Indian Ringneck Trouble!

hvota

New member
Aug 4, 2018
1
0
Hi! I've had my Montu for about 8/9 months now, making Montu about a year and a half now. I love her to pieces, but I'm very sure she doesn't like me very much. She flies from me, bites, and screams whenever I get too close. Anytime I come close she pulls away. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. She has plenty of toys, a large cage, and a balance of pellets, seeds, and fruits/veggies. Any advice would be amazing. Even if she will never be a truly cuddly bird, for her to trust me would mean the world to me. The only things of note is she paces constantly on her perches, but has no problem climbing outside of her cage, but getting her back inside requires me (slowly) walking back and forth around my room attempting to place her back inside. Also, when she flies she pants, though I'm not sure that's relevant, but I'm trying to thing of any behaviors that could signal anything. Thank you for reading and any help would be appreciated.
 

GaleriaGila

Well-known member
Parrot of the Month 🏆
May 14, 2016
15,045
8,742
Cleveland area
Parrots
The Rickeybird, 38-year-old Patagonian Conure
Welcome!
Some basics...
http://www.parrotforums.com/general-parrot-information/49144-tips-bonding-building-trust.html
General Parrot Information - Parrot Forum - Parrot Owner's Community
http://goodbirdinc.blogspot.com/2012...n-parrots.html

Ooooooh, I'm worried about that panting. Not normal at all. Do you have a Certified Avian Vet?
http://www.aav.org/search/custom.asp?id=1803
Regular vets often "wing it" with birds, although some are very dedicated and talented.

Good for you, for reaching out!
 

Jottlebot

Member
Aug 29, 2012
507
14
Shropshire, UK
Parrots
Orange-winged Amazon - RIP Charlie,
Spock - Common Mynah,
McCoy - Alexandrine
I wouldn't worry about the panting if it follows a frantic or frightened flight and lasts a few seconds. I have an Alexandrine, which is like a big cousin of an IRN and he used to pant after he'd had a crazy fly. He still will now if he does a few laps more than usual of the room.

Do you try and interact with her in her cage? Start slowly and from a distance that she is comfortable with and try and get her to take treats from your fingers. You could try trick training with a clicker.

IRNs are known to be feisty, independent birds, if you've lived together happily for a few months now without her having to be particularly close to you you need to give her a reason to change her mind. A favourite treat will probably help!
 

EllenD

New member
Aug 20, 2016
3,979
65
State College, PA
Parrots
Senegal Parrot named "Kane"; Yellow-Sided Green Cheek Conure named "Bowie"; Blue Quaker Parrot named "Lita Ford"; Cockatiel named "Duff"; 8 American/English Budgie Hybrids; Ringneck Dove named "Dylan"
Though IRN's are typically not very "cuddly" parrots (though it's not unheard of either), something doesn't sound right here to me, but I'm not exactly sure what it is. The fact that you got him as such a young baby and it sounds like you've been working with him closely and spending a lot of time with him every day (if not then that's your main problem, but it doesn't sound that way to me) makes it sound like something else beyond him just not being a tame bird is at play.

I'm assuming that she was not a hand-raised/hand-fed bird and was rather a parent-raised baby without much interaction at all from her breeder, so that does make the process of hand-taming her much more involved and usually it will cause the process to take much more time, usually months and months to well over a year of working with them every single day without fail. So it's probably not that you're doing anything "wrong", but rather that you've not been working with him for as long as you need to. And it's also common for IRN's who have been hand-tamed, even ones who were hand-raised and hand-fed by their breeders from 2-3 weeks old, to lose their tameness if they are not directly interacted with every day and not made to be an intricate part of their owner's family. So that's what we need to check-out, your daily routine, where his cage is located in your home, etc.

Firstly, she sounds to be very cage-territorial, which is not at all abnormal. Their cage is their "safe-place", and even the most-tame birds can be very aggressive and anxious when their person is even around their cage, let alone inside of it. So this is something that you need to respect, but also work on. What room of your home is his cage located in? If you don't have his cage located in the "main-room" of your house, meaning the room where the "action" is in your home, the room where specifically you, but all people who live in your house spend most of their time when they're at home, then you need to relocate it to that room immediately...This is usually the living room family room, TV room, den, etc. Just having your bird in the presence of you and the other's who live in your home most of the time, even when they are not directly-interacting with her, is extremely important in the process of socializing her, and making her feel more and more comfortable with you and other people being not only around her constantly, but also around her cage constantly. So if you spend most of your time when you're at home in the living room of your house, whether you are watching TV, reading a book, playing video games, on the computer, eating your meals, etc., and that's where most other's in your house do the same, that that's where her cage needs to be. Just her being able to see you and other people, having people walking past her cage constantly, having people speak to her gently as they walk past her cage, etc. will not only serve to tame/socialize her, but it will also make her feel much more comfortable, safe, and secure, and this typically allows them to feel so much more relaxed and enable them to start entertaining themselves inside of their cages, playing with their toys, etc. (This also applies to a favorite play-stand that they have). And you can cover him at bedtime with a dark sheet/blanket and still watch TV, talk, etc. and he'll sleep just fine, don't worry about that...The worst thing for socialization of a bird is to have their main-cage located in a spare bedroom, "bird room" that away from the "action" in the house, etc., making the bird able to hear people in the house and know that they are home, but not able to see them. This causes great anxiety, stress, and discomfort to the bird, and can create and constantly reinforce your bird's distrust of you.

Also, another option is to get him a nice, big play-stand that has lots of toys hanging off of it, either a wood play-stand or a PVC play-stand, doesn't matter, but it needs to be easily mobile so that you can instantly move it from room to room so that you can put him in whatever room you are in when you're home...Again, you don't have to necessarily be directly-interacting with him, but he does need to be in the same room as you are whenever you are home. So for example, if you relocate his main-cage to the living room, where you spend most of your time when you're home, and you're watching TV in the living room and he's in his cage, happily playing and entertaining himself or he's out of his cage/on top of his cage in the living room, etc., and then you want to leave the living room and go back into your bedroom or office to get on the computer, or you want to move to the kitchen to cook dinner, then this is when you need to get him on the mobile play-stand and take him with you to whatever room you're moving to. They absolutely love to sit in the kitchen while their people are cooking, and to be in the dining room, kitchen, or wherever their person is while they're eating, and they love to be included in the meal. In other words, you need to stop thinking of him as "your bird" and start thinking of him as being your young, human toddler, that needs to be in your sight/presence no matter where you are in the house. You don't have to be directly interacting with him, but he needs to be in the same room as you so that you can see him, and more importantly so that he can see you...

Also, depending on your regular, daily schedule, you need to start making a commitment to spending a good amount of time each and every day where you are actually directly-interacting with him. So this mobile play-stand/perch can help you greatly with this as well. Like in the morning or at night, whenever you take your shower, they typically love to just be in the bathroom with you while you shower, so putting him on his play-stand/perch in the bathroom while you shower and then talking to him while you're in the shower is something that usually works extremely well to bond with your bird. Eating every meal that you can with your bird, and actually giving him a bit of whatever you're eating does the same thing. Watching movies/TV with him at night before bed, incorporating him into whatever it is that you're doing when you're at home is going to be absolutely key to getting over this hump that you're stuck at right now...But once you get past this and he realizes that you want him to be a big part of your life and you want him to be included in things that you do when you're home, that's when you're going to actually "earn his trust', and things will start to drastically change for the good...
 

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