Hi from Bundaberg Queensland

[TrendyWendy]

Hello!
We have 2 parrots. Wagner is a male cockatiel who flew in to our home 6 years ago and never left. He was obviously someone's pet as he talks and whistles. I advertised him but his rightful owners did not come looking for him, so I kept him. He has bonded to me and is very loveable.
In late 2019 I bought my husband his own bird Jack, a 22 year old long billed corella, from a family who could no longer keep him. They had owned him for 21 years, having acquired him after his first owner passed away from a lung disease. He coughs a smokers cough sound and says "Hello" and "Do you wanna fight?" I have also heard him say "Get back here you arsehole". In the last year he has learned to say "want a pat" as we try to change his wanna fight mantra. We think the previous owners could no longer keep him as they lived close to the city centre and he screeches an awful lot! They used to live on a farm but moved into town. Jack is our problem child, we believe he was mistreated by his second owners.

I have joined this forum to seek some help in getting Jack to be a nice parrot who doesn't draw blood on humans everytime someone is within reach.

 

[plumsmum2005]

Hi hun welcome to the forums!
Thank you for taking Jack, giving him a safe and good home.

I feel that getting Jack to be 'nice' depends mainly on how he was treated at his previous. I have just in the last five months taken a Galah that has been mistreated. It is slow progress, need to be content with small wins.

Please do have a look through the training section on here, you should find some info that will help or give ideas?


http://www.parrotforums.com/training/

 

[LaManuka]

Welcome to you and Wagner and Jack from here in Brisbane! Thank you for joining our community, and thanks for giving some birdies in need a loving home!

You can post thumbnail pics along with your post. Just click the "go advanced" button underneath the text box, then click the paper clip icon. You will then get the "choose file" button, so then click the "upload" button on the right, close out of that box and post. The picture should show as a thumbnail under your text. The following link may also be of help to you...

http://www.parrotforums.com/technical-support/6287-how-post-pictures.html

Many of us load photos either via Facebook or a free account on Imgur and link them from there. Best thing about Imgur is there's no limit on how many pics you can load up, and it's free.

You’ll find lots of good information and great people here, so enjoy! Looking forward to seeing those pics!

 

[Flboy]

Welcome to you!

 

[Laurasea]

Welcome to you! Thank you for taking in re homes parrots!!

Progress can be slow as in months or year. First no matter how awful the home was, parrots usually grieve. Greif can last 6 months. Just like humans birds grieve in df ways. But parrots often act out and get mad, when they are rehomed. Yes they can and do usually already have behavior issues. The mad greif is just on top of that. I've seen it with my birds.

Pamela Clark is an avian behavior expert, give her a Google and see if you can find some of her articles. I'll try n find a link.
https://blogpamelaclarkonline.com/tag/biting-parrots/

I have an article on stress reduction in parrots
I will link, it has some good ideas, like patterning to music, feeding warm foods by habd or spoon loo .

https://lafeber.com/pet-birds/stress-reduction-for-parrot-companions/

I don't know if you have your birds spend time outside, but it is so mood lifting to spend time outside. This can be a travel cage strapped to a bike and you go fir a ride, or a walk, or rolling cage out weather permits.

Target training is also helpful.

 

[Scott]

Welcome to you, Wagner, and Jack! Kudos for rescuing Wagner and making reasonable efforts to find original parronts.

Extensive training may be optimal for Jack. The end results of negative "baggage" are easily displayed even as we do not generally learn specific causes. You'll have to peruse the world of training (excellent links above) and experiment with what works effectively. Cockatoos are extraordinarily high reward parrots, wishing you luck in cracking the code.

 

[wrench13]

Welcome and be welcomed.

 

[Betrisher]

G'day Wendy and Wagner and Jack! Nice to see some more Aussies joining!

I feel your pain about Jack! My Rosetta was (and still is) a handful. I think, like, Jack, she came from a less than kind home and had a lot of really awful habits that made her quite dangerous at first. She's still not entirely trustworthy with other family members so I'm the only one willing to interact with her.

The thing that helped most was target training. When 'Setta was belting around the place like a mad thing, biting and scratching and shrieking her head off, targetting was the only thing that helped her pause and think 'Oh? There's another way of doing things?' Being as clever as a corella, she took just minutes to learn that she could earn a treat by touching the end of my chopstick. From there, she was more than happy to chase after the stick and earn rewards. This was the beginning of communication between us.

'Setta is still a work in progress, but I only need to pull out the target stick to get her complete attention. With the magic stick, I can put her wherever I need her to be (even if it's just back in her cage).

If you have other specific questions (eg. how to deter your bird from biting), do ask them! Corellas are big enough to cause serious damage to us humans, so it makes sense to train them to be polite.

 

[noodles123]

LOL---I LOVE your bird's mantra..it's adorable. I know you have other questions too, but I just wanted to put that out there!!