New To The Forum - Need Some Advice :)

[Andrew92]

Hi Everyone!

My name is Andrew and i come here looking to expand my knowledge about caring for my Birds.

I have two Rainbow Lorikeets and i have had them for 2 years after my ex partner rescued them. I was in Europe and came home to two little babies that needed constant attentions and feeding, although at first i wasn't to happy about it i have since grown to love them dearly.

Unfortunately, The Keets love my ex girlfriend much more than me and even know they happily eat food from my hand/perch on my shoulder they only really enjoy my company around her. Since she has left i am now the primary carer for them and i do my best but they just wont let me get close unless they decide to approach me which can be frustrating, and they bite which such force that i am often leaving for work with bleeding hands and band aids on my arm if i try to grab them.

Also, a house mate has moved in and i know that birds can get stressed and act strange around new faces, so i am considering sorting them out with a big outdoor aviary so they have their own little keet home just to themselves

so my questions are...

1: what kind of tricks/games can i play and any advice on how best to bond with them would be greatly appreciated.
2: how should i set up and aviary? what insulation is best for winters/summers.
3: what things should i consider when they live in an aviary? Spiders/mice/snakes (i live in West Australia so they're fairly common)

My current set up it a 4x2x2 foot indoor cage with fake grass mats for drop sheets (they love tumbling and rolling on them too) with a thick woolly black blanket to help them sleep and keep them warm. My outside cage is about 6 foot tall and about 3 feet deep and long. They never fight over space however i still want a big cage for them. The temporary aviary i want to purchase is 3 metres long, 2 metres high and 1.3 metres deep with a security door and breeder box but i will get a custom one built for them later on. The sleep inside every night and go out in the mornings when i leave for work so they're very weather hardy.

Their favourite games are tumbling between my guitars and foot pedals, chewing on the knobs and twisting them, they love riding my cat around the house like a little horse and singing Ludacris's "move B***h get out the way" and yes i have tried desperately to capture it on film but they go quiet when the camera comes out. Their diet is currently an apple, fresh leafy greens, corn kernels and fresh berries every morning and night along with dry nectar mix. Mangos and corn are their ultimate vice, they love them.

i love them a lot, and i want to make sure that even though my living arrangements have changed i can continue to give them the best care even if they dont like me. Adoption is not on the cards.

Cheers!!

 

[SailBoat]

Welcome to Parrot Forum!

No surprise to you, you are in the Southern Hemisphere, which means this is you're Winter months. What kind of outside temperature range does your area have as normal daytime and nighttime and what are the extremes?

Outside Aviaries have both great advantages and disadvantages that must be taken into consideration both for physically and emotionally reasons. What is needed for their general care is additional issues that a cage in the home do not face.
- Double access with a space between the outer most door and the inter most door
- A locking system assures that 'others' to not take your Parrots or visit and leave the doors open
- Do Not Use a nest box! But a covered area will be needed to provide a break from the Sun and Weather.
- Night time lighting for when you forget and leave them in the Aviary and need to bring them in when its dark.
- Concrete base to protect them from those animals and Humans that try to dig into the Aviary.
- The structure and caging needs to be Stainless Steel to resist the Weather and provide a safe structure for the Parrots
- Safe (drinking) water supply, piped to side of Aviary for cleaning and drinking water use. Dragging hoses get old fast!
- And about as many additional items... That said, until you have a working relationship with your Parrots, 'I' would not undertake building and using an Aviary. The why is simple: They can quickly become out of sight, out of mind!

Behavior issues:
The transition of and developing a new Bond is something that just takes time and lots of it!
Start from the vantage point that: It's NEVER the fault of the Parrot! Its ALWAYS the fault of the Human! When you begin from that vantage point regarding all interactions with your Parrots, you will more quickly determine what you are doing wrong and correct it!
With two Parrots, it will take three times longer to developing a working relationship and bond.
Getting bitten! Yup! That will happen until you understand when and why you are getting bitten and make changes regarding your interaction to less their need to bit you.

As you can see, nearly all of this is you making changes to the way you interact with them.

This will get you started and moving!

 

[Anansi]

Hello, and welcome to the Parrot Forums family!

Some great advice already given above. I'd just add that the key to getting a parrot to do what you want them to do (i.e. coming when called, stepping up, going where directed, etc) is to get them to want to do those things. And that is achieved through association.

