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New Indian Ringneck -questions?

kiwi2017

Sitting on the front steps
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Edmonton, canada
Hello All. I have a new Indian Ringneck named Klover. Klover is nearly 12 weeks old and came from an experienced breeder of Ringnecks. He has been hand raised since 4 weeks and is easy to handle. For the first week and a half with us he would sit on my shoulder and just make baby noises that ringnecks are known for. He’s not been big on being touched at all, just hanging out on my shoulder, I have been comfort feeding him a bit of formula with night time cuddles before bed. He’s out of his cage most of the time and comes and goes in and out at leisure. My question is, in the past couple of days now when he’s on my shoulder he’s started to walk down to my hands and is nipping a bit. More than the little “get to know ya” mouthing he had been doing. It’s too early to be bluffing (if that’s even really a thing) and my reaction is to teach him “no bite” now while he’s so young but is my responding going to encourage this behaviour to escalate?
This is not my first bird, I got my brown head parrot Kiwi at 12 weeks but she already had attitude and continues to this day to be difficult at times. I really want my new guy to be more easy going and thought maybe there was more I could do now while he’s so impressionable. Thanks for any advice.
 

expressmailtome

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Garet

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He could be testing your fingers to see if they're safe or not? Parrots will grab a perch with their beak if they aren't sure that it will hold their weight.

If he's not drawing blood or hurting you, I'd ignore it.
 

cassiesdad

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Your best bet is to ignore the behavior completely. Klover is expanding his "horizons"...and testing to see your reactions.

I also don't believe the "bluffing" that IRNs are supposed to do...that's just my opinion, of course. I do believe that most IRNs really don't like to be touched...Titan, our IRN, loved to sit on your shoulder...but "petting"...no, nada.
 

rocky'smom

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Ignore the bad praise the good always.
 

kiwi2017

Sitting on the front steps
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Edmonton, canada
Thanks for the feedback. Klover is definitely very different from my brown head. She’s packed with attitude but loves to be scratched and cuddled but my baby IRN loves to be near you but no touch. He is learning step up though, I’ll ignore any test biting and I agree, I think a lot of the time he’s still trying to figure just what my finger ( or hand) is. He’s sure lots of fun though.
 

cassiesdad

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my baby IRN loves to be near you but no touch.
Like I said before, Titan was exactly the same...loved to be with you, but no touch. :bignono:

He was our very first "birdie ambassador"... as he would go sit on anyone's shoulder and "chat" with them.

He was a wonderful companion for 26 years...:)
 
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