Taming a young ringneck - 3 months

[JuliaGrace]

I recently purchased a beautiful ringneck that is 3 months old,

I live in Australia that's why he is so young because breeding season just ended.

He is kinda tame but more like 10% tame, if you get what i mean.

He was brought up for a week being hand fed, but then he was released to the aviary which obviously made him go more "wild" and wasn't around humans that often.

I desperately need help taming him, he is ever so slowly getting there. At the beginning, he was just plain scared, afraid and would hide at the top. Now he is loosening up and moving around, but then again he is flying to either side of the cage which isn't that much better. I feed him some apple and banana puree every so hours and its a bit of a hassle to grab him out of the cage, because I am sure it scares him. I can't really do much about this because he needs to eat. which he does (thank god)

Anyways, he doesn't bite. Which is a miracle, he did at the beginning to test my hand, but he doesn't anymore, if he does it's ever so soft and it barely ever happens. I need help to make him less scared and afraid, and easier to get him out of the cage.

Thanks in advance!

[Wolf]

I must agree with you that this is not a good situation for either you or your bird and it does very little to help him to learn to trust you and from my perspective without having the birds trust you basically have nothing. Well so much for my philosophy regarding birds for now, although it will crop up from time to time.

I have no desire to be insulting so since I have not actually read anything that suggests that you have any experience with birds or parrots, I am writing this under the assumption that you have very little experience or knowledge in this regards and I have to start from somewhere. Please correct this assumption or verify it when you reply next so we know better what and how to say to best assist you.

I am also assuming that by recently that you have not had him for a month as of yet and would really find it helpful to have a more accurate idea of how long recently is for you.
although I would dearly love to have more background information about him, I realize that you may not have any more and I can work with what you gave. I would appreciate a more in depth idea of his diet as the only thing mentioned is a puree of apple and banana and this is nowhere good enough of a diet for him. The fact that you are giving him feedings of soft food given his age and the fact that you only recently got him is very good. Since you are having to catch him to feed him I must ask how you are feeding him, although I an suspecting that it is with a syringe, clarification would be helpful to me. Have you tried spoon feeding him while he is in the cage so as to be less traumatic for him? if he will eat from a spoon that is offered to him while he is on a perch in his cage, I would take a spoon and bend the sides of it up into more of a u shape as the deeper spoon will make it easier for him to eat from the spoon, beaks are not very flexible.

I am very sure that he is still afraid of you so in addition to spending a lot of time in the same room as he is in, while talking and singing to him without paying any apparent attention to him and without approaching his cage or asking anything of him, If your schedule allows for it I would set aside about three periods of 10 minutes each to work specificatly on teaching him that you are a good human who is not going to eat him and are the bringer of good things to eat and that you can be trusted. I think that the best way to accomplish this is as follows:

I would enter the room and stop, take a minute to study the birds posture and the way that it is holding its feathers and when you have done this you no longer want to look directly at your bird with both eyes as that is how predators look at them and it scares the bird, now begin in a soft voice and with a tone that is just a little higher in pith than your normal speaking voice begin to talk to the bird, singing to the bird is also helpful in calming your new friend as birds love music and don't care if you are a good singer or like me that scare the dead when I sing. While talking or singing to the bird also give the bird a lot of good bird type of praise and slowly wander about the room getting closer to the cage when the bird is calm and relaxed and stopping when the bird begins to act scared or nervous. When you get to the cage offer the bird a treat such as a piece of sprig type millet through the bars of the cage. Choose a perch that is fairly high in the cage to offer this treat at and allow the bird plenty of time to come and get a few bites of it while you continue to sing or talk to the bird. If the bird comes and takes the treat that is great, let him have a few bites and continue to praise the bird as well as talking and singing to it. Pay attention to the bird noting if he is taking the treat calmly and if he appears to be relaxed. When he takes the treat in a calm and relaxed manner then you can move to the next step, but don't be surprised if he does not take the treat and if he does not come and eat any of the treat, just place it in the birds food dish and leave the room. You will be able to start again with the praise and talking and singing at the cage at your next session.

The next step is to make sure that the bird is either coming to the same side of the cage as you are approaching from, before you get there and that he takes the treat from you in a calm and relaxed manner. If he is doing these things then it is time for you to stand in front of the main door of the cage and to open the door and while praising him and singing and talking to him the same as in the previous step you offer the treat at the entrance to the cage. Please make sure that you only offer the treat at the entrance to the cage and that you do not teach into the cage at this point in time. This is very important as you want the bird to come to you for the treat as this is a sign of trust from the bird to you, and that is why it is so important. Again you are looking for the bird to come to you and for it to accept the treat from your fingers in a calm and relaxed manner. It is also important that at this stage that if he does not take the treat from you that you leave it in the food bowl, you want the bird to learn that if you offer him anything that it is his and that you are not going to take it back. This helps in teaching him that you can be trusted.

This will get you through until you have the opportunity to answer and give the information that has been requested and we can continue from there. Thank you for sharing with us and allowing us the chance to be a part of your bids life as well as the opportunity to help you with your bird.

