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Taming my ringneck seems impossible

scoob

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Scott hanna
Iv had her for 3 months and she is 4yrs and has been in a avairy most of that time and I got her from a bird sale, I can't get close to her without her fluttering around her vocabulary has changed a little I guess that's cause she is getting used to her surroundings but I do give her a hour with her door open and she gets out and flys ok but if I stand up she freaks out, any ideas would be great on how to tame this girl
 

Spearmint

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Start to spend time near her whilst doing your own thing, occasionally turn and pass her a treat in her bowl. I find keeping one eye shut and avoiding direct eye contact can help too.
She'd be very skittish due to being in an aviary if she's been moved into a cage now. You'll have to put a lot more time and effort into her than you would a bird that's been caged their whole life. Once she's comfy enough to not flutter around you, you can start target training.

Best of luck :)
 

Fuzzy

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Having been an aviary bird, it will certainly take a lot longer to establish a relationship with her.

To gain her trust your aim is to start pairing “good things” with your presence… like favourite foods. By the same reasoning causing her to flutter around, pairs your presence with an aversive. So try to do everything you can to keep her body language as relaxed as possible… whether that is keeping still/moving slowly and smoothly, or avoiding direct eye contact as Spearmint suggests. The only way to approach my then “fearful” Amazon, Ollie, was to definitely avoid eye contact and I had to crawl to his cage to avoid having him flap around in panic. I crawled because birds feel safer higher up where they can see approaching predators. The bird can’t get any higher in a cage, but you can get lower. So that’s how I serviced his cage.

Also if you are having to use subtracted reinforcement to get her back into her cage, that is also going to erode trust. If this is the case, see if you can let her out maybe an hour or so before breakfast, when she is hungriest, so that she flies back in when she sees you slot in the breakfast bowl. Again I used to do this with Ollie - it worked so well that I could do this before work and then in the evening too. Gradually he was out for increasingly longer periods of time.

What foods does she favour? You could try wedging something big between the bars of the cage like apple if she likes it… or millet spray. When she begins to come eat straight away, get slower at wedging it so that eventually she is eating from it whilst you are still holding on. Then you can try offering through the open door. Then make the item gradually smaller so she is getting nearer and near to your fingers. The process may take as long as a few months or it may be faster. Take your cue as to when to move to the next stage from her - ie only move on when she’s totally comfortable with the last stage.

When she’s comfortable taking treats from your hand you can certainly begin to train her using favourite foods as reinforcement for behaviours you want to see more of. :)
 
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Pixiebeak

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IRN are known to hsve a greater prey response to fingers. Keeping hand flat or closed can help some.
I put links in similar thread.
 

aooratrix

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She has been an aviary bird her whole life. Juxtapose 3 months to almost 4 years and then frame that within her lifespan, which will hopefully be 20+ years. You've got to go slow, be patient, and have no expectations. On top of that, ringnecks can be skittish birds, even handfed ones that never experience aviary life.
 
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