OUT OF CONTROL INDIAN RINGNECK!

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Shebbb
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jan 28, 2014 2:39 pm

OUT OF CONTROL INDIAN RINGNECK!

Post by Shebbb »

Hi all!
In December I got a 4month old (now 5mnth) blue IRN
I have tamed 2 IRN's before I must say that took a lot of time and effort but it paid off fairly quickly and now they are beautiful.
But back to my blue terror. :evil:
Every time I gently approach the cage he screams at me, he still won't take food from my hands, if I put my hand in the cage he jumps at me and attacks my hand, draws blood every time!
I really don't know what else to do? But I'm not going to give up on him!
Thanks everyone :D
zentoucan
Posts: 151
Joined: Thu Oct 03, 2013 10:45 pm

Re: OUT OF CONTROL INDIAN RINGNECK!

Post by zentoucan »

Shebbb

The Idea is to have your Bird come to trust you and that is achieved by having Daily trust and bond building sessions.
By using the following method you are showing your bird you want to be their friend and have no intention to do harm and food is a great motivator.

Do not stick your hand into their cage. This is an invasion of their territory, big no no After all how would you feel if someone just walked into your house or room un-invited. Also watch the eyes, if the eyes are pinned then I would not put my hand near the bird as the bird could be over excited or aggressive, either way you will most likely be bitten.

If your bird bites you, do not yell, scream, cry, jump around or put on a show. The bird will see it as a great show and will be encouraged and reinforced to continue biting. This becomes unwanted reinforced behavior or learned biting. The best thing to do is ignore it no matter how much it hurts. Leaving the room can work. Showing your displeasure on your face and saying no in a tone of voice that also conveys your Displeasure. but you don't need to yell.

Anyway, first you need to find out what your bird's favorite food is. I suggest that you put around five different foods on a plate.
These can be a couple of sun flower seeds, pumpkin seeds, corn kernels, pine seeds and a couple balls of millet. watching, see which one he eats first. This will be their favorite food. Now that you know, you use this food as a training treat and you use it only for training.

I gather the bird is caged inside the house and probably in the living room. Don't leave a bird in a room by itself. This is the method I used on Bluey with great results. You will need a clicker. Once you have accomplish this method you will need to continue interacting daily with your bird.

Stage one: When the bird is in the cage, enter the room and go to the furthest point from the cage with the clicker in your hand.
Approach the cage until the bird shows signs of being alert and/or frighten.
Stop and just stand there and wait until the bird relaxes. Then click the clicker once and take two to three steps back.
Wait two to three minutes, then approach the cage again until the bird shows signs of being alert and/or frighten.
But make sure you get a little closer to the cage.
Stop and just stand there until the bird relaxes then click the clicker once and take two to three steps back.
Repeat this method until you are standing next to the cage. This can take about 15 minutes to do.

Then walk away.

Wait for around 20 to 30 minutes and repeat this method until you can walk up to the cage without the bird being scared.
This could take 7 to 9 times.

Once you have done this, you can start to Feed the bird through the cage. With the clicker, sit next to the cage and eat some food and have a spray of millet with you.
When the bird shows interest and approaches you. offer the millet and wait. When the bird takes some of the millet click the clicker once.
Once the bird gets use to taking the millet replace it with training treats. This can be done in one day. Remember to click the clicker once every time the bird take the training treat.

Stage two: Start by feeding the bird through cage. Do this for 10 to 15 minutes then wait 20 to 30 minutes. Open the cage door and offer training treats at the cage entrance. Be patient and remember to click the clicker once every time the bird take food. Do this for at least 7 to 9 times that day with 20 to 30 minutes breaks between.

Stage three: Open the cage door and get the bird to the entrance with training treats and remember to click the clicker once every time the bird takes food.
Now instead of using training treats you go back to the spray of millet.

With the clicker and millet in the same hand and with your other hand, make it into a pistol.
Focus the bird attention onto the millet and then bring the pistol hand up very slowly to the feet of the bird.
Your finger must be parallel to the perch and level with the bird's feet. Don't touch the bird.
Don't remove your pistol hand from this position.
Now move the millet so it out of reach of the bird. The bird will have to step forward to get to the millet. Therefore stepping up onto finger.
At first don't expect the bird to step up onto and/or stay on your finger at first and there is a possibility you could get bitten then again you might not.
Do this for 10 to 15 minutes then wait 20 to 30 minutes and repeat this method again at least 7 to 8 times that day.
You will need to continue doing this daily to reinforce the behavior of stepping up.

TIP if the bird doesn't take the training treat within 15 to 20 seconds. don't click the clicker and remove the treat from the bird's sight for 5 to 10 seconds, then re-offer the bird the training treat.

Of course there is the possibility that you might not achieve the results for each stage session just continue that part of this method . I achieved results in three days with Bluey but I spent a lot of time with Bluey to achieve these results.

Remember not to force the bird. The idea is to train the bird to do what you want without force. Every interaction you have with your bird is a trust and bond building session and always finish any interaction on a positive.

Of course it's up to you how you train your bird but over the years I have used many methods some good, some bad. but found this method achieves excellent results in a short time. But like anything worth achieving, you need to apply time.
If you want to build trust and bond with your bird then you must use some type of reward system whether it's food or vocal praise.
alternative methods which don't use reward system take a very long time, lack in clear communications between you and your bird, giving results that will be mediocre at best.
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