I originally posted this on another board and got but a single response. I'm going to try here for some help.
I have an MSL that I was taming using the conventional method. I had got him up to the point where he would eat out of my hand, step up about 50% of the time, would come back to me to get to his cage after running around, (he is clipped) and reacted well when I had my hands in his cage to do food/water changes.
One day, he just reverted, and every day has got worse. Now he is afraid of me, and runs. He won't step up, won't come near me, even if I try to bribe him with treats. I didn't do anything wrong, but now he is a source of endless frustration.
I'm doing a method opposite of conventional, since he no longer responds to it. Putting my hand in the cage with a treat in it just makes him scared. Getting him to step up on a perch is impossible.
Right now I'm just handling him as much as possible. He shakes at first, but I give him some skritches and he calms down and gets sleepy. He has never bitten me. Unfortunately, this involves scooping him up, but when he runs out of his cage in terror of me changing his food, I can't get him back any other way but following him for a bit and grabbing him.
I'm also having a feeding problem.
the bird will not eat it's food. right now I'm feeding it a super nutritious mix:
herbs
egg food
egg shells
volkman's mix
harrison pellets
organic dried fruits and veggies
it's all minced up to bite size and mixed. He picks out what little he wants (eats less than 20% of the total serving), then uses his beak to shovel the rest out of the cage on onto the table and floor. This angers me to no end, it's a pain to clean it all up. He then starves himself, and only drinks water until I give him a nutri berry which he eats about 65% of it. Right now he won't even let me handfeed him, so he isn't even getting the berries.
So by the afternoon he has poop that is pretty much all water because he has no solids in his system. I ended up buying a $3 bag of 4lbs of (crappy) seed and he seems to love it more than this super expensive all organic fancy feast mix which costs more than I spend on my own food.
If anyone has any feedback or suggestions, please let me know.