Older Shy Keet

User Question
I bought my first parakeet a month ago. He was older, over 6 mos. When we first brought him home, all he would do was face the wall. He will now turn and look at me when I talk to him, but he won't play with his toys at all. I have tried different ones but all he does is sit on his perch. I have finally been able to get him to perch on my finger but he won't let me move him around on my finger. I haven't tried to get him out of his cage because I want him to feel safe but he won't let my hand get close to him except to perch once in a while.

I also try to feed him fresh vegtables (lettuce, spinach) and fruit (apple peels) but he won't touch any of it. I also give him Roudy Bush pellets and a special mix with dried fruits and vegtables I bought at the pet store, but he seems to only eat his seed. He will squawk at me when he is sitting by his food dish (I think that he thinks that he needs more food) and sometimes when I leave the room he will chirp. Could he be trying to see if I am still here, or am I flattering myself?

So, these are my questions.

1. Since he is older, is there anything else I should be doing to try and get him to let me touch him and hopefully hold him someday? I would love to get him out of his cage and play with him.

2. Is there any way I can get him to eat the fresh food and the other mix and pellets?

3. Do you think that he will ever start to play with his toys and move around his cage a little?

Thanks for your help. I would love to fully enjoy my experience with this new member of our family.

Lisa's Answer
Just to be clear, you don't really hold a keet like you would hold a gerbil. They sit on your finger and hang out with you :) So you are already well on the path to that, just keep working at that daily. Building trust with a keet is a long but rewarding process. Keets are VERY smart and learn to trust you on their own time.

We have a ton of discussions in the forum about getting your keet to eat healthy foods, and I also have several pages about it on my lisashea.com site. In essence you have to teach the keet that this is real, yummy food. You can't just put it in a dish and hope for the best. I'd start with lettuce as that is easiest, and follow the instructions on the site to work on lettuce daily. I bet after a week or so you can get the keet to nibble at it :)

The keet will definitely start to move around and play a little as time goes on - but each keet is different. In my flock, Ivory loves bells. Santo loves hanging upside down. Nazo never plays with the toys but loves music. So each keet is very different. Try out different toys, to see which your keet likes best!

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