Kakariki help!

[Peta85]

Hi Everyone I am new to this blog. I just need all your advice of how to get my Kakariki to warm to me. I've had him for 3 weeks and his still scared of me. He was hand raised and is about 8-10 weeks old. I understand they are not cuddly birds but I just want him to be comfortable and friendly with me

[Wolf]

Hi and welcome to the forum, I hope that you enjoy your stay.
Based on your post I am assuming that this is your first bird and that you don't have a lot of experience with parrots. Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.
I hope that you are not feeding an all seed diet and that you are trying to get him to eat his fruits and veggies. I also hope that he doesn't have to rely on pellets too much. I would think that millet should make a good treat for him.
I recommend the introduce myself and lets sit down and talk and get to know each other method.
When you go into the room where he is start to watch him, don't just stare at him, kind of watch him from the corner of your eye. Look for him to start to move away from you as you approach his cage. As soon as he does stop and do not go any closer. You will need to do this step every time you have one of these sessions until you are able to come all the way to his cage without him moving away or getting nervous. From this point just talk to him in a calm tone of voice. It really doesn't matter what to talk about to him, but I recommend that you begin using terms that you will use to praise him for being a good boy, to tell him that you love him. I also recommend that you just ramble on for about 15 minutes each session, telling all about your hopes for the two of you, things that you want to be able to do with him and things of this nature. You can also tell him all about your day, talk to him just as if he were your very best friend. Do this at least 2 or 3 times each day. In a relatively short time you will be right at the cage, at which time you can introduce treats to these conversations. Just talk to him as usual and offer him an occasional treat through the bars of his cage. He will begin to look forward to the treats as much as to your time together. When he starts coming to you for the treat and takes it from your fingers you start doing this with you sitting in front of his open cage with your hand resting in the doorway. As you progress he will come to your hand to get the treat and then he will start stepping up onto your hand for the treat.
From here you can move on to target training and on from there. I use this method because it earns the birds trust, it puts him at ease while showing him that you will not hurt him and lets him choose how fast you progress and he never feels pressured. I deal exclusively with birds that come from bad situations where they were abused and/ or neglected and I have found no better way to earn their trust so that they can begin to heal from the psychological and emotional injuries inflicted upon them.
I hope that this will prove to be useful to you and your friend (bird).

[Pajarita]

Well, kakarikis are not what you would call good companions to humans. They are super hyperactive little things that don't do well living by themselves in a cage so the best way to keep them is in a HUGE (and it needs to be huge because they need more room than most large species) aviary with other kakarikis. They constantly fly back and forth and climb the sides of the cages at such a fast pace that they don't even use their beaks to hold on to them, they look like a supercharged Spiderman going up a building -LOL- They are as flighty as finches and they don't really like to be touched... And that's the reason why they don't do well as companion birds, because they simply do not stay in one place long enough, it's like they have ants in their pants and trying to target train them is nothing but an exercise in futility. It's not that it cannot be done, they are certainly smart enough for it but you would need to catch one reeeeeeeeally tired so he would stay put for 5 minutes on a perch -LOL-

There should be a law forbidding selling these little birds by themselves as companions to humans, if you ask me. If you love the little bird, don't stress him out insisting on something that he cannot give you willingly and which you will only get through flooding. Just get more (3 so you have two pairs) and put them all in a very large aviary.

[Wolf]

Pajarita is darn near a walking reference book on parrots, well I think so anyway. While I do sometimes have minor differences with her she is much more knowledgeable than I am. I have never had a Kakariki, but up until you hit the part about target training, you may still be able to use the taming information some to help you. At worst, I don't see that it would hurt to try it out.
Also there are a few people here that have Kakarikis. You might try asking for additional information and/ or help under Parrot Species as they are more likely to see your post there than else where.

[Harpmaker]

Welcome Peta85!

Pajarita is darn near a walking reference book on parrots, well I think so anyway.

I agree with you, Wolf, but you don't do so badly yourself. I hope Peta85 pays attention to what each of you has said to see what works for her and her bird.

[Peta85]

Thanks everyone for your advice. I have experience with parrots and work in the animal welfare industry so my Kaka is well looked after. I will try to earn his trust and see what happens from there!

[kikikakariki]

my kiki was tame since i got him but he has got un friendly but if he gets sunflowerseeds and millet he loves me and even lets me cuddle him