IndianRingNeck.com

I have a Indian Ring Neck; light-greyish blue Male. (Had a before picture here but this won't let me give links until I'm not new.)

~Here's the back ground info on him.
I had to separate him from his mate 08/2012 b/c he was beaten to a pulp by the female. He's still growing back his feathers and the Ring is now gone too... The damage was pretty bad with blood etc and his flight feathers are badly damaged. So it seems most of the damage is feather related and some blood on his face/head/neck... there's a scratch on the beak as well...

(Had a after picture here but this won't let me give links until I'm not new.)

Anyways I've decided to make him a pet b/c he's shown characteristics of a possible domestication in the past... He can step up already and will kiss you on the lips... other than that he was the most tamed of the 2. (The Female was a wild caught and showed no tame traits.) They were a 1 time proven breeding pair for 1.5yrs+ with little to no human contact... (at least to my knowledge)

~I consider my self a novice with bird anything.
Since then I've been spending time with him mostly every evening; letting him get used to me. He sits fine on my shoulder but if I'm doing anything it's really hard to keep him still. He has little balance & holds his wings out stretched every time I carry him on my fingers idkw. He can't fly b/c of his bad feathers so he glides/flaps frantically in walls & other things when he wants nothing to do with me. Other times he sits on my shoulder... He slides & loses grip real easy & freaks out a lot. I'm used to bird handling, but this guy is just ridiculous.

~Cage/Pickup behavior:
He's cage aggressive but I move him around from cage to different areas like stands so he won't start claiming them... But he has started claiming them and so he bites me when I get him to step up. I don't freak and let him step up and bite so he don't think it's the way to get me to go away or anything. He only does it to my thumb too (when he tries to balance him self).

He won't do anything with hands/fingers & will immediately go into "I'm gonna screw you up mode" when I attempt anything. He's quite scary & shows that emotion very easily.

I started clicker training... Done step 1 with associating food to click. And step 2 where he touches the end of the stick 1/2 the time... He just don't want to move much to the tip like he's expecting to get tricked and get attacked by something... He constantly acts like he's going to be abused. I attempted step 3 a few times with food between fingers and he rushes them and strikes at me still. He's very scared all the time.

~Here's what I'm looking for here.
I was wondering if there are any tips or tricks to helping me with him... I'm been working with him as much as I can. At times I feel like this is a useless attempt to domesticate a breeder b/c of what I've read online and the way he acts. Or do you guys think it'll take a few months before he changes? I can't seem to find anything to relate to on this. And maybe I just need some helpful support or something. I'm just not sure if I'm doing the right thing here.

*Bump* (If this belongs somewhere else. Please let me know and I'll move it. Thanks)

Hi Hunteil

It is my belief that although you may not have chosen the easiest bird to tame, you can always get your bird more tame than it is now - I guess it comes down to whether you think it is worth your while or not.

I can imagine that after all he has been through with his female he would be extremely wary of anything (and as prey animals birds can already that way to start with) so it will take a lot of time. Given his wariness and history, I wouldn't want to force him into anything, I'd just take it at your bird's pace.

Regarding the charging behaviour when you offer him treats, I'd recommend a) making sure you have the right treats for your bird and withdrawing them completely from his diet and b) increasing foraging.

To make sure you are offering him the "right" treats, give him a bowl of different treat-like foods and watch which ones he goes for first. My birds like variety so I have several different treat foods that I used. The highest value ones, I use when I'm desperate (eg. I need them to go in the cage so I can go out and they don't want to go). For my guys, high value treats are bananas, a bit of crumble from a potato crisp or biscuit or a small bit of a sultana. Lower value treats that they get on a daily basis during training are sunflower seeds, peanut granules (the type you sprinkle on desserts). Sometimes I use cut up pieces of fruit too. Also, make sure the treats are small or your bird will get full too quickly.

For information about foraging, check out these links:
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

By all means proceed with clicker training if you want but if you find it's not working, you could just use positive reinforcement training - I would call clicker training a type of positive reinforcement training. I've explained the process for getting your bird to turnarounds in these threads:
http://www.indianringneck.com/forum/vie ... und#p68244
http://www.indianringneck.com/forum/vie ... und#p65327

Good luck and best wishes.

Ellie.

I'm totally going to read these. Thank you sooo much.

He loves Peanuts! The problem is that he can't recognize them as peanuts if they are in any other form... Perhaps I'll get a bunch cut up like you said and see if he learns to love them as well. When he gets the full nut he can sit there forever making peanut butter in his beak lol. So during training I've been using Millet... But as of recently he's been getting increasingly bored with them. It's a wonderful tool during early stage training as it gives you a buffer distance to not scare them away. As he eats it, my fingers get closer b/c it gets shorter. I've now gotten him to eat buds of millet from my fingers but again it fills him up too fast. If I try sun flower seeds he just grabs it and drops it and looks for an escape route. He's starting to do the same with the millet. Without the millet; I can't get near him to give him a treat. (So frustrating)

I'll try to watch him eat from a fresh bowl of food to see what he likes other than peanuts... But this guy doesn't eat when I'm around... He's either scared or got too used to letting the female Eat 90% of the time. If he would attempt to eat she'd clip his feathers. (I'm so glad I saved him. Seriously she clipped his feathers off.)

I just learned that he knows what the word kiss is...He'll totally kiss you... So I guess that was from an old parent. He still doesn't make any noises other than 2 distant wild sounds. I wonder when he will pick something up.

As you've said, your bird is recovering from an awful experience so it may take some time for him to learn to trust you. Be patient and keep trying. I think you are going to have to move really slowly at his pace.

If you are thinking about getting him a companion, two males will usually get along well.

Ellie.