I set off a few days specifically for training Lucy, simply to let Dudley watch, since it seems like our training sessions were going nowhere. Now, I picked up again on his training sessions, and it seemed that watching Lucy has helped him. He learned that the clicker means reward, and while he's still iffy with the target, he's not as afraid of it as he was originally, and will bite it, after a few seconds of backing up and staring at it. I'm so happy, because it seem that we're finally getting somewhere.

The only real problem we're still having is of the treats. I can't use anything too small, because if it's close enough, he'll go for the hand rather than the food (he does that on purpose). He likes millet from the spray, but if anyone holds it to him, he automatically hates it.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I could try with treats? He seems to grow tired of having the same treat after a while, as opposed to Lucy, who could take sunflower seeds all day, and will still not grow tired of them. For anyone who have any larger-beaked parrots, what do you use for treats? I need some ideas for a "training mix", since he doesn't like receiving the same thing all the time.

It's not necessary for the bird to take the reward from your hand; as long as he gets the reward quickly and knows what it was for, that's all you really need. Some people use a cup or a spoon to deliver treats to a biter, although he might not like this delivery method. For a bird that's on a table top, you can put the treat on the table close to him and let him pick it up instead of putting your hand at risk. For a bird in a cage, one option is to drop the treat into a food cup for him to pick it up. The closer the food cup is to the bird the more desirable it will be obviously; but the main point is for him to associate the reward with the behavior, and if he can see that the reward has been delivered it will probably work, even if he has to spend a little extra time actually picking it up.

Does he like nuts? Or pumpkin seeds? You could take something like a walnut or an almond and chop it into small pieces, and mix things up so he doesn't get the exact same thing every time. Maybe he'll enjoy being surprised. If you want to go to the trouble of making dried cantaloupe seeds, you'll have a cockatiel-approved treat that has an interesting orange color to make it seem different.

That is true, but I try to take let him take it from the hand, because I'm trying to get him to associate hands as a good thing. I'll try and clicker condition him with my hands being near the cage as well. Once he's more used to them and can stay calm around them, then I will try and use smaller treats. I feel that if I give him treats by hand, then he might not feel as aggressive towards them.

He does like peanuts, though since they're so small without the shell, it's hard to give it to him. I could try walnuts and almonds. I don't know if he's had them before or not. He likes banana chips too, so I could put all three in the mix. I'd have to convince my mom to stop putting banana chips in his food, though. Eh, I think he'll live having to work for them.

Slice of red/green pepper...

Is romaine lettuce good at all for birds? My mom puts it in his food bowl on occasion, and Dudley really likes it. I gave a real small piece to Lucy, and she seems to enjoy it as well, and since Dudley seems to always want whatever I'm giving Lucy (whether it's in his daily food diet or not), I thought it could work as a training reward for both of them. I don't want to give them anything that could be bad for either of them, though.

Romain lettuce is safe and healthy for birds. That's a very good treat if they'll eat it.

Romaine is fine and so are other types of lettuce. Iceberg lettuce isn't recommended for birds which makes some people think it must be bad for them. But really the only problem with it is that it's mostly water and doesn't have a whole lot of nutrients in it, so it's safe to feed even iceberg lettuce. The other types of lettuce have a lot more nutrients in them and have the bird community's blessing.