Needy Bird Please Help

[KiwiPo]

Today is his second day home. At the store he was hand fed and handled and was not scared of us. Yesterday, he immediately started playing with his toys, ate his seeds( we r planning on feeding him pellets but r going to wait on that) and even tried some eggs, killer Dave bread, and lemon cookies. He is a big biter but we made sure to teach him not to and he’s already made HUGE improvements. We even started target training and he immediately was able to understand the concept...when I set down the stick on my lap, about to end training...he jumped down my finger and bit the stick and looked up at me expecting a treat! He’s also pretty good at flying as he seemed to like to hang out with me and my s/o. He also preens himself too which makes us super happy.


The only thing that we r worried about is that he is VERY NEEDY. He paces on the bottom of the floor and flaps his wings to get our attention. We want to give him lots of love but at the same time we do not want him to get use to it since we are college students. What can I do to encourage him to be more independent? Or should I give him the attention? He just got finished from being hand fed his liquids so he is still very young and we noticed that he likes to take naps when we hold him.

Also I noticed that he jumps a lot and uses his wings to propel him to climb faster. Is this normal or should I be concerned?

 

[Mizzely]

He's a baby.. it's unnatural for him to be by himself Babies are needy, no way around that honestly!

 

[KiwiPo]

He's a baby.. it's unnatural for him to be by himself Babies are needy, no way around that honestly!

That is a very good point. How long do you recommend him being outside his cage? Yesterday he was out for a few hours and today he was out since 8am to around 11:40ish and then taken out at 4:20-5.

 

[Mizzely]

I'm no help really. My birds have always had an open cage as long as someone is home, which the last few years has been all day every day!

 

[KiwiPo]

I'm no help really. My birds have always had an open cage as long as someone is home, which the last few years has been all day every day!

We appreciate you responding to us. thank you! I would also love to leave the cage open and let him chill on his perch or couch but rn he wants to be only on our hands and currently rn he is sleeping on my phone and it is making it hard to reply back to you!!

 

[Mizzely]

Does he have a place outside of the cage to spend his time? A playstand next to you perhaps? Keep a bowl of food and a thing of foot toys next to you and try to redirect his attention

 

[Sunni Tiel]

Welcome to the avenue!

Understandably he will want to be with you all the time, but screaming for attention can become a big problem. If you reward him by giving attention when he screams, He'll keep training you and scream any time he wants something. You probably already knew this, but you can wait until he stops his fit and then come. He'll realize you're the boss.

I'm sure he'll get used to it, Sunni screamed for me nonstop for the first few days, and now he just screams when he's singing and feeling talkative.

Good luck!

 

[KiwiPo]

We do not have a playstand yet but I do want to buy a mini playground. He has a perch thats “technically outside“ his cage and is connected to the opening on top of the cage. He has some foot toys but he seems more interested in his paper hanging toys, our phones, and our hoodie strings.

Btw we made sure to clean our phones as of yesterday with a mixture of hot water lemon and vinegar. Don’t want our baby to get sick!

 

[Mizzely]

He's interested in your phone because you are. Try messing around with foot toys in one hand while he's out.

 

[KiwiPo]

Welcome to the avenue!

Understandably he will want to be with you all the time, but screaming for attention can become a big problem. If you reward him by giving attention when he screams, He'll keep training you and scream any time he wants something. You probably already knew this, but you can wait until he stops his fit and then come. He'll realize you're the boss.

I'm sure he'll get used to it, Sunni screamed for me nonstop for the first few days, and now he just screams when he's singing and feeling talkative.

Good luck!

He is actually very quiet! He doesn’t squeak much but when he does it’s very low pitched lol. But he is super energetic and we can hear his feet and wings. We live in a small 500sq ft apartment and me and my s/o r taking online classes so hopefully with this context it doesn’t seem weird that we can hear his movements from the cage.

 

[KiwiPo]

He's interested in your phone because you are. Try messing around with foot toys in one hand while he's out.

Haha yea that makes sense. Yesterday I couldn’t help but take pictures and videos of him! I will mess around with his foot toys as soon as he is done grooming himself on the top of my phone rn. Thank you!

 

[KiwiPo]

He's interested in your phone because you are. Try messing around with foot toys in one hand while he's out.

Hello we just wanted to give an update and thank you once again! Yesterday our bird Kiwipo wasn’t interested in the foot toys but we kept fiddling and rolling it around and today this morning I offered him the ball and he took it and absolutely loved it! Thanks a lot for the advice!

 

[Mizzely]

Yay! I used to have a very bonded Hahns that needed to find something to do besides sit on my phone and computer - glad her lessons continue to help