Can a six year old bird change? I need hope.

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Do you know of biting birds ever coming around to be nice birds to everyone?

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No
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Total votes: 2

LadyMagellan
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Can a six year old bird change? I need hope.

Post by LadyMagellan »

So here's my story:

My sister adopted a baby indian ringneck six years ago. Even though I advised her against it because it's like a 28 year commitment, she got it anyway. The bird chose me as its "person." The bird is now mine.

I still live at home and won't have my own place for probably another year or two. My parents are fed up with the bird because she squawks when I'm not around and she bites everyone, basically intentionally and viciously. I am the only one who she doesn't do this to. Every once in a while when I can sense she's in a bad mood, I'll leave her be, but at least if she's working up to bite me, she'll give me a phantom bite to give me the heads up that she wants to go back in the cage. She just loves me! lol

I love this bird so much, and I can't imagine giving her up now. She's already six years old and time has flown! (pun, I know).

I was considering finding a foster parent to watch after her while I figure out my living situation, because it's not an option anymore for her to be in the house. I don't even know how to find someone I can trust. I don't know any bird people. She is even hostile to my boyfriend who also refused to take her back into his house (she lived there for about two months).

One crazy idea I had was possibly getting another bird to keep her company. Not sure if I would be able to put it in the same cage or what. Would she shut up then? I know I run the risk of making her less approachable, which is another fear.

Any advice would be appreciated. I hope that because she's 6 years old it's not too late to make her like other humans. Her bites are painful and almost always draw blood (so it's IMPOSSIBLE to not react when she does this). This is what makes it so hard for others to be ok getting near her to even try bonding with her.

Has anyone been through this before? Is it possible to train a six year old bird to be as sweet to others as she is to me?

Thanks in advance for your help.

-Mari
MissK
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Re: Can a six year old bird change? I need hope.

Post by MissK »

I believe that a mature Ringneck can learn many things and the greater challenge is to the human to learn how to teach them. Because your bird already does well with a human (you) I think she can learn to do well with other humans. I would be less confident if there were nobody she could tolerate, but that is not the case.

In the interest of physical damage control, I would suggest everybody else treat her like a Canary. We speak to the Canary, care for it, enjoy looking at it, but we generally don't touch it, and we never, ever harass it. We love the little Canary and we respect its usual social limitations. YES, some people hand tame Canaries, but we're talking here about the common cage-only bird. Nobody else HAS to handle your bird or stick their fingers through the bars.

Now on to what I think is your real problem - the noise. It is a problem, isn't it? People don't tend to get up in arms so much if a bird quietly sits and defends its territory. They say it's boring, but they don't say they won't tolerate it. I think you should insist your people make a small effort to help train the bird. Read about InTheAir's experiences training her aviary raised bird to be accustomed to people. The bird was not tame when it arrived and now she has to push it's tail out of the way to use her keyboard properly. That bird was a baby, but I don't think it matters a great deal.

I took in a 16 year old bird a year ago. He was so upset by me I had to hide under a sheet to look at him, and even tolerant and committed I thought the noise might be too much to tolerate. Now he gets upset only 1) when I spend too much time too close or 2) for some reason I didn't figure out yet or 3) I am abrupt. I can reach into the cage and change the bowls without a fuss, so long as I am considerate and gentle of movement. He really wants to come to me, but he's still scared. I give him no reason to bite. I did little to train him beyond care for the needs of him and the other birds in the room, and pass out goodies to other birds while offering him some in the cup. Sure, I spend time in the room DOING OTHER STUFF, I'm sure he learned from my other Ringneck, but I'm also sure my carefully indifferent attitude helped. Wild things don't like too much attention - that's what predators do. I do eat in that room, though not every meal. If I followed a program of "taming" I'm sure this would have come much faster, but I'm lazy and very accepting.

Do say where you are as this is the place to connect with others with Ringnecks.

I do wonder, since your boyfriend will not have the bird in his place and you are hoping to move, what will happen if you move in with the boyfriend? Now or two years from now. What was the last straw that made your parents say the bird had to go?

