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Taming a Scared baby

Feathered up

Sprinting down the street
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Jamie
I’ve wanted an IRN for a loooong time. I actively searched for over a year for a green male. The gender was more important than the color as my largest parrot doesn’t tolerate other females well, so when a breeder that I had previously spoken to notified me that he had a sale fall through on a blue male, I took him up on it.

I’ve been in birds a long time and I do as much due diligence as possible regarding breeders. I have no problem meeting breeders outside their aviary and often suggest it as I have parrots in my home as well as about 20 chickens and I understand the risk of cross contamination. I do ask for lots of pictures of the bird I’m buying as well as the parents and surroundings.

Poor Pavitr was reportedly hand fed for 12 weeks (it would not surprise me to learn he was parent raised) and as the only member of the clutch who didn’t ship to his new home right away, wasn’t handled at all, a fact I didn’t learn until he was in my carrier. I expected him to be a little skittish. That’s normal for any bird in new surroundings. What I did not expect was a feral baby.

I’m not going to lie. I expected a hand tame baby, I searched over a year for a hand tame baby. I could have on multiple occasions adopted untamed ringnecks but as they are a new species to me and due to some uncharacteristic constraints on my time at the moment, knew it was not the best time to attempt to tame a ringneck. But, here we are and I will do my best and will at the very least make certain he has as happy a life as can be provided.

I seriously considered returning him to his breeder but photos the breeder provided of some of the color mutations he’s working with AFTER I got home, showed horrible cage conditions and I just couldn’t live with myself if I sent him back there. I currently have Pavi in as best a quarantine as I can provide.

I do not re-home animals. Once I have them, I am all about making them the best life possible but it’s very frustrating to wait so long for something and have it be the opposite of what you expected.

I know some taming practices are static and work with all species. I also know that each species has unique qualities and some things work better with some species than with others. I’m looking forward to suggestions, from others who own asiatic parrots to help with my taming process.

Pavi thanks you in advance for suggestions.
 

Feathered up

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Jamie
I’m going to update my own thread frequently. It helps me keep up with dates and what did or didn’t work.

As I was typing my OP in this thread, I was sitting next to Pavitr’s cage ( about 3 feet to his rear perch maybe 12 inches from his front most and lowest perch) and I was talking out loud as I typed. He came over to his food bowl and started eating. He seemed to be listening intently. As I was clicking “post”, he was eating away so I fed myself a couple of almonds and walnuts. He very quickly (not cautiously) made his way as close as he could get to me and say quietly watching me eat. I offered him a date but he retreated to his upper perch so I didn’t push the issue. When he returned to eating, I quietly left the room. My exit was met with two sharp calls. He was also soaking wet from an obvious attempt to bathe in his water dish this morning.

This is real progress. It’s almost as though he understood what I wrote in my OP and is saying, “I’ll try not to be too difficult”.
 

sunnysmom

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One of things I always suggest when any new bird is sitting with them quietly and even reading a book out loud to him to get used to your presence in a nonthreatening way. He's scared and alone. So I'm sure your presence is still comforting to him even though he nervous and wary. Good luck with your little bird. He'll come around.
 

Doctress

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It's still so new! Birds take time to adjust. They're prey, so they spend time surveying their surroundings, processing and making sure they aren't in danger. Your baby isn't sure about you yet. Once he sees that you're not going to eat him or scare him, he should come around. How long that takes is variable, and fluctuates day to day. Some days Smoky Blue isn't sure about me. (Some days I'm not sure about me either...)

I'm considering IRN as the next member of the flock, so I'll be following along on your journey.
 

AkasyaEllric

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Asiatic parrots are, from what I've read, some of the easiest to turn wild again even after being hand tamed if they go to long without interaction. When I brought Diggle home (not an IRN but still in the family) he tore into me, and I know he was hand fed, and kept well. Basically I won him over with patience and food, found a favorite and that did wonders. Slade isn't in the same family but he's an older traumatized bird. Again, patience was the big key with him. The only odd thing I really did with him was I would use a popsicle stick or something else he saw as non threatening to touch him and pet him. He wasn't crazy about my hands when he got here but is doing a lot better, I adopted him back in February and I swear almost every day we have a breakthrough at this point. Almond slivers were a big part of my success with Diggle too, so maybe they could be a favorite that gets you there. :)
 

Feathered up

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Jamie
Thanks for all the encouragement. I am notorious for taking in problem birds. This time due to current life circumstances, I really made an effort to find something that would be a little easier and more or less ready to enjoy time with. I have a horse that is recouperating from surgery following a bad injury in addition to other things and it does limit my time to work on taming as the horse requires hours of care. Taming is a lengthy process and works best on a fairly strict schedule and it’s tough for me to provide that consistency.
I don’t mean to sound like I’m upset with Pavi for being a scared baby bird. Nothing could be further from the truth. I have plenty of time for a tamer bird but would have passed on him had I known how wild he is as it may have been better for Pavitr. But he’s a delightful little guy and I can tell he is trying hard. He’ll make good progress despite my shortcomings.
 

