Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2006 9:30 am Post subject: New kakariki in home
Alright, here goes!
I expect to recieve some flak for this (ex."use the damn search option!")
but.... i just need a couple specific questions answered.
I live in beautiful british columbia, Canada, and i have just recieved a beautiful bird as a present for my one year clean(previous substance abuse problems)
He is a year and a half old, and i have named him Jeffrey
He has quite an attitude and is very moody. I like that he knows what he wants, but i need to set boundries with him.
I was reading up on another website, and learned that in order to stop the biting, i should ball up my fist and just let him bite until he stops.
I tried that this morning, and ended up with quite a bit of ripped up skin on my middle finger. It seems he likes to eat my skin!
How can i dicipline him to not bite me? or to know his boundries.
I also have a hard time closing his cage door or changing his water or food dishes. I know he is very territorial, but will trust come with time?
He seems to love to hop around my whole house, and loves being with me in my bed watching TV.
I just want to make sure i'm not doing anything wrong. Thanks for all your help!
His cage had been placed in the dining room where there was little to no sun, just artificial light.
We placed him by the living room screen door yesterday and he would not stop chatting away! He seemed so happy!
Yes they can get very territoral of their own home/cage...this varies between individual personalties.
A gentle tap to the beak, only enough to have him back off a little.
Also grabbing the beak between finger and thumb.
We have 1 male who now, comes up and gentlely bites/nibbles, we grab his beak un can lift him off his feet..thinks it a great game.
Another now comes up with a firm nut not hurt bite, and have a sword fight with with him, again thinks its a great game.
Takes about a week.
Also delay his veggies /fruit so he is a little hungry, then offer his favourites by hand. Its sort of a balance...is he more hungry than agressive
Again this takes abourt a week. _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
Congrates on staying clean!!!! you should be proud of yourself.
I have tried so many things to stop tiki from biting but nothing seems to be working, he's not so bad with me, he will bite me sometimes and when he does it tends to be my ear when he is on my shoulder, but he is worse when my boyfriend comes round and last night he was so bad that my boyfriend ended up leaving, he was just sitting there watching tv and tiki would fly onto him and just full on attack him for no reason, he goes for his hands, ears whatever he can bite, and he is getting more and more agressive each time, he is actually drawing blood and doesn't want to let go, I'm at a bit of a loss on how to treat this, we have tried the fist, the tapping on the beak, and holding the beak but none of this is working, I have decided that he can't come out when my boyfriend is over but sometimes he will stay for a couple of days at a time and Tiki has to come out everyday, any advice on what my next step could be, would be appreciated.
Thanks Gina.
Jeffrey is getting more and more friendly every day!
He isn't biting as much, and he will usually let me know he is not in the mood before he bites.
He seems very happy, and is getting very social, always wanting to come out of the cage to hang out with us.
I brought him to my friends house the other day, and they own two other birds. A lovebid and a mini macaw. Jeffrey seemed to get along with them fine. He really loved being on the ocean.
Good to see progress LB
Tiki....
I had a similar problem with a girlfriend and a sulphur crested yrs ago...
Well with a couple of them (girlfriends that is )
This sounds like a Dear Ebby answer .
A parrot that has a lot of attention can get very agressive to competition.
Althu Kakariki dont usually have tendencies this way...it can happen.
Looking back, the problem with the Sulphur Crested (Sam) was not him, but the 2 girl friends. Both had underlaying jeliousy, tended to be a bit possive towards me, and realy didnt have the confidence to handle Sam.
They both could play, scatch, roll him over and stuff but he picked up on their underlaying attitudes, and would suddenly attack.
I tried lots of things (and drasitic that I will not mention here) with Sam, but nothing worked.
With 1 of the girlfriends, things did improve quite abit, once she realised that it was 'me AND Sam' and accepted other stuff about me like spending days. weeks, working on hot rods...I was single (not marriied) I had things I wanted to do for myself...if she wanted to be part of that, fine if not ...well...
This was the common denomiator with the other girl friends who never had problems with Sam. They accepted who I was and what I was into...for a while .
