by Pajarita » Mon Aug 20, 2018 9:39 am
Oh, geez, poor little thing! What a terrible life for a little aviary bird! All alone in a small cage...Thank you so very much for taking pity on him and trying to make his life a bit better. Now, you can go two ways about this: 1] is to try to tame him which can be done but will take a loooong time and a lot of work. And, even when and if this is achieved, his life will still not be as good as he would like it. And 2] you can make him happy from day one by getting him a large flight cage and a mate.
Let me explain. Kakarikis are aviary birds. They are hardly ever hand-fed because they are small and it's a lot of work and, in the long run, it doesn't even work that well because they are not companion parrots, they are aviary parrots [this means that they will never be truly happy without having the company of another of their own species]. It's the way nature made them and no reflection on their owner. Now, just because a bird has a mate, it doesn't mean that it cannot trust and love us - they can and we can have excellent relationships with them. It's only that they can never develop the kind of deep bond with a human that would kind of/sort of compensate for not having a bird companion/mate.
My recommendation to you is to make him happy first by:
a] putting him in a nice, flight cage
b] getting him a mate and
c] giving him adequate care [strict solar schedule, good fresh food diet, supplements, etc]
Once he is doing well, you can start slowly working toward getting his trust and love.