GigiDutreix
New member
- Jul 1, 2020
- 12
- 22
- Parrots
- Indian Ringneck Parrot
Hi all! I am a proud owner of a little Indian Ringneck named Baby Blue. She is a one year old girl with an interesting past. I have been saving up time and money to invest in an indian ringneck. I didn't care about the ring or no ring-- I just knew that it was a bird for me. At least, I like to think so.
(Skip to the summary for the generalize version. Sorry for this wall of text!)
Firstly-- Baby Blue was originally in a pet store that was then bought by her previous owner. I don't know too much about this past owner, but sadly he died within 6 months of getting her. During this time Baby blue was on a diet of seeds only, and had her wings clipped to the point where, when I first got her, it looked like it was way too close. (I personally don't think that clipping wings is a positive aspect of a parrot's life, so I have let her wings grow out.) During this time with a previous owner, Baby blue was surrounded by Conures, and she was the much more quiet of the bunch. After 6 months, her owner listed her to be adopted for extremely cheap (Baby Blue was 300$) and while I was skeptical of such a low price for such a wanted species-- I bit the bullet anyway and got her.
That was in June of 2020-- so its been about 6 months since I've gotten her. Here's my progress with the girl so far.
When I first got Baby Blue, she was housed in a cheap cage (petsmart cheap) and in all seed diet. She was also extremely skittish, shy, and also in the middle of molting-- a great combination challenge for a first time parrot owner. Never the less-- little by little-- I switched her diet to pallets only with seeds as a treat. I talked to her every day while working from home, and moved her cage close to my work computer (since that's where I am every day almost 24/7). I then was able to successfully transfer her to a stainless steel cage, then exending her cage with her own playground (also made of stainless steel.) I leave the cage door open every day all day.
It took a month for her to finally get comfortable with me. Maybe a little longer, debatably. She went from deathly quiet to happily squeaking and screeching her little bird lungs. It was a long, frustrating process where some days she was easier to train than others(I have had the most success with a handmade clicker training method.) She even has many moments where she climbs on me (to get to my phone), hangs out on my shoulders and arms sometimes, and LOVES to just play with my hair.
However...
One thing though that I have never been able to get her to be comfortable with is my hands. When I say I have tried everything from clicker training, to resting my hands calmly on the cage for several minutes then gently pulling away, measuring her comfort zone by keeping my hand raised and see how close she's able to take it...I mean it. That comfort bubble has never changed, even with all the training and then space I have given her.
As a person who has had experience with no parrots-- I have done as much research in the years leading up to Baby Blue's purchase. It feels like she likes me alright but...I'm not that person for her, I guess? It feels like in the past 3 months it's been completely stagent. I've tried varying up my training, giving her more space, even considered parrot behavior training online (but that stuff costs 400$ or more so screwww that)
I know that the most likely cause of her behavior is that I am not consistent with my training because I'm still trying to figure out what works with her, and what doesn't. The clicker training is something she is most okay with-- but sometimes she gets terrified of the clicker so i put it away and give her space for however long she needs.
It's just frustrating, I guess. I worry that I'm always going to be internally fighting with her because I don't really know, at the end of the day, what she's okay with. Lately I have held back on training on together lately because I had to travel back and forth for the holidays. But it just seems that I can't figure out what she wants, what she likes-- etc.
I don't know if she's considered a rescue because I don't know much about her past. I just know that she is EXTREMELY territory heavy-- to the point where if I try to place toys very slowly to her cage-- she will run up as fast as she can to bite through my fingers. She's take food out of my fingers, but not happily.
To summarize the overall problems here:
- This bird hates my fingers. She will aim to bite them and tear them apart, she hates them so much.
- She has a larger bubble of space than I expected-- going as far as to hiss sometimes when I'm just walking by her cage
- She is very skittish-- there are some moments where she's content and happy, and then there are moments where she is running away from me.
- I don't know about her history with previous owners. I DO know that the pet store that previously owned her confirmed she was hand tamed.
- She'll scream loudly when I'm not in her sight-- but if I get any closer than maybe a foot, she hisses. (I don't try to pet her-- I just say "hi baby blue!" and that's enough to scare her.)
-She HATES me standing, at all. I need to stretch because I sit down for 8 or more hours a day-- and she just gets so upset when I stand, stretch, anything outside of sitting down.
- She doesn't like me looking at her half the time. I can tell because she freezes the moment I turn my head, and waits from me to look away before continuing on what she's doing.
There's a few other things that I have missed out on, but generally this is it.
