agressive indian ringneck

[joel1234]

hey, im new to this so bare with me.

i have two indian ringnecks, male (tooey) and a female (tilly). my male is about 18 monthes old and the female is about 2 and a half.

the female is extremely agressive with everyone, except my father and even he gets bitten some times. when ever i go near her she tries to attack me. even if i let her bite me and try to remain calm, she still continues to bite me.

i got her when she about 1 year old. the previous owner, who was my aunty had trouble handling her aswell. so i am unsure wether or not she is hand raised. the bird was actually found at an airport, just wondering aroud so my aunty brought her home.

i am the only one who gives her food and water and cleans her cage. i always try to get her out of her cage as much as possible and always try to give her as many treats as i can. at first i might have thought that it she might be going through the 'bluffing stage' but its been going on for almost a year now.

does anyone have any idea why she is so aggresive?? and is there anything i can do to try and reduce her garession towards me??

[taywer321]

I find that my birds get more aggressive certain times of the year due to what I assume is hormones... they get aggressive when they are not getting enough sleep as well. Try reducing daylight hours for more rest and try positive reinforcement training to get her used to your hands. Find what her favorite treat is before you begin. Put your hand as close to her as possible (not allowing her to bite) and wait until she calms down. When she does, take your hand away and give her a treat. Repeat this again and again through out training. This way the bird is learning that being calm when your hands are near her is rewarding, and lots of good treats come from it. Keep sessions short at first, a few minutes twice a day, increasing the time spent training the more she gets used to it.

http://trainedparrot.com/Taming/#handling

GREAT website to visit with videos to demonstrate the methods.. for all aspects of training and conditioning your little birdy

[Molossus2]

Ring necks and generally the asiatic parakeet family form a part of the NonPairBond group of psittacines. So unlike cockatoos for eg you will not see pairs preening and attending to mates outside the breeding season. I find that Indian ringneck hens are more prone to aggression than other asiatics.
Simply put you have a greater challenge in your hands so I wish you the best of luck.

[Sixty Fiver]

My pair show constant affection toward each other and this may be because they have not been given the opportunity to breed... they rarely exchange a harsh word or fight and will call to each other when they are in different parts of the house.

For them the romance never stops...

[ellieelectrons]

H Joel

I can't recommend highly enough Barbara Heidenreich's DVD on training your bird. It's not free but it's well worth it. She is a professional animal trainer with a special interest in birds. She has a case study on her DVD of someone who had an aggressive parrot like yours & how positive reinforcement completely changed her behavior. The other thing that can curb aggressive behavior a little is making them forage for all/most of their food. If getting rewards from you becomes the easy way to get food, that becomes a lot more attractive.

Best wishes.

Ellie.

[joel1234]

thank you everyone for ur comments, but she is really still not improving.

if it was hormonal should it not have stoped or at least reduced by now???

thanks.

[taywer321]

If she behaved this way before you brought her into your home, it's going to be a difficult behavior to alter. But all this takes a lot of time and patience. The bird has to trust you and that is earned and on her terms unfortunately. I'm assuming she wasn't hand raised?

[joel1234]

no she was not hand raised

[joel1234]

Just thought I'd Let u know that she is coming along really well. I have know got to the stage where I allow her to step up onto my, but only when she wants to, letting her know that she has some say in the matter. Not forcing her to get on my hand when I want. She still bites sometimes and still hard but they are generally only little nips as opposed to the repeated and aggressive lunges that she used to do. I am now able to pet her with minimal danger to my fingers haha. I think that if I continue like this then in no time she will much happier around me and in general.

Thanks for all your advice it has been much appreciated!!

[ellieelectrons]

Hi Joel

Really pleased for you! Good work.

Something I've learned recently from the Barbara Heidenreich stuff I've been reading is about watching your bird's body language and trying to interact with them only when they're calm. I'm trying to implement this with our Janey at the moment... it's not always easy but if she's too excited (which is when she's prone to bite), I walk away and try again later. I try to reward her more for being calm. I've been trying to harness train her for a while now (and I suspect if I ever succeed it will probably take me 10 years!) and I reward her for ignoring the harness when I hold it near her. If she goes to bite it, I put everything down, put the treats away and walk away. Just to explain further, there's nothing wrong with a bird getting excited and if you don't generally have problems interacting with your bird when they are excited then you probably don't need to worry too much about this.... but if your bird is prone to aggression, then you probably want to try to interact with them mostly when they're calm.

Just thought I'd share as it might help others. This has been a really good tip for me.

Ellie.