Just brought home my first bird, an Alexandrine

[Beaker]

So I'm pretty new to owning a bird and have a few questions.

Beaker is a male, he was dna tested by the breeder I bought him from. He is about 14 months old. When I brought him home he was pretty tame. When he wants to, he will step up onto my hand or he will fly off of his perch down to the floor and walk over to me so i will pick him up. Sometimes his eyes start pinning I guess is the term. Small big small big. Is that a sign of aggression, fear, excitement or anxiety? I am thinking it means "leave me alone" because he will bluff bite at me. I havent started any training just yet. (clicker on order)

I read so many mixed threads about the personalities of Alex's. Mine seems kinda independent.

How can I tell if he is bored or doesnt like his toys. What is his favorite food? Like I said I am very new to owning a bird and just dont know how to read a bird yet. Dogs no problem!

Talking, I THINK my Alex says "Step up" but he mumbles it so it is hard to tell if he is just grumbling or saying it. Do I need to get him totally comfortable in my house before trying any talk training with him, or is talking just something he will start doing after hearing people in the house talk to him?

Should his cage be covered up at night?

Should i leave food in his cage at all times? I currently have a parrot feed (mixed nuts and seeds) and some kind of parrot pellet food I think, in his cage at all times. With water of course. Do birds have any kind of eating schedule they will typically follow?


Sorry for all the questions! i just want to be a good owner!


Here is a picture of my new friend!

 

[Beaker]

Just thought of another question:

I have a hard time getting him to step off of my hand down to either the floor or the coffee table so i can play with him. Is there a trick to this?

 

[jeremy95]

Hi beaker. It takes time to earn the trust of our feathered freinds expespecially alexandrines. I have tamed a avery alex when i first got her she was not interested at all and would try and bite if i got near her. What i did was sit next to the cage and offer treats and after a couple of weeks i could open her cage she would come to the bottom and get food from my hand and would let my hand get near hear i could only pat her when she was detracted with food the way i got hear to step up was to put my arm next to her and put food in front of her. So she had to step up you can make it easier by decreaseing you alexandrians food so they are more open to taking food from you.best way is feeding by hand to make them trust you. If you want to pat them have a stick to destract the bird if its going to bite.

 

[Beaker]

Thank you for the information.

 

[jeremy95]

Also its ok to leave food in the cage as they know when to eat. As for covering the cage it dose help keeps them warmer makes them feel more relaxed my alex would keep making noise till i put the cover on at night . also if he makes alot of noise early morning it will stop that. Agian with bitting he will threaten but most times they will not bite my alex did the same. Also i highly recommend clipping the flight feathers most people would not agree with this but unless you are planning to free flight train i would clip them i have heard more story's of alexandrines that take off. It happened to me but she was cliped on one side so she only got over the nabours fence.

 

[Beaker]

I am reading contridicting theories for training the bird. Some things i read say that I need to "establish dominance" over the bird by just telling him to step up and get right in there with my hand, and then I have read that birds could care less about the dominance stuff and must basically be bribed to do what you want them to do.

Is the clicker/target training what i should be doing or do i just suck it up and get my hand in there and deal with his bluff biting/biting and "make" him get on my hand because that is what i wanna do?

 

[Betrisher]

If you force your bird to obey you, you'll never achieve the close relationship in which the bird comes to you of its own free will and wishes to be your companion. It has been my experience that most complaints about biting are from owners who went 'stepup-stepup-stepup-stepup' ad infinitum and the bird simply got sick of it.

I have found that establishing a bond with my birds makes them far more willing and ready to do what I want them to do. I spend a lot of time with them, just chatting and shamelessly feeding them from my hands so they learn that being with me is a pretty nice thing to do. Thus, when they're out-of-cage, the only place they really want to be is with me. Alexandrines are not exactly like your snuggly, cuddly birds (eg. galahs or other cockatoos). They like their independence as well and prefer not to be manhandled or 'snuggled'. HOWEVER, they are extremely food-greedy and will do anything for the appropriate treat. You can use this to your advantage, obviously.

