There's a problem with that though. Ever since I started taking her out of the cage, she won't eat out of my hands anymore. Before, I could get her to eat sunflower seeds from my palm. Now, she won't even eat millet spray I hold near her. Instead of moving forward with this process, it's like I've gone backward. I don't understand why.

Just be patient. She's adjusting to a new environment and a new "flock" and will settle in eventually.

I guess. Though I thought she was settling in until she stopped eating from my hand. I guess I need to give her some more time though. She's only been with me for about 11 days.

I heard females can tend to be a little harder to bond with. I underestimated that statement when I decided to get her. Oh well, though. I think we can make it work. I feel like we're kinda made for each other, even though neither of us know for sure, yet.

If you're still not sure by the end of the month you do have the option to get a different chick or return her for cash back. The younger chicks should all be weaned by then. There's one chick (Simon) who has the same personality Shodu did at the same age, even though he/she is not actually related to Shodu. Simon is food driven and eager to socialize to the point of obnoxiousness lol. This chick WANTS to be on me and wants to be fed. I've literally had to peel him off my face a couple of times because that was the first spot he hit when he flew to me and he ended up clinging to my nose. Those baby claws are really sharp.

I think I've figured out why I'm having trouble bonding with Lucy........................... I'm going to make a different thread about this.

So I've removed all of the mirrors from Lucy's cage (read this blog to find out why). I've gotten her to eat from my palm. We are moving forward once again!

She's still a little weird about eating from my palm though. She still wants me to hold one sunflower seed between my fingers. Then she will take it and drop it, then eat the rest from my palm. I think I'm going to work on this until she is willing to eat from my palm right off the bat, without me holding one just for her to drop. Then I will try and get her to step up.

Rather than taking her out again, I decided a different approach. I decided that while in the cage, I would start target training her.

I don't have much for target training. I first tried using one of those things used to tie bread wrappers, that are stiff enough to straighten. At first, I thought she was learning really quick, but it turns out that she just wanted to play with it and chew it. So I decided to try the back end of a colored pencil. I don't have a real clicker, so I use a pen for the clicking noise. This is temporary, and I will be getting a real clicker soon, as well as something better to use for a target, like a chopstick or something.

Lucy found out that toughing the target will get her a treat, but she's not exactly willing to go a distance for it. I'm slowly making her reach for it more until she is willing to actually move an inch to touch it. I'm using some of the treats I still have that Carolyn gave me when I bought her, dried out peas and corn.

On a side note, you may remember me mentioning that my pionus Dudley, is "grumpy". Well truth is, that is a complete understatement. He has major aggression issues, where he'll always bite your finger no matter what you're trying to do, and he'll only enjoy petting when he's out of the cage. Even then, he'll bite you after a few minutes with absolutely no warning (I studied up on warning signs and body language, and he shows absolutely no signs when he's about to bite). Thing is though, he refuses to step up which makes it impossible to get him back in the cage, and won't accept treats outside of the cage, since he is intimidated by everything (although as crazy as it is, he won't hesitate to fly away from his cage when the door is open. It's just once he's actually out, that he becomes scared). I am starting to work on fixing all his issues, so I decided to start target-training him as well.

Dudley is a completely different situation than Lucy, with the target. He's terrified of it, so I had to start off differently.

Since Lucy's cage and Dudley's cage are right next to each other, I do hope that they will start learning from each other's sessions, and Lucy could help Dudley (since she's not aggressive like Dudley. She's just not interested in me yet). I might make a separate thread specifically for Dudley's progress.

You're doing great with Lucy! You should continue target training her from close distances until she gets it completely down that touching the stick will equal a treat. You can then start making more distances to get her to get the treat.

Are you trying to tame her? I wrote an article on taming birds on this forum. I might not be good at teaching tricks but I find myself really good at taming. I'll show you the link.

This can work with both of your birds. I personally don't really like target training. The birds don't feel motivated to actually step up on your hand to get the treat just to touch the target. I have a different method that I feel is much easier and gives you greater results.

Here is the link: http://www.littlefeatheredbuddies.com/i ... howto.html

I wonder if hormone control techniques would help Dudley at all? The days are longer than the nights at this time of year so he might be hormonal, and many birds see their cage as their nest area. Here's our article on hormone control: http://www.littlefeatheredbuddies.com/i ... mones.html

I can't guarantee that it will work on a pi but there's a good chance that it will. The information will also come in handy later on if Lucy starts getting nesty and you want to prevent egg laying. Some hens will lay eggs without a nest or a mate and others won't. It's too soon to tell what Lucy will do, but her mother will definitely lay eggs without a nest (although she does have a mate).

It doesn't really matter what you use as a target as long as it doesn't look like a perch that you want the bird to step up on, which would cause confusion. Some people use a plastic coffee stir from a fast food restaurant.