"He" was very scared and aggressive. I'm thinking he could have been an aviary bird so not handled much, and he has had a nasty accident at some stage so is missing his right claw.
Slowly he is getting used to us. We still can't hold him without protest, but he isn't hissing and going on the defense when we go near his cage.
We take him out each day for a fly around so he has exercise and gets to do what birdies should. He's getting easier to catch, but it still takes about 10 minutes. He seems to like making a game of catch me if you can, and lets us get within a cm of him then flies off again. when we first started letting him out he would fly off as soon as we headed in his direction! The only way we can catch him is with a blanket, when he is sitting on a shelf or pelmet. This doesn't scare him and we have worked out how to do it safely without hurting him - it's almost like he knows what's happening so he lets us do it.
when we first started letting him out he would only sit up high where he could look down on us, but now he is starting to spend time lower to the ground (back of the couch, on the roof of his cage which sits on a table, etc). I'm guessing this means he feels safer now?
Then for about 15 minutes before we put him back in the cage, we hold him in the blanket (so he feels safe - and can't attack lol) and gently touch his head and stroke his beak. I think he is making a game of it and he retreats into the dark "cave" of the blanket, then pokes his head out.
For the first few weeks he bit REALLY hard and repeatedly when we caught him, and even left a small swelling on my hands/fingers a couple of times, but now he bites just once or twice and it's only half hearted.
Now that I have explained the above, I have some questions please ...
The lady who gave him to us said she thought he was a boy and about 2-3 years old as his neck ring is just becoming apparent. BUT I have looked at pics of blue ring necks and ours is showing no sign of the black band/border of the ring that cocks have so I'm thinking we have a hen. Would this be right? How long does it take for the ring to fully develop?
We've had him 5 weeks - is this a good amount of progress in that time considering how hostile he was at first?
Sometimes when we are talking to him through the cage bars, he fluffs up his feathers and looks all cute and cuddly. Does that mean he is happy? He also does this when he is sitting twittering to himself (and sounds very content)
He calls out in that very noisy, shrill ring neck squawk about half a dozen times a day for anywhere from a minute to a couple of minutes. Does that mean anything in particular? He also twitters softly a lot which is very cute.
I put his cage in the sun for a few hours a day but make sure he has shade if he wants it as I read that this helps keep their feathers healthy. And a couple of times a week I give him a tray of water to bath in but I have been told (we used to have a princess parrot and cockatiels) that they shouldn't bath too often as it can deplete oil in their skin/feathers. Is that correct for ring necks too?
Sorry this has been such a long post and has so many questions but I want to make sure he is happy and we are doing the right things to help him learn to trust us! We are eagerly waiting for the day he will actually step up onto our fingers because our other birds were mostly hand reared and they were VERY affectionate (almost needed as much love and attention as a dog!)
Thanks for reading and I look forward to some feed back! Sharon and Zazu
