May I ask some of you for advice?

[tbass2323]

Hello everyone.
I was wondering if anyone could let me know how they think my progress is going with my new ring neck Santo. I have had it now for 1 week. It's 4 months old.
We have mastered the step up outside of the cage, and sometimes on top of cage. It's still a bit nippy inside cage, but I just let it come out of cage to me. It likes to sit on my finger and do walks around the house, and loves to play on coffee table while I watch T.V. It also seems to be discovering it's voice and is starting to chirp more the last few days. I know bonding and training isn't an over night thing, I just wanted to know if I was doing things right and if this is typical progress for one week with a your ring neck. I have not been bitten hard yet at all.
Also I mix seed and pellets in it's dish, but seems it only eats the seeds?? any suggestions here? Is getting them to eat pellets really important?
thanks in advance

 

[Allee]

Hey there, yes I would say you are making good progress.

According to the quality of the pellets, generally speaking, they are healthier than an all seed diet. Most birds will choose seed, like a toddler will choose candy over broccoli. I personally think a small amount of a high quality seed mix is safe and healthy. I would also add a variety of healthy veggies and some fruit on a daily basis. It's good to offer healthy foods when the bird is young and more willing to try new things. Be sure to check the safe food list before offering. Chocolate and avocados are highly toxic to birds and there is a long list of other foods parrots shouldn't have and household items you should research if you haven't already. Pellets can be soaked and softened, ground up and sprinkled over their food or blended with cooked veggies such as sweet potato. Keep trying until you find your birds preferred choices.

 

[a_osborne]

I'm not an expert as I just got my IRN a couple weeks ago. However, that seems like pretty good progress to me, generally speaking. My Adrian steps up well but only from the floor. So basically she is sweet as can be when she wants something haha. I don't even try reaching a hand into her cage because I don't want to make her feel threatened in "her territory" and bite because of it. She's bitten me very hard from the start so you're lucky that hasn't happened to you because BOY does it hurt! However, she looooves being scratched and petted. So I'm just working slow and steady with her. Sounds like you are doing great and making good progress

 

[tbass2323]

santo will not let me touch . I don't think I got a snuggler

 

[SpotsandSally]

Don't worry about snuggling. Most IRNs aren't snugglers.

Kiwi my old IRN was pretty much hand tame by a week, but it took him a month before he no longer became food aggressive or cage aggressive. Never was a snuggler though.

Sprite, my conure, took 2 months-ish before he didn't run away in fear everytime he saw me.

Every bird is different, but it sounds like you're making great progress.

I would switch him to an all pellet diet (zupreem is good if he's reluctant to eat it, but Harrison's is better). If you feed zupreem, the diet will dye their poo, so don't be alarmed with reddish poo.

Try feeding him veggies too! You can start with fruit. Our kiwi loved apples (be very careful! This is ultimately what ended our baby. He got an apple core). He didn't like bananas but our Sprite does. Mango, cantoloupe and watermelon are good too. Grapes were a favorite!

When getting Kiwi to eat veggies, he'd eat carrots before anything. Carrots seem to be a favorite. Ours don't eat corn. They just sorta.... Licked it.