New untamed bird

Rio bird

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Hi I’m looking for advice . I recently got a male alexandrine he is 7 months old and untamed . I have had him 3 days and he is very nervous to the point he tries to bite at you if you go near his cage .he is terrified of me. I have been trying to get him used to me by standing by the cage and gradually getting closer. He is in the front room and with everyone all day but if I get with in a couple of feet he gets super aggressive. Am I in the wrong if I just open the cage door and let him come out when he is ready ? What do I do next and how do I get him back in his cage if he douse not let me near him ? Thanks
 
Please don’t let him out of his cage! I know the others will be on in the morning with better advice but in the mean time just what I’ve learned personally over the last few weeks with research and the expert advice on here I hope will do til then,
I’ve just got a little parrotlet who is parent raised and so is not tame, it’s taken me up to three weeks to get him to step onto my hand and eat seeds, I have to keep my hand super still but he’s gradually becoming more trusting of me, and I think three weeks has actually been quite fast progress! It can take months or even years to earn a wild birds trust depending on what they’ve been through previously, birds need their cage for security and safety but this can take time to develop especially if he’s new to the cage and it’s perches and toys etc. Once he feels safe you can gradually earn his trust whilst he is in his cage. Keep doing what you’re doing, by spending time with him, starting in the same room, just not even paying him attention, read a book to him but don’t make eye contact, it’s a slow progress that may take weeks before he’s calm enough to let you sit next to his cage and read a book, the only time you can progress to the next stage aka a step closer is when he is relaxed and comfortable with where you’re standing, if you need to do anything near his cage like give him water and food, try not to put your hand in the cage, stay low to the ground, and move slowly. Letting him out of his cage before it’s become a safe place for him will make it difficult to get him back in there without catching him which will make him even more terrified of you. I also found that once mine would let me near enough to his cage I started holding a seed, near the bars, but if he showed that he was uncomfortable doing that I would listen and move my hand away and try again a bit later, listening and watching his body language and showing him that I would respect him led to him starting to take the seeds, which then after a few days of that allowed me to Start to target train him which helped build our trust even more. I only approach him when he’s calm and wants to interact, I usually leave him if he’s having a flap around or is very excited,
again I’m sure Michael, Diane and other experienced parrot owners will have more specific advice but My instinct is that it’s definitely not a good idea to let him out so soon after getting him and with him being so wild and afraid of you. Hope this helps!! Have patience :) you will get through to him.
 
Hello and welcome. 3 days is no time for your bird to realize you are not going to harm him, Ok pull up a chair next to his cage and just relax yourself and read a book, change every time you come across the letter a or the to your birds name and just glance at your bird. let look at his reaction it is one of being scared so what should you do to build a bond of trust. always make sounds or speak before entering the room or tuning a light on, always keep lower than the place where your bird is sitting, always approach or move slowly near him or as you approach. never stair at him, tour hands should stay lower than your bird. one good thing he is not going to the back of his cage and so you can use his forward attacking approach to help associate your hand with good things, I have found that when seeing birds that are not tame in an aviary, the one that shows his confidence and strength by wanting to attack normally will be the better to train. I use his response in initial training, if he will try to bite your finger then cut a slice of apple or hold a grape up to his cage, he may attack it at first even chuck it on the floor, but then he will see it tastes nice and will be more confident in eating it from your hand though the cage bars, you must be carful not to push him so only do this a maximum four times a day. Ok I think it is too early to let him out of the cage at the moment but that will not be long to wait, first of all he will have to get used to the cage being his safe place and know this is wear he will get his food and water from. let us know how you get on in three days time please
 
I will tag @Crookesy to look at this post as he is in the same position as your self with his new Alexandrine and joined the club today. he started his post "New Alexandrine owner" I will have to reply to his post tomorrow as it is getting late and i have been fairly busy, Although the basics in training is the same each bird is different so i will give advice depending on how you inform us on your birds reaction, for instance if his bird is not trying to bite his fingers off when he gets near the cage there is no way i will start hand trust training as i have suggested to you. @Roz my give different advice than myself when she comes along, she is such a nice person and known as the forum advisor in training. we do have slightly different methods but the aim of the goals are the same
 
Rio is a very popular name ok two new members, two Alexandrine's and two Rio's in one day, what a coincident but @Crookesy , as they had the bird for three days now I am certain that is all it is will go through you post tomorrow :thumbsup:
 
Hi Micheal
Obviously starting from the basics now with this alexandrine , I’m just wanting to know where best to place his cage to get him on the right path .

