Hello from Australia!

[OkBtsy]

Just introducing myself and my little boy, Frankie!
My partner and I got our little blue Ringneck on a whim and he's been a big part of our family for 2 years now.
He can sing the theme song from My Neighbor Totoro (Sometimes he mixes it up haha) and he can say "Good boy", "Hi little boy", "up" and "thank you". He also frequently makes kissing sounds and will imitate our laugh.
Frankie is a timid boy. He was hand-raised but we think he may have been a bit bullied at his old home, so he's very wary of EVERYTHING! It has been interesting learning ways to work around his anti-social behaviour.
I have attached a recent picture. Pardon the terrible quality.
I joined the forums so I could learn more about his species and maybe pick up tips on how to connect with him in better ways.

Also just for kicks, here he is the day we got him. So sweet with his pink feet!

Thaanks!

[InTheAir]

Hi and welcome to the forum. I'm in Australia too.
Your boy is very cute. He should be getting his ring soon

A lot of ringnecks do tend to bravely retreat from new objects and people. There is a certain amount of instinctual behaviour in that, I believe. But it is possible to build positive associations with novel objects with patience and time.
Our hand raised boy is really good with new people, but can still be quite nervous of large novel objects (he did not like the exercise balls my partner and I bought on the weekend!). Our parent-raised girl is shy of stangers but flew straight over to have a closer look at the exercise balls when I brought them in. I find it interesting that, despite new objects not being a feature of the aviary she grew up in, she is most likely to be the first to check out really different looking new stuff whereas the one raised in a house is less forward.

[Wessel Gordon]

Welcome to the forum

As InTheAir stated a certain kind of shyness/timidness is normal in any bird since it more or less saves them from charging unfamiliar things and possibly ending up hurt or worse.

I have a flock of 5 IRN's with a huge range of personalities. With the exception of a pair housed separately I have 3 in one cage and in that cage alone there's 3 very different characters. The oldest female is very territorial and you have to be acutely aware of where she is when you open any of the gates or risk bleeding. Her male is the definition of friendly...while he's not hand-reared or handtame he will always greet you with a friendly whistle and hop closer to check if you have anything yummy to share. The third bird is a mature female that's a bit of an introvert and you rarely hear her.

Wessel

[Wessel Gordon]

I just had a closer look at the recent pic of Frankie and it does seem like he'll start showing a ring soon.

[OkBtsy]

Hi and welcome to the forum. I'm in Australia too.
Your boy is very cute. He should be getting his ring soon

A lot of ringnecks do tend to bravely retreat from new objects and people. There is a certain amount of instinctual behaviour in that, I believe. But it is possible to build positive associations with novel objects with patience and time.
Our hand raised boy is really good with new people, but can still be quite nervous of large novel objects (he did not like the exercise balls my partner and I bought on the weekend!). Our parent-raised girl is shy of stangers but flew straight over to have a closer look at the exercise balls when I brought them in. I find it interesting that, despite new objects not being a feature of the aviary she grew up in, she is most likely to be the first to check out really different looking new stuff whereas the one raised in a house is less forward.

Woohoo fellow Aussie! And thank you He is a very sweet little guy, I think he still has his baby face. We can't wait for his ring to appear! Will def. post his ring pics when it comes through! He'll be so handsome!
I'm a bit more encouraged to know ringnecks are known for this behaviour. We were worried we got a difficult child! When we picked him up, his siblings were VERY social and forward, and he was very quiet. He's very serious for such a young bird!
I'm envious of your little girl! I'd love for Frankie to be bold with new toys! We're actually trying to get him used to and using a new perch. It's gaudy and pink and he pretty much prefers to sit on the floor than be near the perch haha!
The only way we can get him to try new food is if I sit in front of him and pretend to eat it first. But anything to get him to eat!

[OkBtsy]

Welcome to the forum

As InTheAir stated a certain kind of shyness/timidness is normal in any bird since it more or less saves them from charging unfamiliar things and possibly ending up hurt or worse.

I have a flock of 5 IRN's with a huge range of personalities. With the exception of a pair housed separately I have 3 in one cage and in that cage alone there's 3 very different characters. The oldest female is very territorial and you have to be acutely aware of where she is when you open any of the gates or risk bleeding. Her male is the definition of friendly...while he's not hand-reared or handtame he will always greet you with a friendly whistle and hop closer to check if you have anything yummy to share. The third bird is a mature female that's a bit of an introvert and you rarely hear her.

Wessel

5!! WOW! That's a mighty feather family! We would LOVE to get another IRN, maybe even a partner for Frankie but we're so concerned he may become a monster!
Oddly enough, he's super territorial in his cage when I reach in to refill food, but when my partner does it he's the friendliest soul! I've stopped refilling when he's in as my poor hands are scarred and scratched beyond belief!
Did you ever have trouble with them becoming socialised with eachother in the cage?

