IndianRingNeck.com

Hi all, there was an older post from a couple months back in the introduction section (http://www.indianringneck.com/forum/vie ... hilit=ipad), so I thought rather than hijacking that thread, I'd start a new one here from one of ellie's reponses. This was about someone's IRN getting into unwanted mischief and the owner was looking for ways to prevent it.

ellieelectrons wrote:
3. hide things you don't want him to access (eg. tv remotes). - I cannot use my iPad in peace when Charlie is out of the cage, so I got a FisherPrice case for it so that if I want him to interact with it he can without me worrying about him damaging it but other than that, I don't use it when he is out. You can hide things under cushions, etc. when your bird is out. When your bird is attacking the remote, you mentioned you put him back on his play area and then he flies straight back. At this point I would recommend hiding the object in question.

Both my fiance and I have iPhones with very tough rubber cases that our IRN cannot bite through. And Remy is really fascinated with all things electronic - remotes, cell phones, laptop computers, etc. When we are on the couch, we can hide the remotes under blankets and we have to use the computer on the table, not on our laps and all is fine. But our iPhones we let her play with. The minute she sees them, whether we are using them or not, she appears and starts gnawing on them. She loves the casing and the "shell" the phone is in and somehow enjoys to pull the casing off (which is fine, its one of these slider cases and we arent concerned about damage to the phone http://www.incipio.com/cases/iphone-cas ... -case.html).

Where we ARE concerned is realizing that the sides of the iPhone exposed and not completely covered by the case is made of some kind of shiny chrome looking metal, where the volume and lock buttons are. We have no idea what kind of metal this is.

Long story short in question - are we poisoning our bird by letting it play with our phones? She is way more interested in the case than the phone, and after she has removed the phone from the case, she flicks it around, chirps with glee and loses interest/moves on. But we see her little tongue and it is indeed touching the metal on the phone as she plays with it. Should we care?

If it should be safe, we really dont care if she plays with it every now and then - like a toddler would chew on something for 5 minutes and move on. But if it could be toxic, we will take it away for good.

Hey,

I have no ideas on the answer, but your post made me smile! You and your fiancé do such a great job of looking after your Remy and providing her with the best life you can, down to the iPhone case! That's so cute.
You have partially restored my faith in humanity

I completely agree Claire. One of the few that I love discussing our feathered friends with

As for the iPhone. I have one too. The side buttons if its a 4 or 4S are stainless steel. The overall casing of the phone is aluminosilicate glass. So I pretty sure the buttons are ok

Thanks to you both! I guess we are overly concerned parronts Glad we arent annoying as we still have tons of questions! Also, we both have a 4 and its good to know that Remy can "de-shell" our phones whenever she wants. Its pretty ridiculous actually, whoever posted something about parrots loving remotes and electronics is spot on. She took the alt button off our laptop the other day, so the computer and remotes or anything with raised buttons is off limits. Who knew?!

I keep a locking tote on the bottom shelf of our end table with all the phones, remotes and anything else electronic lol. It's like a beacon for chewing. Skye will sit on the tote and try to chew his way in

P.S. you aren't annoying because you ask for advice and then you apply it without asking the same question a thousand different ways. You truly want to help your bird. You aren't lazy in the least and you don't look for the quick way out of a situation. You are obviously in it for the long haul. And that's what we like about you

Skyes_crew wrote:I keep a locking tote on the bottom shelf of our end table with all the phones, remotes and anything else electronic lol. It's like a beacon for chewing. Skye will sit on the tote and try to chew his way in

P.S. you aren't annoying because you ask for advice and then you apply it without asking the same question a thousand different ways. You truly want to help your bird. You aren't lazy in the least and you don't look for the quick way out of a situation. You are obviously in it for the long haul. And that's what we like about you

Thanks Skye, well honestly new members here need to understand that so many of you really take the time - quite often LOTS of time - to answer our newbie questions. You guys really provide comprehensive and compassionate advice and people need to understand that these arent just off the wall reckless suggestions, but well thought out advice based on your own experiences. So you bet your buns I'm going to apply it! The fact that we are in love with Remy always helps with the commitment part too. So thanks to all of u!

I love seeing people go the extra mile to look after their birds and keep them amused! I wish everyone treated their pets so well.

