Meet Kiko

[Mirlito]

Hi everyone this is Kiko. He is my in laws pet, and is 9 months old. No one plays with him and i´ve noticed yesterday he was ok with me but today he has bit chunks out of my hand and doesn´t want to come to my finger on be touched. He was hand rared as a baby by my fiance and we´ve kept telling my in laws that they need to play with him and socialise him or else he will just be like a wild bird, scared and not so "friendly". They keep him outside too which i think is cruel. Really want to help him but not sure if he is a lost cause. He is quite erratic and bites really hard.

My fiance said we need to interact with him, but I don´t know he doesn´t want to be touched and keeps biting everytime we try to handle him. We both have experience with hand raring birds, but we´ve never had social problems with them because they´re always handled but that is the mistake of my in laws who don´t seem to accept responsibility and blame Kiko.

Please help.

Kind regards

Sarah

 

[aliray]

He looks like my Sweetie Pie. 9 mo old is a very young quaker. but not being handled means you're going to almost start from scratch with taming again and building a trusting relationship with him or her. Any parrot type bird needs a lot of human interaction on an a daily basis to remain tame and they need to be part of the family. and family activities. One suggestion is they give the bird to you and you buy them a canary. most finch type bird don't enjoy human interaction and given a good size cage and toys they can amuse themselves and then sing nice. That way they can still have a bird and the quaker would be happier with you

 

[Featheredsamurai]

Be patient and calm, and above all have the mind set that biting bitten is always your own fault, never te birds. Try being very slow, and don't force Kiko to do anything. forcing only fuels a scared birds distrust. try to imagine yourself in his perspective. A great place to start is touch training with a clicker.

 

[Mirlito]

Hi all, my in laws have canaries, budgies and cockatiels outside (crazy in my opinion).

My fiance also had one as a baby, he bought a special parrot cage for him and he opened the door and escaped. He was heartbroken, so he bought another baby and rared him for my in laws and they don´t put any sort of time into him, they hardly clean the cage, and feeding is left up to us.

He has been without much human interaction (and outside) for 4 months or more.

To me it´s absolutely mental.

I feel so sorry for Kiko.

 

[aliray]

Do they have different cages outside or a big outdoor aviary.?