helppp why my alexandrine sooo panic???

[Kath]

Yeah, he's nice. But in the beginning we just couldn't get along. He's still not completly tame but getting nicer and nicer ^_^
Just don't give up on Jojo, I've heard parrots need a lot of time to get along with owners for good (just heard, not saying it's always true)

Good luck

[nikii]

hi kath sorry i post too soon
i want to ask for advice.here when u buy a parrot they will ask u to come back to clip the wing for next month.actually i dont like jojo to being clip.but i live in 14th floor apartemen n always there is an eagle sitting at my window.im just scared someday jojo will fly accidently n being attack by the eagle.what u think?
im trying to do the targeting n he seems doing well,but how u know Ako is ready to out of his cage for first time??n im scared if i let jojo out he will never come back to his cage.any advice?
thxxxx

[Kath]

Hello, sorry for answering so late (we have much different time zone I believe)
Well, first of all if you won't open the window your bird will never fly away
And with Ako... Well. Prepare for a long story ;P
I wanted to let him out on his own (I open the cage and walk away and he flies out) after like a week of having him. But he was so scared to go outside that he was staying in his cage and it was for like a week and no progress.
The cage comes with plastic perches and I really wanted to change them to wooden ones so I decided to do something kind of cruel to Ako. I took out the bottom of the cage and lifted up the top and just kind of pushed him out of his cage ;P
First he panicked, was flying arond the room and didn't know where to land. Finally he sit down on top of the cage, then 1 more round around the room and, surprisingly, back to his cage.
Next day when I opened the cage he came out with a bit of hesitation. But he wasn't tame. Was afraid of us, woudn't come near. But day by day he finally stepped on my shoulder

And then... I discovered parrot blog and forum ;p
Now he steps up on my arm (we're still working on stepping on my finger) and when I show him I put treats in cage he's not doing any problems with going inside.

About clipping the wings... It's your choise, but your parrot isn't a big one, right? So it can fly around the room easily i guess. If you clip the wings, he can still climb up to the window (parrots are good climbers when I look at Ako) and can get out eventually and be attacked or even fall down. Personally, I think I couldn't do such a harm to my Ako and clip his wings. But this is only my opinion - you have yours to make. And if your bird is extreamly bonded with you, I even saw on youtube people taking their parrots outside the house ^_^

Oh, 1 more thing. In the beginning I couldn't get him inside the cage - I was just catching him through the towel
But since you wrote that target training is going well, I think you shouldn't have problems with that (just let jojo enjoy a bit for staying out of the cage ;P). Just don't forget to show him first that you put in cage something he realy likes

PS. I'm sorry my answer is so long, but I just didn't know what to write and what not to write so I put everything here

All the best
Kath and Ako.

[nikii]

hi kath,thx alot for the answer.thats really perfect
i guess i will not clip his wings.today i will buy him parrot gym n perch so he can enjoy to come out.
i will make him out next week just to make sure he will come back to his cage.because honestly im scared to towelling him
thxxxx thats REALLY helpfull!!!
cheerss

[Kath]

Hey, I'm glad to read that you won't clip jojo's wings
I think it's unnatural - birds are designed to fly so imagine 1 day he wants to fly and can't. It's like you would like to walk and suddenly you couldn't.
You can check on parrot training blog how to towel your bird safely if you will have trouble with putting him into cage - it's realy not that difficult ;p
Let me now how the first coming out of cage went later, OK?

Bye

[liz]

Nikii how old is your parrot? Where did you get him? Are you his first owner?

He is afraid of everything.

My method is to open the cage door. If he doesn't come out just leave it open and he will eventually. Don't open the window unless you have a screen on it. Don't clip his wings or he will be more scared. If he sees that he has some freedom and can fly he will burn off some energy.

Treat him like a little kid. How would you make friends with a scared little kid? You would show him things a give him things to do to distract from his fear.

Don't show fear. If he bites don't let him know that it hurt. Just keep your fingers away from him when you think he is up to something. Most birds are afraid of hands because they can grab them. They are not afraid of faces talking to them.

They like to hear people whistle.

[macbrush]

Any tips on how to "Don't show it hurts"? I managed to hold my hand there until my grey release me, but its hard for me to not "ouch!" if he surprise me; and the worst thing is that it is always a surprise because if I suspect that he's up to something, my hand won't be around him within 2 feet.

[liz]

It is not easy to hold your reaction to yell. If you do he will think he won.

[Polarn]

ironman comment: does it really hurt less if you say "ouch"? the answer to that is no, so I actually think one can learn to not show the pain, simply by understanding that no screaming or ouching or jumping will ease the pain.

seriously tho, yeah it hurts like hell when they decide to bite, might help you to keep several fingers together, slightly curved so that he cant grab onto your fingertips, being bitten where the nail goes in under the skin (cant figure the english name for it) really hurts... and presentging 2 or 3 fingers together makes it harder for your bird to grab a finger, keeping em slightly curved helps stretch the skin on the knuckles so he wont get to much of a grip on your skin either....

[macbrush]

It would still be kind of hard for me, since my other pets reinforced this reaction into me for so many years (another example of training is both ways), with my dogs, if they play too rough and start hurting me, "ouch" stop them immediately... and they know that the louder i yell, the more painful it is. Guess it would be a habit very hard to break.