Discouraged

I'm getting so frustrated with Adrian. One day I will feel like I'm making a little progress but then the next day or even a couple hours later, she's back to how she was as if no progress was ever made. It's upsetting because I know IRNs are smart and I don't believe that she doesn't understand what I want from her. I see people post on here that their ringneck learns new tricks and things in 5-10 minutes and I can't get Adrian to successfully step up after hours upon hours of attempted training! The hours aren't consecutive, btw. I just can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I've read so many articles, joined this and another forum, joined a fb group, and read a parrot training book. I've tried different treats and methods and nothing works. Things that have seemed to work before will work once and not the next time. I did so much research before getting her and knew that biting was an issue but didn't realize it would be this frustrating I guess. It's even more discouraging when I see people who have ringnecks her age or younger that are doing so well and I can't fix whatever is wrong sorry for the book, just had to vent to people who will understand.

My IRN, Kodee, still isn't stepping up. We consider it progress that he will run and get a treat after we set it on the cage. He was wild when we got him, and I know that he will come around eventually.
All birds go at their own speed, so please don't get discouraged by how others are doing. Imagine how exciting it is going to be when Adrian gets it, and all this hard work pays off

Well, that's true. It will be awesome when she gets it. It has been very exciting the few successes I have had but then she will immediately make me regret getting excited by biting me harder the next time! I think part of my issue is that I am a problem solver. I can't let things rest until I solve them. So, when I have a problem that I just don't have the answer to, I end up very frustrated and discouraged. Thanks for the encouragement though guess some people are just luckier than me on this one!

I have faith that it is all going to come together sooner rather than later. And I will encourage you any time you need it! I know I need it sometimes too
It sounds like you are doing the right things, and trying different things, and I think that your patience truly will pay off.

Well thank you very much I really hope it does pay off. I just need to learn not to compare myself and Adrian to other birds and their owners. Really bad habit of mine.

First of all, it's completely understandable that you are feeling discouraged. I've been in your situation many times. I have to ask, is your bird handfed? And how old is it? I find that ringnecks are very food motivated and like the previous member said, you have to find the bird's favorite treat. Every time you pass the cage, give the bird a treat. Forget about getting her to step up at this point, you just want to make her feel comfortable in your presence. Once she is taking food gently from your hands, then you can work on step up practice. Birds can express fear in different ways, some run away , some bite. The key is not to rush. I hope this helps a little.

Delfin, wow! That's a lot of info! Thank you so much. I had thought about getting a clicker before and didn't but I will now. Thebirdnerd, Adrian is nearly 5 months old and I have had her since late June. She was hand fed and I hand fed her for the last 2 weeks before she weaned. She already does very well at taking treats gently from my hand. That being said, do you think that would be counter productive? Like she's getting treats and she's not even doing anything for them?

She might be going through a bluffing stage. I probably should have asked this in the previous post but was she sweet when you first got her then started the biting, or has this been an ongoing issue with her?

I'm not sure if that's the case with all IRNs, but mine is just terrified of fingers! I got him completely wild (neglected and maybe abused for 2 months), but luckily given his young age he has been adjusting well. When I approach him with my hand now he jumps to my arm right away. I was extremely persistent in doing stepping up after about 3 days of having him and kinda forced him at first - he would scream at me when I cornered him in a place where he had nowhere else to go except stepping on my hand. At first he was freaked out a bit, and then he actually started enjoying sitting on my arm. But he is still terrified of my fingers and wouldn't take treat from my hand. I'm very slowly introducing him to sitting on the finger and praising him if he does it even for a minute. He has already approached my fingers when I was typing on computer and beaked them a bit.
Could your bird be afraid of fingers? Maybe you could offer your arm instead of finger for stepping up? Just an idea… I'm very new to IRNs myself.

a_osborne said:

Delfin, wow! That's a lot of info! Thank you so much. I had thought about getting a clicker before and didn't but I will now. Thebirdnerd, Adrian is nearly 5 months old and I have had her since late June. She was hand fed and I hand fed her for the last 2 weeks before she weaned. She already does very well at taking treats gently from my hand. That being said, do you think that would be counter productive? Like she's getting treats and she's not even doing anything for them?

