IndianRingNeck.com

Ok, so Iv'e had my irn Cloud for 4 months now, which makes him about 5 months old now. I haven't had him sexed I just call him a he' because he already has a faint ring around his neck which I know could moult out, but I'm hoping he is in fact a he.

Anyway he was supposedly handraised but I really don't believe it myself, as it took him a fair while before he was comfortable interacting with the family. He now will fly to you on command, he will allow me to bath him under a tap, he steps up- no problem, almost saying his first word hello. So everything is going good with him except for the biting.

Now I know that this is normal for majority of irn's around this age but I just need some advice on what is the exact right thing to do in these situations;

When I am sitting in the lounge room (without me calling him) he will fly all the way from the dining room onto my head or hand. He will sit there for a bit then randomly bite really hard. should I;

-completely ignore the bite (very hard to do) and continue letting him sit on my hand while I attempt to distract him by giving him a foot toy, because usually after the first bite he will just keep doing again & again.

-get up & take him to his cage & leave him alone for 5 minutes then let him out again. (Doing this can be difficult sometimes as he dosen't like going back of course.

another thing he does is when I am giving him a bath under the tap he gets excited and nips a bit, not as hard as when he sits on my hand, but It still hurts. Should I continue bathing him & ignore, or should I turn off the tap and put him back on his cage then try again.?

The reason why I'm asking this is because everytime I read about irn's bluffing it says try your best to ignore all biting. But when I read behavoural books & articles it usually says things like ignore the bite but stop allowing the bird to interact for a while so it knows what it did was wrong. So I'm basically wondering If with irn's am I'm supposed to just ignore every bite and continue interacting with the bird like nothing happened or am I supposed to ignore & then cut out the interaction for a while?

I'm also wondering If at his age now being 5 months should he have stopped this behaviour? I'm also worried that because I live with two small children & my partner That I may have ruined my birds training by not ignoring his bad behavour's because when my partner handles him If he gets bitten he used to tell him 'stop biting or yell HEY! I always told him not to do it but he couldn't help it. Also my daughter has been bitten a few times, she is less of a wuss than my partner, but she pulls away and cries when she gets bitten so I'm worried that maybe he has now learned that biting is ok, & I'm worried that he will probably never stop now. I just wish I could have a beautiful well-trained bird like that gorgeous Archimades, but I'm really concerned that our family have ruined everything by accidently teaching him learned aggression.

If any one has ever been in a similar situation & had good results over time, I would love to hear it would give us some hope for our bird.

exactly the same prob, i face, even i have a "he"(almost 5 months - irn) whom i assume is a he ... he does bite but strangely not too hard , he tried to bite and warn that i can bite stronger than this - sometimes he makes hissing sounds and thats when i know he can bite "Hard".. thankfully it has not been bad till now
i read somewhere that wearing gardening gloves can help .. but i havent tried it till now
I request the senior members to please advise on this problem .. and also suggest some games, toys etc to ease their boredom - my lil one is all to himself almost for 7-8 hrs a day and i manage to spend only half hour with him before we hit the sack and say good morning again .. can someone also help me out by letting out their experience on "clipping" so that i can clip this fella and allow him all over the house .. Pls pls help...

i got my bird when she was 3yrs and she had been abused wich started her biting every one what i did was a couple of things i reacted very firmly but without scaring her, i found when she started a biting fit i would tease her by rotating my fingers in circles very close to her beak so she thinks she can get it but she just keeps going around in circles. then i would put my fingers at the nape of her neck and put her face down making sure not to hurt her just put her in her place. her biting fit would stop and i would follow this up with some positive interaction. in about 3 months she never bit me again and has been my closest companion since

*kimi* wrote:nd also suggest some games, toys etc to ease their boredom - my lil one is all to himself almost for 7-8 hrs a day and i manage to spend only half hour with him before we hit the sack and say good morning again

I suggest you introduce your bird to foraging. See these links for more information:
http://www.indianringneck.com/forum/vie ... 01&p=69400
http://www.indianringneck.com/forum/vie ... =4&t=13466
http://www.parrotenrichment.com/ - this site has some free ebooks to download

Best wishes!

Ellie.

Hi Kimi

I like what you are doing with the rewards. I think the saying "no" thing is ok and I'm sure your bird will learn over time what that means... I wouldn't get into the habit of making it a dramatic "no" though as any excited/angry interactions can be positive reinforcements for the bird (it doesn't sound like you are doing that but just thought I'd mention it).

We have managed to minimise our birds biting through increasing foraging for food whilst in their cage and figuring out what the biting triggers are. For our Janey they appear to be people she doesn't know and manchester (sheets, towels, etc.). For our Charlie he mostly bites out of boredom or when he wants to protect his food (more likely to bite near his cage).

Birds also bite to "test" that the perch they are sitting on is secure... so this could also be why your bird is biting. You could try introducing the treat before the bird starts biting your finger - as soon as it steps up or lands on your finger.... and for a while, perhaps offer a few treats to your bird whilst on your finger and once that's finished, put the bird down somewhere. This way it may not have the opportunity to bite and it will associate treats with your finger. If this is successful, after the treats are finished, try keeping the bird on your finger for a few seconds longer and keep increasing the time until it becomes normal for it to sit on your finger without biting.

You may also find your bird is less prone to bite at certain times during the day. For example, Janey loves nothing more than to sit on my finger, get pats, have a preen and a bit of a nap in the afternoons but she rarely wants to do this in the mornings.

Good luck!

Ellie.

Hi Ellie,
I had pm 'd you and also requested for your advice on the clipping post of mine, request you to please have a look at it

thank you

Hi dholari

I didn't respond because I don't clip them myself. I either get our vet to do them or I have one person working at a local pet store who I trust to do them. Sorry, I should have let you know.

Ellie.

thanks for the reply, my second query is did they leave first two and last couple of feathers on the outside for the bird to slide down ?
thank you for the time

To be honest, I'm not really sure. I seem to think they didn't... but I know when I do know that when their wings grow out the outside feathers grow first. When I get them clipped, I like them to be able to fly down, just not be able to fly upwards... so I seem to think they just don't cut them very short... but I can't be sure.

Their wings have grown back now and I'm hoping to not have to clip them again.
Ellie.