Baby Indian Ringneck Afraid of Hands

[LivCamille]

Hello,

I just purchased a baby Indian Ringneck a couple days ago. I don't know the gender and haven't named it yet. It's about 8 months old and wasn't handled much at the store I got it from. It gets really scared if I stick my hand in the cage and runs away. I tried taking it out of the cage a couple days ago and was bitten a few times. It really isn't socialized at all. Does anyone have advice for this?

 

[Flboy]

Yes, slow down! And your baby is not an it!

 

[LordTriggs]

I think possibly you're not thinking of this baby bird as what they are. A terrified baby who just got taken from everything they knew with a creature 10 times their size poking and prodding at them. Wouldn't you be scared?

Remember this is not a dog or a cat. it's an undomesticated animal that nobody has spent time teaching that humans are not to be scared of. Move slowly with them, let them open up to you and decide that you're their friend. If you keep pushing it too far all you're going to do is traumatize them and make them never want anything to do with you.

 

[clark_conure]

go the place you hang out and watch tv or netflicks and surf the internet.

Put cage nearby, open cage door and hold say strawberry in your hand
rest hand near but but NOT IN the cage.

Do whatever you always do but also talk nicely to the bird.

If he doesn't come out leave strawberry, and close cage. remove later so it doesn't spoil in there. Hopefully he eats it in meantime.

Repeat.

It won't take long....

YOU HAVE TO BE PATIENT! the rewards are without comparison once you get a birds trust.

 

[EllenD]

Realize that this is going to be a marathon, not a sprint...This is a very scared bird that was not hand-raised by his breeder, and was probably purchased by the pet shop from a bird-mill or a mass-breeder as a parent-raised bird that was never handled or interacted with by it's breeder or anyone in the pet shop. So sitting inside of a cage at the breeder's and then sitting inside a cage at the pet shop is all this poor parrot knows. He's not a tame bird, and you cannot just start reaching your hands towards him and pulling him out of the cage, or touching him at all at this point. If you want to eventually hand-tame this bird and form a bond to it, then you must go at HIS PACE,
not your pace, and you are going to have to have a ton of patience and not allow yourself to get frustrated with the bird, because as already stated, this is only going to make things worse. He has the intelligence of a 3-4 year-old human child, all parrots do. This isn't a dog or a cat, or a horse or a pig, it's an extremely intelligent, basically "wild" parrot who has no reason in the world to trust people. You need to start thinking of him as being an extremely intelligent, emotional little guy that has only that cage as his "territory" or "safe space", and he is not going to want to come out of it any time soon.

***Realize that this process of taming an essentially "wild" bird usually takes months and months to a year or more...even years. That's just how it goes. Every parrot is different, some give you their trust more quickly than others, but there is no way to guess how long it's going to take. So what you need to do is start today by making sure that you have his cage located in the "main" room of your house, meaning the room of your house that you and anyone else who lives with you spend most of their time when they are home. His cage needs to be in the room where you watch TV, play video games, read, eat your meals, have visitors over in, etc. You cannot put his cage in a bedroom or spare room where away from where you spend your time, because this is going to do the opposite of socializing him...he's a totally non-socialized bird, so the more he's around people, specifically you, the more people simply walk past his cage and talk to him, the more people are around him passively interacting with him, the more and more he's going to start to trust...So his cage MUST be in your living room, family room, TV room, den, etc., not in a spare bedroom, "bird" room, office, etc. He needs to be wherever you are when you're home.

You are going to have to just deal with him nipping at your hands when you change his food and water, as you are reaching your hands into his territory, his only safe space in the world. However, it's very important that you do not EVER yell at him, scold him, or god forbid hit him or snap and take a whack at him with your hand. Just change his food and water, and if he nips at you just try your best to completely ignore it for now. You cannot train him until you have earned his trust, and that's a long way down the road from now.

Basically, the way you start this process, besides first locating his cage in the "main room" of your house, is by spending as much time as you can talking to him softly and gently as much as you can, every single day, from a distance away from his cage that he is comfortable with. This, in addition to you passively interacting with him whenever you're home because his cage is wherever you are when you're at home, is how you are going to start earning his trust. When you are directly interacting with him and spending time with him, for now and for probably the next few months, you're going to sit as close to his cage as you can without him getting upset, once he starts getting upset then that's your limit. Then you back your chair up a bit into the "safe zone", and then you simply just sit and directly talk to him, read him a book, sing to him, etc. Do this as often as you can and for as long as you can every single day. And each day see how close you can move your chair to his cage without him getting upset; hopefully you'll be able to advance your chair closer and closer to him over the span of weeks to the next few months. You cannot attempt to open up his cage door and try to reach your hands towards him for him to "step-up" for you, and definitely cannot "grab" him, until you are able to sit right next to his cage, touching the outside of his cage and talking to him, without him getting upset. Once you get to that point, the next step is simply opening up the cage door and talking to him/reading to him. After you do this for a week or two, then the next step is simply resting your hand right inside the open cage door for a week or two. Then the next step is advancing your hand towards him inside his cage while holding a millet spray or other treat that he likes and that he cat eat from your hand from a distance...You keep advancing your hand closer and closer to him inside of his cage with the millet spray sticking out of it towards him over the span of weeks to months, AT HIS PACE ONLY. Any time he shows even a bit of anxiety or anger, you back up your hand or back up your chair, depending on what step you're on...

This will continue until you are able to get your hand close enough to him inside of his cage that he'll eat from the millet spray....Then you just simply hand-feed him this way for a couple of weeks...then the next step is extending your index finger out towards him while holding the millet spray, getting it closer to his belly, right above his feet, each day, AT HIS PACE, until he steps-up onto your finger on his own...And then you work on getting him to step-up onto your finger and then allowing you to move your had out of the cage, etc...Baby steps the entire way through this process, with weeks in-between HIS PACE progressing...It could take months for you to simply be able to sit in a chair right next to his cage...