I didn't answer the poll because I don't know any biting birds. My bird bit after I upset him every day for a week, but he got over it and I learned a valuable lesson.
-MissK
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Re: Can a six year old bird change? I need hope.

Post by ringneck »

Absolutely, the bird's behavior can be changed. MissK really hit it on the head, but I do have a few things to add.

Through positive reinforcement you should introduce her to others. For example, use a target stick and lead her to a family member and immediately reward her. Continue this until she feels comfortable with all family members. These birds are highly intelligent.

I had to do this with Dervi and a few of my family members!

Move at your ringneck's pace. Welcome BTW!:)

Best wishes, :wink:

IMRAN-C
InTheAir
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Re: Can a six year old bird change? I need hope.

Post by InTheAir »

I agree with the other posts. Providing a positive experience for your bird by targeting past people is a really good way to start! Just ensure that you don't ask too much too quickly. Sapphire (who missk mentioned) is very shy with some strangers, but if I get her to do some tricks when we have visitors over, she usually forgets they are there. She sometimes even will recall to them after a couple practice runs with me or my boyfriend.
I'm a big believer in unconditional treats. If your family could drop a treat into the dish when they walk by the cage when you aren't home, your bird is likely to look forward to their approach more. It helps if the dish is not close to the birds usual perch at first, so your family members can drop a treat in while avoiding aggressive interactions.

Noise-making is a difficult one to tackle, especially over the net. Sapphire was really embarrassing today when some of my parrot friends came over as she did her "stranger danger" scream at them when they went near her cage! I had to get them to look away from her the whole time they waited for me to get ready!
Does your bird forage for all her food? A busy beak is usually a quieter beak, in my experience.

Good luck!
AJPeter
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Re: Can a six year old bird change? I need hope.

Post by AJPeter »

Make sure your bird is getting enough sleep, l have very noisy neighbours who keep up their noise all night l can use ear plugs but Billie my bird can't it is very noticeable what a an evil mood and biting after a bad night.

Also you mentioned your hen was six years old does she lay eggs? Hens can become hormonal during the egg laying period and special precautons should be made about touching the bird.

Lastly if you cannot look after one bird how will getting another help? Have you tried the Blue Cross?
MissK
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Re: Can a six year old bird change? I need hope.

Post by MissK »

Since AJ mentioned it, I agree. Getting another bird is likely to increase, not alleviate, your troubles. My 16 year old, Sinbad, WAS the second bird. I knew my Rocky wanted a pal, and I wanted him to have one. We were lucky that it worked out, but it was a long time before I tried them together. There were growing pains. You have enough on your plate, and so does your bird.
-MissK
LadyMagellan
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Re: Can a six year old bird change? I need hope.

Post by LadyMagellan »

First of all, my apologies for taking so long to respond.

MissK, thank you so much for taking the time to give me your valuable advice! Yes, I have heard of the “canary” approach before but have identified it as the “boyfriend/girlfriend” approach because you can’t seem overly interested at first, haha.
Just as a side note because I know this wasn’t your point: no one intentionally sticks their fingers through the bars because we know she’ll bite (even me sometimes if she’s moody). Though sometimes it happens when we are rolling the cage from one room to another—she lunges forward suddenly and bites a hand that’s pushing the cage. It’s very painful [for my family… I never give her the pleasure].

I have started to read through InTheAir’s experiences to look for pointers!
I’m located in Miami, and I don’t know anyone else who has an Indian Ringneck…

To answer your question about the living situation, once I'm able to move out on my own, it will either be alone (with my bird) or with my boyfriend on the condition that I can bring my bird with me. I am hoping I'll be able to move out within a year, so I'm doing my best to make it a not-so unpleasant experience for my parents in the meantime. I think they understand my attachment to the bird, especially when I have her out, am playing with her, and the sweet little sounds she makes when I pet her. They sympathize.

