Giving Treats to a Scared Indian Ringneck Parrot #bird

What should you do when your parakeet is too scared to take treats from your hand? What if you want to train your parrot but your parrot isn't comfortable taking treats from you?

This Indian Ringneck Parakeet is too scared of my hands that he won't take treats from my hand! If I stick my hand with a treat into the cage, he just runs away. Worse yet, if I let him out of the cage, the ringneck would fly away from me sooner than take a treat.

So instead, to build trust, I sit near the cage and let him spend time getting used to seeing me. I don't do anything to the parakeet. I do not approach him. I do not touch him. I do not give treats. And most importantly I don't try to handle him. I let him see how harmless I am.

When he's more at ease and no longer running around scared, I start to offer treats through the cage bars. The cage bars provide me protection from getting bit and a sense of security to the ringneck that I won't be able to get to him. Instead of holding the treat right up to the parrot and scaring him, I hold a rather large treat at the opposite side of the cage. I let him gradually build up the courage to walk over and take it on his own. It's up to him. Whenever he is ready. It could take minutes or it could take days. But, if I continue being patient and let him develop trust, eventually he can learn to take treats from me and training can really begin to take off.

Learn my complete approach to parrot training from The Parrot Wizard's Guide to Well-Behaved Parrots:
https://ParrotWizard.com/Book

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