re: What Do I Do Now?

[sherry]

Well, I have had my adopted ringneck for about 2 months now. He will come to me if I have food and will take it out of my hand. He will come out of his cage and sit on the door, even if someone is near him. He will beg for food by crawling down the cage. He does sometimes call or scream if I leave the room. Unfortunately he still will not come on my hand. With food he will take it gingerly from my hand but will make sure his feet do not touch my hand. He is curious about me having my other birds on my hand and even pulled my hand to him one day when I had my quaker parrot on it, but is still too scared. I still try to get him hand friendly ( he even runs from the dowel) I would like to know am I on the right track and what do I do to keep hand-taming him. I know I need a lot of patience but I long to stroke his cute yellow head!

Sherry

[Janet]

Hi, My avian vet told me to offer nervous birds your forearm rather than your hand. He said birds that are not confident find sitting on your hand quite unsettling. He said you can progress from the bird sitting on your forearm to sitting anywhere.

I had a nervous little one who had little parrot panic attacks whenever I tried to get her to step up onto my hand. I tried with my forearm and it worked well. Everything is fine now. She is much more confident. I found her this morning hanging upside down from the curtain track while I was preparing her breakfast!

[shan28]

Hi I found with charly that i progressed from getting him to eat food from my hand to having to step onto my hand to get food. He soon learnt to get a tasty treat by stepping onto the back of my hand. It took a while but now i just put out my hand and he jumps up straight away.

[sherry]

Thank you, I will try those suggestions. I have always offered my open hand and maybe that is what is scaring him.

[bec]

I WAS TOLD ONCE THAT BIRDS CAN SOMETIMES THINK FINGERS LOOK LIKE SNAKES & THAT CAN STARTLE THEM & INSTEAD OF OFFERING OPEN HEAND OFFER THE BACK OF A CLOSED FIST SOMETIMES SKEET WHO WAS HAND REARED BY ME FREAKS OUT AT THE OPEN HAND BUT IF I OFFER THE CLOSED FIST SHE JUMPS STRAIGHT ON