Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

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Ebony_Dusk
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Joined: Mon Jan 11, 2010 7:01 pm

Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by Ebony_Dusk »

Hi there,
My family and I are currently taking care of a beautiful Indian ringneck (who we may end up adopting because it was an unwanted gift to it's current family) but we have encountered a few problems. Although the bird was hand-raised it hasn't been handled for many years and he/she (we don't know it's gender) really seems to hate humans. The bird usually tries to attack us when we put food or water in it's cage, and whenever we go out onto the porch where the cage is the bird runs away and hides, and he/she won't come out until we leave. What I want to know is this: is it possible to re-tame this bird so that it won't be terrified of us (and if so how do I go about doing that), or should we just leave the bird alone (I've read that indian ring-necks are supposed to like company, but she really seems to hate us). My family and I don't have much experience with birds but we can't stand seeing the poor thing so unhappy. Please help.
Pounamu
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by Pounamu »

Welcome. :mrgreen:

Ebony_Dusk wrote: it hasn't been handled for many years and he/she (we don't know it's gender) really seems to hate humans.
If it has a ring around its neck it is male.

All ringnecks are different so it may or may-not be possible to re-tame, depending on it's history. Being hand-raised though will increase the chance.

Maybe have the cage in a low human traffic area until he gets used to humans again, then slowly increase human contact (still change he water and food though of course). Hand feeding will also help when he is a little less jumpy, this can take a very long time.

In the end if you have no luck and want him to be happy, maybe get an aviary for him and slowly introduce another ringneck.


Hope this helps.
Ebony_Dusk
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by Ebony_Dusk »

Thanks for the advice Pounamu! My family is looking at building a large aviary for the bird (who only has a pale ring around it's neck, so I think it's a girl), so I'll suggest building it somewhere relatively out of the way. I'll also try to hand feed her a few of her favorite treats when/if she settles down a bit and I'll see how things go :)

It's certainly all worth a try ^^
Pounamu
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by Pounamu »

Sounds like she is a lucky bird. Hope all works out.
Ebony_Dusk
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by Ebony_Dusk »

My family now officially owns the bird and my mother has named her princess. She is now taking food from people, but only through the wire (If anyone has their hand actually in the cage she still won't come near us), and she let's us clean her cage and change her food and water without attacking us. She is extremely vocal at the moment, but I can't work out why (she never really talked at her old home).
bec
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by bec »

she sounds like she was very lucky to find you guys
i have a couple of hintds for you
try getting a hand rearing spoon & feeding her moist egg & biccie mix from ot
sometimes a bird who has been hand raised then left to go wild responds quicker to the spoon than your hands
the other is some irns just dont trust hands
we have one who was hand reared & spoilt ever since we got him and is totaly tame but will not let you pat him ....never has he is quite happy climbing all over us stealing our food and the like but if you try to pat him he wont allow it
as to her being more vocal i would say its just that shes happier & is starting to want your company
but be careful with rushing to he r the minute she contact calls if you do she will very quickly get to the point when she yell everytime you leave the room wait until shes quiet to enter the room she is in
if she gets realy vocal when you leave the room just whistle to her
i cant think of any other advice to give right now sounds like your doing everything right judging by the change in her
keep us posted & we would love to see pics
Ebony_Dusk
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by Ebony_Dusk »

Thanks for all of your help Bec, I'll try and track down the right sort of spoon and give that a shot, and thanks for your advice about not going to her when she squawks, by the sound of things my family and I were accidentally teaching her a bad habit! But I am very relieved to hear that she's just being talkative (and that it's nothing more than that :) ).

