aussie_wings
Active member
- Jun 24, 2022
- 94
- 250
- Parrots
-
🌟 𝓢𝓽𝓪𝓻𝓵𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽〘F Lutino Budgie〙🌟
✈️ 𝙅𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙤𝙧〘M Cinn-Turq-Pied-Spang Kakariki〙✈️
So, our little Gremlin is a total gremlin sometimes. He definitely does take it upon himself to bathe in his water dish almost daily, so that may be why.
In actuality, he does seem to get rather territorial around his cage. If we come into the room and walk up to his cage (especially if we have to touch it), he will leap onto the side in front of where one of us is standing and make that chittering noise. If we try to touch the cage, he will get somewhat aggressive. After a few moments of standing still, the aggression diminishes, but if I move again, toward him / the cage it will begin again. If the cage is open, and he has flown onto something he is interested in, and we want to put him back in the cage, he will nip if we try to pick him up.
We've been trying to minimize this behavior, and have found that if we start the morning by going into his room and talking to him from a fair distance through his cage until he seems calm and opening the cage, he will come out and eventually get on a shoulder if he feels like it. I will try to feed him his favorite snack, a snap pea, and he will graciously eat it. During that time, I get closer to him and he seems to get more comfortable. I slowly introduce my finger and if he bites it, I (and the snap pea) will step back for a moment and then reapproach after a few minutes. This seems to work pretty well.
Is there any kind of behavioral training anyone can recommend so that we can play and interact with him without worrying about being bit?
Another thing he does is chew on blemishes on the skin, which becomes painful VERY quickly. He will start out by softly nibbling, only for it to turn into full on chewing within seconds. He will also pull and grab at clothing with his beak and feet, which I've never really seen a parrot do before. I've been trying to research kakariki behavior, but haven't found very much about training them. I think they exhibit particular behaviors that other parrots don't always, from what I've seen.
Any advice for how to deal with this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
In actuality, he does seem to get rather territorial around his cage. If we come into the room and walk up to his cage (especially if we have to touch it), he will leap onto the side in front of where one of us is standing and make that chittering noise. If we try to touch the cage, he will get somewhat aggressive. After a few moments of standing still, the aggression diminishes, but if I move again, toward him / the cage it will begin again. If the cage is open, and he has flown onto something he is interested in, and we want to put him back in the cage, he will nip if we try to pick him up.
We've been trying to minimize this behavior, and have found that if we start the morning by going into his room and talking to him from a fair distance through his cage until he seems calm and opening the cage, he will come out and eventually get on a shoulder if he feels like it. I will try to feed him his favorite snack, a snap pea, and he will graciously eat it. During that time, I get closer to him and he seems to get more comfortable. I slowly introduce my finger and if he bites it, I (and the snap pea) will step back for a moment and then reapproach after a few minutes. This seems to work pretty well.
Is there any kind of behavioral training anyone can recommend so that we can play and interact with him without worrying about being bit?
Another thing he does is chew on blemishes on the skin, which becomes painful VERY quickly. He will start out by softly nibbling, only for it to turn into full on chewing within seconds. He will also pull and grab at clothing with his beak and feet, which I've never really seen a parrot do before. I've been trying to research kakariki behavior, but haven't found very much about training them. I think they exhibit particular behaviors that other parrots don't always, from what I've seen.
Any advice for how to deal with this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