Click to expand...

I've never had an IRN, but can relate to getting frustrated with not feeling like any progress was being made.....I've worked with sun conures that took over a year to get 4 of them to allow me to handle them individually.....

All I can offer is be patient.....everything you've read are really only guidelines...each bird is different and what worked for those writers may or may not work for you, but if you stand back & take a look, I think you'll find you really have made some progress.....

thebirdnerd said:

She might be going through a bluffing stage. I probably should have asked this in the previous post but was she sweet when you first got her then started the biting, or has this been an ongoing issue with her?

Click to expand...

She has always had this issue, unfortunately

veimar said:

I'm not sure if that's the case with all IRNs, but mine is just terrified of fingers! I got him completely wild (neglected and maybe abused for 2 months), but luckily given his young age he has been adjusting well. When I approach him with my hand now he jumps to my arm right away. I was extremely persistent in doing stepping up after about 3 days of having him and kinda forced him at first - he would scream at me when I cornered him in a place where he had nowhere else to go except stepping on my hand. At first he was freaked out a bit, and then he actually started enjoying sitting on my arm. But he is still terrified of my fingers and wouldn't take treat from my hand. I'm very slowly introducing him to sitting on the finger and praising him if he does it even for a minute. He has already approached my fingers when I was typing on computer and beaked them a bit.
Could your bird be afraid of fingers? Maybe you could offer your arm instead of finger for stepping up? Just an idea… I'm very new to IRNs myself.

Click to expand...

I suppose it's possible that she is afraid of fingers but I don't actually even offer my finger anymore. She was able to get too hard of a grip on my finger to where I would have to kind of pry her off. I started offering the back of a my closed fist. She manages to always find somewhere to bite, including my arm.

@weco, thank you I do believe I've made some minor progress just with her being generally more receptive to interaction since getting her. She lets me scratch her head and is good about taking food gently from my hand. There is a perch attached to the door of the cage and she has learned to come to it when she wants some attention from me. However, she will also allow my husband (who has done NO work with her and very little interaction) to pet her. He has never tried to give her a treat but I suspect she'd take it nicely from him. That makes me think that it's not my hard work at all and just a matter of her being comfortable because she's used to being here.

I just want to toss in that even with Shiko I have daily setbacks. Some days he steps up like a champ, other days I receive a nice warning chomp. Some days he's willing to learn, other days all he wants to do is gnaw on my face. One day I had a 10 minute cuddle session with him where he let me scratch his beak and neck, pet him from beak to tail, and love on him.

5 minutes after that he ran from me as if I was a newly emerging demon from hell.

Ringnecks are so insanely intelligent, but that doesn't mean they're willing to learn at every given moment. It takes time, some birds learn quick, other take months if not years. When I first got Shiko, I was so excited! I mean, here's this GORGEOUS bird from a breeder who says he's super cuddly, he's one of my dream species and of course he'll definitely learn, right?!

Nope. I went through a good month of minor confusion and sadness. I was constantly convincing myself that no, I didn't make a mistake in bringing him home, and constantly trying to see the good in him.

5 months later, here I am and I'm so excited to see him when I get home. I go downstairs, to my room, open both cage doors to my babies and give them kisses and treats (if permitted to do so by my hoity-toity moody green cheek, Shiko just soaks it in). Many people would look at the relationship I have with him, the tricks I've taught him, and the physical contact I have with him as "lucky". Truth be told, I TAUGHT Shiko to accept cuddles. I TAUGHT him those tricks. And I also taught him what it's meant to be loved by me. It takes patience and time with these birds, but don't give up. Eventually you'll see your results. Just always remind yourself that every interaction is a positive interaction, because we're fortunate to have our lives enhanced by those big flying feathered boogers!

Thank you to everyone for all the input! Btw, Delfin, I forgot to say before that I'm sorry about Bluey