Princess seems to be getting along with my family really well at the moment but she seems to be very unhappy with me for some reason. As of last night she's gone back to attacking me whenever I walk by the cage or change her food or water. I'll keep an eye on things and see if she calms down, but she's been at me all day today, and I can't think of how I've upset her ^^;
Hopefully she'll be in a better mood tomorrow, it's just a bit disheartening being mauled by her whenever I walk past when she'll clamber eagerly over to talk to everyone else Dx

I'll post a picture of her soon ^^
bec
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by bec »

if you cant find the spoons just bend a table spoon in a vice grip
its all i use for hand rearing & does the job fine
im not sure what has caused her to revert back to attaking you she
sounds a bit old for the bluffing stage but it can be the simplest things that set these guys off
our kieron will lose the plot if poeple wear anything halfway resembling a glove
near him to the point that when i broke my wrist i had to get my kids to feed the birds coz kieron
was trying to fly through walls to get away from the scary white glove maybe she didnt like the color of clothes you were wearing i have heard of irns that hate the color red
or it could just be shes feeling that your a bit unsure of how to handle her
try not to make eye contact with her when your feeding her
and go slowly but not too slow she will get used to you!!!!!
also try having some treats set aside when your feeding her if she doesnt bite give her some & if she does bite
say "no" or "no biting when she stops biting give her a treat irns are very in touch with their tummies & veryy quickly learn that the behaviour you desire will get them yummies!!!!!
Ebony_Dusk
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by Ebony_Dusk »

Thanks again Bec.
I couldn't find the right sort of spoon but I'll bend an old tablespoon and give it a shot today.

According to her old family she is at least two (which is hopefully too old for bluffing?) so I'll just be patient and I'll try to work out if there's anything different about what I was wearing or what I was doing. If I can't think of anything I'll just do my best not to make eye contact etc, I'm sure she'll settle down soon :) (Well, I really hope so because she's certainly not play-biting or giving me a warning bite, she draws blood each time :( )

Kieron sounds like quite a character! I guess that all Indian Ringneck's are individuals ^^
bec
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by bec »

thanks kieron definitly is a charactor!!!
hes definitly my special guy!!!!
Ebony_Dusk
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by Ebony_Dusk »

Just thought I'd post an update.
Princess is still biting, but not as hard, and I'm back at the stage in which I can feed her a treat through the wire without losing half my hand, but she'll still nip if she's given half a chance i.e. if your shoulder or back gets too close to the cage, or if Princess finishes her treat and you haven't moved in time....Oh well, for now my family and I can deal with that. She's not pining her eyes and outright attacking as much, so that's good. I'm still not entirely sure why she went through/is going through a biting stage but because she is improving I'm not super concerned. She is a lot better with people in general these days, when ever someone sits outside to have a breakfast or coffee Princess runs over to where she can be close to you, and she sits and whistles and chirps and watches what you're eating and drinking (probably in the hopes of stealing a piece of cereal, which has happened once or twice). We still haven't tried to take her out of her cage yet though, mostly because of the biting, but even if she just becomes a happy aviary bird that would be fine.

Speaking of aviaries my father is halfway through constructing a new, much larger cage for princess. We think she would really apreciate the space because she is now a million times more active then she ever used to be, she scoots around on all of the branches that we have given her (where as in the beginning she could barely walk on the piece of dowel she had), and she is eating a good variety of fruit and vegetables and a fair bit less seed (she's eating less seed by choice, which is probably a good thing because she used to live of seed, apple and carrot).

After reading a thread here about inexpensive homemade toys my family and I have been making Princess some toys out of things like ribbons, plastic bottle caps, keys and bells. She mostly just destroys them but if it keeps her active and happy then that's fine. We also bought her a swing but she hasn't gotten the hang of that yet :roll:

Anyway, I did have a question (yeah, sorry that the above was so long), how can my family tell if Princess would like the company of another bird? I've been reading about introducing new birds, so I thought that if my family did go down that path it might be wise to do that when we put princess in her new cage, in case she's territorial about her current home. I'm used to having dogs, and I know that dogs are usually happier if you get them in pairs so that they can be friends and pack mates, but I'm not sure if it's the same with birds. Is there a way of telling if Princess wants a flock mate to keep her occupied while my family and I are at work? And if that is the case what sort of birds are acceptable?

