Taming advice for indian ringneck?

[yorshee]

I have had budgies my whole life and I know how to tame budgies, but I've always wanted an indian ringneck and a pet shop near me was selling one a couple of months ago so of course I grabbed the opportunity!

She isn't tame at all and we were told she is around 6 months old. She's afraid of people and especially hands. I honestly have no clue about how she was raised, I'm assuming she was parent-raised and then lived in an aviary for a while before she was sold to the pet shop?

We've had her for 2 months now and we've made almost no progress in taming her and I have no clue what I'm doing wrong. Like I said, I've had budgies all my life (and still have two now) so I know how to look after budgies like the back of my hand and I was hoping that knowledge would be helpful in taming my new ringneck but it seems like it's a lot more complicated than that.

After we got her, we left her alone in the cage for a week (while we were nearby of course, so she can get used to our presence from a distance) and then I tried to feed her treats through the bars of her cage. She gets frightened and clings to the bars of the cage to the other side of where my hand is (fair enough, that's always going to happen with a new bird). After around half an hour she'll calm down enough to go back on a perch but she'll stay glued to that side of the cage opposite of my hand. After, say, an hour of that, she'll slooooowly edge closer, snatch the food and run back to the edge of the cage again to eat it. Sounds like progress, right?

But that's where we've been at, for 2 months now. No progress. An agonising long time to take a snack and that's it. She flaps and panics when we have to put our hands in the cage to change her food and water and clean the cage out. It's like she's incapable of learning, like her brain is constantly stuck in 'hands are scary!' mode.

Does anyone have any tips?

 

[Macawdamia Nut]

As my avian vet always says, “Birds are weird.” My macaw was wild-caught 50 years ago. I bought him straight out of quarantine. I was warned to get thick leather gardening gauntlets and to be prepared for vicious bites. I never bought the gloves and my bird was eating out of the palm of my hand within hours of bringing him home. He has never bitten anyone in 50 years. So gentle and trusting. Probably why he was captured in the first place!

On the other hand, it took him 10 years to dare to step on the swing in his cage! No fear of hands, but frightened of a wooden swing? Birds are weird!

My advice to you is patience. Months in human time are like minutes to a bird. I figure 10 years in human time = 10 months to a bird.

 

[OtheG1]

Ringnecks can be hand shy and can go back to "wild” if not consistently worked with daily even if they are hand fed. Our girl was 9 months old and completely wild when we got her despite her being handfed. She is still very hand shy but will step up onto a perch or your hand if it is covered with a towel or even if you stick your hand inside your sweatshirt. Maybe try that? We also started with just hanging out with her with her cage door opened and let her decide to just come out on her own. Good luck and try not to get discouraged. I know it’s hard.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I have heard that ringnecks can be difficult to tame if they haven't been properly socialized with humans. Just because a parrot is hand raised doesn't mean it is super tame and easy to train. Some commercial breeders hand feed the babies, but aside from squirting formula directly into the crop, they don't handle them. Handling and proper socialization are time consuming, and they just want to sell birds. Even if your ringneck was properly socialized by rhe breeder, a few months of no handling would undo much of the good done by the breeder. Who knows how long your Ringneck had been sitting in the cage at the pet store, not being handled.

It will take time. They certainly aren't easy like budgies. Keep trying and read a lot about taming ringnecks.

 

[wrench13]

Hi and congrats on the new parrot. Ringnecks are kinda unique. I am going to state a few things but keep in mind every parrot is unique and an individual, so not all may be applicable to what a species is known for. Ringnecks are notorious for a few things. Being pretty flighty and nervous. THey often take longer to settle down in new homes, from weeks to months. They are known for needing daily interaction with their people or they quickly revert to an almost wild state. Keep these in mind.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I think less experienced people are getting ringnecks more and more due to all those YouTube videos of very tame, very friendly ringnecks doing fun things for the camera.