help,my ringneck has a big problem

[celestral]

hi guys.i am new here and i own 2 indian ringneck parrots.i live on the gold coast in australia.i have a light blue female indian ringneck and a blue male ring neck.my problem is with the female bird.if i put a huge bird seed stick in her cage,she will destroy it within one day.they are not cheap.she throws all her food out of her bird seed bowl.
we have tried to get her to be in the same cage as the male but she is so aggressive,she scares the male bird and last time we tried it,it got so bad the male bird was pulling his feathers out from the stress of her chasing him.
she does get on with him at times and they have been doing a mating dance for years but nothing has happened even when we added a nesting box.she likes to be scratched under her beak by only certain people in our family and she just snaps at everyone else.
we used to have toys in her cage,but she destroyed those too.she has even eaten through perches.i have owned both birds for about 5 years now.
i don't know what to do about her destructive habbits in her cage.a couple of years ago,both birds were destroying things in the house like ceiling fans and so on when they had their free time out of the cages.
if anybody has got any ideas on what we can do to sort this problem out,i would appreciate it.thanks.

[ellieelectrons]

Hi celestral

Welcome to the forum!

Unfortunately it sounds like your female and male may not be compatible. If you check this threat out:
http://www.aussiebirds.proboards.com/in ... read=10702
you will see that this particular male went through 3 females before he could find one he wasn't petrified of! (this couple are the parents of my lutino male Charlie)

Regarding destructing toys, in the birdie world, a toy that the bird destructs is a good toy - it means it is getting enrichment out of it.... Of course, from your perspective it's an expensive toy, especially if it only lasts a few minutes! I remember buying this cool toy - it had plastic wiffle balls and out of the holes in the wiffle balls it had small blue plastic dummies poking out of it... I put it in Charlie's cage first. At the time Charlie was a baby and he had fun with it but didn't wreck it too quickly. I was pleased with how good a toy it was! When it ended up with Janey however, she loved it to - however she completely destructed it within about 4 minutes! So whilst it was rather expensive for the length of time they enjoyed it, it really was a successful toy because she engaged with it. There are other toys I put in their cage that they don't really interact with at all... they might last a long time but they aren't performing the function of keeping them mentally stimulated if they aren't interacting with them - they're only really decorating the cage. You can find some information about selecting toys here:
http://myparrotshop.com.au/selecting-pa ... o_123.html
I've found that my guys like toys with smallish chewable bits of wood on them. If you can get access to a paperbark tree or a bottlebrush tree, the wood from those is really good because the bark on the outside is loose and they can pull that off. Once they have pulled the outer layer of bark off you can replace it and get some more. Given how quickly your bird destructs things, you might like to investigate making some toys. They don't have to take too long to make. You may find buying some toy parts and putting them together yourself is a cheaper option. For example, I buy these wood flowers http://www.myparrotshop.com/toy-parts-h ... d_515.html and string them up on an untreated leather cord together with some pony beads (all things that can be purchased at myparrotshop.com) and it's cheaper than buying a complete toy, doesn't take too long to assemble and I can refill it when it's been destructed.

You can find some ideas for creating your own toys here:
http://www.indianringneck.com/forum/vie ... =4&t=11240

IRNs need a lot of stimulation. Without they will get into destructive behaviours - sometimes this will be shown by destructing objects but other times it can turn into self mutilation which can be really bad! I suggest you look into foraging. My avian vet says that birds should forage for 90% of their food.

Check out these links for more information:
http://www.indianringneck.com/forum/vie ... 01&p=69400
http://www.indianringneck.com/forum/vie ... =4&t=13466
http://www.parrotenrichment.com/ - this site has some free ebooks to download

To summarise, I'd suggest:
1. work on finding low cost options for toys such as making them yourself
2. increase foraging opportunities


Good luck & best wishes.

Ellie.

[celestral]

wow.thanks for all the information.i was going crazy with my female bird.i have told my husband to look at getting some good toys for her that will hopefully last and we might have a bottlebrush in the front yard.i had no idea that female ringnecks could be so destructive.it is a shame that my male and female don't seem to want to make little ringnecks.
the female blue ringneck actually had another mate who was green and they got on so well but he got out of his cage one day and flew off.it was sad.she got really depressed and that is why i got another male ringneck but it is not going to happen.thanks for all that wonderful and informative information.take care.

