New to IRN-hood and very grateful for all the info in this forum! Stella joined our family two weeks ago now as our first IRN, having "graduated" from our dear cockatiel Flynn who left us about half a year ago now.
She was definitely not an impulse buy, we had been talking about our next bird, but that she was the one was due to her sitting in a small cage without toys in a pet shop, looking miserable. I'm a bit of a softie, so instead of getting a completely tame and happy bird baby we got Stella, who needs some work. She is not afraid, but nippy, understandably so as the pet shop told us she came to them clipped from a breeder, but after a couple of weeks they saw one of her wings bleeding. They have a vet on site, and she was tended to, needing x-rays and all sorts of things surely highly unpleasant for a little bird!
As a result she doesn't like hands much, but my thinking is that I only need to be patient and calm and it will pass...? She already eats out of our hands (she eats a lot!!
![Happy :-)](./images/smilies/1.gif)
I've made her a play stand using clean gum tree branches, and she comes out and has a play daily, and I try to do the "touch" a stick, click and treat at least three four times a day, hoping she will step on my hand to touch soon, and then I plan to start walking her a bit further from her cage every day. Any other suggestions to make our journey easier and / or better for her would be greatly appreciated of course! She is about 5 months old, am trying to attach a photo, let's see how it goes! (Edit: Nah, can't do it, do I remember something about not being able to for the first 10 posts or something?)
Thanks again for all the info on here, my husband has already started calling me the crazy bird lady as I spend so much time reading everything!
![Big Grin :D](./images/smilies/4.gif)