Taming

Laky · Member Joined: Feb 27, 2005 Posts: 6 Location: Australia

I brought a Kakariki this weekend, after waiting more than 6 months to find one.

He is called Elijah and he is 11 weeks old on formula twice a day and also he is eating seed and fruit, I am wondering about making him as tame as possible I have been talking to him in bird language and normally he he and stroking his back, but as I have only had him 2 days am I stresing him?

I would like tips on food for them and taming he is free most of the day sitting on his playground and at night I put him in the cage

he wants to go back to the perch after a few mins and tries to run away if you go to pick him up, I have two other parrots whom are tame, but this riki is far more energentic! any advice! Rolling Eyes

Steptoe · Site Admin Joined: Oct 06, 2004 Posts: 4550

1st off ,

to our community....
U will find Kikes are quite different in nature to other parrots, when tame they are not as dependent....rather they remain 'their own person', thats not to say kikes aren't friendly, even in the wild they tend not to have much fear...hence the ease at which they where exterminated.
Aviary breed kikes , even of an older age will tame down very well, and easier than other species.
They eat more veggie/fruit than seed once they leave the nest.
We are not allowed to hand rear Kikes in NZ, Doc/permits etc, so one of the other members could help out on hand rearing Kikes.
Have a good look thru the forums here, u will find most of the info u need.
The forums are a bit messy to find info, we are rather casual in threads going off subject and stuff like that, so.
One day when someone gets time we will correlate all the info into some sort of ordered manner...or maybe a new member may get enthusiastic and do it ???
duno

Laky · Member Joined: Feb 27, 2005 Posts: 6 Location: Australia

Thanks for that, I have gone through the posts which have been very helpful, now he is really energentic, pooing everywhere inlcuding my keyboard! He is bitting me like he just discovered how! I have a fat lip and a fat ear now Laughing

But ya he's doing well eating everything that I feed my princess parrots and all is good.

Steptoe · Site Admin Joined: Oct 06, 2004 Posts: 4550

Biting, have to knock that on the head early...
DONT pull away, that shows hes has the upper hand....
Dont be afraid to react in the same way as another parrot would...
As he bites give him a bit of a push, its no good hitting, just a push.
Older birds,and dont be afraid even with him on occassions, cool and carmly bite them back on the wing, just ever so bit more than what they bite u. Or in other words, build a 'parrot' relationship with him rather than u build a human relationship.
If u hit them. they will cower, not a good reaction, a bite they just sit there with a suprised look signlol

U will not see or read that advice in any parrot book, things these days are so overly PC.
As yes it works with dogs and cats to signlol

Allen · Foundation Member Joined: Oct 14, 2004 Posts: 269

Hi

to the site

Kakaraikis wean quite easily, they try and eat anything anything and everything, including you. He probably isn't biting, just tasting to see if you are edible. Kikes are not scared of anything. My cat sleeps on top of one of my aviaries and the kikes pull out his fur. I don't think having close contact with a hand reared kike is stressfull at all for the bird, in fact it is very good to help bond with the bird.

They are high energy birds and like to be active and explore. Can be a bit of a handfull, like a two year old kid. Be carefull as they try and taste everything in the room. Make sure there is nothing dangerous, valuable or poisonous. Enjoy your bird, don't worry too much about the biting, just don't react, ignore it.

Where are you, why did you wait six months for a kike? Scarce?

Laky · Member Joined: Feb 27, 2005 Posts: 6 Location: Australia

I waited so long as the guy whom I have brought my other birds off was wating to get some new babies and hand raise them, also the first few weeks of the this year have been fairly hetic so that is the reason, and yes you don't see many around I am in Sydney Wink