Hello from Houston! (RBP)

[Wewin02]

No, he is skittish about noises and he stays in a 'frozen' position because he is scared. This is a young baby and he has already had three homes, and that's not good at all. It's hugely traumatic for them. Birds that are stressed out when babies, remain high-strung all their lives so, if I were you, I would concentrate on making him feel comfortable and nothing else at this point. And that means no training. It means putting his cage in a quiet spot with its back against a wall (the cage is high, right? The top perches should be, at least, at your eye level, never lower) where he would get natural light from a window (he needs the exposure to dawn and dusk), good artificial light (should be a good quality full spectrum -CRI 94+ and Ktemp 5000-5500) and spending lots and lots of time with him. The taming technique that Wolf wrote for you is good but, usually, it's not needed for babies because they need company more so than adults and have not yet learned to distrust humans. But, in his case and because of his going from one hand to another, you might want to watch him super carefully and see if you need to follow it.

his current main food
http://www.amazon.com/Tropimix-Parrot-P ... B0002EOK0A

his cage
http://www.petcratesdirect.com/small-an ... ation.html

His cage is pretty low, but it is in the dining table so when I interact with him I am seated and at eye level. His cage has plenty of room inside for him to spread his wings and is located where our house gets the most natural lighting. I wish his cage was taller but this is all I have to work with. I am worried about him not growing out of his skittish nature now =/ He seems to be getting used to his new home pretty well especially as it's only his 2nd day here. Of course he will still be scared of his surroundings and such. My Senegal was very jumpy about sudden sounds also but in my RB's case, he is a little more flighty which sucks. I got him with his wings clipped but he has flown up from the floor to our coffee table so he has learned how to fly before his clipping. I removed his bowl of seeds which he was disappointed about but explored his bowl of small chopped cooked carrots and strawberries but he didn't eat too much out of that bowl and just ended up using the empty bowl slot as his main perch. I'm really trying to not give him too much attention and let my sister soften up to him more because it seems like he already trusts her way more. I'll just focus on interacting with him while he is non-threatened in his safe cage. After he gets more used to his surroundings I will make more of an effort to take him out and chit chat with him. He will still get his time out of the cage but he just likes to fluff up and hang out on his PVC perch & preen himself or chew up some paper.

[Harpmaker]

Fluffing up briefly is OK, but if he stays fluffed for more than a minute or so, he is either cold or sick. You can help him best by finding out which one and correcting it. Is he in a draft? Or am I over-reacting and he's only fluffing briefly?

[Wewin02]

He doesn't fluff up for long. He likes to groom his feathers when he's out of the cage. I am still trying to win over his trust but it is a challenge for me. I always get those evil eyes from him whenever I'm too close (see picture for reference lol). When I try feeding him new foods like fruit or bread or anything, he likes to pick at it and then toss it away. My sister is having a much easier time with him as he will be ready to Step up when she requests him out of his cage. He will try and avoid me and give me a little growling noise if I ever attempt it, But eventually steps up for me so I can let him chill on that little PVC perch and groom himself as I compliment him from the couch and let him do his own thing. Otherwise if I try keeping him on my finger or anywhere close to me, he gets really flighty. I really hope he can be weaned off of this fear he has of the world. He was given to me under the name "Kanga" but my sister wants to name him Mango. I don't care too much what his name is but I think he should probably keep his current name and the focus should be on making him more comfortable with his new home. I'm now battling the ants that have found their way to his cage after his arrival. I'm not going to spray any chemicals near his cage but I have left an ant trap near their pathway. I knew a baby parrot wouldn't be a walk in the park, but I felt like the 2nd time around I would have more success. I have faith that he will grow out of his fearful state and be a little show off like I hear this species is known to be. When he was being delivered by his previous owner, she told me that she could of sworn she heard him say "Pretty bird!" I was amazed at how quickly a 4 month baby parrot can already pick up some vocalization! I am really excited to start training but will focus more on letting him warm up to the family. I hope he doesn't end up being a 1 person bird, but he does step up from one hand to another when requested.

[Pajarita]

Awwww, such a handsome boy! Well, the cage is completely inadequate but I guess you already know this. It's waaaaayyyyy too small and the paint might not be safe as it's not even a bird's cage. And, on the table is not good. He needs a high cage that you can put against a wall so he could feel safe in it. A small cage on a table is way too stressful for him and you can't make him feel comfortable in it no matter what you do. You could use it as a sleeping cage but you can't use it as a day cage. As to his food, I don't like processed, dry food that is not organic but I guess you could use it for his dinner (I use a good seed mix, cheaper and safer, in my personal opinion).