[Wessel Gordon]

The only trouble I ever had was when I had 1 female and 2 males in one cage during breeding season. The chosen male wanted to literally kill the competition so I had to remove the extra male.

Oh, I forgot to mention the Congo African Grey that's a lot more demanding attention-wise than the flock of IRN's. She got injured while in the nest so her breeder removed her at a very early age with the the result that she's completely imprinted on humans.

[InTheAir]

What part of Aus are you in? We live in the sunny coast.

Two website that I think should be compulsory for parrot owners are www.behaviorworks.org and www.goodbirdinc.com . Check out the written works section on the first. The parrot stuff is under the learning and behavour section, if my memory is working properly.

I like the old "I'm eating it so you want it" trick. I do it to get the terrorists to eat healthy vegetables all the time.

Our boy, Nila, was very nervous of new toy whenn we got him. His attitude totally changed because I started training him to approach new objects for treats. The other thing that helped was buying heaps of foraging puzzles. He loves solving puzzles with food in them. He is still nervous of big things like the balls, but new small objects and perches he is all over immediately. The really important thing about training them to approach new objects is to make little steps and reward profusely. Sometimes the first step can be just having the new object in the same room as the bird.
Have you trained Frankie to target? It is a really useful trick for all sorts of situations, including targeting away from the food dish so you can change it while bird is happily munching on a treat at the other side of the cage.

Happy reading.

[OkBtsy]

What part of Aus are you in? We live in the sunny coast.

Two website that I think should be compulsory for parrot owners are http://www.behaviorworks.org and http://www.goodbirdinc.com . Check out the written works section on the first. The parrot stuff is under the learning and behavour section, if my memory is working properly.

I like the old "I'm eating it so you want it" trick. I do it to get the terrorists to eat healthy vegetables all the time.

Our boy, Nila, was very nervous of new toy whenn we got him. His attitude totally changed because I started training him to approach new objects for treats. The other thing that helped was buying heaps of foraging puzzles. He loves solving puzzles with food in them. He is still nervous of big things like the balls, but new small objects and perches he is all over immediately. The really important thing about training them to approach new objects is to make little steps and reward profusely. Sometimes the first step can be just having the new object in the same room as the bird.
Have you trained Frankie to target? It is a really useful trick for all sorts of situations, including targeting away from the food dish so you can change it while bird is happily munching on a treat at the other side of the cage.

Happy reading.

We are in the Cairns area Thank you so much for those links!! They've been a HUGE help! We don't know many people with birds here, so need a lot of help.
We made a sort of foraging puzzle for Frankie back when he was pulling his feathers out. He was cured overnight! It's amazing how a small change can make a huge impact!
I haven't heard of targeting! If it is a distraction technique, that would be very useful!
We got him a new dish and even though he hasn't had water all day, he won't go near it!! He's gradually becoming less afraid of his new perch. He gets a reward if he doesn't run away haha!
Thank you heaps for your help!

[InTheAir]

I'm glad you enjoyed the links. The behaviorworks online course is great too, but has a long waiting list.

Here is a video of how to target train. http://youtu.be/HaOicTtwIZo

Please, if you change a dish and the parrot is scared of it, provide a familiar dish for water as well so the parrot doesn't get dehydrated during the transition. Parrots learn fastest if they are given choices.

[OkBtsy]

I'm glad you enjoyed the links. The behaviorworks online course is great too, but has a long waiting list.

Here is a video of how to target train. http://youtu.be/HaOicTtwIZo

Please, if you change a dish and the parrot is scared of it, provide a familiar dish for water as well so the parrot doesn't get dehydrated during the transition. Parrots learn fastest if they are given choices.

Oh awesome thanks for that! He has his dog dish back and he's much happier. Also I must thank you again for the links! we had an incident today and the abc REALLY helped with resolving it.
Frankie is a kisser and is usually very sweet but a while ago he bit my lip really hard. I reacted terribly and emotionally. The whole "why does hate me? I try so hard blablabla".
since then I ask and wait for him to reach out before giving out the kisses, so there are no crossed boundaries. He bit me again today, but instead of losing my mind I actually thought back to what lead up to and followed the bite. Turns out in my giddiness I overlooked that he had been a poopy pants earlier and hadn't accepted my offer at all.
it allowed a much calmer reaction and I realized I should have been giving him his space. I feel a lot more positive about approaching him now.

[InTheAir]

I'm so glad you've found useful practical applications of the abcs already I know it is hard not to be offended when birds bite, but the easiest way to resolve issues is exactly what you have done. You're awesome!


Here is another cool video which explains how effective letting your animal make choices is http://youtu.be/QQ2MpmxUgSA (yes, I am a total training geek and spend my internet time on learning about behaviour and training)