Did I just adopt an angry parrot? Is it just one of those things where she's not going to get any better, regardless of my efforts? Is it going to take longer than this for her to fully trust me? How long does it normally take for a ringneck to fully trust you like this?
If there's any advice on this, I've love to hear it. I really am thankful for your responses.
(Skip to the summary for the generalize version. Sorry for this wall of text!)
Firstly-- Baby Blue was originally in a pet store that was then bought by her previous owner. I don't know too much about this past owner, but sadly he died within 6 months of getting her. During this time Baby blue was on a diet of seeds only, and had her wings clipped to the point where, when I first got her, it looked like it was way too close. (I personally don't think that clipping wings is a positive aspect of a parrot's life, so I have let her wings grow out.) During this time with a previous owner, Baby blue was surrounded by Conures, and she was the much more quiet of the bunch. After 6 months, her owner listed her to be adopted for extremely cheap (Baby Blue was 300$) and while I was skeptical of such a low price for such a wanted species-- I bit the bullet anyway and got her.
That was in June of 2020-- so its been about 6 months since I've gotten her. Here's my progress with the girl so far.
When I first got Baby Blue, she was housed in a cheap cage (petsmart cheap) and in all seed diet. She was also extremely skittish, shy, and also in the middle of molting-- a great combination challenge for a first time parrot owner. Never the less-- little by little-- I switched her diet to pallets only with seeds as a treat. I talked to her every day while working from home, and moved her cage close to my work computer (since that's where I am every day almost 24/7). I then was able to successfully transfer her to a stainless steel cage, then exending her cage with her own playground (also made of stainless steel.) I leave the cage door open every day all day.
It took a month for her to finally get comfortable with me. Maybe a little longer, debatably. She went from deathly quiet to happily squeaking and screeching her little bird lungs. It was a long, frustrating process where some days she was easier to train than others(I have had the most success with a handmade clicker training method.) She even has many moments where she climbs on me (to get to my phone), hangs out on my shoulders and arms sometimes, and LOVES to just play with my hair.
However...
One thing though that I have never been able to get her to be comfortable with is my hands. When I say I have tried everything from clicker training, to resting my hands calmly on the cage for several minutes then gently pulling away, measuring her comfort zone by keeping my hand raised and see how close she's able to take it...I mean it. That comfort bubble has never changed, even with all the training and then space I have given her.
As a person who has had experience with no parrots-- I have done as much research in the years leading up to Baby Blue's purchase. It feels like she likes me alright but...I'm not that person for her, I guess? It feels like in the past 3 months it's been completely stagent. I've tried varying up my training, giving her more space, even considered parrot behavior training online (but that stuff costs 400$ or more so screwww that)
I know that the most likely cause of her behavior is that I am not consistent with my training because I'm still trying to figure out what works with her, and what doesn't. The clicker training is something she is most okay with-- but sometimes she gets terrified of the clicker so i put it away and give her space for however long she needs.
It's just frustrating, I guess. I worry that I'm always going to be internally fighting with her because I don't really know, at the end of the day, what she's okay with. Lately I have held back on training on together lately because I had to travel back and forth for the holidays. But it just seems that I can't figure out what she wants, what she likes-- etc.
I don't know if she's considered a rescue because I don't know much about her past. I just know that she is EXTREMELY territory heavy-- to the point where if I try to place toys very slowly to her cage-- she will run up as fast as she can to bite through my fingers. She's take food out of my fingers, but not happily.
To summarize the overall problems here:
- This bird hates my fingers. She will aim to bite them and tear them apart, she hates them so much.
- She has a larger bubble of space than I expected-- going as far as to hiss sometimes when I'm just walking by her cage
- She is very skittish-- there are some moments where she's content and happy, and then there are moments where she is running away from me.
- I don't know about her history with previous owners. I DO know that the pet store that previously owned her confirmed she was hand tamed.
- She'll scream loudly when I'm not in her sight-- but if I get any closer than maybe a foot, she hisses. (I don't try to pet her-- I just say "hi baby blue!" and that's enough to scare her.)
-She HATES me standing, at all. I need to stretch because I sit down for 8 or more hours a day-- and she just gets so upset when I stand, stretch, anything outside of sitting down.
- She doesn't like me looking at her half the time. I can tell because she freezes the moment I turn my head, and waits from me to look away before continuing on what she's doing.
There's a few other things that I have missed out on, but generally this is it.
Did I just adopt an angry parrot? Is it just one of those things where she's not going to get any better, regardless of my efforts? Is it going to take longer than this for her to fully trust me? How long does it normally take for a ringneck to fully trust you like this?
If there's any advice on this, I've love to hear it. I really am thankful for your responses.
