IndianRingNeck.com

Hi

ive got a green male IRN called Raja that i have had since he was a baby (I bred him), and is now about 4 1/2 years old. He wasnt handraised but is very tame and talks alot, but dosent like strangers (or some members of my family).

When he was a baby i was in high school and had time to spend with him before and after school. he has a large cage in the garden outside (it is a large cylinder shape, almost as tall as me and probably 3 feet in diameter, and full of toys), and used to have a play pen for coming in the house, so for the first few years of his life he had lots of attention.

the last few years ive been at uni and he had to live at home by himself with my mum and dad (i was living in a dorm). he seemed alright with this, and i used to see him every few weeks when he would go nuts and be very happy to see me. he was living in the large outdoor cage exclusively for this time, and my parents would feed him but not much else.

6 months ago i moved out of the dorm and took Raja in his big outside cage to live with me in a share house. he hated all my flat mates, and because of this every time i took him out the cage he would end up having a fright and getting scared. this meant that after a few months he was refusing to come out the cage at all, and usually screaming whenever anyone went near the cage.

this was very sad for me because i know that it is just that he hasnt had enough out time with me, and i feel very bad for poor raj. its also a problem that he panics when he sees other people, i guess this comes back to not being a handraised bird and only ever having bonded with me.

at the moment im at home with my parents for the summer. raj has been here about a week, in his smaller 'inside' cage, and his behaviour has drastically improved. he is being much more polite, talking and not screaming at me. he is still hesitant to come out of his cage but did come out for a spray bath. he is not allowed out in the house though, and im working full time so i still cant spend much time with him.

because this is an ongoing problem, with me having no place or time to get him out and spend time with him in the house, im thinking of getting him a mate. i have found a breeder with a handraised DNA sexed female, and im hoping that they will keep each other company. i have one more year of uni to complete and am unsure what i will be doing after that, but hope that i can spend more time with my birds in the future.

do you think that getting him a companion will help keep him from going insane? im unsure how he will react to another bird, i used to put babies in with him while i was breeding them, and he would treat them like toys much of the time (whistling at them, 'bopping' them, and generally getting very excited) so i anticipate that he might take some time to get used to having a friend..

sorry for the very long post but i felt the details were necessary! your help and advice will be much appreciated.

Carly

ive just read some more posts on this board and found several where people have been advised against getting mates for their ringneck. is this only because of aggression factors?

my plan for introducing the new bird is this:

1) put new bird in new cage and allow raja to see her for a few days

2) introduce supervised visits of raja to the new cage

3) move raja into the new cage

obviously depending on the birds reaction on how long the process will take.

i think ive got the perfect opportunity at the moment because raja is at a new house and i have two cages (the one he is in, and the 'new' one) which he hasnt lived in since he was a baby. hopefully this will reduce any territoriallity on his part, and the new female has been living in a group of other babies she was raised with, so im hoping she will be quite social.

Hello Carly and welcome to this forum!

Let me start out to say what a detailed post. Nice!

Firstly, your Ringneck was raised inside a house which was probably his only world. He probably never even thought of another existence outside the house and your backyard. Parrots are not like dogs or cats; it takes them a lot longer to adjust to new surroundings and people. In the wild Ringnecks are constantly looking for danger and are startled by sudden movements. Not only are they constantly on the lookout, but they have been raised to become accustomed to changing environments. I guess what I am getting at is that your Ringneck has not been conditioned to accept change.

So when you took him out of his surroundings, he was scared and did not know what to do but retreat to the cage for comfort. Also, your college buddies added extra stress. Your Ringneck did not know them so he had to lean how to deal with this new situation, which was retreating to his cage and not wanting to be held.

I don’t know if getting a companion will really help him cope with change. Each bird is an individual. My two Ringnecks, which are brother and sister, never interact together. I think they both believe they are humans! LoL!!! So think about getting another one, especially if you do not know your future plans. Ringnecks can live a long life and provide many years of joy so keep that in mind too.

There are many things you can do to keep your Ringneck happy. Hold him before work time just to say hello. Put all kinds of toys inside his cage and keep a T.V. or radio on. You can place his cage in front of a window. Just make sure the sun does not hit it directly. The list can go on and on. Just get creative. Your Ringneck will love you for it

Try to include your bird in more activities with you as well. Also I must say thanks for being so honest and really caring for your little buddy! Hope this helps and if you need help, please feel free to post! Again, welcome to this forum!

Hope this helps and Happy New Year!

Best wishes,

I.C.

thanks for the advice

what you say about change is true. Raja hates new people, new places, even new toys sometimes (although if introduced with enough ooohs and ahhs he will be happy)

after putting lots of thought into it, i did get another bird. Raja was estatic, his first reactions at seeing Sari (the new gals name) being going into full display, eyes pinning, whistling, talking and bowing to her.

she was a bit overwhelmed, being only 2 months old and although used to living with other birds (she had 3 cage mates at the breeders house) she didnt know what he was doing! (understandably, birds dont normally say 'good boy' to each other and give exaggerated kissing noises!)

over the last few days i have had them in adjacent cages, with 'visits' to each others cages every day (supervised of course).

raja has quietened his interactions with sari and seems to be trying to get along with her, although his initial attempts seemed to be to bite her foot, watch her reaction, and then display to her. this has reduced (thanks to sari anticipating his bite, and growling at him before he had a chance to do it), and he now tries to gently touch her face and beak which she dosent seem to mind at all, she starts pinning her eyes and making little noises.

so far i think things are going well for them! im hoping that i can get them into a routine of coming inside at night and outside in the day and to continue this when i move back to college in a few months. this is what i used to do with raja when he was a baby and it seemed to work very well because it forced him to be picked up and moved from one cage to the other every day, and also gave him a change of scenery, different toys, etc. it also meant that i HAD to pay him some attention every day without having to set aside too much time.

im enjoying having the pair of them, they are very interesting to watch interacting together, and gives me some more insight into their behaviours!