she'd get excited and start joining in.
"Don't eat the cat, Caitie! Don't eat the cat, Caitie! Caw!"

I felt really odd when it came time to give bird to her forever home....like I was giving them an audio tape of the goings on in my house! LOL

afinch · Post by **afinch** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 4:19 pm

HAHAHA!

KarenB · Post by **KarenB** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 10:30 pm

That is the coolest thing I have seen in a while. I have been working on recall with my macaw. She is getting rather accomplished at flying around the house and landing spot on with finesse. If I could just get her to do it other than when I'm eating dinner.........

afinch · Post by **afinch** » Fri Sep 05, 2014 5:46 am

KarenB LOL

Here's recall training my conure:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqVLW_9nr6s

Now THIS was a bird that didn't know she was a different specie from us. She was glue-attached to me, and wanted to do everything the way I did it. She would even refuse to eat directly from a plate sometimes when I am eating with a spoon... lol. Granted, I also raised (and handfed) this one since very early on. Human companionship was all she knew for a while.

KarenB · Post by **KarenB** » Fri Sep 05, 2014 9:46 am

afinch That's awesome

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