[ellieelectrons]

Hi Celestral

You're welcome. I would recommend foraging toys. The best and most versatile forgaing toy that I have is the baffle cage. I put their fruit and veg in their every day. I wrap it in newspaper before I put it in there to make it harder for them to access it. They sell it at both the Parrot Rescue Centre and the Parrot Society store (see below).


You can also cut off a part of a branch from a bottlebrush tree or similar and put it in your bird's cage. They can go destructo on that! and it's free! You may need to introduce it gradually though, mine get scared of tree branches for some crazy reason! If your bird is scared of it, start by putting it in the room with them and gradually move it closer and closer until it's in their cage.

If you're looking for places to buy toys, here are a few ideas for you:
1) The Parrot Rescue Centre rehomes parrots around Australia and it's a not-for-profit. I haven't bought anything from them yet but I plan to soon. They have a great range of enrichment toys.
http://www.parrotrescuecentre.com/ubg/shop_home.php
I also notice that they have a display at a store on the Gold Coast.
See http://www.parrotrescuecentre.com/prc_noticeboard.php for more information (about 1/3 of the way down the page is a notice about a store in Carrarra having a display of their goods)

2) My Parrot Shop - an online Austrlian store. It has a fantastic range but can be quite expensive. Their toy parts are good though. They are also very careful that everything is non toxic.
http://www.myparrotshop.com.au/

This is similar to the product that my Janey demolished within minutes:
http://www.myparrotshop.com/hanging-toy ... od_65.html
It was bigger than that with more wiffle balls hanging off it and was considerably more expensive. I was heartbroken when I saw how quickly she demolished it!

3) Parrot Supplies Australia - is part of the Parrot Society. There prices tend to be quite cheap and if you join the Parrot Society you get a further discount. They've been telling me for a couple of years now that they are setting up an online store but I'm yet to see it. Every now and again I go to their store at Marsden (in Logan) and buy up big. They are only open twice a week. You can also do phone orders. They have a lot of stuff for companion parrots but their catalog tends to focus more on breeders. They also have a sales table at any Parrot Society events.
http://www.parrotsociety.org.au/index.p ... amic&id=69

Best wishes!

Ellie.

[celestral]

thanks ellie.you have been a really great help for myself and my hubby.i did not realize how destructive parrots can be until after i bought my first ringneck parrot years ago.i will look at those stores you mentioned and see how we go.thanks again.take care.

[m_brewer64]

As Ellie mentioned I would definitely increase the amount of foraging toys within the cage, ones that you could possibly make from bits of pinewood, paper or maybe use some pine cones which work quite well. You could also maybe cover the food bowls with some paper as another method of foraging. Also I would possibly check it's diet to make sure it's receiving the sufficient supplementary needs. I usually feed mine on a daily basis a portion of sprouting seed mixed with fruit and vegies as well as Vetafarm Nutriblend Small & South American sprinkled on top of the peachface seed mix, which has a less amount sunflower seed. I also on occasions give a walnut or almond to each bird or place it within the forage Wise Snack Rack to keep them occupied.

If your after some hardy toys a great place online that also delivers locally in QLD & Australia is Online Pet Cart

As I'm local...... I usually purchase my seed & accessories in bulk for a flat fee of $12 for over 60kg.

If the problems persist I'd suggest seeing an Avian Vet possibly Currumbin Valley Vet Services down the Gold Coast.

Hope this helps........

Margaret

[celestral]

thanks mbrewer64.your suggestions are really good.our birds don't get as much food or toys like your birds.my hubby does not want to spend any money on them but i believe they need something.i let them share a cage each night and they love to put their beaks together and the male does some weird bird dance and noise and the female clucks a lot.this has been happening for years but i don't think they have a clue how to make a baby.
do you know why female ring necks are so destructive and tempermental?is it just my bird?she has such a bad attitude.she spends each day outside in her cage trying to open the latches.i will suggest some of these places you mentioned to my hubby but at the moment,we have too many bills to pay and the toys do add up.
they both get a piece of veg or fruit once a day and the female empties her food bowl out very fast.she is still destroying her big bird seed bells very quickly.i don't believe she is eating them much but is more interested in destroying the.do you know what can be used from out in the garden to put in their cages for them to chew on?thanks for the ideas.i really appreciate it very much.your birds sound lovely.take care.

