Hi I'm Jake from New Zealand and I am quite new to the forum, this is my first time posting so bear with me haha!
At the beginning of January this year I purchased a cockatiel (Cherry) from the local petstore and she has been a gem, quickly learning step up and is a very affectionate bird. One week ago I got an Indian Ringneck (Rikku) who is still very young. It will let you scratch her head and will occassionally get up onto your hand to be handled but the problem I am having is the biting. After a week my hands are covered in over 20 bite marks which have drawn blood, I have been very patient and tried ignoring the bites making no pireaction but she will not let up. I joined the yahoo group and have been trying clicker training with her and trying to target train but she has no interest in the stick whatsoever and will go straight for my fingers, whether they are in fists or not she manages to find some skin to bite into.
As hard as I am trying to have patience and give her the time she needs I am not sure how much more I can take. The two birds have seperate cages but spend roughly 8 hours out of their cages during the day together, would it be helpful if I kept them seperated for a bit until I can bond a bit more with the IRN? Also, I am not sure if it has any significance but she has yet to make a single sound although she seems to be in good health. Any advice would be much appreciated!
Jake.
Need help with my new Indian Ringneck biting
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Re: Need help with my new Indian Ringneck biting
If she has only been with you for 1 week she needs time to adjust. She? (how old and is she dna tested?) needs to know she can trust you and that your hands wont hurt her.
It may be an idea to start over with her,
First off if you can move her cage into an area where you spend time ie computer room,loungeroom ect and just let her see you going about whatever it is you are doing.
Eat in front of her while she is in her cage, this gets their attention and makes them want to be near you to get what you have.
Feed her treats from your hand if you can.
When you do get to feel comfortable enough to try to scratch her again say to her what you are going to do, say scratch scratch or step up if you want her to step onto your hand, this way she will get to know what you are doing and she wont think you are going to grab her or hurt her.
watch her eyes and body language for indicators that she is getting aggitated.
I hope this helps and with some time and work she may get better.
It may be an idea to start over with her,
First off if you can move her cage into an area where you spend time ie computer room,loungeroom ect and just let her see you going about whatever it is you are doing.
Eat in front of her while she is in her cage, this gets their attention and makes them want to be near you to get what you have.
Feed her treats from your hand if you can.
When you do get to feel comfortable enough to try to scratch her again say to her what you are going to do, say scratch scratch or step up if you want her to step onto your hand, this way she will get to know what you are doing and she wont think you are going to grab her or hurt her.
watch her eyes and body language for indicators that she is getting aggitated.
I hope this helps and with some time and work she may get better.
Re: Need help with my new Indian Ringneck biting
first off i just gotta say cool name!!!!!!!!
we have a riku too!!!
second after only having her a week your doing realy well to get her to step up already
everything julie said is what i would have said
with the addition of when you are eating near her mazke sure its stuff she can share as she will decide to just help her self given the chance & you dont want to have to push her away coz your eating something toxic to her
when the birds are out try to keep food near you that she can eat for taming & training purposes i tend to use popcorn and only use it for those times
this enables me to have a food that is only given by hand & doesnt detract from the every day diet
with her not making sounds yet just shows me that she is still not settled in fully she will get there
& about the biting your fingers try offering your fore arm for her to step up onto there are less places for her to get a chunk there & even if she does it doesnt hurt as much as the fingers
now my questions :
how old is she?
what color?
& when can we see picks of her?
sorry if it sounds like im nagging but this is the first rikku we have heard of besides our lovley little green boy its so cool to find another!!!
our riku is turning 3 in september this year
we have a riku too!!!
second after only having her a week your doing realy well to get her to step up already
everything julie said is what i would have said
with the addition of when you are eating near her mazke sure its stuff she can share as she will decide to just help her self given the chance & you dont want to have to push her away coz your eating something toxic to her
when the birds are out try to keep food near you that she can eat for taming & training purposes i tend to use popcorn and only use it for those times
this enables me to have a food that is only given by hand & doesnt detract from the every day diet
with her not making sounds yet just shows me that she is still not settled in fully she will get there
& about the biting your fingers try offering your fore arm for her to step up onto there are less places for her to get a chunk there & even if she does it doesnt hurt as much as the fingers
now my questions :
how old is she?
what color?
