Person A had a Ringneck. She gave the bird to her uncle, person B. B's landlord found out about the bird, and said it had to go, immediately. B gave it to his sister, C.
C mentioned this to me, last week, and was I think feeling me out as to whether we might be interested in adopting; she'd had to downsize her parakeet flock due to allergies.
So yesterday, C called me, very upset, and asked if we could pretty please take the bird - she is very sensitive to noise (a medical condition), and found the bird's noise to be intolerable. Rio joined us within 2 hours.
This poor fellow is now on his 4th home in as many weeks (as far as I can tell; I don't know how long he was with A and B). We know NOTHING about his history - C did not know. I asked C to talk to A to find out whatever she could - as these are long-living birds and we'll need to plan for the long term. He does have a leg band, but until we can get to handle him, we can't read that, and of course I gather it's not a reliable way to identify the breeder.
He is in a large-ish cage, though not one he can really fly in. The long term plan is for him to be free-flying - we have two budgies, but person C also has budgies and she said they got along just fine, and that Rio flies quite well.
He seems to be eating okay. He arrived with a half bowlful of a seed mixture and nothing else, so I ran out last night and got one bag of something similar (from Zupreem, I think) and some Roudybush pellets; I have some Harrison's on order from Amazon. He went right for his refilled bowl of the mix; I offered the pellets in a separate bowl (with a little of the mix) and I don't know if he's eaten any of that yet. He ate some of a slice of apple, about half of a grape, showed no interest in the two baby carrots I put in the cage, and I don't think he touched the greens I put out for him either. No interest in the millet I put in there, either - possibly because it immediately fell to the bottom of the cage. He did approach a new toy I put in the cage - I caught him standing with one foot on the toy (a swing) and another on an older toy.
He's not terribly excited about us. He backs to the corner of the cage whenever I need to reach in there (for food or toy placement). This afternoon, I made a point of sitting on a low chair right in front of his cage and reading, while periodically talking to him. He went to the far corner - but stood on one foot, and just eyed me with suspicion / curiosity. He periodically clicked his beak a little, while making a very, very faint clucking / squawking sound. He also alternated looking at me with one eye versus the other, and occasionally straight on. He just generally seemed more relaxed. He has emitted the occasional piercing CHIRP, which I know Ringnecks are known for. My son has been in the room with him, watching TV all afternoon, and periodically whistling (with some response, as far as I can tell). It'd be kind of cool if Rio bonds to him - since given the lifespan and our ages, we have to consider what happens to the bird when we aren't around. I'm debating moving his cage up to my office (I work from home) which would be great during the work day - but not so great on the weekends. Maybe if we get him hand trained we can have a cage in each spot.
The budgies, so far, seem utterly uninterested - they have not even landed on the cage.
I guess I just need general advice on how best to get him tame enough that we can let him free-fly, without risking his getting into mischief somewhere else in the house. I'd like it if we could reliably put him back in the cage at night - something we wound up giving up on with the budgies (though they always return either to their cage, or the PVC play tree I built for them). And how long should we plan on keeping him in the cage full time? I want to make sure he knows that's his safe spot, and right now the poor birdy is likely pretty traumatized.
C mentioned this to me, last week, and was I think feeling me out as to whether we might be interested in adopting; she'd had to downsize her parakeet flock due to allergies.
So yesterday, C called me, very upset, and asked if we could pretty please take the bird - she is very sensitive to noise (a medical condition), and found the bird's noise to be intolerable. Rio joined us within 2 hours.
This poor fellow is now on his 4th home in as many weeks (as far as I can tell; I don't know how long he was with A and B). We know NOTHING about his history - C did not know. I asked C to talk to A to find out whatever she could - as these are long-living birds and we'll need to plan for the long term. He does have a leg band, but until we can get to handle him, we can't read that, and of course I gather it's not a reliable way to identify the breeder.
He is in a large-ish cage, though not one he can really fly in. The long term plan is for him to be free-flying - we have two budgies, but person C also has budgies and she said they got along just fine, and that Rio flies quite well.
He seems to be eating okay. He arrived with a half bowlful of a seed mixture and nothing else, so I ran out last night and got one bag of something similar (from Zupreem, I think) and some Roudybush pellets; I have some Harrison's on order from Amazon. He went right for his refilled bowl of the mix; I offered the pellets in a separate bowl (with a little of the mix) and I don't know if he's eaten any of that yet. He ate some of a slice of apple, about half of a grape, showed no interest in the two baby carrots I put in the cage, and I don't think he touched the greens I put out for him either. No interest in the millet I put in there, either - possibly because it immediately fell to the bottom of the cage. He did approach a new toy I put in the cage - I caught him standing with one foot on the toy (a swing) and another on an older toy.
He's not terribly excited about us. He backs to the corner of the cage whenever I need to reach in there (for food or toy placement). This afternoon, I made a point of sitting on a low chair right in front of his cage and reading, while periodically talking to him. He went to the far corner - but stood on one foot, and just eyed me with suspicion / curiosity. He periodically clicked his beak a little, while making a very, very faint clucking / squawking sound. He also alternated looking at me with one eye versus the other, and occasionally straight on. He just generally seemed more relaxed. He has emitted the occasional piercing CHIRP, which I know Ringnecks are known for. My son has been in the room with him, watching TV all afternoon, and periodically whistling (with some response, as far as I can tell). It'd be kind of cool if Rio bonds to him - since given the lifespan and our ages, we have to consider what happens to the bird when we aren't around. I'm debating moving his cage up to my office (I work from home) which would be great during the work day - but not so great on the weekends. Maybe if we get him hand trained we can have a cage in each spot.
The budgies, so far, seem utterly uninterested - they have not even landed on the cage.
I guess I just need general advice on how best to get him tame enough that we can let him free-fly, without risking his getting into mischief somewhere else in the house. I'd like it if we could reliably put him back in the cage at night - something we wound up giving up on with the budgies (though they always return either to their cage, or the PVC play tree I built for them). And how long should we plan on keeping him in the cage full time? I want to make sure he knows that's his safe spot, and right now the poor birdy is likely pretty traumatized.