The last straw has been the noise... combined with my sister's cats. When one pet makes them upset, they complain about how they want to get rid of the other, too.

Ringneck: we have tried a thin bamboo stick to introduce her to others, but she's terrified of it. Perhaps it just takes time and getting used to? My mom constantly feeds my bird throughout the day with almost whatever she's eating: oatmeal, cooked rice, fruit, veggies, etc. She will sing with my mom, but she will always try to bite her too if she gets the chance. She can be really feisty. No, my bird doesn't forage for her food—how could I get her to do that?

AJPeter: Yes, I'm pretty sure she gets good sleep ever since I invested in dark towels to cover her cage that let hardly any light in! I have noticed a difference in her behavior ever since then. I've also recently started turning small Amazon.com cardboard boxes into a little cave she can hide in at the bottom of her cage. When she sees me coming, she likes to play this game where she quickly drops to the bottom of the cage and hide in there. (She doesn't do this for anyone else). Then I ask, "Where's my little Denver?" to which she squeaks a little baby squeak, lol. It's the cutest thing. Anyway, I've thought the addition of the box would make her lay eggs, but she doesn't and she never has... is this a bad thing/does it mean something is wrong? She definitely doesn't have a dark ring around her neck so I'm pretty certain she's female.

As for considering getting a second bird, that thought lasted for a hot second and then disappeared, lol. I am not ready for that.

Thank you all for your feedback. It has encouraged me that I can maybe keep this bird. I would like to train her up to a point where I can always have her out of her cage and/or on my shoulder or someone else's, if she so pleases.

:)

I'm not used to being part of forums, so eventually I'll get around to posting some pictures of my little Denver (aka Tohtohs).
InTheAir
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Re: Can a six year old bird change? I need hope.

Post by InTheAir »

Hi again,

I'm glad to hear you are so dedicated to your bird. :)

Does the biting happen everywhere, or only in the cage?

Are you familiar with http://www.behaviorworks.org? I think it is one of the best resources for parrot owners!
This article is particularly useful to start with:
http://www.behaviorworks.org/files/arti ... 202004.pdf

If you read over the link and then think over exactly what happened last time your little darling bit someone, especially what happened before the bite and share it here, we may have some clearer advice for you.
It will probably be a bit more useful than my ramblings about Sapph as she never bites strangers, possibly because she is too nervous to let them get close enough to bite ;)

It seems that "protecting" ones home is pretty common in a lot of parrots. As illustrated in the link, there are ways of working around it and avoiding confrontational situations with you bird, which will change how the bird responds in time. Reading the early warning signs and backing off immediately helps in more ways than the obvious one, it also teaches the bird that warnings are as effective as biting. Why bite, when flashing your eyes works just as well?

Here is a great post about foraging http://www.indianringneck.com/forum/vie ... 01&p=69400


Another thing... about the sweet little noises that she makes when you pat her... that can be indicative of having a pair bond with you, like ummm you know... birdy wild thing time... If, in her mind, you are "the one", it may be a strong motivator for her to keep your boyfriend and even mother away from you. I'll find you some links on the subject later, I've got to get to work.

:)
MissK
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Re: Can a six year old bird change? I need hope.

Post by MissK »

I don't have time for a big ole post, but I want you to reconsider your goal of letting Denver live always outside the cage. I class it as too much of a good thing. You should make sure she retains the skill of living happily in a cage *IF FOR NO OTHER REASON* than if she must one day be rehomed (It happens. Don't think it can't.) then she will absolutely need that skill. Please just take my word for it.

About biting the hand on the cage - lots of birds do this. My Rocky has done it since he got comfortable enough to meet me at the wall of the cage, quite some time ago. Surprise, surprise, this past week he approached my careless hand and LICKED me instead. It was magical. I held my finger so carefully, watching his beak even more carefully, not too close, and all the while he licked my finger. Honest, there was nothing good on the finger. Now I'm not about to just shove my finger in there tomorrow, but it was a very encouraging gesture from him. Perhaps in time you can have this special experience too.
-MissK
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