It's a long process taming a non-tame and scared parrot, and it can be extremely frustrating for the owner because if you try to go even a bit too fast and not at HIS PACE, you're only going to go backwards. So it requires great patience and commitment from you, that's for sure. But the reward once you earn your bird's trust and he bonds closely with you is well worth it...

 

[LivCamille]

Yes, slow down! And your baby is not an it!

I'm not think if it as an it, I just don't know the gender yet. I haven't tried taking it out since, this is just what happened the first time.

 

[LivCamille]

Realize that this is going to be a marathon, not a sprint...This is a very scared bird that was not hand-raised by his breeder, and was probably purchased by the pet shop from a bird-mill or a mass-breeder as a parent-raised bird that was never handled or interacted with by it's breeder or anyone in the pet shop. So sitting inside of a cage at the breeder's and then sitting inside a cage at the pet shop is all this poor parrot knows. He's not a tame bird, and you cannot just start reaching your hands towards him and pulling him out of the cage, or touching him at all at this point. If you want to eventually hand-tame this bird and form a bond to it, then you must go at HIS PACE,
not your pace, and you are going to have to have a ton of patience and not allow yourself to get frustrated with the bird, because as already stated, this is only going to make things worse. He has the intelligence of a 3-4 year-old human child, all parrots do. This isn't a dog or a cat, or a horse or a pig, it's an extremely intelligent, basically "wild" parrot who has no reason in the world to trust people. You need to start thinking of him as being an extremely intelligent, emotional little guy that has only that cage as his "territory" or "safe space", and he is not going to want to come out of it any time soon.

***Realize that this process of taming an essentially "wild" bird usually takes months and months to a year or more...even years. That's just how it goes. Every parrot is different, some give you their trust more quickly than others, but there is no way to guess how long it's going to take. So what you need to do is start today by making sure that you have his cage located in the "main" room of your house, meaning the room of your house that you and anyone else who lives with you spend most of their time when they are home. His cage needs to be in the room where you watch TV, play video games, read, eat your meals, have visitors over in, etc. You cannot put his cage in a bedroom or spare room where away from where you spend your time, because this is going to do the opposite of socializing him...he's a totally non-socialized bird, so the more he's around people, specifically you, the more people simply walk past his cage and talk to him, the more people are around him passively interacting with him, the more and more he's going to start to trust...So his cage MUST be in your living room, family room, TV room, den, etc., not in a spare bedroom, "bird" room, office, etc. He needs to be wherever you are when you're home.

You are going to have to just deal with him nipping at your hands when you change his food and water, as you are reaching your hands into his territory, his only safe space in the world. However, it's very important that you do not EVER yell at him, scold him, or god forbid hit him or snap and take a whack at him with your hand. Just change his food and water, and if he nips at you just try your best to completely ignore it for now. You cannot train him until you have earned his trust, and that's a long way down the road from now.

Basically, the way you start this process, besides first locating his cage in the "main room" of your house, is by spending as much time as you can talking to him softly and gently as much as you can, every single day, from a distance away from his cage that he is comfortable with. This, in addition to you passively interacting with him whenever you're home because his cage is wherever you are when you're at home, is how you are going to start earning his trust. When you are directly interacting with him and spending time with him, for now and for probably the next few months, you're going to sit as close to his cage as you can without him getting upset, once he starts getting upset then that's your limit. Then you back your chair up a bit into the "safe zone", and then you simply just sit and directly talk to him, read him a book, sing to him, etc. Do this as often as you can and for as long as you can every single day. And each day see how close you can move your chair to his cage without him getting upset; hopefully you'll be able to advance your chair closer and closer to him over the span of weeks to the next few months. You cannot attempt to open up his cage door and try to reach your hands towards him for him to "step-up" for you, and definitely cannot "grab" him, until you are able to sit right next to his cage, touching the outside of his cage and talking to him, without him getting upset. Once you get to that point, the next step is simply opening up the cage door and talking to him/reading to him. After you do this for a week or two, then the next step is simply resting your hand right inside the open cage door for a week or two. Then the next step is advancing your hand towards him inside his cage while holding a millet spray or other treat that he likes and that he cat eat from your hand from a distance...You keep advancing your hand closer and closer to him inside of his cage with the millet spray sticking out of it towards him over the span of weeks to months, AT HIS PACE ONLY. Any time he shows even a bit of anxiety or anger, you back up your hand or back up your chair, depending on what step you're on...

This will continue until you are able to get your hand close enough to him inside of his cage that he'll eat from the millet spray....Then you just simply hand-feed him this way for a couple of weeks...then the next step is extending your index finger out towards him while holding the millet spray, getting it closer to his belly, right above his feet, each day, AT HIS PACE, until he steps-up onto your finger on his own...And then you work on getting him to step-up onto your finger and then allowing you to move your had out of the cage, etc...Baby steps the entire way through this process, with weeks in-between HIS PACE progressing...It could take months for you to simply be able to sit in a chair right next to his cage...

It's a long process taming a non-tame and scared parrot, and it can be extremely frustrating for the owner because if you try to go even a bit too fast and not at HIS PACE, you're only going to go backwards. So it requires great patience and commitment from you, that's for sure. But the reward once you earn your bird's trust and he bonds closely with you is well worth it...

Thank you so much for the advice!! I honestly think she's been sitting in the bird store for 8 months with little human interaction at all. She's getting more comfortable with me standing next to the cage and talking, but scurries away if I put my hands on the cage near her, so I guess that's step one!