Update
We've gone ahead and put princess in her new home, as you can see from the pictures below, but we are still wondering whether or not we should get her a new friend. Her new cage is much larger then her old one, to say the least, it has a small inside section and a larger outside area. We can close off the inside cage (if we want to take her to the vets or move her inside during bad weather), but we usually just leave the two open. The outside cage can easily fit five people in it, as we found out when discussing what branches should go where. Princess hasn't yet discovered her bird bath, and she hasn't been game enough to walk on the ground, but she's able to fly (much to my surprise) and she enjoys running around on her branches. The cage let's her see us when we are in the kitchen and when we are in the front sitting room, but what she seems to like most is that she can see when our cars come home. When she hears an engine that she recognises she runs out to the front and screams until someone says hello. It's a bad habit but he have to walk past her cage to get inside, so it's not too much of a problem, and fortunately the wild Lorikeets drown out most of her whistling with their own screaming, so our neighbors don't mind.

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Last edited by Ebony_Dusk on Sun Mar 07, 2010 12:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
Ebony_Dusk
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by Ebony_Dusk »

As well as wanting to know about where or not we should get Princes a companion there was one other thing that I was wondering about. Princess has developed an odd habit of licking people. She'll still half try to bite us but if we pat her on the beak she'll often sort of crouch down and start licking our fingers whilst clucking, any idea what that's about?
bec
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by bec »

wow princees is definitly a spoilt girl that cage is awesome!!!!!!!
there is definitly enough spacein there for another
what you might have to think about is if you want her to bond with you as a handtamed pet or if you want her to bond with another bird .....
most times with another bird with them the bond with you will lessen
its up to you
with the licking thing it just kinda tasting....... seeing if youve had your hands in anything yummie
Ebony_Dusk
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by Ebony_Dusk »

Thanks for the reply Bec,
For the time being my family has decided to keep her as an 'only bird', between the five of us she seems to get plenty of attention, even though we don't let her out of her cage. Yesterday we cut a few small holes in the wire of her cage to see if we could pat her properly (it's snake wire, so even if we cut out a bar there is no way that she can escape :) ). She really seems to appreciate being scratched, she clucks and twists her head so that we can pat her properly on the head and neck, she's really very funny. We still have to be careful though because mid-way through a pat she'll turn around and try to bite.

[Edit: Just to clarify my family has been patting her for a few weeks now, but because we couldn't fit our fingers through the wire we could only pat her beak or her chest if she pressed herself against the wire.]

Today Princess was so fond of my dad that he decided to go into the cage with her, and the results were...interesting. Princess wasn't scared at all, she ran around on the branches whistling and chirping, doing her usual little dance. We always thought that when she acted like that she was being friendly, but when Dad offered her a biscuit she went for his hand instead, like she used to. When dad decided to stop trying to bribe her she started trying to climb up onto his shoulder, but she was biting his arm extremely hard and he was quite nervous that, if she got onto his shoulder, she might try to bite him in the face. Dad whistled to her and stayed there for a few minutes, but he eventually had to bail because she was biting so hard. Is this aggressive behavior or does she just not understand that she's hurting people?

We thought that we could identify a few of her different whistles (like the "I'm going to kill you" whistle, the "I'm hungry and I want food whistle", and the "I'm being cute, so please pat me" whistle.), but maybe we were wrong, because she was making 'happy sounds', but she was also attacking. Any idea what's going on?
Jasmineandme
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by Jasmineandme »

Princess is definitally spoilt i love that avairy.
Anyway's regarding her behaviour, that cage is her territory..your dad was in her territory and she was either territorial about it, or she got overexcited.
Seeings as she is a parrot, you cannot own a parrot and expect not to be bitten,
when she bites you gently, and i mean very gently grasp her beak, lift it away from you're skin and say 'no bite' in a calm, even voice.

By giving her attention when she bite's you are reinforcing the behaviour.. so it is important that when she does so, that you walk away, or ignore her for abit.
Soon she should learn that biting will not get her attention...
Parrots feed off our reactions, so if your bitten and make a huge fuss over it, such as going "ouch, omg that hurts" you are reinforcing her, giving her what she wants...

So in general the key, is to not give her a reaction.

hope that has helped you abit :)
Last edited by Jasmineandme on Sun Mar 14, 2010 8:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
bec
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by bec »

i agree with jasmine and me
female irns are very territorial about their cages
so that would be why she was like that with your dad
and with the whistle thing hhmmmm
they do like to keep us on our toes
you can read everythingon irns & still be baffled by them
life is many things but never boring when you are owned by a irn
Ebony_Dusk
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by Ebony_Dusk »

Thank you guys so much for your help! After following all of your instructions my family and I have finally convinced Princess not to bite us (well, she still chews and nips us, but it's in a playful way, i.e. she doesn't draw blood).