Option 1 : Empty spare bedroom.

This would be the quietest of rooms , nothing to damage as it’s empty with a solid wood floor, the cage could be left open and he would be free to fly around as it’s quite a large room too. My thoughts are that it’s a good place to train him but he’s not around anyone on a daily basis opposed to been in the kitchen where we as a family spend a lot of time.

Option 2: kitchen ( current location)

as mentioned above we spend a lot of time in there so he would get used to people moving around him . He would be confined to the cage unless we make sure doors are shut and it’s safe for him to come out if he wanted.

just want to do the right things from the start to make this process as smooth as possible
 
Hi I’m looking for advice . I recently got a male alexandrine he is 7 months old and untamed . I have had him 3 days and he is very nervous to the point he tries to bite at you if you go near his cage .he is terrified of me. I have been trying to get him used to me by standing by the cage and gradually getting closer. He is in the front room and with everyone all day but if I get with in a couple of feet he gets super aggressive. Am I in the wrong if I just open the cage door and let him come out when he is ready ? What do I do next and how do I get him back in his cage if he douse not let me near him ? Thanks
:welcome: Rio bird! And congrats on giving Rio a home. Do you know anything about his history? Was he an aviary bird?

My advice is to aim to keep his body language as relaxed as possible at all times so that he begins to pair your presence with a good relaxed feeling. If on the other hand you get too close too quickly and he starts lunging at you, you have gone way too far too fast... and in fact are only teaching him to lunge more. So it may mean staying the other side of the room as much as possible for now.

Of course you will have to go up to his cage to clean him out and change food and water bowls, but try to do that as unobtrusively as possible. Birds feel safer higher up where they can more easily spot predators (bear in mind that humans with their eyes on the front of their heads are predators). In a cage a bird can't get any higher, but you can get lower. So get down low when cleaning the cage out. When my untame Amazon Ollie arrived, I would literally crawl to his cage as that was the only way to keep his body language as relaxed as possible. I also was careful to make no direct eye contact - eye contact can send an untame bird into a melt down (as it did with Ollie) or it can result in aggression. Move slowly and smoothly around him with no jerky movements. With Ollie and the extremely aggressive Chico (another rescue Amazon) I found singing softly or humming as I cleaned them out calmed them because it let them know what I was doing... it became part of the routine. Routine is so important for a new bird. Plus silence is predatory.

Try using negative reinforcement to approach the cage. This is explained in this thread:

Then when you can get close enough you can offer some positive reinforcement in the shape of a favourite piece of food. That might not be for a while yet, and that is ok.

Talking about food, get a routine going. Clean out his cage roughly at the same time every day and feed him roughly the same time every day - morning and evening. Have one bowl full of dry food and one full of fresh fruit and veggies. Notice how quickly he comes to the food bowl after you slot it in. Also notice which foods he goes for first as these will be his favourites which you can use later in training. At the beginning you will have to walk away before he feels courageous enough to check out the food bowls. Plus give him time to get used to his cage and everything inside so that he is comfortable enough to call it home. When he knows the routine, is less scared of you, feels happier in his cage, then try opening the cage door perhaps an hour or two before breakfast (when he is hungriest) so that when you slot in the food bowls, he takes himself back into the cage to eat. That's how I worked it with Ollie - I never had to touch him. There is no point in opening the door whilst he's completely fearful as he will probably panic (fly into walls etc) and you will probably have to towel him to get him back into his cage, thus pairing yourself with an aversive and losing any trust that you might have built.

You have all the time in the world to gain Rio's trust and work with him. Go slowly. Rushing will lose his trust.

Would love to see a picture of Rio and his cage set up as soon as he isn't fearful of a camera.
 
Thanks this is grate advice I’m so glad I found The parrot club . I’ll carry on slow and keep a routine going. Will keep you updated and eventually get pictures up for you
 
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