& when can we see picks of her?
sorry if it sounds like im nagging but this is the first rikku we have heard of besides our lovley little green boy its so cool to find another!!!
our riku is turning 3 in september this year
Re: Need help with my new Indian Ringneck biting
Thank you for the speedy replies and the advice! I decided last night to start from scratch with her and so far so good. I decided to seperate her from Cherry for a few days so we can spend some one on one time together. She sits beside me in her cage all day and in the evening in her cage next to my bed. I leave the door open most of the day to let her come and go as she pleases. I also got some shelled sunflower seeds to handfeed her which seems to have helped dramatically just in the last 8 hours! She has yet to bite me and made her first couple of sounds this morning, I must say her voice is quite different than I imaigned and very gorgeous!
I am actully not sure on her sex, I've been calling her she out of habit I guess lol so either she will stay a female or when her ring shows she will have gender reassignment surgery and become Riku
When I got her last week the woman said she was just 3 weeks out of nesting so I'm not too sure how old that roughly makes her. Also I should note that she was outside in an aviary with about 7 other ringnecks so that might also be why she is allittle aggressive.
Bec, she is green and has alot of yellowish areas around the base of her feathers. Her beak is very red and it intrigues me so much being 3-4 times the size of Cherry's haha. Definitely will be taking a picture of her shortly when she stops running away from me everytime I pull out the camera haha. Thank you for the advice about getting her to step up onto my arm, will definitely be giving that a go, there isnt anything in that area that she can grip onto!
Yes I like the name Rikku
Meaning shore or land in Japanese but the meaning isn't the reason I chose it haha, I like the uniqueness of the spelling and sound. Being green I was going to name her Apple but she didn't really seem nice enough at the time to be an apple haha!
I am actully not sure on her sex, I've been calling her she out of habit I guess lol so either she will stay a female or when her ring shows she will have gender reassignment surgery and become Riku
When I got her last week the woman said she was just 3 weeks out of nesting so I'm not too sure how old that roughly makes her. Also I should note that she was outside in an aviary with about 7 other ringnecks so that might also be why she is allittle aggressive.Bec, she is green and has alot of yellowish areas around the base of her feathers. Her beak is very red and it intrigues me so much being 3-4 times the size of Cherry's haha. Definitely will be taking a picture of her shortly when she stops running away from me everytime I pull out the camera haha. Thank you for the advice about getting her to step up onto my arm, will definitely be giving that a go, there isnt anything in that area that she can grip onto!
Yes I like the name Rikku
Meaning shore or land in Japanese but the meaning isn't the reason I chose it haha, I like the uniqueness of the spelling and sound. Being green I was going to name her Apple but she didn't really seem nice enough at the time to be an apple haha!Re: Need help with my new Indian Ringneck biting
sounds like your doing realy well
my daughter anmed our riku form a character in one of her amine shows or a playstation game the reason she went with riku was one riku is a boy the other is a girl so the name worked no matter what
if riku is three weeks out of the nest i would say that puts her at about 3 months old
so she is realy a baby and if she was avairy bred (as opposed to hand reared) it would explain alot of her behaviour she just had no idea what you were trying to do & got scared
the trick i used to get the birds used to the camera is i started out taking photos from a distance using the zoom and as they got less scared i got closer
another one i used alot was i would set up a fruit platter on the coffee table & while they were eating id snap away
my daughter anmed our riku form a character in one of her amine shows or a playstation game the reason she went with riku was one riku is a boy the other is a girl so the name worked no matter what
if riku is three weeks out of the nest i would say that puts her at about 3 months old
so she is realy a baby and if she was avairy bred (as opposed to hand reared) it would explain alot of her behaviour she just had no idea what you were trying to do & got scared
the trick i used to get the birds used to the camera is i started out taking photos from a distance using the zoom and as they got less scared i got closer
another one i used alot was i would set up a fruit platter on the coffee table & while they were eating id snap away