IndianRingNeck.com

please help,
my little friend Jerry is only 6 months old now and he's beautiful. but I am a bit worried about him. instead of having a smooth looking red beak, he has a red beak but there are 2 whitish flakes and now he has a flake on the hook on his beak. I am worried about this, is it a diet thing? we feed him heaps of fresh fruit and veg and seeds. he has calcium blocks to eat and stuff. should i be worried?
Also, he has a problem going in his cage. whenever we are home, he is out of the cage, but when we go out he is supposed to go in his cage. but the thing is he seems to know that we ae going out, and so wont go near us when we try to catch him to put him in his cage. he is very tame, but also very smart and knows that he's going to end up in his cage eventually. some times it can take half an hour to catch him! how can we train him to go in his cage?

my ringie gets those flakes from time to time too. It's normal from what I can tell. if you're worried, the vet is always a good place to go.

As you said, he's clearly connecting you holding him with him going back to his cage. Try to catch him, then hold him with out putting him back in his cage and maybe feed him his fav healthy food. Then let him go again and come and go from you as he pleases, all the while offering his fav food on a plate near you. If you do that enough, he'll eventually learn that just because you want to hold him doesn't mean he's going back in his cage. Hope that helps! Good luck!

he has no fear of sitting on our hands and stuff like that, but as soon as we start walking near his cage, he flies off. He has worked out that if he gets put in his cage we will leave. smart little bloke. but how do we change this? he hates being in his cage when we are home, he stomps around making sure everyone knows he's not happy.

Im sure i posted a reply to this a few mins ago.... Seems to be happening a lot lately...


Try putting him in the cage for an hour or so each day when you are going to be home. He's associating you putting him in the cage with being left alone. You need to ignore the tantrum's that he's having. Tell everyone in the home not to even make eye contact with him. It's difficult to do, but after about 10 minutes he should calm down. Then you can go over and talk to him softly, and only then.
Getting to the cage... when he looks like he is about to fly, move your hand up or down to unbalance him and knock his judgement off, or turn him to the side of you so he isnt in flight line.

Thanks for the tips ryelle. I will try that. by the way your IR looks exactly the same as jerry. very funny little things aren't they?