Trouble with 3 IRN’s

[bakhtavara]

Hello,

I recently bought 3 Indian Ringneck’s, the first one I had for 2 weeks before I decided to buy two more IRN’s (a stupid idea to some of you probably). The first one I bought was from someone I think was a breeder so he/she is around 6/7 months and is extremely scared and doesn’t like to be close to humans whatsoever. The second one I bought was hand tamed and very friendly but still doesn’t like to be close to us yet. And the third one, (blue 2 year old ringneck) she came from a family where she was very loved and tamed to sit on shoulders, mobile phones etc and since leaving, doesn’t want to get close and she bit me a few times.

The 6 month old is still scared but is not as spooked by us if we get close but won’t take food from our hand and if we get too close he will fly away (nothing out of the ordinary). The other one who is hand tamed is acting very strange ever since he got introduced to the others, like the day we got him he was incredibly sweet, he was hopping up on our hand and eating from our hand and just being sweet (inside the cage) but ever since we let him out the cage and introduced him to the rest, he has been acting weird like he doesn’t want to get close with us, every now and again he will eat from our hand but he seems more spooked by us than usual… I’ve been trying to get him hand trained so he will hop on my hand when I‘m giving a treat but I have to hold on for dear life so he doesnt snatch it away from me and fly away with it (is that normal?)

And the blue one, well she just seems to hate me!! She tries to bite me if I get my hand close, and prior to a day or two ago, she was plucking her feathers and shaking so much when I would get close or even talk to her from a distance (she has stopped doing this since, so yay progress?) Yesterday I managed to get her to hop on my arm to give a treat, which was really great progress because she was really aggressive towards me in the first few days, I never thought she would get that close, and she’s landed on my head a few times. But she’s still scared of us and doesn’t seem to like me very much.

Someone help me!! How do I get them to trust me???

 

[wrench13]

Hoo boy, you have created a very hard problem for yourself by having not 1, not 2 but 3 parrots that need a lot of intensive, careful training on an individual basis.
Let me ask you this - how are you getting them back into their cage(s)? I hope not by grabbing or chasing them around and toweling them!! THose actions are MAJOR trust busters.

 

[bakhtavara]

Hoo boy, you have created a very hard problem for yourself by having not 1, not 2 but 3 parrots that need a lot of intensive, careful training on an individual basis.
Let me ask you this - how are you getting them back into their cage(s)? I hope not by grabbing or chasing them around and toweling them!! THose actions are MAJOR trust busters.

I know…

No I’m not! I leave them free and leave the cage open, if they want to get inside then they can but they’re very VERYY well behaved so I let them stay out of the cage because I don’t want to chase them to get them in the cage.. I feed them every morning before I go to work and my partner stays in the house most of the day with them and on my days off, I spend the whole day with them. But no, never grabbed and chased them

 

[Cottonoid]

Welcome to the forums!

It sounds like they're still pretty new to your home?

I think having 3 where none of them yet are totally trusting you will just take longer than it might with one. And even with one, any progress is good!

Are they in separate cages? Is there a way for you to let one out at a time and just work on handfeeding? I would guess in general that just continuing handfeeding treats and food as much as they let you will help a lot. I think it's pretty normal to take the treat and fly away to eat it in a good spot

I agree with wrench that ideally working with them one on one is going to get the best results, and they'll probably be at different places in how comfortable they get in a certain timeframe.

My African Ringneck is an adult rescue and isn't hand tame at all, so for me my main goal with training when I brought him home was to get him to a point that he would be safe out of his cage without me having to handle him. He puts himself to bed every night now, so I feel ok about where we're at so far.

I personally think you're on the right track with your new flock, just keep at it and observing their body language and staying patient

Target training might be something they might like, too - it's a hands off way of learning how to communicate with each other.