Advise on my Kak

I've had waffle a couple of months, I took him in from a friend not knowing much background on him/her. Its just come to light that my friend found him in her garden and after putting notices up locally could not find his owners so then passed him on to me.

I'm a bit worried about him/her, he know comes out of his cage if I leave the door open and goes and perches on the curtain pole, but is very nervous of me if I go near him or near the cage.

Am I going to be able to progress with him does anyone think or could it be that his previous ordeal of being outside has made him nervous?

Any advise appreciated.

oh goodness its anyones guess what the poor things been through if I were you just allow her/him time..be patient, sounds like you have already made some progress & thats a mile stone right their, "baby steps" You may one day get to hold the poor dear, none of us can say one way or the other..does waffle show aggression at all towards you? like trying to bite?..we have a eclectus that feather plucks & the real story or shall I say the "Truthful" story is a mystery, she is going through numerous changes daily..just when you think your making progress, they will regress a little bit.. it can get so frustrating you just never know when or if they will learn to trust you..we have no way of knowing that a certain thing that frightens them is a thing we actually do..you would have to be a psychic to know everything..carols taken in a lot of rescues & so has mue..they may could shed some light on this subject for you..to me in my honest opinion, you sound like your doing the right thing, going slow, allowing waffle to decide when he comes out of the cage..not being pushy, I say keep doing what your doing & have lots of yummy treats to always offer, that way your associated with delicious food..

Awwhh, poor Waffle, sounds like he had a tough start in life.

However, even if he'd not had such a rough start he'd probably still be very flighty. It's a trait of kakarikis I'm afraid. They just can't seem to stop moving! Even hand-reared ones don't get that tame. I wouldn't be worried about Waffle, unless he's totally freaking out if you even go near him. Best thing is to try and offer him some tasty treats through the wire of his cage (which he may or may not take - I've been trying with my lutino pair since I got them and they still just look at me from the other end of the perch!) and when you're in the room, talk to him softly all the time so he gets to know who you are and can reconise your voice. If you can make him feel safe in your presence, he should calm down a little. I wouldn't count on him ever being a cuddly bird though. I could be wrong of course!

Poor Waffle - thankfully she had you to take her in!

Where do you have Waffle's cage in the house? Would it be possible to move her next to where you sit? Try and put her somewhere there is a fair bit of traffic through the house. Kaks are VERY sociable little birds and as Waffle is the only bird at the moment she needs to be near you. She'll get used to your voice if she's near you and that will go a long way to helping when she's out. Try using a different voice to talk to her when she's in 'calm' mode to what your day to day voice is, then use this voice to talk to her when she's out - you'll need to try and get everyone else in the house on board for this or it won't work though.

Does she have a special treat? Try leaving a bowl of her favourites easy for her to access but far from where you are sitting, each day move it a little closer to you but leave her alone when she's at the treat bowl so she knows you're not going to touch her when she's there as a rule. Her curiosity should eventually get the better of her, but it will be on her own terms.

With her being a lone bird she's not going to be as confident as if she had a 'partner in crime' - is there any way you could get her a mate? They are very inquisitive and get into everything, they call for each other and give each other confidence when out. I don't believe that lone birds ever do as well if there are no other birds in the house, even if it's another bird type in another cage, they get loads of communication from each other and thrive better.

Good luck with her and let us know how you get on

Thanks for all the advise and suggestions he does sometimes take treats through the wires of the cage, and tends to come and go from his cage as he wants. Just seems nervous if I go near him, or he'll fly to the back of his cage if he's in there.

He's not very chatty, does seem happy enough just a little nervous, hadnt thought about getting him a mate before. Took me a while to find out what sort of bird he was asked in pet stores and no one knew, it was only through looking at pictures on the net that I found out.

Have thought about moving him to a place with more traffic but as I have 2 cats I feel its the safest place for him, I do spend alot of time in the room with him and talk to him while I'm with him.

I'll try all your suggestions, he doesnt really have a fovourite treat, but loves millet.

Sounds to me like he's just doing his regular bird thing! Personally, I think if you've got him to take treats through the cage bars after all he's been through then you're doing a brilliant job!

sounds all normal really.. it was about 6 months after i had my 1st 2 that the male started to get more brave ..... i sat next to the cage for a while every day with my hand just in the cage so they got used to me n knew i wasnt going to hurt them.....when they got inquisitive theyd come n look at it n give it a gentle nibble to see if i was food they got gradually braver and eventually hed come sit on my knee n eat toast with me ..... n that made rosey a bit braver too i could feed sunflower seeds like that too...... ....but after he got ill rosey withdew n now (after he died... i got 4 more) Rosey and 2 of the new ones will take seeds off me when they are out but not sit on me...and through the cage but other 2..... NO CHANCE....!!!

The males tend to be more chatty than females Jimi one of my newbies is really chatty n sings along to the sterio and joins in when people are chatting ....... he sort of says something that sounds like 'wheres rosey?' but dont think he can have picked that up sooo quick off me....... and he sort of says 'treacle' i think they must have been birds or dogs or something at the breeders lol.... the other male has a much differnt voice and also says rosey which is cool as he has paired up with my rosey..... and he says it after hes fed her sometimes and when hes looking for her when theyr out ....... my females are all pretty quiet

Waffle has been molting and lost the long feathers on his wings and cant fly, is this normal?

you need to make sure hes getting enough food they need a bit more to produce the feathers when they are molting... mine are having eggfood still and fresh fruit n veg as well as their seed mix

mine dont usually lose loads of feathers at once tho....not enough to stop them flying... anyone else??

It's not normal as such but it does happen. I've never had it happen to my kakarikis before but quite often one or two of my pigeons will loose their flight feathers during their moult. They're supposed to moult two at a time - normally the same feather on each wing so they're still balanced to fly.

The best thing to do would be to get some egg food as Daisy said, it's chock full of nutrients, and also get Waffle a cuttlebone and some vitamin supplement to add to his water. The feathers should grow back pretty quickly but whilst he can't fly, it would probably be best not to let him out of the cage incase he tries to take off and does himself some damage (unless of course you can move the cage onto the floor to let him out for a walk about?!).

Other than that, there's not really anything you can do until they grow back. Just try to keep Waffle calm as the moulting process is very stressful for birds. Hopefully his feathers will have grown back in a few weeks and he'll be back to his flappy michievous self!