Hi everyone,
We have Tiko now for around 2 months and we have focused on reading her body language, gaining trust, settling into a routine, providing foraging opportunities, getting to know preferences.... (she's 22, a rescue, never left the cage, now has a big cage with lots of toys and perches and destroying opportunities)
Question 1:
We now have come to the point where we think she's up for an extra impulse in her days, so we want to start with target training.
The issue is however, everything she eats, is on her terms. She loves nuts, but she won't go for them all the time, sunflower seeds are just ignored, apples are nice but not always, ...
Millet is also a favorite (and is always accepted!), but it would be hard to gain momentum since it takes a while to eat one of those small bunches...
So we don't know how to get started because we can't figure out what reward to give since everything is on her terms or inconvenient for training.
So, how did you guys figure this out?
Question 2:
Lately, she's fallen into a maybe bad routine? My husband (her preferred person) and her settled into an evening routine of giving headscratches and talking in soft voices before going to bed. But lately when he starts this routine, she goes to the bottom of her cage and starts knocking on the bars, peering at the catching tray bellow. My husband then talks to her to try to figure out what she wants, and recently he started putting his hands on the grate to get her used to hands and maybe start an interaction? But now she starts displaying hormonal behavior so my husband steps away.
Will this stepping away be enough to stop the hormonal behavior? Or is our foraging bowl the culprit (see pictures), since it casts some shadows/offers a little shelf to crawl under? Or is the new UV lamp (12h cycle) the issue?
any advise is greatly appreciated!!