Since I can't see your bird to know how it's feeling, I can only tell you about my own experiences with my pair. When they arrived home, they were extremely disoriented and inclined to bite out of fear. Barney nearly removed one of my fingers for me when I grabbed him in order to get him back into his cage! While the Beaks were happy enough out-of-cage from day one, they were still wary and inclined to fly into windows (hence I had to keep the blinds down for the first week or two). You really need to appreciate this newness when you bring your bird home. It can take weeks before the bird is fully confident to even move about the new environment, let alone do your bidding. Please be sensitive to this and don't push your Alexandrine too hard too fast: like all ringnecks, Alexes can be a bit 'iffy' if you overdo it and can go off you as a result. Then, it's a lot harder to win them back (I say this because I've made my own mistakes with my dear Beakies).

When teaching 'step up', you need to make it worth the bird's while to do so. Lure him onto your arm with a treat and then reward him once he's done what you want. In the training stage, you can't really reward too often. Some Alex owners prefer to use a stick to get the bird to step up, but my pair has a horror of sticks (I think, somehow, they had been abused by someone with a stick, so...?) The thing is, there's no real need to be afraid of the beak. Just ball your hand up tightly into a fist and offer the back of your hand or the tightly squeezed side. The bird can't really get a good bite out of that and so you don't need to be afraid of being hurt. Just don't PUSH the bird. Ask him once or twice and if he refuses, give up and try again later. Only train for ten minutes or so (five for a new, young bird) because they quickly get sick of doing the same thing over and over.

Once you've taught 'step up', you should be comfortable enough to read on (this forum, YouTube, Barbara Heidenreich etc) to find out more about target training, clicker training and trick training. Just take it slowly to begin with, because the bond you're forming now is the basis for everything else you'll do: it's worth getting it right.

As with anything I might write here, this has been my own opinion and experience. Others may differ in what they tell you. Of course, there are clearly many ways to get the desired outcome and this is simply the one I used. I hope you'll continue to ask questions as you progress with your bird - there's lots of advice to be had here and everyone wants to help you!

 

[Beaker]

Thank you so much for your reply. Much appreciated.

I have been testing for a few days now a building trust process. My wife (this is her 3rd bird) vs me (1st bird).

She believes in the "force" yourself on the bird and let it know whos boss method. Me, I am slowly building his trust. For the past few days I go into his room with treats (sunflower seeds) and offer him a few from outside the cage. Each time trying to get him to move to get the bird a little more. Before i started this process, my Alex would get as far away from me as possible. This morning when i walked into the room, he came straight to the closest possible spot knowing I bring treats! I gave him 3 seeds and left it at that. I went out and told the wife how he reacted and she said well i was just in there and he wouldnt take a seed from me! She went straight back to the room and tried again ( I went in with her) and our Alex got as far from her as possible.

Small victories. hehe

I think once my wife sees how me of all people gets the bird to come to me and doesnt bite, she will change how she builds the birds trust.

 

[Puck]

Yeah, sadly the "who is boss" method works way better with horses than birds. I think it's their level of intelligence. I have never been a big fan of the horse version of trust gaining exercises, aka "natural horsemanship" because I have personally found that horses tend to respond (in my experience) better to structure and command while birds seem more a "think it all through and decide what is wisest" type. Of course, birds are also unlikely to accidentally kill you if something goes wrong, lol, so there is that, too. Now that I typed all this out I am not real sure why I went off on this tangent... Obviously my head is somewhere else today, haha! Anyhoo, good luck with your boy! I think the trust exercises will really pay off.

 

[Beaker]

10 minutes of target/clicker training and he has already picked up that I want him to touch the stick and then he will get a treat. I think i will do another session in a few hours just like that, then i will start introducing my hand on his perch and get him used to it.

I like progress!

 

[Flboy]

V Smart little baby!
As for covering the cage at night, most do like it, some freakout over it!