Now, a word of caution, unless your sister is the owner of the bird, I suggest you start taking a more hands-on approach to winning him over and every day care because, if you don't, he will bond with her and might end up disliking you. But he is very young and the name might not have 'registered' yet. Personally, I don't like to call any of my animals by a noun (I use proper names 99% of the time and the other 1% is either because they already know the name or they chose it themselves), I think it diminishes them but you can't go by me because I am one of those 'animal nuts' -LOL- My Jenday's name was Mango (it's actually one of the most common parrot's names) but he did not really react to it so I changed it to Nando (short for Fernando).

[Harpmaker]

He is beautiful! I'm so glad to hear he isn't cold or sick.

Give him space and follow Wolf's instructions and he will at least accept you as a flock member. Good luck!

[Wewin02]

WOOHOO!!! Today a lot of progress has been made! My sister is now jealous that he likes me more hehe. I guess the regular schedule of me coming home in the morning to greet him and bring him breakfast has paid off! But today I started started clicker training him. I know it seems too early to worry about training him but it was what really helped build his trust and bond for me. I've only been reinforcing the Step up command with the clicker and just been getting him familiar with target training ("touch"). He's been catching on quick.

Yeah I really need to find him a taller cage, although I like how much surface area it has for him. Right now my main challenge is to get him to eat fruits & veggies. He seems to be confused about the wetness of it. Also I noticed he "pee'd" today. When doing his squatting position to relieve himself it was pretty watery (fluid with a little green). This was after I've removed his seeds from his cage in the morning to try and give him fruits. He might of just decided to stick with water instead. I hope to get him on a healthier diet soon and maybe I can work out a trade plus cash for a local bird cage around here to get him an upgrade, In the meantime this is what we have to deal with. He's already comfortable with this cage and I'll work on upgrading him whenever possible. The location of his cage is perfect for him to get adjusted to the natural lighting schedule. He usually likes to take a nap around mid day.

We have been trying to get him familiar with the daily noises around the house (T.V., Door bells, Music, etc.) He is already looking better as far as how skittish he was before. (He of course is still a jumpy guy but not as much as he was a couple days ago!)
I am just really happy that he's showing improvement his first week with me. I am trying to get him comfortable with beak rubs & scratches but we will get there eventually. That's about it for Kanga's update!

[Wolf]

I really think that you are putting the buggy before the horse on this push to start training. Who knows maybe it will work for you, but mostly I see that when this is done, that problems develop soon after due to insufficient bonding, and this causes the people who did this to have to go back to the beginning and gain the birds trust all over again, because it was not fully established to begin with.
Perhaps if you spend the majority of your time involved in gaining his trust and bonding activities and a lesser amount on training, you might make it turn out right. Time will tell. But remember, less than 24 hours ago you were ready to give up and let your sister do all of the interactions with him.

[Wewin02]

Hey Wolf, today I decided to take it slow. He wasn't as enthusiastic to do any training today so I just gave him plenty of out of cage time and tried to get him used to playing around the house. I tried sharing him my salad I was having today with some mashed potatoes. He looked like he was picking at it a little more which was good. About me giving up, that was not what I meant. I was just going to take it slower and sort of play "hard to get" in a sense where I don't force any 1-on-1 attention with him if he doesn't want to. I let him choose when he wants to come out to play now. He now paces back and forth to show me that he wants out his cage. I don't know if I should encourage this behavior by letting him out every time so I just let him hang out in his cage sometimes when he does it. I will hold back on the training for later. I am just worried about his diet and how to get him to enjoy fruits and veggies. Are there any commercial food mixes that are low in protein that I can get him on?

[Wolf]

I don't know of any commercial mixes that are low enough in protein. And really the best way to get him to eat something is for him to see you eating it and then he will want to try it.

[Wewin02]

yeah that is exactly how I got him to get interested in my salad. I would act like it was straight from his bowl until he walked over to investigate. What do you recommend feeding him at this age? Soft food like mashed potatoes & oatmeal are ideal right? I bring home a lot of fruits but I'm worried about his sugar intake.