Adopted Ringneck and Quaker Taming Thread

[Pajarita]

'Others' manage because the 'others' are bird nuts who live, eat and breathe birds No, I'm kidding (although my family -especially the children but, amazingly, not the grandchildren- would agree with the sentiment wholeheartedly). It's just practice.

I love the idea of the birds not having to live in a cage BUT for this to be a good idea, they need to have a dedicated room where there are no human furniture, wires, fixtures or anything that is not bird safe. Having two birds roaming a fully equipped human home is not safe for them.

[shiraartain]

In that case, thank you for the thought Liz!

Day 6: I think my updates will be more sparse from this point on because the routine has been set. The birds are becoming more comfortable with vocalizations, they will talk to one another while preening or roaming the cage top. They're very good eaters, not hesitant at all about testing out new foods that I add in, though they ignore oranges. Twice more they've become startled and flown off the cage top, but now they know how to get back up. I've put a few puzzle pieces together and realized that we are at the very least, their third home. The ringneck becomes agitated when the quaker insists on preening him, so we give them clothespins which keep their mouths busy and seems to fix the problem. Going to wait another week, but once that week is over their rope perches are going through a thorough washing and they're going to be provided with a few rose branches. I don't like rope. The only rope in Fajr's cage is one toy hanging from his cage roof for his acrobatics when he's in the mood and another to keep his coconut toy together. He uses it to climb, but not as a perch.

Parjarita- I think we're all bird nuts on here . And that's the issue, I'm not sure what exactly he had in mind so I'm going to talk to him and see what he has in mind first.

[shiraartain]

The birds are slowly becoming more friendly. They've completely transitioned to gloop. Served them fruit/veggie chop at first but 90% of that was ending up under their grate so transitioned completely to gloop which they seem to love. Clover (Quaker) finally joined Lemon in enjoying the daily spray bath instead of running over to the play stand and waiting for him to finish, so good news there. The twins have been bitten a few times (namely while putting the food in in the morning ), but no tears or blood drawn. One of them was actually excited after Clover bit her because "the bite looks like a Clover!". The cage debate is still ongoing, various ideas have been proposed, but nothing we can agree on yet.

[Pajarita]

WOW!!! Great progress in such a short time! Debate is good, just keep at it until everybody is satisfied with the result.

[shiraartain]

I'm not feeling too well today (probably was not the smartest idea to get a shot the day after the exam I spent weeks stressing over) so please excuse any sentences that don't make sense.

Anyways, the birds are doing beautifully! They are comfortable with the twins the most but will not pin their eyes at me and simply watch me for a minute and go back to their business. They don't bite either- and nobody lost any blood in the taming process. I baked some yam slices with chili powder and they enjoyed it. They do fine with the twins, who do short training sessions to teach stepping up when they remember to. We're at 8 weeks right now, 3 more to go before we're done with quarantine!

Figured out that clover likes baths and she splashes lemon in a mock "spray bath"...twins spray him afterwards.

It struck me today that we have three different species of birds in our house when a year ago we had none. And two of those we have no prior experience with. If anyone had told me this would happen I would tell them they were crazy because this many is too much work. i specifically decided against getting a quaker or a ringneck a year ago because I felt that I wouldn't be able to give them the lifestyle they needed...never imagined my sisters would be doing that a year later! There were times when I felt unsure about the newest additions, but thankfully everything has worked out and they are here to stay. I walked down the other day and found the twins sitting together playing a game, each with a bird nonchalantly sitting on their head. It struck me as the funniest thing...until I looked out the window and had them put the birds to bed. -_-

[Wolf]

Sounds like everyone is doing great and that everything is going smoothly. Yea !!

[Pajarita]

Ditto! And good of you to monitor the situation!

[shiraartain]

Few updates. Clover's training sessions have gotten so that she is inching towards consistent recall. She ADORES baths. The twins are not so good about remembering to put out the bathing dish, so I will pop by and put it on top of their sleeping cage myself, so they bathe at least once a week. She literally jumped off the cage toward the bowl as they were filling it with water the other day, she was so impatient . Her flight is getting better slowly, despite her severe clip, she is learning. She also learned that her wings don't work the same way when wet the hard way. Play stand and cage are right next to each other, she gave us all a heart attack when she tried to jump onto the play stand instead if climbing and plummeted like...a wet bird, I guess. A non-bird friend remarked that she was ugly and why would anyone want such a bird? when they saw a video of her, but as I am sure we all know, the charm of every bird is not in their appearance, but in their individual personality and adorable body language. Also, in my objective opinion, Fajr is a very ugly bird, but this friend likes him, so to each their own.

Lemon is a slightly different story. He bluffs a lot. when I put their bath on the cage on days when he isn't overeager he will open his beak if I come too close (I can move away because the bathing dish is large and requires most of the cage top). He will step up, climb up to the shoulder, and start reaching for the face. He doesn't bite, just tries to reach for the face. He requires a combination of spray+bath and it is a hand-numbing process, so I just leave it to my sister usually, as she enjoys it more. She is becoming disheartened with his taming, but I try to encourage her when she expresses doubts. He generally follows what Clover does, so that eases up the process.

At this point, I am more of an observer/cleaning supervisor, and the birds interact differently with me than they do with my sisters, so there are probably many nuances I'm missing, but I observe to the best of my ability . I'm still flabbergasted over how muchs they both adore their bathing.

[Wolf]

I don't know but what it may be about time for some sibling rivalry to come into play. Perhaps if they were each encouraged to teach their respective birds two tricks that are different from each other and then hold a contest for trick of the month or something similar. It might help to rekindle the enthusiasm for training their birds.

[Pajarita]

Ay, well, from a mother and grandmother point of view, sibling rivalry is not something to encourage but, quite the opposite, to discourage (it's one of those unavoidable things when raising more than one child and believe you me when I tell you it needs no encouragement!).

Different species don't train the same way and even different individuals of the same species would not learn at the same pace or the same way so I am afraid that this is fact of life (quakers are actually much more clever than any psittacula but they are also quite stubborn when they want to). Besides, children will lose interest real soon on anything that requires constant work without immediate results (and that's why I don't recommend parrots for them).

Personally, I would just make it a point of admiring their birds profusely and how far they have come, comment on how much the birds love them and remark on how the birds need their little 'mothers' just like a baby needs a human mommie (little girls respond very well to this kind of thing).