Feathered up

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:bounce1: So update on the Pavi Project. This little guy is too cute for words. He’s a smart little booger too. He has already learned that if I open his door, he has a treat waiting in his dish. You should have seen his expression when I changed his water before breakfast and didn’t leave a piece of pepper or apple for him. I laughed so loud I scared him.

When I walk in his room, he is coming to the front of the cage. He still retreats behind his largest toy as I move toward him but now he peeeeeks around the side to watch me. As soon as I sit down on the bed he moves as close as possible to eat and listen to me read the news to him.

He has learned to lift the doors on the cage ( I hope I can move him to his permanent cage soon) and that’s his way of asking to come out. I followed a suggestion to someone else about a perch outside the cage and he’ll sit there about a foot from shoulder and watch me or even nap! He puts himself up after a bit or when he’s ready to play with toys.

You can tell he wants to be near me very badly and is making a real effort to get over his fear. It has been 10 years since I’ve had to tame a bird this fearful and I have tamed/retamed many over the past 30 years. I don’t recall one who did such a great job of conveying “I’m trying” to me. Ofc it just makes me wish I could show him more affection in appreciation for his efforts.

I will have to be away much of the weekend but he is familiar with my son who will take over sitting with him and reading to him.
 

Fergus Mom

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When I walk in his room, he is coming to the front of the cage. He still retreats behind his largest toy as I move toward him but now he peeeeeks around the side to watch me. As soon as I sit down on the bed he moves as close as possible to eat and listen to me read the news to him.

This cracks me up so bad when they do that! I play "peep-a-boo" with mine... I say it out loud, softly... Peeeeeep-a-boo! Sounds like Pavi is making great progress. Hope he will continue the progress when you get back from the weekend!
 

Feathered up

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Jamie
So, a bit of an accidental break through today. Pavi was curious about what I had going on next to the cage and came out and even started Down a boing I had straightened as a bridge when a loud clap of thunder rattled the windows and send him flying. He landed on the door molding and was having a hard time so I used the bridge boing as a perch to “rescue him”. He isn’t afraid of his rope so he rode it back to his cage top without issue.

Because he did so well, I tried again and he stepped up onto the perch and rode to the perch on the outside of his cage, climbed back to the top and waited, we did this over and over about 15 times. He seemed to sort of make a game out of his new elevator.

When I put the treat Dish in the cage he followed it in before my hand was out. He only side stepped two steps when I put his avicakes in and was eating them as soon as my hand was off the dish!

Very big progress today!
 

Feathered up

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Another good day with Pavitr. He is stepping onto the perch easily and I swear it seems if he’s struggling to navigate out the door and up the side of the cage he sits in the door and eyes the perch as if to say “what no ride to the top?” He comes out willingly and will now take a few flights around the room.

He still wants nothing to do with my hands and very little to do with me but he does like to watch what I’m doing and isn’t hesitant about getting closer. He doesn’t really hide when I do food and water anymore. Just moves away to his top perch but even Skyy does that.

I move more deliberately around him now as he has stopped really acting like my every move is a death threat. He did use my shoulder as a bridge to get from his ride perch to his outside cage perch but he was on and off like it was hot coals. Still, I was pleased he at least tried. It does seem that the less tentative I move, the more acceptance I gain. So I just treat him like I don’t expect him to be afraid.

He’s been playing with his toy a lot. I tried to add him a foraging mat but he’s not quite ready for cage changes so I removed it.

I’m gone again tomorrow and Sunday (see, bad time for an untamed bird) but he does fine with my son and last weekend seemed to make him miss me so maybe it’s a blessing in disguise.

Baby steps but I feel he’s coming along nicely.
 

finchly

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Sounds like. He’s getting plenty of attention from you! Good job so far!
 
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