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New Baby Ring-neck Parrot

Emma675

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Emma Morgan
Hi everyone, my family and I recently got a ring-neck parrot called Ollie. He is only a month old and not very comfortable around us yet, we know it will take time, but we want to help him become happy here. Is there any tips to help him feel more comfortable? He loves his cage and when I get him out he always tries to get back in. Should I leave him? Or should keep him with me so he gets used to us?
Thanks:)
 

expressmailtome

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iamwhoiam

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Congrats on getting your Ringneck. If he is only a month old are you hand feeding him? I think they wean when they are about 10 weeks old.
 

Sylvester

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Thanks for the tip! Every time I offer treats/food to Ollie he gets scared and just pecks the food once. He is 5 weeks old and eats the seed, fruit and vegetables I give him in the day (he's a good eater).
For some reason I was picturing a green bird. I have never seen a ring neck parrot. Very cute. Thank you for posting pictures.
 

iamwhoiam

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Ollie is beautiful. I assume then that he is weaned. I didn't know they weaned that young.
 

Dartman

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Well if your house situation is safe you could sit by him and leave the cage open and he'll come out when he's ready and probably slowly branch out to getting closer to you as he starts to trust you and finds what your doing interesting. It worked that way for Lurch but he was a very scared and mad at the world used parrot so it took him a long time just to decide to come out, then even more time to get closer to me and decide iwas trustworthy and a friend. I bet your guy will come around fairly quickly as he is young and has no baggage.
 

Pipper

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Either before or after your work/school you are going to have to feed Ollie out of your hand and eventually teach Ollie to step up. You're going to need to repeat the process multiple times per day. Wear wood carving or leather work gloves of some sort as they can bite hard and are smart enough to try and provoke you to return to your old behaviour if you change and try something new to tame him.

You don't feed them until they get hungry is what it amounts to. Since birds have ravenous appetites you need only withhold food a few hours, nowhere near starving, and then they then hungry and are eager to learn just like in the wild and how they bond with mates and other flock members. It's well know than whether human, bird, or some sort of animal that being hungry increases motive to cooperate and work while being fat and full increases lethargy and increases lack of cooperation.

Don't waste time as it's a lot easier to tame them when young. You're basically teaching Ollie to expect food from you and so Ollie will see you as a ally and flock mate. As it stands now Ollie thinks he has no need to cooperate with you if you feed him without having him work for it like a millionaire's child that gets everything they want but don't have to cooperate to be civil or work to get a huge allowance. A fully fed and watered bird is essentially a millionaire for all it cares. Bonded birds become bonded because they work for each other's food.

You should buy a book on Amazon about taming any sort of parrot.

Then after step-up finger tamed try giving only pellets in cage and only seeds outside the cage, especially Ollie's likely favorites like sunflower seeds, peanuts, and millet spray. You need to create an expectation of reward for him to eagerly leave and stay out of the cage with you and continue that reward until it's second nature from him to eagerly leave the cage to work with you. Then try stopping using the reward to leave to cage and perch on your finger & instead teach him tricks and give the rewards for those new tricks when he does them.

Look on Amazon for 'click training' of birds. There are 'clickers' and 'clik sticks' originally designed to train dogs but adapted since to train birds too.
 
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