[dholari]

I am not an expert on any of these issues, but my alexandrine mittu is all over the place trying to bite and break things, so i keep giving him few of these items : used ball pens ( without refills), any card board boxes which come thru shopping (cereals , malt, egg cases etc), old tooth brushes, wooden twigs, ply wood boards etc .. he just loves to kill them to pieces apart from these he loves to smash up fruits like guavas , pomegranates and corn cobs ..

Hope that helps

[MissK]

Hi Celestral,

It sounds like your birds are just being normal.

-MissK

[celestral]

thanks guys.you have all given me some good ideas for my 2 ring neck parrots.i did not realize parrots could be so destructive.in the past they have destroyed things in the house like ceiling fans and so on.last night i had them out for a bit and i opened the dishwasher and the female bird was in there like a shot.try getting a stubborn bird out of the dishwasher.
she lands on my shoulder and back when she is out which i am not that keen on but deal with.it sounds like everyone else on this forum looks after there birds better than we do.i don't want to breed these birds and i don't believe that will ever happen.the female bird had another male bird years ago she was very cosy with.one day he got out of his cage and flew off.she was so upset and down for ages.that is when i decided to buy another male ringneck.
our male bird is so afraid of humans and basically everything.he is a nervous wreck and he does get afraid of the female bird at times.
thanks for all the wonderful advice guys.it has really helped me out a lot.keep enjoying your wonderful birds.take care.

[ellieelectrons]

Flying into the dishwasher sounds lke something my janey would do. It's her nesting instinct.

Ellie.

[celestral]

how can being in a dishwasher be a nesting instinct?we had a nesting box last year but they never used it.my hubby went to a lot of trouble(for him)to build the thing but it was a loss cause.

[ellieelectrons]

I don't know that it's necessarily your birds nesting instinct but with mine she tries to hop in the dryer, the washing machine (I had to rescue her from there once when she fell in), the linen cupboard and other cupboards. Our bird is fascinated by any enclosed space she can wedge herself into. She is generally a friendly bird but when I try to take her away from one of these spaces, she gets aggressive. It's her nesting instinct. Was your bird inside the dishwasher or on the outside? I have a nestbox too but havent been able to find a way to attach it to the cage yet.

Ellie

[celestral]

it is good to know that it is not just my bird who likes to get into cupboards and dishwashers and so on.she actually went into the dishwasher.when we had a first ringneck parrot,one day he was flying around and my hubby was trying to catch him and he ended up going for a swim in the fish tank.what is worse is another day my hubby was trying to catch him(seems to be the thing with parrots) and he end up down the toilet but what made it horrible was my young son at the time had gone number 1's and not flushed.my hubby had to grab him and wash him down.luckily i was not home at the time.
my 2 birds like to walk around the kitchen benches and they love to fly up high and stand on top of tall cupboards and fans and on the top of our air conditioner.my female bird is fanatical about landing on my washing baskets for some reason.
my hubby attached a big,heavy wooden nesting box on to the bird cage and kept one of the little doors open and that is how he attached it.i hope you figure that one out.i am beginning to think all ring neck parrots are very curious creatures.

[Greenie]

Caution trumps curiosity for the wild IRNs, in my opinion.

One day I hung a nice, ripe banana (in the peel) beside our bird feeder, and it caused quite the fright!

We now refer to it as the "deadly banana" episode, because the IRNs would not come near it, or the feeder, until we removed the awful thing.

We regarded that as odd, because bananas grow here naturally!

[sahhbear]

Hi guys,

I know I'm late to post on this topic but I've been having similar 'troubles', if you will, with my IRN of late so I did a search on the forum and came across this topic! I don't know the gender of my IRN, however, I suspect I may have a female. I think that she is only a baby- when we got her 2-3 weeks ago the lady we bought her off was very vague about age and said she was 3 months old but when I got her home she wasn't weaned properly so I've just now managed to get her eating, with some resistance. She will pick and eat ONLY the sunflower seeds out of her mix, so I've removed these from the mix and use them only as a treat. She is on a seed/crumble mix and she has fruit and vegetables daily but I am concerned she isn't getting enough.