Try working with them between meals. Perhaps even fifteen minutes or so before their next meal. Keep their favorite treats in your hand so that they have to come out to you and step onto your hand to get them. These should be treats that they LOVE, but don't get with their regular meals. Done consistently, they will begin to associate stepping onto your hand with tasty treats.

At the same time, you can also work on target training. Here is a link to one of the better videos on target training that I've seen: [ame="https://youtu.be/HaOicTtwIZo"]https://youtu.be/HaOicTtwIZo[/ame]

As for the biting issues, you may want to take a look at these threads:
http://www.parrotforums.com/training/63988-bite-pressure-training.html
http://www.parrotforums.com/training/57935-brainstorming-biting-parrots.html
http://www.parrotforums.com/questions-answers/58911-bird-bites-always-2.html

And wet blanket time. As cool as it sounds to have parrots that will ride your cat around the house, the practice is actually VERY dangerous. I know you likely feel that your cat has accepted them as a part of the family, but you must never lose sight of the fact that at heart, a cat is a predator. And parrots are prey animals. Anytime the two play together, it's through the sublimation of the cat's feral instincts. Sublimation, not elimination. Which means that all it would take is one slip for an amusing situation to turn into a tragic one.

And on a lighter note, please keep trying to catch their Ludacris impression on video. That sounds hilarious!

 

[wrench13]

Nothing to add, but Damn they are some beautiful parrots. I wouldn't care if they bit me every day, they are so beautiful.

 

[Anansi]

Nothing to add, but Damn they are some beautiful parrots. I wouldn't care if they bit me every day, they are so beautiful.

Hahaha! No doubt, those are indeed some beautiful birds!

 

[Scott]

Welcome to the forums, Andrew! Beautiful Loris, thanks for caring deeply for them!! Patience, love, and persistence may encourage them to warm up to you, especially as your ex-girlfriend is not a constant presence.

So many stories of creepy-crawly critters in Australia are legendary. Not sure what natural enemies of birds are in your area. Perhaps local zoos can share the precautions necessary to safeguard them in your aviary?

 

[smbrds]

Beautiful birds. Welcome to the forum.

 

[Andrew92]

Welcome to Parrot Forum!

No surprise to you, you are in the Southern Hemisphere, which means this is you're Winter months. What kind of outside temperature range does your area have as normal daytime and nighttime and what are the extremes?

Outside Aviaries have both great advantages and disadvantages that must be taken into consideration both for physically and emotionally reasons. What is needed for their general care is additional issues that a cage in the home do not face.
- Double access with a space between the outer most door and the inter most door
- A locking system assures that 'others' to not take your Parrots or visit and leave the doors open
- Do Not Use a nest box! But a covered area will be needed to provide a break from the Sun and Weather.
- Night time lighting for when you forget and leave them in the Aviary and need to bring them in when its dark.
- Concrete base to protect them from those animals and Humans that try to dig into the Aviary.
- The structure and caging needs to be Stainless Steel to resist the Weather and provide a safe structure for the Parrots
- Safe (drinking) water supply, piped to side of Aviary for cleaning and drinking water use. Dragging hoses get old fast!
- And about as many additional items... That said, until you have a working relationship with your Parrots, 'I' would not undertake building and using an Aviary. The why is simple: They can quickly become out of sight, out of mind!

Behavior issues:
The transition of and developing a new Bond is something that just takes time and lots of it!
Start from the vantage point that: It's NEVER the fault of the Parrot! Its ALWAYS the fault of the Human! When you begin from that vantage point regarding all interactions with your Parrots, you will more quickly determine what you are doing wrong and correct it!
With two Parrots, it will take three times longer to developing a working relationship and bond.
Getting bitten! Yup! That will happen until you understand when and why you are getting bitten and make changes regarding your interaction to less their need to bit you.

As you can see, nearly all of this is you making changes to the way you interact with them.

This will get you started and moving!

Thanks for your Advice, much appreciated

Our extreme lows here in winter is about 4-6 g=degrees C (44'ish F) and our extreme highs are about 45-50c (lots in F lol). The spot i have in mind is in my courtyard, immediately outside from my sliding doors that its semi undercover and the part that is exposed has a big tree over it so it will have natural shade/coverage. No wind really gets into the courtyard either because its all bricked off.