With the exception of Dad, Princess gets along well with everyone, and she even lets me garden in her cage! At first I had to lock Princess in her inside cage every other day to change her toys, water the garden, and pick up her fruit stick (she tends to eat the food, then spend an hour unlocking and untying the kebab so that she can play with the shiny silver apple on top, and then she throws it on the ground when she gets bored). But after a while she began to want to play with me, so one day we let her into the main cage while I was working, just to see what would happen... an hour later she was asleep on my shoulder after cooing and playing. I now go in and cuddle her almost everyday. The only down side is that I have to wear a big, winter jacket. I wore the jacket the first time because I was worried she'd maul me, but she must have associated the jacket with a cuddle, because now if I wear anything else she gets upset. Odd bird. (Sadly, while she'll cuddle anyone through the bars, I'm the only one who goes into her cage. No one else is willing to let that big beak of hers near their face, understandably, but she settles best when she's on your shoulder. She must feel safer there?)

We've also learned that she hates most men, the colour red (if you wear a red shirt,she will pin her eyes, growl, and try to kill you, no joke!), and people who touch her bell. No one but Princess can play with the big bell, lol!

She's a valued member of the family, and we can't even begin to imagine what life would be like without her! Thank you all so much for your help! You've made Princess and all of my family very happy :)
bec
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by bec »

i re reread the whole post this morning from your first post
obviously princess has chosen you to be her pet person
it was wonderful to see how much she has changed under the protection of yours & your families love for her
i had to laugh at her getting upset if you dont wear your "cuddle jacket" cant wait to see pics of that!!!!
she sounds like a delightful character
Ebony_Dusk
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by Ebony_Dusk »

Thanks Bec, she's a bit of a nutter, but she truly is a wonderful bird. Here are some pics of her that were taken quite recently. In the first picture I was wearing an old fishing shirt over my jacket in an attempt to teach her that different clothes are ok, but in the end she pretty much pulled the blue shirt off to get to her cuddle jacket. I guess I'll just have to accept that Princess only likes one outfit :P

Image
(It's a bit blurry because it was taken through the wire)

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When she got rid of the blue jacket she noticed that I had bobby pins in my hair.... so obviously they all had to go :P

I never cease to be amazed by how intelligent IRN's are. In many ways she is just like a dog, lol!

Thanks again everyone, I'll let you know if anything major happens/changes :D
ellieelectrons
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by ellieelectrons »

lol... my janey is a bit of a nutter too! But I wouldn't be without her!

Thanks for sharing the photos. It's been great following your story.

Ellie.
Ebony_Dusk
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by Ebony_Dusk »

Today my family adopted a second bird, a little yellow IRN. We don't know it's gender, because it hasn't shown its ring yet, and we haven't had it tested (are there any other ways of telling if it's a boy or a girl? I read that the boys are supposed to have a squarer face, but after staring at the bird for a while his/her face just looks... well, like a birds face, lol!). On the topic of uncertainties we're not entirely sure what to do with the new bird.

There's talk of building a cage just like Princess's for him/her, or just letting the the two birds live together. I'm very anxious about letting them share the same space, because I don't want them to fight. Right now the yellow bird is sitting in a small cage next to Princess's big cage. They like whistling, and feeding one-another, but Princess has also nipped the new birds feet twice (the poor thing had his feet attacked by his father when he was just born, so he's had a hard enough time as it is in the feet department). All in all they appear to be getting along really well, and they certainly don't like being separated, but I'm still not convinced...

What are your experiences with working out whether or not two birds will get along?
ellieelectrons
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by ellieelectrons »

As you can see by my profile pic, we have a blue and a lutino too. They cohabitate and get along reasonably well. Do you ever interact with Princess out of the cage? If you do, then you could try introducing them to each other in neutral territory. I've written a post describing how we went about introducing our birds to each other. Will try to find it for you.

