Rescued IRN
Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 6:37 pm
Hi there,
We bought a young Indian Ringneck a few days ago from a home where he/she was caged with 3 toys for the 5 months since they got him as a fledgling from a breeder at Christmas time. The owner had no time for him, as a busy house with lots of young children, he had a mainly seeds only diet, very dirty cage, etc, etc. Sky is about 6 months old apparently. He/she had entered a stage of running at the cage bars to bite if you put your hand up, or having a go when changing food/water. I am thinking he should be through the bluffing stage by now, but maybe this is a longer stage for this bird. I don't know if he has been teased. On day one, we coaxed him out with a shiny toy and we have set up a paradise style climbing frame and toys to play with and keep music on when were not home. After a few days he now exits his cage happily (when he's ready, which is usually a minute or two) and heads to his new happy place. We have been introducing him to new foods slowly, which he loves (peas are a huge favorite) and I gave him a large dish with water in it, which he jumped straight into to bath himself. His last owner had never offered him a bath, because they couldn't get anything big enough into the cage. My opinion is that he was going stir crazy in the cage, which is quite tall, but not wide. The old owner said the breeder thought the bird was a girl because she is still biting and girls bite more, but I think boredom is probably more likely the contributor. We don't mind what sex the bird is. A light moult seems to be in progress at the moment. Hopefully the severely clipped wings will grow back.
The issue I have is that he/she was hand raised, but has not been handled/trained since. Sky is very cautious of hands. He likes to bite. Most of his bites are just testing, but he puts a good effort at times. We just carry on doing what were doing and ignore him. He will come over and take food or a toy, but sometimes he will forego taking the object in favor of a bite. I assume he is scared or trying his luck. Is there anything we can do to help him to know we don't mean him harm and to show him hands mean good things, or is this something he will come to on his own? Ideally, we don't want a biting bird, as we really want to include him as a family member and we would like to eventually leave him free to interact with us at his will. We also have a large empty aviary we would like to put him in sometimes to stretch his wings and get some fresh air. We just want to address the biting issue and hopefully train him to leave it in the past and interact with us with nicer behaviour.
Do they generally come around, or is this going to be an ingrained behaviour now, given Sky is 6mo old? Is it possible to train him out of it?
Cheers
Pam
We bought a young Indian Ringneck a few days ago from a home where he/she was caged with 3 toys for the 5 months since they got him as a fledgling from a breeder at Christmas time. The owner had no time for him, as a busy house with lots of young children, he had a mainly seeds only diet, very dirty cage, etc, etc. Sky is about 6 months old apparently. He/she had entered a stage of running at the cage bars to bite if you put your hand up, or having a go when changing food/water. I am thinking he should be through the bluffing stage by now, but maybe this is a longer stage for this bird. I don't know if he has been teased. On day one, we coaxed him out with a shiny toy and we have set up a paradise style climbing frame and toys to play with and keep music on when were not home. After a few days he now exits his cage happily (when he's ready, which is usually a minute or two) and heads to his new happy place. We have been introducing him to new foods slowly, which he loves (peas are a huge favorite) and I gave him a large dish with water in it, which he jumped straight into to bath himself. His last owner had never offered him a bath, because they couldn't get anything big enough into the cage. My opinion is that he was going stir crazy in the cage, which is quite tall, but not wide. The old owner said the breeder thought the bird was a girl because she is still biting and girls bite more, but I think boredom is probably more likely the contributor. We don't mind what sex the bird is. A light moult seems to be in progress at the moment. Hopefully the severely clipped wings will grow back.
The issue I have is that he/she was hand raised, but has not been handled/trained since. Sky is very cautious of hands. He likes to bite. Most of his bites are just testing, but he puts a good effort at times. We just carry on doing what were doing and ignore him. He will come over and take food or a toy, but sometimes he will forego taking the object in favor of a bite. I assume he is scared or trying his luck. Is there anything we can do to help him to know we don't mean him harm and to show him hands mean good things, or is this something he will come to on his own? Ideally, we don't want a biting bird, as we really want to include him as a family member and we would like to eventually leave him free to interact with us at his will. We also have a large empty aviary we would like to put him in sometimes to stretch his wings and get some fresh air. We just want to address the biting issue and hopefully train him to leave it in the past and interact with us with nicer behaviour.
Do they generally come around, or is this going to be an ingrained behaviour now, given Sky is 6mo old? Is it possible to train him out of it?
Cheers
Pam