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Training a Crimson rosella help??

1K views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  EmberBirb 
#1 ·
Hi all, I currently own an almost 2 year old Crimson Rosella and I’m really struggling with taming and I’m starting to think he will never be fully tamed. I took him from my work place when he was 8 months old (someone else was going to hand rear him but my workplace left it too late and when he fledged they didn’t want him). I’ve had him a year now and I occasionally do taming exercises with him which means all he knows is what “off” means, his name and I can sometimes call him over to land on me only if I have treats.

Recently I’ve had problems with him. He no longer lets me put my hand in his cage (not touching him just keeping a distance to let him get used to it) and when I do he runs up to it and bites me. His started to show aggression towards me even attacking my foot if I’m sitting on the floor. This is completely new and he’s had no traumatic experience or change in environment. I’ve never been able to teach him to step up and now I’m not even sure how to go about training and taming him to spend more time close to me.
Have I left it too late? Can anyone tell me what to do as a first step of getting him to come closer to me and maybe step up without fleeing or biting
 
#2 ·
Rosellas are really aviary birds, and i mean strong aviary, not just your normal wood and chicken wire thing, it needs metal framing and very strong netting, their beaks maynot be as strong as an african grey or bigger, but, boy, are they expert at chewig at and destroying wood
they really dont do well in a cage, not even a big one, they love to fly and no cage is big enough to allow a rosella to fly in a horizontal plane
youll find that now your rosella is coming out of the baby phase and into the terrible teenage phase, relate it to a child coming into the terrible twos in a human, and im afraid things will get worse as he matures more and looks for a mate. Had you done more than 'occasional training' with him you mightve had a chance, parrots need constant repetitive training and interraction to bond with you, they quickly get bored and will find their own, often distructuve, fun, including annoying you, one of the funniest things to them is to pretend to lash out at you, see you jerk back, with maybe a little squeak, once they know they can get you to back off they will do it more and more, then they will go further and bite, if you push it.
you could try tempting him to step up onto a perch, tempting him with a very favourite food that you keep only for training, to save you being bitten and, distracting the unwanted behaviour, by interracting with toys and fun things
is he clipped? rosellas are flyers not climbers and if clipped may not be a happy bunny and very frustrated
is his cage below your head height?
are you sure he is a he, rosellas have quite close colour in both male and female an,d with the colour morphs being bred for, m/f are almost indistinguishable
As a rule of thumb ( but not necessarily always true) males bond closer with female humans and vise versa, right from the big macaws down to little budgies and parrotlets
As he is biting out at your hand, do not allow him on your shoulder, only a trusted parrot should be allowed on shoulders, as eyes are very tempting to them and their eyes are part of their communication
 
#3 ·
Hi, thank your for replying. I knew from the start that Rosellas aren’t exactly people birds and I am happy to let him do his own thing as He is very solitary but was just wondering whether they can be trained at all to be closer since even training from the start he was very uninterested in food, toys or being near me. He is not clipped as I do not agree with clipping when he isn’t in any danger in my room. His cage is about 5ft so level with me. Although I am not 100% sure he is a male ive done a ton of research and from the shape of his beak and the fact he has lost the white like under his wings (which a website said can be a way of telling as males tend to loose the line after a year) I’m pretty sure his a he.
I don’t think his unhappy with his arrangement since his out most of the day and enjoys walking round my floor and being low down rather than being high up. In future once I have my own house I will most likely gradually move him to an outdoor avairy and potentially get him a mate.
 
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