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Kakariki, Care, Breeding, Ecology, and Conservation :: View topic - Taming
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Taming
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Steptoe
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Joined: Oct 06, 2004
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 18, 2004 6:01 pm    Post subject: Taming

All our adult Birds are avairy reared, kings, crimsons. burkes kikes,not by Us and not tame, 1 to 5yrs old. (See Gallery on the main page)
I have taken A suphur crested about to leave the nest in the wild
Have found a wild hurt red kakariki the side of the road (illegel in this country but at the time over 20yrs ago was not awhere of it).
And tamed them all.
Magic words are TRUST, PATIENCE and FEAR...fear is the unknown.
In NZ we cannot keep Kikes in a flight smaller than approx 2.5x 1.5x 2m
TAMING IN A FLIGHT we will deal with 1st
Spend a lot of time in there each day, move in slow motion manner, take a stool or deck chair, cup of coffee and a book or newspaper to, read.
Ignore the birds even when they start to come down, they are 'testing the waters', if nothing changes they will move closer. After a while they begin to carry on life as if you are not there. U may like to place a temping peice of food close by after 3 or 4 sessions, above waste height.
At this stage, hold back their greens for a few hrs, hold a morsel thru the wire from the outside, and remain still, eventually they will come down, take a nibble and fly off..then give them their normal ratitons, after about 3 days of this they will start to eat from your hand..Dont give them the peice to fly away with.
They will bite at your hand before the food, it hurts!! DONT MOVE (no pain no gain) other than a gentle movement of the finger to shake them off, after a while the realise that your are not eatable signlol, and will ignore your flesh.
All the time continuing to have morning or afternoon tea with the newspaper.
During this time gently approach with your hand, watch them carefully, as soon as they tense, move back BEFORE they do.
Talk gentlely, rather than quietly lots. Dont use any words that have a S or sss sound until later.

PATIENCE...and you have their TRUST, and they now KNOW who/what you are with NO FEAR.
This all takes 1 to 3 weeks max, not every day 2 out of 3 will do the trick.
If 1 bird is stubborn, let him be stubborn...its just part of his personality.
The male king in the gallery is around 5 yrs old, had never been 'handled' and is the most proud and stubborn bird I have ever seen!!

Dont expect them to be so friendly as a hand reared bird, more work and maybe its possible, but there is nothing more rewarding than have your birds come down and w3c you into THEIR home when you go in and dont have any temptations and that doesnt matter to them anymore.

Smaller cages are far easier, but there is a price to pay also signlol
Will carry on later with Smaller cages.
Comments and questions w3c.

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Last edited by Steptoe on Thu Apr 21, 2005 6:58 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Steptoe
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 19, 2004 10:10 pm    Post subject:

Smaller cages.
U grab a book, coffee, or a good movie, make yourself comfortable, and stick your bare hand into the cage.
No matter what happens, you dont move your hand, other than a gentle movement that just makes the bird hesitate.
Regardless if hes come down from the top of the cage, and about the time your hand and arm are getting real stiff, gently remove it ,get the blood going again.

Get a fresh coffee, piece of apple, pear, leaf of dandelion or similar mix of greens and fruit, hold them between the thumb and forefinger so your hand is in the position he will fly to later.
Once again place your hand inside and finish reading your book.
If u watch them they see your eyes doing so.

I do prefer the flight, ones interaction in their enviroment is far more interesting.

The only bird that didnt work was an old eastern rosella caught in the wild.

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Steptoe
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 21, 2004 9:18 am    Post subject:

Would like to add, also had A male Kike come in as new genic stock a while back....Was in for his 1st yr of breeding. From around the 4 day of introduction, he was agro. Damn near killed the female, chased her untill trapped in a cnr (large flight.) then actually ripped into her.
I had never seen or heard of this before, talking to other breeders neither had they seen it before, althu a couple had heard of it.
The agro was so bad, I didnt even consider trying to tame him down, and returned him to the source.
As with all species, humans included, once in a while extreme personalities appear, althu rare.

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sharumba
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2005 7:35 am    Post subject:

Hi,

Originally had two hand reared kakarikis in september this year but unfortunatly 2 weeks later one of them died. We couldn't find a hand reared kakariki to pair up with the original one, the only option was a wild one. We had a look at one bird which wasn't hand reared and took a chance and introduced her to the original hand reared kiki. Now after just two months the wild bird will actually land on your head after letting her out for flying around so you can then place your head inside the cage for her to hop off. She actually nibbled my finger the other day and nearly stepped up onto my hand so i'm sure with a bit more patience things will get better.

I must admit i was very surprised as to how olive had come around....

shaun
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Steptoe
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2005 8:13 am    Post subject:

thumb
Male or female...we notice males tend to be more confident in our aviaries
Hand...feed SMALL snipets and treats....always let him come to u. Back off a little, just before he is going to back off.
To encourage even more, show him a pile of treats in the palm of your hand, let him take one. Use this to get him to come down, when he is coming down, close the hand and only show the treat in yor fingers
Work in 3s
3 times he comes gets a treat
then have to reach just a little for it...3 times
Then has to reach across your hand to get it, 3 times
Then has to put a foot on your hand to get it 3 times
If any step doest work, start from the beginning again
Take a session, as far as u can go, going thru steps as far as u can go 3 times.
Leave for an hr or even next day, do again.
only 3 sessions in a day
The 3rd day (even before the 3rd) he will step fully onto your hand to to get the treat.
Continuing these sessions in another 3 days he will land/step onto your hand without a treat.

