Hi Sparkles,
I'm glad you posted this picture. I believe it would help very much to have a cage that is *significantly* larger. Please have a look at my pictures thread for an idea of how nice a much bigger cage can be.
http://www.indianringneck.com/forum/vie ... =5&t=18437 Actually, I believe if you were able to change Just One Thing, it should be cage size. Some Ringnecks live happily (or so their people say) in smaller cages that are only two or three times the size of your cage. However, I think your bird would need some special consideration and a larger cage would be more suitable. Some people have told me that larger cages are not available where they live. If that is the situation for you, then you must build a suitable cage or have someone else build it for you. Make sure that any structural wooden parts are covered with wire on the inside so the bird doesn't chew the cage apart. If you cannot put your bird in a much larger cage, then I would have no confidence that he would ever get more comfortable or tame than he is today.
Also, it should be furnished with a place for the bird to hide from you. You can simply cover a portion of the cage with some paper or a light weight/light coloured piece of fabric. An old cotton bed sheet would be ideal for that. You must proceed with covering the cage carefully because you don't want your attempt at providing comfort to actually upset the bird. My bird Rocky cannot tolerate a cover, but my bird Sinbad likes one. You should first start covering part of the side and front of the cage at the lowest edge and gradually raise the cover to include the full height of the cage. It may not be necessary to cover the roof.
You must also elevate your bird. Because he is afraid and height is security to birds, please give him the chance to be at least as high as your own head when you are standing. I would make him higher, if he were in my care.
Please locate some clean leafy tree branches of a safe kind of tree and give them to your bird. Make sure they have not been exposed to chemicals. Your bird needs the natural wood with the bark on for chewing and also needs the natural variation in branch size to exercise his feet. Make sure he has options to perch that allow his foot to grasp most of the way around the branch all the way as well as not able to close his foot. The majority of perches should be such that he can close his foot 50% to 75% around the perch. He needs this foot exercise for his good health.
You should think about trying to make your bird's habitat look like a little piece of his natural home. Not only would he feel more comfortable, you may create something quite beautiful. Consider painting the wall behind the cage or hanging some fabric or paper on that wall, to paint. The colour should be leafy green or sky blue, not too dark, not too light. If you hang something on the wall to paint, be sure the bird cannot chew it from inside the cage. Give him natural sticks, vines, and grasses, but research first and know what you are giving him so you will avoid filling his home with anything poisonous..
It is also necessary to give your bird more toys. You don't have to spend a lot of money on this. He needs safe wood to chew. He might also like some clean cardboard and paper for chewing. Your bird will also appreciate little objects he can hold - "foot toys". These should be almost anything small with a variety of textures and materials. My bird likes plastic beads, wooden beads, twigs, seashells, plastic bottle caps, clean string, perforated plastic cat toy balls. Sometimes he likes to ring his bell and chew vines and larger blocks of wood. He really likes to take his small objects and put them in a bowl. He also likes his puzzle box, where he must figure out how to extract different pieces of wood from different shaped holes. Recently GeveZe has posted some photos of birds and we can see some really great homemade toys and perches in the backgrounds. Check them out on the Borek's Photos thread and on the end of the Budgie Fans thread.
http://www.indianringneck.com/forum/vie ... rek+photos
http://www.indianringneck.com/forum/vie ... ns#p118042
Your bird also needs to forage for his food. Foraging is just having to work to get the food as a wild bird would have to work for food. If you had your bird from a baby, he might have to learn to forage in little steps, so do not go from feeding him in a bowl to hiding all his food overnight. Hide a little bit of food, his favourite, while he watched you hide it and then let him go get that food on his own. You can wrap some food in paper for an easy start, and if he needs help, then just don't wrap it too well. Another thing you can give him, which he should love, is a nut still in the shell. You may need to crack the shell to get him started. I take whole almonds in the shell and give them a light tap with a hammer to crack them, and pass them to my bird. He is SO happy with that.
Here's a post ellieelectrons made about foraging:
http://www.indianringneck.com/forum/vie ... =2&t=11701
Because your bird was stolen from his natural life he deserve some extra special considerations. He might have been taken as a baby, but he was not born around people and he was not caged until he came with people. (If he was taken as an adult I think it would be even harder for him.) Because of this I think he comes with an extra disadvantage, as far as learning to live with people. I also believe you have a great burden to provide the best and most suitable arrangement for him. A very large cage and respect for his physical and emotional needs are the most basic of considerations that are due to him. You will have to be the one who tells us whether he can become tame.