The reason why i would like it their is because it will be a rather nice feature in the backyard and sort of impossible not to forget about (i did consider the out of sight, out of mind potential).

The cage would be a fully welded steel chassis with heavy duty metal meshing around the side, top and bottom with a security door (lockable) and Colourbond roofing side and top panels to stop eagles or hawks getting in (we get the absolutely massive wedge tail eagles near my parts) as well as providing shelter. I would then cover the bottom with sea grass mats, a plastic tarp (to stop weeds) then a super heavy duty fake grass matt (vacuums up easy and they REALLY love the texture of it for some reason)

I have heard about just letting the birds getting away with murder lol, i never yell at them or get aggressive with them i just try stay calm and turn any biting fits into a tickle/play session. From what i have been told reacting poorly to a bird bite sort of reinforces the idea that biting actually works against people.

here is the sort of cage i am hoping to build, but upon your advice i might just wait until i get some more advice on that matter.

 

[Andrew92]

So many stories of creepy-crawly critters in Australia are legendary. Not sure what natural enemies of birds are in your area. Perhaps local zoos can share the precautions necessary to safeguard them in your aviary?

Spiders are my main concern. We get one called the redback spider and its very dangerous.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redback_spider

"The redback and its relatives in the genus Latrodectus are among the most dangerous spider genera, alongside funnel-web spiders, mouse spiders, banana spider and recluse spiders."

But they dont hunt for birds, however that doesn't make me any less nervous.

Nothing to add, but Damn they are some beautiful parrots. I wouldn't care if they bit me every day, they are so beautiful.

They're so pretty! they have a lovely song and their little grumbling noises when we play or when they wrestle is so cute.

Hello, and welcome to the Parrot Forums family!

Some great advice already given above. I'd just add that the key to getting a parrot to do what you want them to do (i.e. coming when called, stepping up, going where directed, etc) is to get them to want to do those things. And that is achieved through association.

Try working with them between meals. Perhaps even fifteen minutes or so before their next meal. Keep their favorite treats in your hand so that they have to come out to you and step onto your hand to get them. These should be treats that they LOVE, but don't get with their regular meals. Done consistently, they will begin to associate stepping onto your hand with tasty treats.

At the same time, you can also work on target training. Here is a link to one of the better videos on target training that I've seen

And wet blanket time. As cool as it sounds to have parrots that will ride your cat around the house, the practice is actually VERY dangerous. I know you likely feel that your cat has accepted them as a part of the family, but you must never lose sight of the fact that at heart, a cat is a predator. And parrots are prey animals. Anytime the two play together, it's through the sublimation of the cat's feral instincts. Sublimation, not elimination. Which means that all it would take is one slip for an amusing situation to turn into a tragic one.

And on a lighter note, please keep trying to catch their Ludacris impression on video. That sounds hilarious!

Great advice, i'll give it a shot with some mango and corn

And yes i know them playing with the cat isn't the best thing, a simple play session could get nasty. I will say however that i never leave them alone unsupervised and i think my cat might actually not know what they are. She is a Norwegian Forest Cat and she is just so patient and "meh" about them, they have kicked at her fur (probably making a nest or something) and the cat exposed more of its belly for a pat... either she doesn't care or she's to lazy to do anything. Nonetheless i am vigilant with them both.

as for the ludacris song, when i get it on film, up it goes on youtube, 100m views, retire early haha.

thanks everyone!

 

[Scott]

Thanks for the link, Andrew. The Redback is one seriously nasty spider!

 

[SailBoat]

Spider control or limiting them around your home can occur by targeting their food source(s). With little or nothing to eat they will find more fruitful hunting grounds.

We have colder low temperatures and that tends to limit the real bad Spiders in our area.

Your temperature range at the two extremes will need to be kept in mind (as you know) for their safety and at the high end for everyones! That is hot!

 

[Andrew92]

my custom Lorikeet cage has been built and arrives this weekend!

im going to start introducing them to it but continue brining them in at night.

any advice on how to furnish it would be great! so excited!

 

[Andrew92]

Update: All is well The days are getting warming and the sun is out for longer. As of today, 1 keet will step up on my hand with no biting, hes a bit reluctant but hes happy to perch on me when im mulling around the house.

the other one however, still biting and drawing blood every afternoon and evening. He will play, tumble and so silly bird stuff with his brother but will only play with me if the other one is.

so far good progress, happy days