PLEASE HELP WITH MY BABY INDIAN RINGNECK

[Sammie]

Hi
I have bough a Cleartail Cobult Indian Ringneck just over a week ago, and so far he is ok with me coming close up to the cage, giving him treats through the bars and just a few days ago he allowed me to open the cage and put my hand inside to give him a treat which he happily accepts.

But its been 2 days now that he is being very aggressive, in the morning and during the day if I put my finger through the cage he will come running with a sharp snap to my finger. but if I put my finger through the cage with a treat he will come and accept as gentle as ever, and if I have no treat then Im 100% getting a bite. Its only night time like 9pm and on wards he allows me to touch, stroke him, his even fallen asleep while I was stroking his beak.

I have been trying so hard because I want him out of the cage and flying around, I have built a excellent large play perch. I was doing so well from the 1st day he came and now its like his a wild lil devil LOL

I need help on how the biting can stop and how step up can be done. one one occation I was trying step up in the cage with him as I have a very large cage for him and I got him to stand on my finger for about 5seconds,but that never happened again as when I try now he will bite my left hand while I have the treat in my right hand for him to come forward but now thinking about it I must have been lucky that evening.

Please if I could get any info

Thanks

[Wolf]

First off how old is your bird? Also what are you feeding him? What is his current daily schedule? You may be pushing too hard with the training aspect and not spending enough time of the bonding activities. He has only been with you for a couple of weeks and everything is still new and scary for him and he has not been with you long enough to learn to trust you yet. I don't know how much experience you have so I am providing you with a link about learning to communicate with your bird through his body language http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww15eii.htm This should help you to understand what he is trying to tell you and can easily help you to avoid getting bitten, which is usually a sort of last resort type of behavior.

[Sammie]

My bird was hatch date is 5th April making him 3 months and 3 days old, its a boy. His eating parakeet seeds and fruit like apple, peach, grapes, cherries, mango. and some vegetables. He absolutely loves walnut.

Thought he did start trusting me since he allows me to stroke him and he has stepped up once, its been many days now I haven't done any step up training with him.

Thanks for the info, finding it very useful

[liz]

The only thing he thinks is his own and his safe place is his cage. Don't put your hands in. Open the door and wait for him to come out on his own. When he is able to trust you he will come to you. You just have to wait.

[Wolf]

I think that I would start feeding him some cooked whole grains with some pureed vegetables added to it a couple of times a day for the next moth or two as he heeds some soft wet foods still right now, in my opinion.
You have been in the honeymoon phase and it sounds like it is coming to an end. This is a time where because of being in a new environment and with new people the bird is on its best behavior, but this is because it is aware that it is dependent on you despite being afraid of everything as well as you. And it may very well have started to trust you, although I don't know this for certain, I wasn't there to see, but I will concede that he may have started to trust you. However the honeymoon phase comes to an end and the bird begins to express more of it nature as it is more accustomed to its new home and is not as fearful.
Trust is a very delicate thing in its early stages and it does not take much to upset it, it is as easy as moving just a little too fast for the bird to upset any trust that you may have earned. It is one of the primary reasons that one of the very first things that I recommend new bird owners to do is to learn their birds body language. Their body language is their only way of communicating with us humans and we need to study our bird and its own body language to understand as much as we can of what the bird tries to tell us. I consider understanding a birds body language to be the most important tool that you have to build a good strong and trusting bond that can last a lifetime. Not only can it help us to avoid getting bitten, it can tell us a lot about what the bird likes and dislikes, it can help us to understand when the bird is not feeling good or tell us when it is happiest, it can help us to understand why a bird acts in the manner that it does in many of the circumstances that it is involved in. A bird that sees that we are listening too it as best we can is a much more trusting and cooperative bird and if they feel that we are not listening to them their trust in us begins to degrade rapidly.
IRN's are not an easy bird to keep as they require a lot of personal one on one time in order to remain tame and as in most parrots you will often experience one step forward and three steps back. Make sure that the room the bird is in is safe for it, this means that their are no exposed electrical wiring, no open containers of water that it can get into such as toilets, cups and glasses, pots and pans, a shallow wide pan with water that it can bathe or play in is fine. Make sure that if you have a sofa or overstuffed chairs or a recliner in the room that the bottom is in good repair or that the bird can't get under them and get up inside of them, perhaps a covering on windows, such as sheers so that the bird will not slam into the glass if it flies in a panic. Check for any place that the bird could get into and have difficulty in getting out of such as behind entertainment centers and block of any access to these places. Then when you think that you have bird proofed the room wait until about an hour before dinner time and open the cage and let you bird come out on its own. Then sit down where you can watch and talk to your bird calmly and full of praise and encouragement and don't get into a panic if the bird is flight capable and it starts flying in its own panic, just sit, talk to the bird and wait it out. You only interfere if the bird gets itself into trouble and needs help. When it is dinner time calmly get up and call your bird and let it watch you place its dinner inside of its cage and give the bird the chance to go back to its cage on its own. If the bird make no attempt to return to the cage you can ask it to step up and return it to its cage. This should become a part of the birds daily routine at least until it starts returning to its cage by itself for its dinner.
Work with the bird while it is in its cage to gain its trust by talking to it and offering random treats with lots of praise and encouragement. and practice the step up request at the entrance of the cage as well as when the bird is out of its cage and has calmed down from the excitement of coming out. Ask it to step up and if it does move it to the top of its cage and a little while later to it play station or just to be on you so that you can rub its beak or scratch its head as well as placing the bird in its cage. You don't have to close the door everytime you put it in its cage as you want the bird to learn to go in and out of its cage on its own. Work up to having your bird out of its cage at least 4 to 5 hours per day with at least two hours on you. Go slow and if the bird gets excited or nervous slow down and do something else.