Question about price and tameness! (Pet store IRNS)

[RedNado130]

I'm not sure where exactly to post this, so here I am!
I have been looking for an IRN for a good 6 months, if not longer, now. A girl at work is looking to get a quaker and we've been talking about birds almost everyday lol Well, she came in to work the other day saying how they local pet store has 4 IRNS that I had to go see!
I've always been a bit weary about buying anything from a pet store, just because I've heard bad things from people (I haven't heard anything bad about this certain store though).
I went to check them out (and fell in love, of course!) They are asking 499 for the green mutation and 599 for the blue mutation. I was just wondering if this seems like a normal price for an IRN? I don't have any expirance with prices with them, so I could really use some help!
One other thing as well. They were babies (I LOVE their little voices!) and they seemed a bit 'nippy'? They weren't biting hard or doing it angrily. Is this normal? I know that bird, espically younger ones tend to like to lick and test things with their beaks, but they wouldn't let me get any farther than their beaks. Wouldn't give me the time of day when I tried to give them scratches on the back of their necks or anything. They wouldn't let me reach back far enough before my finger was in their mouth =P I just wanted to know if that could be a red flag or not?
Thank you so much for your time, I really appreciate it!!

[willowisp71]

Hi RedNado,

Firstly, regarding your price query, where abouts in the world are you? Depending on your locality, the prices will differ greatly from country to country.

I am in Australia, and I can tell you now, that 499aus for a green, and 599aus for a blue, are TOTALLY OUTRAGEOUS prices!! Greens and blues are the most common colour of IRN, and shouldn't have high price tags, unless you are in a country were obtaining an IRN is difficult due to council restrictions, or availability.

Regarding your 'biting' question, it could be that they still only associate the hand or finger with being fed, and were hungry at the time you visited them

Let us know what country you are in, and a breeder from that area can tell you what to expect to pay

[RedNado130]

I do feel like it is a little bit high, but I needed a few more opinions!
I live in New york, Niagara Falls/Buffalo area. I've been hunting for IRNS for a good 7 months now and haven't been able to find a local breeder. I'm even willing to travel a little bit if I have to! These are the first IRNs that I've seen around here. There was one that was in Rochester at another pet store as well, I was never able to get out there without taking off work right away and it ended up selling before I even realized! I'm not sure how much they were offering there though.
I personally don't think that they should be selling for as high as they are at that local pet shop near me though. But I could be wrong on that, I don't have enough expirance to really judge too well lol
Finding a breeder that is within my area turned out to be much harder than I had antisipated!

[willowisp71]

Yeah, that does sound a bit steep for US prices, but then, I wouldn't really know....I have heard that some states in America have restrictions on keeping IRN's as pets, but I'm not sure which states they are (they are considered pests in some parts of the world!)

To get an idea of what price you should be looking at for which colours, in your area....check out this link;

http://www.hoobly.com/184/2534/0/

Hope the link works for you

[RedNado130]

I thought it sounded a bit too pricey!
That website really helps! Those are much more reasonable in price. Thank you!
I found another pet shop not too far from me, they are a lot more focused on birds. I've been emailing the woman for most of today and she said those prices were really high too. She said she is going to help me find an IRN hand fed baby! She said she did have a lutino IRN that she just sold for 300, and that the greens usually go cheaper since they are much more common, which I knew.
That is muucchhhh more in my price range, I'd be comfortable if I could spend about 300 or less, that is much more in my budget for the bird itself. Green and yellow seem to catch my eye the most as well, and then blue =) But I would be beyond happy with whatever color I end up coming across. It just all depends on the price.
I've been a bit worried about actually getting one, getting the cage, and everything. I wasn't sure how soon I would actually be able to find an IRN. I'm already guilty of having bought toys months ago... Which brought on laughter from my boyfriend! I just can't help myself. Out of all the birds I've researched and have been around, I just fell in love with IRNs. I've slowly been buying things for the bird that I don't have lmao I wanted to slowly start gathering all the things I need instead of spending so much money and buying everything at once!
So, I think I actually might jump and order the cage I've been eyeing for the past 5 months!
I'm more excited than I should be! I really appreciate your help!!!

[willowisp71]

No problem at all, glad I could be of help. You won't regret buying an IRN.....they are such wonderful characters. We had our blue IRN almost literally fall into our lap a couple of months ago......he had (obviously) escaped from his original home, and I managed to capture him and save him from being run over by several cars...he insisted on walking down the road! When we couldn't locate the owners, we decided to keep him, and have fallen in love with the cheeky bugger Although he won't let us touch him (very fearful of our hands getting near him), he will take food from us now, and he talks like crazy, although most of what he says we don't understand properly, but he is such a joy to have around. We have just recently met with a breeder and put a deposit down for a hand-reared female as a companion for him, she is a grey cinnamon (silver) colour....she won't be ready to come home for another month yet, and we are so excited about her. Got to have cuddles with her when we met the breeder, and she is soooo adorable. We are hoping that with us handling the new bubba, it might rub off on Skittles and he will become a little tamer with us

Best of luck in your search, and yes, I agree, it's much better to spread the cost of all the toys and cage etc out over a couple of months, rather than all at once....you've done well, and now you'll HAVE to find yourself a little birdie to enjoy it all!

Just make sure you get one that is FULLY weaned, (should be at least 10 weeks old) if you have never had experience in hand-rearing/weaning birds before.....so much can go wrong if you don't know what issues/problems to look for when they're at that age. Here in Western Australia, it is against regulations to sell unweaned birds unless it is to someone with lots of experience. They should be cracking seed by themselves, and also eating soft fruit and vegetables by themselves.......if they tell you the bird still needs 3 feeds of formula a day, then it's hasn't been 'weaned' yet.

[RedNado130]

I appologize for such a late reply!
Aww! That little guy is so lucky to have had someone so caring find it!! I'm sure within time it will get much more comfortable!
And congrats on your soon-to-come baby!!! That has to be the best feeling in the world! And I bet that the tameness will rub off on the blue IRN too! If it sees how nice and gentle you are to the baby, I think that it will see how you handle things more!
I can't even wait to have my own, hopefully soon enough! The only thing that I'm really worried about it the noise lol I'm stable where I am with my boyfriend right now, but if something ever happened, and I sure hope it doesn't, I'm worried about having to move into my own apartment with other tenants around. I'm half thinking about getting a smaller bird, maybe a parrotlet or cockatiel first before I get an IRN, which could be down the road. But IRN's have stolen my heart already!

No matter the bird, I am going to get one fully weaned. I have raised a sparrow from hatching before, I have some experience with it, but not enough to say that I know what I'm doing. I had found the baby bird on the sidewalk on my way home from a fish store! He/She didn't have any feathers, it's eyes weren't open or anything. But he grew healthily and ended up flying away =) I had no idea how often baby birds eat during the day and how time consuming it really is! It's completely worth it, it's the best thing that I've ever had the opportunity to do, but boy! My boyfriend had named the little sparrow Thomas! He was adorable!

But yes, I do want a fully weaned baby! I may even have a cage by this monday!! I've already bought more toys lmao I have a little play basket full of toys and parts to make toys in my spare room! So hopefully I'll have a little baby of my own soon enough!

[willowisp71]

Thanks for your reply And good luck in your search for your feathered friend. We still have 2-3 weeks to go before we can pick up our baby....the day's are just DRAGGING by so slowly lol! But we'll get there eventually!