Btw Nele really liked playing one of those ant crushing games on my phone a few days, maybe Remy would like iPhone games too?

Mine LOVE iDevices too, especially Charlie, I think it's because I showed him lots of vids of birds on it when Janey was nesting last year. I bought the Fisher Price case for my ipad (actually my mum bought it for my birthday) and I'm confident to let him chew that although I was a bit disappointed with how hard the case is to take on and off - and you can't leave it on because it covers the buttons on the side of the device. They also make an iPhone case for kids.

I tried the ant smasher app and various other kids' apps but hey didn't keep their attention for long. Trying to convince my programmer husband to make one for them!

Ellie.

Ellie: a game for ringnecks would be so cool! I think it would need an invincible option. Nele didn't distinguish the bugs he was meant to squish from the bugs that ended the game in the ant game.
Oh, and after they squash 10 bugs in a row or something it should cut to a video of another ringneck saying 'good bird!' to keep the motivation up.

I don't have an awnser, but what I can say is that Jay loves iphones. He bites the case, and when you play music he does his little courtship dance. If you play other ringneck tones on the phone he gets cranky and tries to court me! lol

Claire: I agree - regarding invincibility: I found the Ant Smasher exited too quickly if they missed one... rewards of seeing a parrot video is pretty cool too!

Ellie.

Well, honestly, without Fats I would have never figured out how to turn the sound off in Candy Crush Saga. He hit a little thing in the corner and the options popped up

ranechild wrote:Well, honestly, without Fats I would have never figured out how to turn the sound off in Candy Crush Saga. He hit a little thing in the corner and the options popped up

Hahaha that's so cute!

LOL at all the posts on this one - clearly when we humans fill our lives with electronic devices, we do so for the entertainment of our IRNs!

A couple of thoughts:

Firstly, the 'parrot app' idea is awesome. My mother-in-law has iPad apps for her cats (e.g. pictures of fish swimming around that they like to pounce on) so I see no reason why something similar couldn't be done for birds. If you know of one, share!

My second thought is a more profound one, on parrot-related damage. I think I might start a new thread on this one...coming soon!

Thanks for all the blessings to let Remy play with our phones I hope she grows bored of it soon because she will have weird cellular radiation disease one day or something she plays with it more than we do! I honestly think the appeal is because she sees us using them so much, she cant bear the thought of her not playing with it too.

ellieelectrons wrote:Mine LOVE iDevices too, especially Charlie, I think it's because I showed him lots of vids of birds on it when Janey was nesting last year. I bought the Fisher Price case for my ipad (actually my mum bought it for my birthday) and I'm confident to let him chew that although I was a bit disappointed with how hard the case is to take on and off - and you can't leave it on because it covers the buttons on the side of the device. They also make an iPhone case for kids.

I tried the ant smasher app and various other kids' apps but hey didn't keep their attention for long. Trying to convince my programmer husband to make one for them!

Ellie.

I downloaded the ant smasher and she stepped on one ant and she lost interest and went back to taking the case off. If anyone has any tips on getting her to actually USE the phone, that would be a miracle in itself! An iPad or something bigger would prob be more effective.

I'm not sure about that.
Nele has always liked the screen, maybe because we have let him watch lots of parrot videos on our phones? When we got him I was trying to beat a friends high score on fruit ninja, so he would 'help' me. He also likes chasing the cursor on the computer screen better then pulling keys off, so he is a bit weird for a ringneck...

I can't believe you can get apps for cats! Actually, cat people are crazy, I can believe it

InTheAir wrote:I'm not sure about that.
Nele has always liked the screen, maybe because we have let him watch lots of parrot videos on our phones? When we got him I was trying to beat a friends high score on fruit ninja, so he would 'help' me. He also likes chasing the cursor on the computer screen better then pulling keys off, so he is a bit weird for a ringneck...

I can't believe you can get apps for cats! Actually, cat people are crazy, I can believe it

We played the IRN video from this home page with Anakin talking.. this was the first time she actually paid attention to what was on the screen. She was screaming and "attacking" him the whole time.

My IRN, (Bell) always wants to see what's happening on my phone. I made the mistake of showing him lots of bird videos on it.. now he surfs youtube on his own.

Makes it hard to take videos or pictures of him now.

And on another kind of odd note. He's blue.. he gets upset seeing other blues on the screen but gets excited and happy to see greens.