Alexandrine Parakeet

[slavic3]

Hello everyone,
Can anybody help,
We’ve bought this Alexandrine from a pet shop about 2 weeks ago, they told us it’s 10 months old, but after looking for some more information about this species we think it’s older as he already got his ring around his neck. He seems to be very stressed, few days wasn’t even moving. We don’t know how to get him more used to our presence as he is very afraid when we get close to the cage. Is there any chance if he is old to get him used to us at all? or it’s a very small chance to make him feel at least comfortable and not so scared.
If anyone can give us any advice, it will be a great help.
Thank you

 

[EllenD]

Welcome to the community...

I don't know off the top of my head what the youngest age they can get their ring, but I can tell you that most males don't get their rings until they are at least a year old, and many up until they are two years old, so you're probably correct, he's most-likely older than 10 months. And if the pet shop lied to you about that, then they probably lied to you about everything else, and I only say that from experience...

First of all, I can't really tell the entire size of his cage from those pics, but it appears to be much too small for an Alexandrine. If you could post a photo of his entire cage we can tell you for certain, but they need quite a large cage, and it doesn't even look like he can open his wings up in that one (and his tail feathers look to be broken, which is another sign that the cage is too small)...

As far as him settling-in to your home and getting used to you, this can take months and months to years. I don't know what this bird's history is, but if he's never been handled or directed with people directly, then it's going to take time and patience. It's a matter of you talking to him every single day, as often as you can, making sure that his cage is located in the "main room" of your house, the room where the people of the house spend their time when they are home (usually the living room, family room, TV room/den, etc.) so that he's always among people when they are home, and he's around visitors when they come over. Even just people walking by his cage will help...

Different taming/training methods work for different birds, so you might look into "Target Training", as it's a great method to not only bond with your bird and get him used to hands, but also to train him. Overall though, it's just going to take time. I don't know how long you've had him, but be patient, because a lot of people expect their new parrots to settle-in and be friendly and tame within a week, or a month, and it usually takes much longer than that.

 

[Amsterdam]

You only have him 2 weeks give him the time to adapt it can take 1 month or maybe more!