At the moment I am home from work during the day and have had Rani out of the cage a fair bit but I have also made sure to have her in the cage too because she will be in her cage during the day while I am at work (she's housed with a cockatiel and at this point in time they are fine). My concerns stem around her eating habits and her constant need to be with me. I wrap up some of her favourite foods in front of her, so she knows they're there and put them at the bottom of the cage so she can forrage but she's not touched this, whether it be paper, newspaper or a brown paper bag, instead choosing to rip the paper at the bottom of the cage up in an attempt to almost dig her way out of the cage? She tips the seed containers and has tried to open the door (luckily it's a bolt so she can't) I have some colourful toys in there and I'm waiting for an order from ebay to come to make some of my own... but I'm not sure how else to address her behaviour and eating habits.

I would like to try to address this as early as possible because I know she's still young and some things I've already implemented with a reward type system have been effective! I'm just not too sure how to go about it and I'd really love any suggestions so as to not stress her out and ensure she's happy and healthy.

Thank you so much

[MissK]

Best wishes!
-MissK

[sahhbear]

Thank you so much for your reply!

I am so sorry it has taken me a while to respond I have had another one of my babies in hospital, this time the dog. Rani has settled some and with perserverance (I like you decided that nope... she could eat the damn seed without sunflowers) Rani now knows who's boss.

She's quite a character. I've got to say it's the ultimate insult to hear your bird laugh at you in your laugh- cheeky bugger! I've found now, too that if I just open the cage door and let Rani out to explore and climb around for a while she's much happier. she loves to fly over to the table and toss around my dad's business card that happened to be sitting there, or chew on the rubber stops of a retractable pen. She even got to throwing the cutlery to herself and trying to bite the buttons off the remote. Destructive, but in an inquisitive way. Right now as I'm typing this she's running across my laptop biting at my fingers (I have long nails and she's fascinated by the nail more than actually biting me) and the keys and laughing at me when I grab her and throw her off the keys and tell her no.

I think the problem with Rani is she's just incredibly smart! We've had her but a month and already she's saying "hello" "you're a pretty boy" laughing, trying to say "turdy birdy" (I call her that when she's being incorrigible) makes a squealing whistle sound and a kiss. I mean it's not clear as clear can be and often we'll look at each other and say "did she just say....." but with intelligence comes easy boredom and that's when she's destructive.

We've started a rotation of toys and currently Rani's favourite is an old coke can hanging on a piece of string in the cage-who'd have thought! I went down to the shop and straight away bought a few cat balls when I saw Rani using her foot to pick things up.

Foraging we're still working on.. it's a slow and gradual process. I found a local area that has a lot of trees that shed bark so I got some to put that in the bottom of the cage with some of her favourite veggie treats under it so we'll see how that goes!

I hope both you and your feathered baby are doing well. I'm going to put my laughing lunatic in bed. Thanks again!

[willowisp71]

Laughing out loud, Sarah!! There would be nothing more shocking and hilarious than to have your feathered friend laugh back at you with your own laugh, That would be so funny!

We have recently just brought home our new girl Pepper, a violet IRN, to be a companion for our mature blue male, Skittles. We've had Skittles for about 3 months now, and after about a month, we decided we needed to get him company, as he seemed so lonely for his own kind - he would call out in such despair whenever the galah's or corella's flew over our house, it was heartbreaking!

After much research, we finally found a grey cinnamon that was being weaned, and put a deposit to hold her until she was ready. To cut a long story short, we had some bad weather here just over a week ago, and she became very ill and didn't make it It was very distressing for us, but nevertheless we were lucky to come across another breeder that had a female violet ready to go. So we took the plunge and drove the 2 hours to Perth to pick her up. The only potential problem with Pepper is that she hasn't been hand-reared, so we've got our work cut out for us there!

