IndianRingNeck.com

I have an IRN..
I'm SERIOUSLY losing patience with her..
She sits on my shoulder and sometimes pecks at my face, bites my ears and hurts me. I have tried giving her dirty looks, firmly telling her NO and all the other things I have read in other places. Nothing works.

Also, when she's on my shoulder, she refuses to obey the "step up" command.. Starts flailing her wings and making sqwaking noises!

I don't know what else to do.. and I'm seriously losing hope!
I love my bird.. more than anything, but I hate it when she hurts me and clearly, she isnt understanding what I'm trying to tell her!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Tweets - I feel for you. My bird is like that towards everybody in the household (except me - thankfully) and when I see him carrying on like that when he is around the kids or my partner I can see how much it hurts them. We have tried all sorts of things - yelling back, saying no, wagging fingers at him, none of which worked. So I did a search on bluffing in the forums and printed out all the posts - and learnt a lot. We decided the best approach is just to pretend that he is not misbehaving - and trust me, this is hard to do! If he gets really out of control we put him in his cage for a time out. If he still wants to bite he stays in there until he is ready to be nice. The whole time we talk to him calmly. If he is not getting a reaction to his antics he soon calms down. If he bites an ear or face he is not allowed onto the shoulder anymore. Patience is the key here - and it takes a lot of that! We still have days when he is just so cranky and agressive - but we just have to stick it out. Don't give up on your bird - yet! Good luck.

I am really thankful that I am not alone in this.. Im really sorry about your bird also going off at people like that.
I think I should do a bit of research on bluffing - I dont know anything about that yet
Thank you so much for your post.
I have stopped Sky from coming up to my shoulder. She doesn't like it very much, but thats the way things are..lol..
She doesn't bite as much now.. thankfully..
I have noticed that when pointing your finger at them - it just makes them madder.. Have been trying not to lose my temper with her and shout.. So far, so good..

Thanks again!!

Kiki's information on "Taming & Training" >>
| http://members.dodo.com.au/~johanp/Tami ... aining.htm |

I'm sorry that your birdie isn't tame, but i'm sure if you put in a little more work he/she will soon be tamed once more.

It seems to me, your bird is not finger tamed yet, and this should be standardly done for the pet bird. I did mention it on my training site, but to specialize on the subject, i'll discuss it here as well.

Firstly, you should have a training schedule, such as 1 hour each day. Indian Ringnecks crave attention, so that's one thing you'll have to get, a training schedule of 1 hour at the least. Your bird should also be on the correct diet - Greens, Vegetables, & Seed. That's what we feed all our birds. Many owners prefer feeding their birds pellets, but if you don't have that commercially availible, or it's just so pricey to buy, seed and LOTS OF FRUITS AND VEGGIES, is the best alternative. Your bird should have a "favorite food" which might be sunflower seeds (in most cases but not with Kiki) Apple, Grape, Nuts, or anything else. Chop some of his favorite foods (if it's large like Apple) into small pieces. Don't give him\her his\her favorite food AT ALL during feeding him/her! This is what he/she will be able to get as a reward during training. When you train him/her, you should command the bird to "step up" by gently pressing your finger under his/her chest, the bird should now automatically step up for you. If he/she bites, ignore it as if it didn't happen at all. I know! It hurts allright, and IRNs can even draw blood in some cases! No matter how hard your bird bites you, IGNORE THOSE BITES! You should command your bird to "step up" for as long as you can during training him/her. After achieving some of the "step ups" you may reward him/her with some apple, sunflower seeds, or any of your bird's favorite foods. You should be doing this for about a week, but if your bird hasn't mastered the "step up" during that week, you may like to do it until he/she completes the test. After that, I reccomend you follow my training schedule on Kiki's Page, and i'll get back to you after seeing your progress . If you have any more problems, just post them.