Quarantine

[BeaRose]

After 6 long weeks of having Charlie in the Kitchen, she is finally able to be brought in to the living room with Tess, we've got a nice new cage for him/her which we're collecting on Thursday so I'm very excited to see how Tess and Charlie are when they can actually see eachother.

Charlie actually managed to escape from her cage when I was doing her food and water (unfortunately we've had to get in cage bowls because the one's that were supplied were completely useless) it's a damn good job I keep all the doors closed when I'm in there with him/her, my arm was actually in the cage and next thing I know s/he's flying around the kitchen, going to change their name to Houdini now, ended up getting a nasty little bite from him/her when I managed to catch her bare handed to get them back in the cage

Is it a good idea for me to keep doing that with bare hands? I know it's going to hurt a lot but I've seen somewhere that if she can get used to the scent of me she'll be a lot calmer when I handle her.

Oh and am I best putting the perches in Charlie's cage at the same level that Tess' are on so Tess doesn't sit higher? Again I've heard that if one bird is higher than the other it shows a sign of dominance and I don't want Tess thinking she's above Charlie.

Any advice would be appreciated,

Beth x

 

[MonicaMc]

Smell has nothing to do with how a bird bonds with you. A bird can "smell" you for years and never warm up to you! But that is, of course, assuming birds *can* smell... and from my understanding, a birds sense of smell is extremely poor. They rely more heavily on sounds and eyesight.

There is no such thing as "dominance" in parrots. Birds naturally enjoy being up high, and if they don't want to come down, it's not because they are trying to dominate you! They simply don't want to come down! Heck, coming down could be less fun than staying up! And it's safer! So why come down?


I would suggest trying to befriend Charlie by offering him his favorite foods by hand. Get him to warm up to you by not forcing him to do anything if he doesn't have to.

 

[Karigan]

It's energy as well. It's like a human baby, intentions, body language, heck, maybe even fear can be sensed by these critters; they have amazing eye sight! Remember to that they're prey animals, and are much more cautious because of it. Everything is either neutral or a threat in the wild if it's not flock.

 

[leomacaw]

It is believed that Ringneck is a kind of nippy birdie. I agree that you have to build up a solid friendship before you handle it...