THE LYRIC DIARIES

[caroline]

Ok, so I have perused all the topics and asked all the questions about how to train my 12 week old Indian Ringneck Parrot, and I have received some great advice. Along the way I have noticed that so many others are in the same boat as me, first time owner of an IR and no idea what is best to do in the way of housing, feeding, and taming their bird, so i have decided to make a daily diary of my efforts with Lyric.
Lyric was born in an aviery with about 14 other IR. I received him at 12 weeks old, and I put him in a medium sized aviery on his own, but next door to a pink and grey galah and a lorikeet. After a week of absolutely no success with calming him down, I purchased a smaller cage, approx 1m high x 1m wide x 1 m deep, set it all up, decked it out with bits and pieces and placed it in the main living area of the house. In my home, I have 2 children (9&12), a cat (not interested in any of the birds), and a dog (7month old shih tzux). everyone was instructed to move slowly past him and please be considerate of Lyric as he get used to his new surroundings. I caught him, and as my husband held him in a tea towell, I clipped his first 5 wings on each side. Then put him in his new cage.
I left him for the first 24 hours, and on day 2 just approached his cage and talked to him. Day 3 I caught him and patted him gently as he bit the hell out of my hand. Decided there has to be a better way. That is when I joined up as a member here and began asking advice. I compiled all the great advice I had received and then added in some of my 'gut feeling' and decided to just take it slow.
Day 3 I just placed my hand inside the cage, talked calmly to him as he flew around frantic. I did this several times.
Day 4 I again placed my hand inside the cage, he flew around a little but mostly climbed around. On this occassion I could get within 10cm of him, however I didn't touch him.
DAY 5 IS TODAY......... I placed my hand into the cage and he began to climb around. My hand followed him, and I was able to stroke his back with my finger on several occassions. when i did this, i left the session at that, on a positive, and retreated. I did this 4 times today. On the 4th time, I placed my hand in front of him as he was climbing from perch to perch, and he stepped onto my finger, so I slowly transfered him to a perch and he stepped off. I removed my hand and left it at that. I am very pleased, as I feel this is great progress for day 5.
I don't know a thing about training a bird like this, however, if you are a first time IR owner, and wanting to train your bird, my advice so far, at this very early stage, is go slowly, be frequent, but each frequent session to be kept short. you will know when enough is enough and you will learn how to read your birds actions.
I am going to report Lyrics progress on a daily basis.
"what a clever bird".
Caroline.

[ellieelectrons]

Sounds like you are doing really well! Good job!

Patience & persistence!

Ellie.