Taming my ringneck.

[Akram14]

Hi everyone im new to the indian ringneck world and im 14. I have recently bought a 9 month old male indian ringneck. I have been trying to tame him but hes scared. he has been improved as I have taken his food away for about 8 hours and when I tried to hand feed him he took my offering and now where stuck in this process can someone please help me and tell me how to add on to this and give me tips about what I should do

[MissK]

Hi. Congratulations! Now your bird understands he can get food from your hand. From here on you can offer him his favourite treats from your hand and only from your hand. The desirability of the treat and the fact he can only get it from you should motivate him to take it from you so you don't have to force him to go hungry in order to accept this interaction with you. Favourite treats are likely to be nuts, sunflower seeds, or some type of fruit or vegetable he likes the best. Mine really likes red bell pepper, but I use tiny bits of pecan nuts for training because he loves them BEST.

You should take care to be nice to your bird, be gentle, move slowly and predicatably, speak gently, even whisper sometimes. Don't walk up to him suddenly - when you get near his room, speak so he knows you're coming. Offer him a treat when you get near. If you can just get into a habit of not scaring him and making sure he gets a treat and knows you're bringing a treat, it should help a lot. You should also spend some time in his room, reading a book, taking a nap, or watching TV, so he can see you are not scary. Also you can eat some food he likes in front of him and share with him. Don't share spit, though! Birds really like to eat together with others.

You can also search this forum for "taming" and see what everyone else has learned before you.
Have fun!
-MissK

[Akram14]

Thanks a lot this advice is going to help heaps

[kanundra]

It's great to read some of these as I'm only new to trying to tame mine. I never thought to withhold his food as he's always eating. I'm trying to cook some pulses for him, (first attempt burnt oops) so with fresh food at hand, I'll keep trying.

Mine loves grapes he'll come from anywhere for a grape.

[ellieelectrons]

Personally, I'm not a big fan of withholding food, although my avian vet is always telling me that pet birds are almost always overfed, I prefer to remove fav foods from the regular diet and use them as treats (these are usually high fat, high sugar foods any way) and making them forage for their food.

Ellie.