Hello from south Texas

dogsandparrots · Post by **dogsandparrots** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:12 am

Hello, I am from south Texas. I've been hooked with parrots for some time, but always interacted with hand fed tammed parrots. So I wanted a challange and adopted a pair of 3 year old ringnecks, that are totally "bronco" .... jajajaja little did I kwno... have my hands full with this pair, it's been a few weeks that I got them. I can now pet them, but you can tell that it will take alot of time to gain their thrust. I am able to touch them by using some negative reinforcement techniques, but it will be a while before they take food from my hand... Of course the lady that had them never got them out of the cage and would feed nothing but sunflower seeds, they are now on a pellet diet and I also give them fruit every other day or so... Anyway just wanted to share this with you all..

ringy76 · Post by **ringy76** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:29 pm

Hi luis, i was a bit scared of the name method.. u know "negative reinforcement" it really sounds like bad things but after seeing the video i must say i was kinda impressed and i will probably try it with Paco, my IRN, on the near future, hope u dont mind if i ask some questions later on...thanks for sharing and welcome to the forum

Felix

SkyBaby · Post by **SkyBaby** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 7:20 pm

Welcome here! I have 2 ringies as well. They are very much a handful.

dogsandparrots · Post by **dogsandparrots** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 7:33 pm

Hello Felix, lots of ppl are afraid of negative reinforcement (because of the name). The video that I posted on my webpage is a clear example that negative reinforcement it's nothing bad. Lots of ppl confuse it with punishment. Let me explain negative reinforcement in simple words (or at least this is the way I see it). What I did in that video was only reinforce a wanted behavior by removing something that Meme doesn't like. So in other words I aproached him (something that he clearly didn't like) and when he stood still (behavior that I wanted) I reinforced that "wanted behavior" by removing my hand. The clicker just acted as an event marker...

Thanks

pinkdevil · Post by **pinkdevil** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 11:06 pm

Hi dogsandparrots, welcome to the forum.

jeannier · Post by **jeannier** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 12:27 pm

Welcome to the site! I think that is great the progress you are making with Meme. I have also been working with my ringneck. She is taking longer, but is making progress. Keep up the good work!