Eventually some yrs later, due to committments I gave Sam to a good lady Friend...She was only a good friend. Again Sam felt no threat from her, and got on with her as well as me.
So well, She used to take him for weekends/week when I was away racing.
I did have a male flatmate that Sam would attack, (4 guys renting a house). This used to be big time...He would have to use the frying pan/shoes what ever to fend Sam off....to the extent that Sam would attack with such vigor, it would take aggressive shoves with the frying pan, enough to send him right across the kitchen floor tumbling.
Frankly, Im sure once Sam relealised he could torment my flat mate, he just didnt back off.
I think a lot of the problem was how I treated Sam from a young bird out of the wild...As with all our pets, we co habit with them, maintianing their natural personalities and indepenance. Kakariki have a very strong natual sence of independance, and trust, where as other parrots,(and pets) independance can be turned into dependance very easy. When a pet is depenant, it is more the dependance rather than trust that determines the personality. _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
Hello lovebites and ......Congrats on you new boys hes beautiful my kakarikis are not biters but i have a conure with some attitude issues and I always use the swme word and tone when he is getting to rough i say "uh uh' and yes i do the beak grab aswell with my guy it is a bit of a dominence thing letting him know that I can and will stop him from biting.....while I was at my avian vet for a check up a few weeks ago i was told the best way to "disipline" them is as soon as they bite or anything like that to imediatly push them to the floor and walk away no sound no fuss just floor and ignore.........I told her I normally do a simialar thing but put him in his cage she said that is fine and works also but the difference is they like there cage it has their food and toys ect in it.....like sending a child to their room for punishment................ but the floor is a shock and they do not like being ignored.......it seems to be working very well but he is also coming out of his hormonal stage aswell Anyhow hope I have helped and glad to see your enjoying this beautiful bird
That works just as well. If u just want to stop the behavour...
I prefer the "turn a bad habit into a trick"
Grabbing the beak, giving a little shake but not hurting, turns into being able to grab in fun, shake his head around , he doesnt mind, and maybe being able to pick him up...
If one is able to turn behavour around, they are much more fun, and they have more fun in their lives _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
Thanks Step- toe for the advice.....sounds like you had your hands full with the bird and the girlfriends....
I don't think it's a lack of confidence on my boyfriends behalf, he has a bird of his own, (lovebird) and when we had our other kakariki, he was actually living with me at the time and he trained her really well, hes not living here any more, and he thinks i dont know how to train tiki... sounds like two parents arguing over their kids,Tiki is lovely most of the time towards me so i dont have to stop him from doing it and at times when he does all I have to say is a firm "stop" and he will listen to me, I have tried this when he attacks my boyfriend and for a few seconds he will stop and look at me but then gets back into it again, he doesnt bite my son very much either........hmmmmm is tiki trying to tell me something , oh well will just have to try a few things to see what will work, tonight he was so sweet towards me, I was doing the step up onto the finger training and he was so compliant, with a bit of food for enticement and it worked beautifully, not once did he try to eat my finger.
Oh Boy!
Jeffery sure is quite the character! He has just recently taken to a reflection
of himself in my stainless steel garbage can! He is a lot smarter than I would have thought becuase he is actually trying to get inside the garbage can to get at the bird instead of thinking he is right there beside him! I love when he walks around my house, and sometimes he follows me! He is realizing that he has to be reliant on me for most of his vertical transportation, and is showing what he wants quite blatently. He will flap his wings or bob his head up and down when he wants something! Having this little bundle of joy is quite the blessing!
Lovebites this is just the begining with your little friend, they are such wonderful birds, over the years I have had a few birds, alexandrans, rainbow lorrekets, cockateils and breed budgies, this was all in Newzealand and now I'm living in Australia and came across the Kakariki and I don't think I will have any other breed now, they are so much fun, they make you smile, they keep you on your feet when they are out of their cage, I sort of describe them as having a two year old in the house as they can get into a bit of mischief if you dont keep and eye on them as they love to explore their surroundings. I hope you have a wonderful time finding out his personality.
Enjoy!!!!!!
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