IndianRingNeck.com

Greetings from Texas. I need a little more information on my IRN's chewing. Pretty Girl has got to where she comes to me as soon as I sit down on the couch next to her cage. Her cage is between the couch and my husbands recliner. She gets on my arm and has learned to unhook the latch on my watch. She is very smart. She can unhook it in 2 seconds. The problem is she likes to chew on my shirt sleeve. She burns up a lot of energy chewing, but she chews until she gets through to my skin. I've tried to put a towel on my arm, but she moves further up my sleeve until she finds thinner material. She seems to have a thing about chewing on cloth. Is this normal? And do they out grow it? I have tried toilet paper rolls and sticks, but she always goes back to my shirt sleeve. As usual any help will be greately appreciated.

How funny, I know how irksome this can be. But how do you solve this problem?

Just do not setup the situation for chewing. Let me expand. Since you know the female gets out of her cage, comes you, plays with your watch, and finally goes for the shirt then beak up this habit. Rather then let her come towards you, let her play atop of her cage and only remove her when you take her. Think of something creative to break up this habit of hers. If you choose to follow this habit then you might be able to break it.

Because this is a habit for the female Ringneck you have to figure a way to break it. When letting her out of the cage, let her chew on your watch and if she heads for your shirt, simply get up and walk away. Ringnecks are smart, once she sees that you do not like this, she should start to slowly stop.

It sounds like your Ringneck is really enjoying your company so you can better deal with the situation by simply leaving. While training my male IRN to pick up toys and placing them into a box, he had a problem of chewing the toys and not following orders. So when he chewed the props, I simply removed it from his beak and walk out of the room until I was sure he knew I did not like it. Within 5 sessions of this, he quickly stopped and used the props as props and not chew toys.

Get creative and find what she really likes. Try to distract her with bells or other objects that will hold her attention. Try to second guess her.

Hope this helps and welcome to the forums!
Happy Holidays

Imran C.

When Pretty Girl chews on my shirt it seems like she is trying real hard to get to the skin underneath. Do you think she is just trying to get a response from me? My husband said she does this because she loves me. I call it TOUGH LOVE. I really sometimes think she is sadistic. I know she loves me and wants to be with me because if I get up and leave she walks all the way down the couch and stands on the end table and reaches out for me. I have little tiny scabs and bruses where she pinches me through the material. It has taken so long to get her to love me and come to me that it hurts my feelings to walk away from her. I will tho because I know its best for our relationship. Again thanks for your input.

Hi, prettygirl:
I know what you mean about the chewing. My IRN, ChaCha, likes to test the wrinkles in my clothes to see if there's any flesh located closely underneath. That's because one of his favourite games is to give me a chomp, then dip his head and say "OWW" which he promptly follows with "oo-OOO". Sounds like he's laughing at me, I think. I've never really been able to figure out what his actual motivation is behind this chewing other than exploring. I know that when ChaCha is trying to get into something he's not supposed to I try to distract him with something else to play with. If that doesn't work then I put him back on his cage or on a playgym to play for a while so he can forget about what he was looking for. Good luck!

I had a cage for Pretty Girl, but she did not like it. Especially if I shut the door. I still wonder about her past. I bought her at a yard sale. My husband and I are in the process of selling our place and going full time RVing so we have had to consolidate. We have a mail Love Bird so he goes in the cage at night. My husband built a tray that fits over the top of the small cage with a series of perches on it. Pretty Girl is very happy sleeping on the perch where I have food and water. I've tried puting a towel on my arm for her to chew on, but I really think she want's the skin under my shirt. I've tried telling her be good, don't hurt mommie and she just starts chewing faster because she know what comes next. Back on her perch. I do get up and walk away now and it helps me, but I don't think she gets the idea She is starting to talk because I spend a lot of time with her. She says pick a boo, pretty girl and a few other things that I don't recognize. She is working hard tho. Anyway thanks for the good advise. We've come a long way since I bought her in June of 2004.