Help Wanted and lots ot it Please.

[Neil]

hi ,im new to this so please bear with me . If you dont mind iwill tell you all my story.About 1 year a go my wife and i decided we would like to buy an african grey parrot ,we felt we could give one a good lovin home and lots of attention. We are big animal lovers so we knew we could cope with ones needs and requirements. After looking in to it seriously we decided it was at the time going to be a bit more costly than budgeted for so decided leave it for a while. after doing some research we decided that a alexandrine parakeet would be just as good and were more avaliable if not cheaper aswell. My wife spotted one for sale in a local paper at a good price so we jumped in.Unfortunately it was not a alexandrine we bought , i found out a little bit later on but a lutino ringneck.We bought our bird a big cage lots of toys good quality food and gave it lots of love hoping that once it got used to us it would settle down and hope fully talk a little bit. Now about 13 months on and the bird is no nearer to letting us get near it than day one ...i can though get it to take a monkey nut from my fingers and some times it will come to the side of the cage where you sit and it looks at you and will squeak but if you go near it it flys to the other side of the cage and makes a like growling noise ,its quite upsetting that we only want to give our bird love but it will not respond at all. on the odd occasion the bird as been out it just flys on to the curtains or other furniture and squeals or swarks and will not let you near it at all. Iam at my wits end and dont know what to do ,my wife now wants us to give up the bird to someone who knows about them and can look after it a bit better that we are at the moment. i personally love the bird and want to try to get some where with it .It also hisses at you aswell, just thought i would put that in .Iwould value any help anybody could give me.Another thing i have an avairy at the back of my house(empty at the mo ) and my wife as said would it be better off in there but i dont like the idea of a bird that as been in the house most of its life going outside ....what do you think.like i sai dpleas could some one help.Many thanks Neil

[hedgymom]

Hi, this is Melissa. I was perusing this website and came across your message. We have been researching adding a companion parrot to our family. I've been doing LOTs of reading and research. I have also been volunteering at a parrot sanctuary.
There are several things I'd recommend. The first, is clicker training:

Clicker Training for Birds (Getting Started) by Melinda Johnson
is a great book for beginners.

Another is:
Good Bird! by Barbara Heidenreich

There are forums on clicker training....and behavior training:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Parr ... =166708169
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/GoodBirdGroup/
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Bird-Click/

Here are some fascinating articles:
http://www.thebirdwhisperer.com/articles.htm
Sadly, this man died a few months ago....both the info is amazing

For a bird like you describe, it is going to take a lot of work.
First of all, you might want to start with a visit to an avian vet. This is to make sure your bird is optimally healthy.
The same goes for diet.
Do you rotate toys?

I would also check in your area for an avian sanctuary. They often have people there who could help you with your bird.
Building a relationship with this bird will go slowly. Target training is a great first step.

Check out this U-tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkI9PvOsjS0&NR=1
It is a wonderful example of the wonders of clicker training.

I wish you the best of luck. Don't know where you are located, but many cities have sanctuaries and people who know how to do behavior stuff with birds.

[julie]

hi and welcome to the forum first up you have me curious about your parrot, does it have red on its wings? secondly I would advise starting over with him/her. There is a couple of threads on here that talks about this (I will try to dig some up for you). I will wait for your reply to the red on the wings because I have both ring necks and an Alex and the only one that actually hisses is the Alex.

[countrygal_cc]

Hello I recently had to sale my cupcake. I know what you are going through you want to try to get it to adjust these kind of birds only bond to one person which is kinda a mistake I made nobody else could touch cupcake and cupcake would jump at my husband its a lot of work it hurts you inside the biting and nervous of your bird is bluffing I think. I can't deal with it.
I love cupcake but I couldn't do no more I sold cupcake to a family. I am hurting now I know how you feel you want to try to make things work.
One thing that you must do is have your birds wings clipped and never let your bird on your shoulder. Your bird will walk around and cupcake liked shoes give your bird a shoe and cracker you must get its wings clipped. I hope things work out. Misty

[julie]

Hello I recently had to sale my cupcake. I know what you are going through you want to try to get it to adjust these kind of birds only bond to one person which is kinda a mistake I made nobody else could touch cupcake and cupcake would jump at my husband its a lot of work it hurts you inside the biting and nervous of your bird is bluffing I think. I can't deal with it.
I love cupcake but I couldn't do no more I sold cupcake to a family. I am hurting now I know how you feel you want to try to make things work.
One thing that you must do is have your birds wings clipped and never let your bird on your shoulder. Your bird will walk around and cupcake liked shoes give your bird a shoe and cracker you must get its wings clipped. I hope things work out. Misty

sorry but where did the kind of only bond with one person thing come from??
I'm really very curious about this comment seen as there are an awful lot of people that have ring necks who are bonded to the whole family.

[ryelle]

IRNs are one of the few birds that don't bond to one person. My fid is terrified of strangers - yet he loves both me and my partner. The amount of time you spend with the parrot, and the attitude you have towards it will influence greatly how that bird is around you. Countrygal_cc's husband (from what i've read from her posts on here) didn't like the bird much anyway, and he shouted at it and was mean, so i'm not overly surprised it was threatened by him.
If you feel however that your bird is slightly afraid of someone in the household there is ways of making the bird feel calmer and more accepting of the other person.

As Julie says, you should start over with the bird. I have a 2.5year old IRN, that was pretty much wild when he first came to us. He now says "hello", and does various whistles to us. He has learnt to step-up and isn't afraid of us. It's taken a LOT of work though - more than if he was a hand-raised baby.
Your bird coming to the cage and looking at you is a good sign. You should try talking to him/her, it doesn't matter what you say really, just keep your voice calm. I even read a book to my bird (lol!) and i felt stupid, but he eventually got used to my voice. You should also try get his curiosity going by giving him other treats like pieces of fruit from your hand. Try pretending, or even eating some in front of him near the cage and seeing what his reaction is. Birds are very curious animals!