Eyes won't pine?

[Phahnax]

Chili the Indian Ringneck's first anniversary in the family has come and passed. I'm so proud of the little green guy and how far he's come... Or, well, she. I estimate her to be two years old by now and she still has no black ring around her neck. That's a shame. But my little brother is hardly disappointed.

I'm a bit worried because Chili never had her bluffing stage with us... And it shows. She stays in her cage out of fear and is still wary of people. I've noticed that Chili has warmed up to the family and she will get onto your hand and shoulder (Yay!) But after we had to clip her wings due to her frequent flights into unreachable spaces, Chili became a lot more reliant on her cage.

This is the first bird I've ever looked after and I try my absolute best to look after her. It feels like I know a lot about Chili's own personality. She loves hiding away to feel comfortable, she bites your hand before getting on and when she does bite it hardly even hurts. (More of a nibble.) For an Indian Ringneck, Chili LOVES pets on the neck so much she'd sing in joy! But it has to be in specific spots and she'd let you know. (I'd do a video but right now it's the afternoon and she doesn't really want to be interacted with.)

I've recently tried the clicker method for the step-ups. Not really working because she's not interested. I also noticed her lunging at my hand when I come near, but only touching me with her beak. This only just happened today and I suppose I'm a bit confused.

Also, her eyes won't pine. Just, never. They never turn into a small pin when looking around. They do go big when it's dark... But it's never pining. This does make me nervous. Does she need glasses?! Probably not. But if she does have troubles with her sight it would explain why she's so anti-social and nervous...

 

[MonicaMc]

There is no "bluffing" stage....

Barbara's Force Free Animal Training Talk: Do Animals Bluff?


Please also take a look at these threads.

http://www.parrotforums.com/training/57935-brainstorming-biting-parrots.html

http://www.parrotforums.com/training/72250-free-training-resources.html



The behavior you describe just sounds like a terrified bird to me.

 

[Phahnax]

Thank you for your reply. I'm going to try and figure out where exactly I'm terrifying this poor bird and see what I can do to correct my own behaviour.

 

[EllenD]

I've never, ever heard the term "bluffing phase" before, not ever, and I'm not sure what you mean by this...

This entire description of your IRN simply sounds to me like a parrot that was not hand-raised but rather parent-raised, and no one has ever taken the time to work with her on a daily basis to hand-tame her. That's it, that's all it sounds like to me. I think you're really over-thinking this situation with your bird, when it's not hard to understand why she is acting the way that she is: SHE'S NOT TAME AND SHE DOESN'T TRUST HUMANS, AS NO HUMAN HAS ATTEMPTED TO EARN HER TRUST.

Parrots don't just come out of the egg trusting human beings and wanting to bond with them closely or allow them to touch them. That's just not how this works. If a bird's breeder pulls the baby from the nest and away from it's parents at a young enough age (between 2-3 weeks old) and hand-feeds them and raises them from that point on, OR their breeder allows the parents to continue to feed the baby and keeps the baby in the nest BUT at the same time removes the baby from the nest daily, every day, to be handled, petted, scritched, and spoken to for at least an hour or 2 a day from very early in it's life (again, from about week 3 or 4 onward), then the baby parrot, upon weaning, will be a sweet, cuddly, loving little bird who is willing to bond with at least one human being, if not many, and will automatically trust humans as long as one doesn't do anything to lose that trust. But if the breeder just allows the baby to be fed and raised completely by it's parents and then just sells it once it weans, that baby bird has no reason to trust humans, and is not going to be at all tame.

The other situation that often happens is that a baby bird who was hand-fed/hand-raised or was handled daily from very early in life daily by a human, and who goes to his new home as a sweet, cuddly, loving little bird who trusts humans is either abused by their new humans, or more often than abused, is simply neglected or not handled on a regular basis, or is simply not given any human attention on a daily basis, reverts back to not trusting humans and not wanting to be handled, touched, or given attention to by a human. For whatever reason, a bird loses it's trust in human beings, and no longer has "a person".

I don't know the history of your IRN, you say she is 2 years old and you've had her for 1 year, so I don't know what her temperament was like when she came to you, I don't know how her breeder raised her or how her first home for the first year of her life treated her or how much time they spent with her daily, and I don't really know how much time your family has spent with her on a daily basis for the year that you've had her...But that all being said, as Monica already stated above, for WHATEVER REASON, it sounds like your IRN does not trust you or any of the people in her house, and she is definitely scared and does not want to be handled. It may not be due to anything in-particular that you've done to her, it may simply be due to you not giving her enough daily attention and interaction.

Have you given her at least 4-5 hours every single day of out-of-cage time and human interaction time? Do you have her cage located in the room of your house where all the "action" is, and where the people who live in your home spend most of their time when they are home? (as opposed to keeping her cage in a back room where she can hear people that are home but not see them) Do you/have you included her in your daily, every-day activities, such as car rides, walks, watching movies on the couch, eating meals together, etc.?

It sounds to me like you need to start over again, from the very beginning, like you just brought her home and you are committing to spending at least a few hours EVERY SINGLE DAY to hand-taming her from step #1. I'd read the above posts, and I'd go to the "Training" forum here and read any and all of the "stickies" posts that have to do with the step-by-step, detailed hand-taming training, as that's what you'll need to do. First you need to earn her trust again, all over again (or for the first time if it never actually happened), and only then will you be able to start training her to do the things that you seem to be just expecting her to do. She has the intelligence of a human toddler, you must remember that.

Most importantly you need to keep in mind that this is going to be a marathon, not a sprint. You must commit to 4-5 hours daily of her out of her cage and training with you. You must put her cage in the room where you spend most of your time at home, i.e. the living room, the den, the family room, etc., so that she is with you and can see you while you are watching TV, reading a book, playing a video game, etc., even if you're not directly interacting with her. You need to include her in your family meals and activities. And you need to realize that this could takes months and months to years to happen, that's just the reality of the situation. You can't force it, and you can't speed it up, IT'S ONLY AT HER PACE...

 

[Sunnyclover]

I could not gave said it better myself EllenD! Agree.

 

[Jottlebot]

I know what you mean by bluffing, it's very common in ring necks species and in a lot of others I think. He/She might not have gone through it yet or you might not have noticed, because the signs in a tamer bird would be more obvious - biting and generally being a monster all of a sudden! (Just coming out of it with an Alexandrine!)

Pinning eyes has nothing to do with vision and everything to do with emotion (good or bad). I wouldn't worry about not seeing it. I think an untamed, blind bird would be in a constant panic and probably hurt itself badly by now.

Also, your bird isn't very tame, is scared, was flying away from you so you clipped it's wings...it is going to take even longer to build trust with you now because, to be blunt, Chili has absolutely no reason to just now.

The above from EllenD is spot on! Get to it!!!