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Karen
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 12:04 am    Post subject:

2 of the first kiki's I got were hand reared then ignored in the aviary by breeder, now after 3 weeks? in the aviary I have trouble getting in without them jumping all over me - sometimes they are on the door & I have to snake my hand in a small gap and pluck the male off the door so I can get in. He doesn't get upset when I do this & doesn't panic either. Of the other 4

I have in there 1 other female has started to follow the first 2 and now will take some food from me through the wire but she is still nervous.

The first 2 however, I am worried as when I come into the aviary they try and pull my clothes off! Rolling Eyes
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Steptoe
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 12:50 pm    Post subject:

http://www.kakariki.net/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=1028
That what you mean Karen?

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kakasa
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 3:47 pm    Post subject: Taming Kak's

Over the years I have had a number of Kak's "tame" themselves. Once they were used to me walking around in their aviaries they would gradually get more brave and eventually start to land on me. One hen would always sit on my foot until the day I forgot she was there, walked outside and off she went. I never saw her again.
One problem I have found is that if a hen becomes too tame she will often be a bad mother.
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Karen
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 25, 2005 1:36 am    Post subject:

Laughing Exactly Steptoe!
They are training me so perfectly now that the first 2 squeek & whine at me & sometimes I'm sure I know what they are saying Shocked
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Allen
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 12:32 am    Post subject:

Parent reared (wild) kakariki tame a lot easier than most other bird species. they are naturally curious and unafriad. Probably a legacy from a time in New Zealands past when kakariki had very few natural predators.

After a couple of months in an aviary environment, there is very little difference between hand reared and parent reared kakariki. I have some parent reared birds that are far tamer that birds that we have hand reared.

I think that in a flock situation only some of the bolder more dominant birds (usually males) come to me for titbits or land on me, the less dominant birds keep there distance, not because they are scared of me, rather they are respecting the dominant birds. I have moved birds around into different aviaries and all of a sudden, a "wild" bird becomes tame when he / she does not have competition from other birds.
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Kaka
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 07, 2006 3:01 am    Post subject: Thanks for tips on taming!!!!!

wall

Thanks for this forum. I've had one of my Kaks for 12 months now and our newest one for just under 1 week. They are both in seperate cages in my living room as they are still adjusting to each other and fighting! My first Kak is NOT a person bird. Likes to play on the floor but will go back in the cage if you so much as dare to take a look at him. The new bird is a bit more curious. I've picked up sooooo many tips on this forum about how to gain their trust and although I'm not at the 'land on me or come to me stage' she is definately showing sgns of being interested. This is made better by the fact that the other Kak isn't backing off as much anymore. So there's hope for me yet!!!! Laughing

Can I just say that I've found that if you lie on the floor, with some of their things a few feet away from you, and don't make eye contact with them they will come a bit nearer and stare. I've done this every night for a week and hope that in a few months they will trust me enough to actually land on me!! Pray

I know I'm in no positon to be giving tips {as I'm still so new to this} but I thought as it seems to be working for me maybe it may work for someone else. Thanks to this site I am actually enjoying my birds and look forward to putting my little one to bed so I can let them out!!
I've had more useful information from this site in 1 week than I have out of books or the library in a year!!!! Applause
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Steptoe
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 07, 2006 7:23 am    Post subject:

Quote:
I've had more useful information from this site in 1 week than I have out of books or the library in a year!!!!

We started this site just because of that reason...most of the books are written, referring to other books , usually by ppl who have no or very little hands on experience with kakariki. In effect perpetuating old wifes tales.
Even DoC know very little, as can be seen from their permit policy in NZ to only keep 2 kakariki/flight when they are a flock bird. And at the bottom of the permit it says contact an experienced breeder...there are very few in NZ, and try to find a breeder thru DoC is impossible.
Quote:
I know I'm in no positon to be giving tips

WRONG...All we do is pass on our experience and observations, newbies to experienced breeders....Parrots (in particular Kakariki) each has their own personality. Therefore there is no 'hard and fast ' formula. But each person passing on experience and observation does form a general consenis and methods of each aspect of jeeping, feeding, housing, taming.

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DU5TY
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 27, 2006 12:21 pm    Post subject: Tweet more confident

Our male kakariki (Tweet) has only been with us for 4 or 5 days compared with our female (Birdy) who we've had for months. However, within the first 12hrs, Tweet was feeding through the bars from me. Birdy is still very nervous although we don't see her much now as she is in the nesting box most of the time. Tweet will come up to the bars of the cage often. Hopefully looking forward to our first eggs and babies we can hand rear. Will possibly be posting for help at that point and will post some pics when we get the chance. Laughing
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ZiggysMum
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 11:55 am    Post subject: taming

Hello

I know this is a really old thread but i just thought i should comment:

Firstly, this site is brilliant i have had my male kakariki or about a year and a email i got 3 weeks ago.

I have been trying to tame my male or so long and ater reading this thread i moved the cage next to my chair, read a book, watched tv and taled away to my birds...less than a week later Ziggy comes out the cage or some sunflower seeds and his other half, Vegas is gradually getting braver. They sit on the chair next to me, Ziggy is even coming to sit without bribing him with sunlower seeds.

So i would like to say thanks to everyone who contributes, i have learnt more in the last week or two than in the last year.

Nic Applause



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pabloc
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 2:02 pm    Post subject:

I "bump" once in a while old and very old threads to follow up on information/ideas etc... sometimes there are new concepts that add up or complete to old information.
This is not a book or a website, but more kinda like an alive thing.

Thx for posting! I'm glad your kikes are getting tamer.

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