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Chiquita's thread

junglechicken

Walking the driveway
Joined
10/4/18
Messages
182
While Chiquita still isn't very confident about coming out of her cage, we are bonding more! She no longer runs to the back of her cage when i approach her but usually comes to the front to chatter at me while i talk to her and often will even let me stroke her toes and chest for a few seconds. I can't tell you how happy this makes me!
 

junglechicken

Walking the driveway
Joined
10/4/18
Messages
182
chiquita, my indian ringneck, is over-the-top hormonal. it started out with me just suddenly letting me give her scritches one day, when she never would before, all while getting into kind of a mating posture and making those crazy ringneck eyes. she would let me scritch for as long as i wanted. it only took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on, but i figured that since she had never let me touch her before maybe i could use this as kind of a break through. i knew only to touch her on the head so as not to sexually stimulate her, so i didn't touch her anywhere but there

now she gets in that posture and makes eyes but after a few seconds of loving she strikes at me and has bit me a few times (luckily i'm pretty clued into her body language and i'm pretty quick, so mostly i can get out of the way before she can bite me).

did i do something wrong? should i have just left her alone? is this just part of the hormonal phase?

i've never had a ringneck before, and i've never had a female bird before, so while i have pretty good general bird experience, this is new to me. the jungle chicken is male, and an african grey. he gets hormonal, but nothing at all like this.

any advice would be much appreciated.
 

junglechicken

Walking the driveway
Joined
10/4/18
Messages
182
While Chiquita still isn't very confident about coming out of her cage, we are bonding more! She no longer runs to the back of her cage when i approach her but usually comes to the front to chatter at me while i talk to her and often will even let me stroke her toes and chest for a few seconds. I can't tell you how happy this makes me!
figured out why she was letting me stroke her toes and chest. she was getting hormonal. she got more and more friendly over the next few days, i figured out what was going on and quickly switched to just petting her head. see above post.
 

cassiesdad

Ripping up the road
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Bob Weisman
..yep, that's a "Get out of my face" pose...;) :rofl:
 

junglechicken

Walking the driveway
Joined
10/4/18
Messages
182
yesterday chiquita stepped up on her own and didn't want to get off my finger! she let me pet her for quite some time while she crooned "mama, mama" (it's her only word). there was no biting at all. of course this morning she tried to bite the snot out of me, but i still feel like we made progress. it's always been one step forward and two steps back with her. she has also been coming out of the cage more when i leave the door open, which is a good thing. she is getting braver and exploring more. she needs patience and time (and someone who is not afraid of getting bit) but i have all of that.
 

junglechicken

Walking the driveway
Joined
10/4/18
Messages
182
As you can see from the above photo, she is stepping up and asking for love more often. When she goes to the back of her cage i feel that it is more of a "not right now" than " OMG TERRIFIED" like it was at first. It's slow progress, but worth every minute!
 

Pipper

Walking the driveway
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1/6/19
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179
Real Name
Andy
Wow, i'd say she is tame and trained. You could probably teach her lots of tricks.
 
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