Do You Need to Take a Parrot Out of Cage if They Are Scared of You?

Should you take a parrot out of the cage if it is scared of you or doesn't want to come out? Is it better to force a parrot to come out of the cage so it could get used to you?

NO

Forcing a parrot out of the cage or making it come out when it doesn't want to is more likely to harm your relationship and lead to undesirable things such as biting. It is much better to gradually get the parrot used to you through the cage bars and use positive reinforcement training to teach it to come to you. By practicing stepping up inside the cage, you will have a safe and reliable means to put the parrot back in at the end of your session.

Forcing a parrot out of the cage is difficult but forcing it back in is even harder! Practicing at the bird's pace and comfort level is much more likely to lead to a better relationship and much more quality out of cage time in the long run.

In this video you can see how I let the Pink Cockatoo stay in the cage since he isn't interested in coming out and instead focus on doing some target training. This will help the Major Mitchell's Cockatoo come out of the cage when he is more comfortable with me and ready.

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