New Princess parakeet owner...newbie alert

[Sunnyprincess]

My partner and I have just invested in our first bird - Sunny - who is a male Lutino princess of Wales parakeet.

We are both new to the world of bird ownership (we have pretty much everything else - not kidding) and we have been interested in and researching birds for a little while. After a trip to our local pet centre we came away with sunny - who is a June Hatcher.

Any top tips for helping to bond? We’ve left him to it to settle in, we’ve had our hand in a few times as he is so incredibly curious - he’ll climb all over the side of the cage you’re next to - intently listening and will just hang around near wherever you are. He will climb on to a hand with treats and food so I don’t think he is fearful - but will considerably nibble at your skin. Some of more painful when he manages to grab skin! Is this something that we should just carry on working on and will get better with time and trust? At the mo we are dealing with either by ignoring where possible, gently unbalancing or trying to make skin not grabbable!

Wondering whether to back off and leave him be a bit more?

 

[itzjbean]

Hello and welcome!

I am not familiar with this type of bird but I encourage you to read the following:

Tips for bonding and building trust

Lots of great tips in that thread. Basically the jist is, you want to make every single interaction with your bird a positive one. When you reach in with your hand, offer a treat.

For bird care overall .....
- get the biggest, roomiest cage you can afford
-lots of toys to encourage playing indepentendly
-if you let him out of the cage, take caution if you have other pets such as cats and dogs. Birds are prey to them and will likely take any opportunity to snatch up a tasty birdie snack.
- A well balanced diet is curtail to their longevity and health. What are you currently feeding? Not sure if these guys have specific needs but most parrots thrive on fresh fruits and veggies, legumes, grains, etc. They can have pasta and cooked beans, and most vegetables are excellent source of nutrition. A good quality pellet could also help supplement and provide a more well-rounded diet. Most seed mixes you'll find in pet stores are not great for our birds, they're filled with sunflower seeds or peanuts or things that are like Mcdonalds for birds.

And of course....love and patience is needed! A new bird should be given time to settle in their new environment. After settling and starting to develop a trust bond with your new bird, you can start to begin training by using positive reinforcement. Basically it's teaching a bird to do things with a reward. You should be teaching your bird bite-pressure training (like puppies, they need to learn that hard biting is not acceptable), step-up training, target/flight recall training, etc. You can even teach them tricks!

Again, welcome to you and your new addition. Hope to see you around!