bit of help needed...

[jaxxy]

Hi, i acquired my ringneck, Pippa, a few months ago, shes my first ringneck but not my first bird.
Shes approx 2 years old. I have since found out that i am the 4th person to home her!
I WILL be the last! She is staying put!
Ok so Pippa seems to have trust issues, which after finding out shes had 3 previous homes, i totally understand these issues.
She has settled a bit but still seems unsure at times, and makes a fist and lunges her head toward whoever is at her cage.
But other times shes soooo sweet and does the whole chirping and head tilting thing for a tickle.
We are all working hard with her to help her overcome her trust issues and to help her know she has a forever home here.
The loud alarm call does not phase me at all.
She has the potential to be a wonderful bird even when she bit lol, i just fronted it out and then later on swore silently under my breath! it was a sharp nip but she seemed more surprised than me by it.
She likes to spend time with us and responds best to me, my daughter is acceptable, my son not so much...she hates my mum! when mum comes to visit Pippa will throw food at her from the cage, whilst this is funny we do need to stop it.
so apart from what we are doing, spending lots of time with her, talking to her, ect ect, no cross words at her, is there anything else we can do to make her feel more secure? thats my goal, to make Pippa happy!
She is talking, can mimic the cat since she came here, wolf whistles and is currently trying 'hello'
Sorry if this is long and random....we just want pippa to have a happy life with us. thanks for reading xx

[ateneoblue]

you're doing great... keep it up,

[jaxxy]

Thankyou!
I just want her to feel wanted.
We are making a bit more progress by rewarding her good behaviour with her favourite treat food, monkey nuts, so when shes good and allows contact we praise her verbally with a 'good girl' then immediately give her the nut. This appears to be a concept she is picking up quickly, i have succeeded in having 4 tickles today and no nips!
If she displays what we call 'angry' behaviour i.e, making fists,lunging at hands then we ignore the behaviour totally,no treat,no words, but we don't move away as i think she is clever enough to know if we move away once when shes angry then she canbe angry all the time and we'll leave her alone! hehe!
i am reading up as much as i can on training, but help from others is always best i think!

[ellieelectrons]

Hi Jaxxy

It sounds like you are doing a great job and you and your family and Pippa will reap the rewards in time. Well done!

Are you trying to train Pippa to do any tricks? The reason I mention it is that I find that teaching them tricks gives them stimulation, teaches the trainer patience, and bonds the trainer and the bird more strongly. A good trick to start with is doing a turn around. To start training it, you give a command (such as turnaround) and hold a small piece of reward food in front of them and move it to behind them (either by passing it through under their perch or over their head). When they move just a little bit towards it, you say a rewarding phrase (such as "good girl") and give them the treat as soon as you can. Once she has mastered that, you get her to do just a little bit more of the trick before you give her the reward. Keep doing this until she gets half way, then try to get her to turn the other way. Over time, she will master the trick.

Turning around is a good starting trick because it doesn't require the bird to interact too much with your hands.

Good luck!

Regards

Ellie.

[jaxxy]

Thankyou, i shall certainly give the turn around trick a go.
We are also going to work on 'step up' so we can get her eventually get her to come from perch to arm.
This week as well as offering her the treat for touch i have also managed to get her to come to a certain perch for her tickle using the word tickle,lol, its actually quite fun to train her! now when we say tickle she comes to the middle perch and puts her head back and makes little clucking noises then i tickle her back and chest then she gets a good girl and treat.
She seems very clever and picks up on this quickly so i don't think we will have trouble getting her to understand us!
I just think she didn't have much in the way of training or socialisation in her previous homes. So we are going to have to be patient and prepared to work long and hard with her.
Shes getting better every day tho so thats a plus... we have minor set backs but we can't expect her to be perfect straight away, i know its going to take a lot of time and effort from us as well as pippa, but we will get there, shes not being moved on again thats for sure!

[ellieelectrons]

Hi Jaxxy

It's lovely to hear how well you are getting along and how well loved she is.

... and you are right about little setbacks... somehow, no matter how tame your bird is, something that you don't expect sometimes happens.

Have you posted on photos of Pippa yet?

Regards

Ellie.

[jaxxy]

no not posted pics on here yet, will try and see if i can!
she's a sweety really, i kinda get the impression she wants to be loved so much but doesn't quite know what to do to show us.
We will work hard with her, i took her on knowing she had a few issues but i like a challenge! to be honest her bite,when she has nipped, is no worse than some i've had from my snakes.
i take great comfort in the fact that we have more steps forward in her training than back! she is clever and likes to learn.
This mornnig,as i was going out for a few hours, due to a burst water pipe and having no running water at home, i made her a treat bag, using a paper bag with some nuts and dried fruit in and placed in her cage on string to dangle, and she has loved it! i got some video of her ripping into the bag with great pleasure trying to find the treats...lol.... defo one to remember for future reference!

[jaxxy]

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5 ... =611165676

having issues with photobucket so this link will take you to a pic of Pippa on my facebook page! i hope it works!

[ellieelectrons]

Awwww... She is beautiful... and very healthy-looking. What a beautiful bird!

Ellie.
P.S. My husband has taken to telling people that I spend my time looking at naked birds on the internet!

[jaxxy]

hahaha! thats quite funny!
Well its 09.02am here and i have done our morning 'hello' routine and pippa is now tucking into her breakie!

I think shes beautiful too! she has a good appetite although when she first came here at the end of May she didn't really know what fresh fruit and veg were. She kinda looked at it as if to say 'what the heck is that' then very cautiously approached and licked it, since we have discovered that shes not keen on strawberry,but loves melon and blueberries, grapes,green ones best lol, she likes cucumber and brocolli, but goes all out ape for kiwi! we're kinda working on trial and error, we try her with a variety of food and see which she prefers. A ,lot of these foods tho i don't think shes ever seen before!
She likes to nibble on dry peppers too, strips them away to find the seeds! later on today i'm gonig to offer her a fresh strip of pepper.
She will take food from my hand without a nip, although if shes a bit grrr with herself she will try and nip my finger.
I just can't imagine what shes been through previously. Can't have been nice tho.

[ellieelectrons]

I found a clip of a 6 year old boy training a 26 year old parrot how to turn around at this blog entry:
http://goodbirdinc.blogspot.com/2010/05 ... ainer.html

I thought it might be useful if you are thinking about trying to train your IRNs to turnaround. I do it above their head rather than under the perch... because Janey was so enthusiastic the first time I tried to teach her this trick, she almost turned herself inside out trying to get at the treat when I held it below the perch. It confused her less when I held it above her head.

You can see Janey turning around in action at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l0kpUjzSVA
Charlie was camera shy and couldn't manage it that time.

Good luck!

Ellie.