New IRN Pete - looking for advice

[sarah.l.hasler]

Hey all! I've been looking around this forum and this is my first post. I've had an IRN for almost a month now and he is great! The previous owner says he is 2 years old. He is very friendly and tame, he'll go to pretty much anyone and hop up on your shoulder. We spend lots of time with him, and anytime we're home he is out of his cage and on one of our shoulders. He is, however, quite skiddish. He won't venture out and leave our shoulder for anything. He won't even transfer from person to person without going to his cage first (he's very good to hop up on his cage when we bring him to it). He is content sitting on my shoulder for about 15 mins but then seems to get bored (starts plucking his feathers, "cleaning" himself, biting his nails, etc). However, anytime I try to entice him with a toy, or put anything at all near him, he starts to freak out. So I'm not sure how to help him with his boredom! All around he's pretty great, really smart, was potty trained in a day. He doesn't like vegetables but we're working on that Oh and also, he's curious about water but won't touch it, so he hasn't had a bath yet .

[MissK]

Wow, Sarah! It sounds like you got a real gem! A month is really just a blink of an eye to some.

On the shoulder, do you think it is the hand approaching or the thing in the hand that makes him uncomfortable? If it is the object, you can just start with feeding him while he's up there by hand. If it's the hand, you can offer him food in a little dish from his cage while he's up there, or lead with a primo super great bribe - a nut would be a good start, if he likes nuts, or a large seed otherwise. If you give food, it might be a kindness to tell him whatever you usually say when you offer a treat, and let the hand come at a gentle angle, slowly, so he has no surprises.

You might be able to entice him from person to person by putting your shoulders together and luring with food. If the hand is an issue, you can lay the food on the second person's shoulder to start. It might sound awkward, but it could work. Whatever you do, be sure to keep the increments in the level of demand small. Don't ask too much too fast.

When you say he starts plucking, cleaning himself, and biting his foot, you don't mean literally plucking out his feathers and damaging himself, do you? Because bona fide feather plucking and foot mutilation aside, that sounds like relaxed, content behaviour to me. How would it go if you were to place a bit of string on your shoulder, or a tiny bit of paper, before he gets there, so he will find something to play with?

You can put his favourite toy in a shallow container of water (just a splash in there) or float some seeds in their shell to entice him into water.

Congratulations on your fortunate find and welcome to the forum.

[sarah.l.hasler]

Yeah, he's pretty great! Thanks so much for your response. I gave it a few days to try your suggestion. He actually will allow us to go near him IF we have food. So feeding him on our shoulders isn't a problem. It's just that when we have an object/toy in our hand, he doesn't let it near him. When he starts plucking/cleaning himself, he actually does take out some of his feathers... not many, and very little, white ones (not his major, long ones). It certainly doesn't seem like he's damaging himself. I was just concerned that he is bored or discontent about something, but he's being fed well, has a big cage, and has lots of human interaction. Other than the plucking of the feathers, he seems to be happy.

I found something he enjoys to play with! A water bottle... odd But it works! He hasn't gone for the string on the shoulder, but he's getting a bit more adventurous it seems.

Thanks for the advice!

[MissK]

Sarah, where are you located? If he is actually pulling ANY feather out, I would be kind of concerned. I'm not a plucking expert - far from it - but I don't think any kind of plucking is good in any way. Is it possible that he is actually starting a molt and what you see is molting down being dislodged by normal preening?

Check his head - the area he cannot reach to pluck himself. Look for any feathers coming out, or spikey new feathers coming in. Do you know what new little feathers look like when they are coming in? If he is molting down, it could be early yet for looking for spikey head feathers, but this would be a sure way to tell if he is plucking versus molting, at least on the head.

How much lights-out does he get? Excessive light in the home (number of hours) can promote an unnaturally timed molt, or indeed, an ongoing soft molt.

With regards to offering a toy, see if he has a favourite little foot toy, and try offering that - something he already knows and loves. On the shoulder he should not be bored unless he's up there a long time with nothing to do.

[sarah.l.hasler]

I think it's molting! I looked up pictures and videos and it looks/sounds like what Pete is doing. They are really small white feathers, with some white 'dust' and I didn't realize what he was doing was called preening. I feel like I really need to make sure he gets a bath... or at least a spray of warm water from a spray bottle without freaking out. He gets about 9-10 hours of lights-out a night. Is that not enough?

I'm located in Ottawa, Ontario. Thanks for the help

[MissK]

9-10 is really on the not enough side, and it may explain some molt. Ringnecks molt when the season of raising babies is done, before they have to look gorgeous for the next breeding season. In other words, summer, when the days are long and nights are short.

I know it's not summer in Ottowa! But, your light schedule is probably telling your bird it's time to drop feathers. It would be a good idea to provide more "nighttime" for your bird. If you never give more than 9-10 hours, you may find him doing a little molting almost all the time - untidy at best, this would not be healthy for him.

That "dust" you see is most likely the outter shell of the new feathers. They start growing protected by a little sheath, like the end of a shoelace. As the feather matures, this protective covering gets preened off. They look spikey until it's gone.

I think if you provide Pete a dish of water he should bathe himself when he sees fit. When you consider it, he's not really dirty anyway. He doesn't get splashed by mud or grimy hanging out inside trees. He's got a pretty sweet deal. If he likes getting a misting then that would be a fun thing for you to do together. But don't stress over bathing. He'll take care of it when he needs to, if you do your part by providing a tub.