extremely aggressive ringneck

[marie]

A little history....I adopted a ringneck (Jade) nearly 3 months ago from a rescue that was 2 hours away from my house to be a companion for my other ringneck (Ozzy). Before the adoption my Ozzy and I drove the 2 hours to visit with Jade to see if they would show any interest in each other before adopting her. She watched him and they chattered back and forth for nearly 2 hours before I had to head back home. The adoption was finalized a month later and Jade came to stay with us. I was told she was 3 years old and that the owner gave her up because he had to take a night job and her "noises" were keeping him awake when he should be sleeping. Fair enough, I accepted that and I understood wher that could be a problem. Fast forward to the problem at hand....
Jade is actually (acording to the band) nearly 13 years old. Her feathers were trimmed beyond the secondary flights (by the rescue) so now when she tries to fly she drops like a stone. She had a horrible gait and walks like she is waddling. Blood work was perfect x rays showed she has a fused hip (explaining the gait) she was at the vet last week. She is aggressive both on her cage or on my other birds cage. Ozzy adores her but she will not let him near her. I fact, one day I had her in a towel to trim her nails and Ozzy came over and started chattering at her softly and started giving her kisses and adjusting her towel. She tolerated this until she realized she was not restrained by the towel any longer and got upset. She has grabbed, bitten and drew blood on Ozzy. And has actually tried to take 2 of his toes off in the 3 moths I have had her. She nearly took off my conure's toe last night just for landing on her cage. She has bitten me so severely that I have scars and my co worker wonder what is going on.... I tell them "I was bitten by Jade again". I have sat at her cage and she has preened my hair without takeing off flesh. If I try to touch her she begins to pin her eyes very quickly and strikes out. She will look at you, literally bat her eyes, blush and extend her neck eyes completely dilated wanting attention but, the moment you move in pinning starts and then the strike. I have been advised to send her back...but I have never given up on a pet I have taken in. Any an all suggestions, tips, help would be a welcome sight. Can I make her a companion for Ozzy? I am losing hope.
Marie

[juliejay]

Geeeeeeze sounds like a hard time u r having, I really cant advise u as I'm in the same situation and I have only had my adopted ringneck for a week, My hands are bruised and he draws blood big time, I have a tame girl star and she is amazing no blood from her, There are a lot of great people on this site with lots of tips so no doubt they will help you ,like they have giving me advise..I'm just too frightened to go near Ringo the boy, so I use a stick to get him out, like yours he cant fly at all .I look forward in seeing the posts you will get , and maybe it will help me too..

All the Best

A fellow abused owner

Julie

Sydney

aussie.

[ellieelectrons]

Hi Marie

I would avoid handling Jade at least for now and possibly forever. Not all birds like to be touched but you can still develop a good relationship with her. I think you should also avoid letting other birds get near her for a bit until she feels more settled. At the moment she probably still feels very scared of her new environment and her only "private" place is her cage... so when something/someone else encroaches on that, she wants to scare them away. Although you are being kind to her, she probably feels like it's her against the world as she probably hasn't figured out how nice and caring you are yet.

I would suggest you start by getting her to take treats from your hand. You can break this behaviour down into lots of little steps but it really depends as to how close she is to doing this already as to which step to suggest first. Does she take treats from your hand currently? I'll try to dig up some old posts for you where I describe starting the training process.

I'm very sorry to hear about your scars and the damage done to Ozzy. I hope you are both okay. Please keep Ozzy away from her for now. I believe that a bite ALWAYS is for a reason but it can be difficult to figure out what the reason is. The reason makes perfect sense to the bird but not always to humans. Birds have extremely strong instincts so you have to try to think about things from a bird's perspective. I received about 10 hard bites (only one drew blood thankfully) from my girl this morning because I wasn't able to prevent her from getting into our laundry this morning and this is where she has a strong nesting interest. I had to get her out of there because she starts chewing on electrical cables, etc. when she's in there... so I had to interact with her in ways I wouldn't normally do so when in training mode. I knew I was risking bites but if I didn't I was risking her getting electrocuted.

Good luck, I hope things begin to improve. Try to move at her pace if you can, try not to force her into anything, just move at her pace.

Ellie.

[juliejay]

Hi ellie,

I will also take your advise thanks, My IRN ringo wont take treats from me , I leave all types of fruit and veg in his cage but he hasn't had a bite out of any of them, I don't think the last owner ever tried him on these things , maybe in time he will enjoy the good things other than just seed and water..My baby girl star loves everything lol....


cheers

julie

[taywer321]

All I can say is visit www.trainedparrot.com

There is a lot of great info on taming and training, even trick training and flight recall.. written by a very knowledgeable parrot owner and trainer. (Michael)

I think if you follow his steps, with time and a lot of patience you will see results.
Good luck!

[MissK]

Hi Julie,

Best of luck there!
-MissK

[marie]

Hi Julie
Thanks thanks for the advice. I work with an avian vet and his long time assistant could not give me any advice, which is a bit distressing. Oddly enough I can on certian days give her treats and she will take them sweet as pie and then there are days where she will snatch it and start jabbing at it as if she is atting it and trying to kill it. I guess I could tolerate her not wanting to be my friend but the whole reason I adopted her was to be a companion to Ozzy when I am not home. They still chatter sometimes to each other. But Ozzy would like to interact with another bird like my conures. My conures will groom each other, dance together, squawk together but they are a bonded pair and Ozzy doesn't fit into their "click" I am ashamed to call it that but, that is what it appears like to me. See I got Ozzy from a family that had to take on an elderly family member which consumed all of thier time and Ozzy took the back burner. I do not fault them at all I understand and I have been there. But because he had been pretty much alone for so long when I would come home and give him attention he would get over stimulated and HE would then turn aggressive and bite. He has long past that stage but, he wouold still like a friend.

[ellieelectrons]

Hi Julie

If your main wish for Jade was for her to be a companion for Ozzy, perhaps you should consider getting another bird? If you don't want to breed them, generally two males will get along whereas females and males won't always get along.

With Jade you could consider keeping her separately or consider rehoming her.

Ellie.

[juliejay]

Hi all,

Well well well all your advise has worked in a short time, My big boy Ringo the aggressive one is eating all fruit now, and is walking to end of perch to look at me, before he would try and hide from me, as for Star my baby girl she must of taught him as I had his cage close to hers. I am one crazy person, I found another one online so drove 2hrs to get her yesterday, very tame and talks the boy Ringo now sits on top of cage with her they kiss and feed each other. Now I have a bloody problem with my baby star LOL geeeze guess she is a bit jealous and she doesn't get on with the new girl buddy.. I had to move the cages around.. No doubt ill be looking for a friend for her later, maybe she is to young at 8mths old and never been around birds b4...wish me luck guys and more advise would be appreciated xoxox ...I think I'm doing OK so far about time lol

Thanks again for everyone's advise

Julie

Sydney