So, here we are, coming home with a new little playmate thinking that Skittles, (after the initial shock), would be jumping for joy at having a friend.............NO SUCH LUCK!! He has REALLY had his nose put out of joint!! Who would have thought in such a short time, that he would have bonded with us to the point where he see's another bird as a threat to his position in the household?? Most of the time he sits in his cage sulking, with his back to her at all possible times, although he has a couple of times had a go at her through the bars of her cage, but it appears to be more bluffing than actually trying to bite her, (showing his dominance?) Despite his bad behaviour toward her, all Pepper wants to do is get as close to him as possible!

We have their cages side by side, but they are of different design/height, and the perches I got with her cage can't go where I want them so that she can be at the same level as his sleeping perch. This morning when I got up, I found her clinging to the bars of the cage in the corner closest to where he was sleeping!! The poor bubba just wants to snuggle with him, and he's being a right turd! I'll be purchasing some more versatile perches today so that she can sit more comfortably in the places she wants to be.

It's still early days yet, so I'm hopeful that Skittles will become more tolerable of Pepper - haha, she's just called out to him as I'm writing this, and he is studiously ignoring her, pretending to have a nap!! Ignorant so and so! We can only wait and see, and make sure we take things slow with them both, still lavish him with attention, and always supervise their out-of-cage time together, until we can be certain they will get along. I have a funny feeling that Pepper will end up ruling the roost in this household, and perhaps Skittles already senses this, and is the reason he is being so difficult now

Hope everyone else is having success with their birdy's. Look forward to hearing updates from everyone

[celestral]

hi.i just wanted to let everyone know that we have a new baby parrot.it is now out of the nesting box and learning it's way around.daddy bird (skittles)gets cranky with it for some strange reason and mama bird (celestral) is caring of the baby.one parrot out of four eggs.the baby has already grown it's wing feathers and the rest is taking it's time to grow.we had a raffle to see what name the baby would get.our three kids chose a name each and one was picked out of the bowel.the babies name is star.just thought i would mention this.the parents are very protective of the baby so there have been some close calls when they are let out of the cage.

[ellieelectrons]

When I introduced my guys to each other I started with cages in separate rooms where they couldn't see each other and then moved them closer. I don't know if that would work for you... it gives your existing bird time to get to used to having another bird in the house... and hopefully getting curious about it.

Ellie.

[willowisp71]

Thanks ellie,

Yes, we initially started off with Pepper being in a different room, but only for a couple of days....perhaps we were too hasty though?? And Skittles did initially show lots of interest....and then made up his mind that he didn't like her lol!
I'm sure they will work it out eventually

I'm also wondering whether it's because she is so young. Early last month, Skittles was showing hormonal tendencies toward his toys, the bell on his ladder and numerous short branches on his playgym, pinning his eyes, making the heart-shape with his wings and making soft noises as he lent in to 'kiss'?, 'nibble'? at the object of 'desire' Perhaps he's still feeling hormonal, and realises she is not old enough?

[sahhbear]

Awww Deb! I'm so sorry to hear about your baby! That's terrible. I'm glad to hear about the addition of Pepper though and I hope Skittles comes around to her being around! My turdy birdy as I've taken to calling her (I mean it with affection) is just reeking havoc! Hahahah currently I am sitting at the table and Rani has decided it's fun to propel herself down the bits of the cloth that are hanging over the edges. She truly is the most entertaining bird! I went about introducing my two in a very unorthodox way (because rani was so young when we got her) and because I knew Sam wouldn't hurt Rani, so I just put them in together. It came down to worrying about the cockatiel hurting the IRN in the beginning and now Sam holds his own. If rani goes up to him and Sam doesn't feel like moving or whatever Rani wants Sam WILL let rani know! But obviously I don't recommend that for you with skittles and pepper! I look forward to seeing her!

[ellieelectrons]

Hi Deb

Sounds like you're doing everything right to me... just keep monitoring them and supervising them.

I remember lots of anxious moments introducing my guys. I hadn't planned to let them cohabitate when we did, but one day Charlie went into Janey's cage and he wasn't coming out, and that was that!

I seem to recall Janey was more weary of Charlie than he was of her. Janey was our first bird and was one year older than Charlie.

There is a risk that they will never get along... but someone told me that if you start when their young, it's less of a risk.

Best wishes.

Ellie.