Hi - im new here and this is my IRN Monte

[MissVuks]

My boyfriend and i have had Monte since roughly valentines day. We bought him off a lady who was moving interstate and didnt want him anymore.

We were told he was a boy but now were beginning to think he may actually be a girl.

The reason we think this is when we got him he already had a ring begining to show. But he was only supposedly 3.5 months old and she just stopping giving him his hand rearing food.

Monte is now about 8 months old (or so we were told) and in the past few months his ring has started to fade. the ring was only near his beak and maybe was 1.5cm long. hes got black little feathers above his beak also, i dont know if that means hes a boy

here are our pics of him. we love him to bits and hes learning to say Hello and mimics whistles.

Lastlyyyy, when we bought him she had cut his wing so he wouldnt fly away. NOt one feather has grown back. An avian vet she did to it right but it was abit messy. We think she might of given him away bcos she ruined his wing too. the vet says they usually grow and drop one feather per month in the wild so they still have a full set of flight feathers. we havnt seen one feather grow on Monte. its quite sad because we want to see him fly..

sorry for the pic quality - theyre off my mobile fone.

these are when we first got him, if you can see his black ring showing







and these are more recent ones, minus the black ring??







heres a vid of him in the rain



heres a few of him trying to speak - last one is really bad quality was filmed off a pretty crap mobile fone

[Lauren]

Hello and Welcome to the flock here. Monte looks adorable. I love your videos! Very cute.

It does look as if he is growing a ring which would make him about 2 years old around abouts. But then in other pictures he looks quite young. I don't think he is growing his ring this early if Monte is in fact 8 months old. Male IRNs start getting a black ring around 2 years give or take a few months. Even young IRNs have a faint ring. But this is no indicator of the birds sex. The only way to positively tell an IRNs sex before maturity is through DNA testing.

In your videos I noticed only one wing is clipped. Its best to have both wings clipped for training/taming. Having one wing clipped puts the bird off balance and can cause injuries due to the bird not being able to have any control. I had a tiel that caused itself alot of harm by having the wings clipped incorrectly.
In my opinion, clipping should only take away the birds ability to gain height. They should still be able to fly safely to the ground if needed.
The feathers will grow back and if you want to have the bird clipped, it needs to be done every couple of months or when the feathers have grown back after a moult. Its really up to you whether you want to clip. But it is easier to tame and train your bird if they are. If you are unsure of how to clip, search for clipping or get an avian vet to do it for you.
My 7 year old is not clipped and hasnt been for a few years now. But my 10 month old is because we are taming him/her.

Goodluck and I look forward to seeing more of Monte.

[MissVuks]

is there any way an avian vet would be able to gauge how old he is?? im considering getting him DNA sexed just to know whether monte is infact a he or a she - does it cost much?

[Lauren]

I'm not sure whether an avian vet can determine the age. Maybe someone else can help you here?

There are a few DNA testing places around. Here is just one of them in Australia.

http://www.genescience.com.au/

Doing a google search for DNA testing for birds will give you some.

I'm waiting another year and half to find out my Yodas sex. More exciting!

[MissVuks]

Took monte to the vets today who had a look at his wing. He said the lady before us cut off his 3 long flight feathers. she cut the others correctly but shouldve kept the longer ones that overlap on his back.

he gnaws at these quite abit and the doc reckons its because it could still be causing him discomfort.

he said we should see some growth in his wings around january hopefully and his 3 longer feathers may take up to another 1-1.5yrs to fully recover cos she actually cut into the quick of his quills

my poor baby - i feel so bad for him and the pain he went thru when she cut his wings i hope it does grow back eventually.

other than that he recommended a specialist avian vet who does DNA sexing with a lightscope?? i think monte would have to go under for that.

but he also plucked a feather and i might go send it off 2moro with that site that was posted above..

thanks for the replies
Lora

[kyria]

wow how strange he should start showing signs of a ring early and then it disappear like that. You have one very special and unusual fid there, you are very lucky, gives him all that more character and history.



I would be placin bets on boy, if I saw feather like that show up on my fids (two of those pics), no matter if they disappeared again for what ever reason I would be convinced they WILL return.

There is a post on the site about dna and sites you can have tests done and also vids on how to look for male behaviours in your fid.

http://indianringneck.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=2960

P.S. I use to post on this board as angie so they are my vids

Let us know how everything goes.

[Lauren]

Oh dear. I hope Monte recovers quickly.

That is very strange that he had a ring. Monte definately looks like a boy. Either he is older or an early developer!

Keep us updated.