Ellie.
Ebony_Dusk
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by Ebony_Dusk »

Sadly we've never been game to take Princess out of her cage, since her wings are not clipped. Instead we just play with her in the aviary, which is probably for the best anyway, the other animals are afraid of her. But I'd still love to read about your experience! I might be able to pick up a few hints/tips from it :)

I'll go and search the forum for it now :)

Edit: At the moment they are chasing each other along the wire, hopping along after one-another. Is this an aggressive thing or a playful thing? Princess is still feeding him, but if the chasing continues we might just build a second cage, instead of taking our chances. The only problem then is that because he came from an aviary with lots of other birds we're worried he'll fret on his own. Lol, I'm probably just worrying unneceesarily, if either bird felt threatened they would move away (it's a small wire wall that lines up right now, both birds have plenty of room in the rest of their cages to fly etc.)

Of yes, and mum decided to name the yellow bird Calippo, after the iceblock, lol!
jimmyjack
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by jimmyjack »

ive got to say, i am AMAZED at the progress you've made - you should commend yourself.

and i am envious of that cage to say the least!

you seem to be doing everything right, and for the time being, keep buidling that trust. in terms of taking her out, i found that ive had more trouble with salvador when i had him clipped than beforehand. it was the only one hes getting, ever. he had more control and confident and was often free ranging in the house. he still free range 80% of the time, now limits himself to a few designated places (with well placed branches, conveniently! before he'd attached the wall hangings and even make his way into our bedroom onto the tibetan flags above our bed...disaster!) anyway, point being that now youve started building a successful relationship, you could take princess into the house with you, get her confident of walking around places on your shoulder, trusting you as a mode of transport. from reading what you've posted, i feel confident you could safely do this. and atleast restrict her to some rooms (you said the kitchen was within visual range of the aviary?)
Ebony_Dusk
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by Ebony_Dusk »

Thank you very much, jimmyjack. One day I'll look into taking her into the house. If I do get brave, I'll let you know what happens :D

After doing a lot of research, my family and I let Calippo into the main cage... and for the first few hours Princess ignored him. She was too distracted by her food, and the new branches we'd put in. The two birds are slowly learning to get along. They aren't fighting, but they aren't excatly cuddling either. We will give them some time and see what happens :)

Here are a few pictures of Calippo. He is very shy, but he's slowly warming up to us.

Image Image

We're calling Calippo a boy because he is a different shape to Princess (more solidly built etc.). Then again, he could just be... well fed, lol. Calippo came from a family that had taken relatively good care of him, but they needed to move him along because they didn't have space for another bird. I only wish I'd thought to photograph his parents. Calippo's father was a beautiful, pale lemon colour all over, with a bright gold head/face, while his mother was just bright yellow all over with thin, white fringes along her wing feathers.
jimmyjack
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by jimmyjack »

how old is calippo? if a few years old, then its a girl - but the tails feathers look pretty short - recent molt or still a youngling??
Ebony_Dusk
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by Ebony_Dusk »

According to it's old owners, Calippo was born at the very end of October in 2010, so he/she is still just a baby :)
Maniiacy
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by Maniiacy »

I'm in love with that aviary. Beautiful birds; you're doing an amazing job :)
jimmyjack
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by jimmyjack »

ive got a little boy about the same age - alas iggy has not yet accepted him, but hopefully this will change toward breeding season/when he matures. ive read it may be due to him being an immature male. hes being gutsy enough to stand up to her now. we'll see.

however, i wasnt patient enough to wait the two years to find out - had him tested quite easily by a place in perth called saturn biotech. just took a few feathers from the bottom of the cage (lost during a light molt - as long as the quill is intact they can sample the dna). it was really simple and cheap. just posted it off and $20 & one week later, found out hes a boy!
pelican
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Re: Can you teach an old bird new tricks?

Post by pelican »

I love teaching my birds to do tricks. Thinking up clever bird tricks can be a lot of fun for me an the bird. One website with information on teaching your bird tricks is www.birdtricks.com. I am trying to teach one of my parrots to walk from one hand to the next with my arms out in a T shape. He is slowly getting the hang of it.
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