Baby ringneck parakeet

Question
Hi we have just received a new addition to our family.  He/she is 5 weeks old and is still being fed. He is very frightened and hides away from us and shakes when handled. How do we earn it's trust and love and how much should we be handling it at this stage? Is it still to young to be handled? Where can we get advice on training him?

Answer
Hello Carol.  It sounds like you have your hands full with this little guy.  It will take time, but he will learn to trust you, he just needs to be handled.  He is not too young for you to handle him for feeding, it's actually good for him.  This way he will learn to love and trust you.  He shakes because he is so young.
At this stage, though, I would only handle him to feed him.  In a dew weeks, you can start to handle him more, and by that time he should have enough trust in you to be able to handle him a little more.  It is a gradual thing.
As for the training goes, there is a site that I do recommend to people that I think is wonderful.  I use the methods on my own birds with great success, and my birds and I have learned a lot.

www.birdtricks.com

Please keep me informed on how your new friend is coming along.

Good luck and God Bless.
Dianna