[Pajarita]

At three months of age, the bird can eat soft foods on its own and, although I always recommend handfeeding as a bonding tool with young birds, if you have to go after him and grab him out of the cage, you are pretty much nullifying the bonding effect and actually making him fear you - which is not good. Have you tried putting out warm, soft foods served fresh twice a day and leaving the room? Because I am sure that he would eat them on his own. He might not do it the first hour or so but he will by the evening. And, once he does, just keep on putting out nutritious, soft, warm food for him to eat and just talk to him softly. Then, once he realizes that you are not going to go after him and grab him (it will take some time because you are not starting from zero but from a minus number now), you can start offering him treats from your hand from outside the cage. But try the soft food first and come back to tell me if it worked and we will take it from there. You do know what soft foods are, right? In case you don't, they are just what the name implies, food that is soft and easy to eat - things like cooked whole grains, coarse corn meal, rolled oats/steel cut oats or oatmeal, couscous, tiny noodles, all cooked and mixed with pureed veggies and/or fruits (you can use baby food from the jars but make sure it's the small baby kind that has nothing else in it).

[JuliaGrace]

I must agree with you that this is not a good situation for either you or your bird and it does very little to help him to learn to trust you and from my perspective without having the birds trust you basically have nothing. Well so much for my philosophy regarding birds for now, although it will crop up from time to time.

I have no desire to be insulting so since I have not actually read anything that suggests that you have any experience with birds or parrots, I am writing this under the assumption that you have very little experience or knowledge in this regards and I have to start from somewhere. Please correct this assumption or verify it when you reply next so we know better what and how to say to best assist you.

I am also assuming that by recently that you have not had him for a month as of yet and would really find it helpful to have a more accurate idea of how long recently is for you.
although I would dearly love to have more background information about him, I realize that you may not have any more and I can work with what you gave. I would appreciate a more in depth idea of his diet as the only thing mentioned is a puree of apple and banana and this is nowhere good enough of a diet for him. The fact that you are giving him feedings of soft food given his age and the fact that you only recently got him is very good. Since you are having to catch him to feed him I must ask how you are feeding him, although I an suspecting that it is with a syringe, clarification would be helpful to me. Have you tried spoon feeding him while he is in the cage so as to be less traumatic for him? if he will eat from a spoon that is offered to him while he is on a perch in his cage, I would take a spoon and bend the sides of it up into more of a u shape as the deeper spoon will make it easier for him to eat from the spoon, beaks are not very flexible.

I am very sure that he is still afraid of you so in addition to spending a lot of time in the same room as he is in, while talking and singing to him without paying any apparent attention to him and without approaching his cage or asking anything of him, If your schedule allows for it I would set aside about three periods of 10 minutes each to work specificatly on teaching him that you are a good human who is not going to eat him and are the bringer of good things to eat and that you can be trusted. I think that the best way to accomplish this is as follows:

I would enter the room and stop, take a minute to study the birds posture and the way that it is holding its feathers and when you have done this you no longer want to look directly at your bird with both eyes as that is how predators look at them and it scares the bird, now begin in a soft voice and with a tone that is just a little higher in pith than your normal speaking voice begin to talk to the bird, singing to the bird is also helpful in calming your new friend as birds love music and don't care if you are a good singer or like me that scare the dead when I sing. While talking or singing to the bird also give the bird a lot of good bird type of praise and slowly wander about the room getting closer to the cage when the bird is calm and relaxed and stopping when the bird begins to act scared or nervous. When you get to the cage offer the bird a treat such as a piece of sprig type millet through the bars of the cage. Choose a perch that is fairly high in the cage to offer this treat at and allow the bird plenty of time to come and get a few bites of it while you continue to sing or talk to the bird. If the bird comes and takes the treat that is great, let him have a few bites and continue to praise the bird as well as talking and singing to it. Pay attention to the bird noting if he is taking the treat calmly and if he appears to be relaxed. When he takes the treat in a calm and relaxed manner then you can move to the next step, but don't be surprised if he does not take the treat and if he does not come and eat any of the treat, just place it in the birds food dish and leave the room. You will be able to start again with the praise and talking and singing at the cage at your next session.

The next step is to make sure that the bird is either coming to the same side of the cage as you are approaching from, before you get there and that he takes the treat from you in a calm and relaxed manner. If he is doing these things then it is time for you to stand in front of the main door of the cage and to open the door and while praising him and singing and talking to him the same as in the previous step you offer the treat at the entrance to the cage. Please make sure that you only offer the treat at the entrance to the cage and that you do not teach into the cage at this point in time. This is very important as you want the bird to come to you for the treat as this is a sign of trust from the bird to you, and that is why it is so important. Again you are looking for the bird to come to you and for it to accept the treat from your fingers in a calm and relaxed manner. It is also important that at this stage that if he does not take the treat from you that you leave it in the food bowl, you want the bird to learn that if you offer him anything that it is his and that you are not going to take it back. This helps in teaching him that you can be trusted.

This will get you through until you have the opportunity to answer and give the information that has been requested and we can continue from there. Thank you for sharing with us and allowing us the chance to be a part of your bids life as well as the opportunity to help you with your bird.

Thank you so much for your detailed and informative reply. really appreciate it. I should have mentioned that he, of course, doesn't only eat puree, he eats a seed diet with a little bit of millet, lots of sunflower seeds, various seeds and vegetables and fruit each and every day. talking about this, I have only had him for 6 days. The bird alone at the beginning was absolutely petrified, so much so that instead of being crazy and flapping around the place, he would just sit in the top corner, doesn't say a word and wouldn't eat. Being day 6, he eats very well, plays and is always exploring. He is starting to become a real chatter too

I will definitely take your advice on the treat part you were mentioning, I think that's a great tactic to use and I've already bonded with him a bit through constantly singing and talking to him.

Thanks!