9 month old IRN 2nd owner

[Tekki34]

Hi All
This is my 1st post on this forum as well a first time owner of a irn
My irn is Tekki not sure if he is a boy or a girl as he/she is 9 months old
He/she was previously owned and had bonded with his last owner but we have made slow steady progress with the taming and training... He seems to have bonded with me which I'm over the moon:) about but doesn't want to go to nobody else and seems scared of the rest of my family
I have a few concerns and questions just to see what is normal behaviour
Firstly the biting tekki will be sitting on my shoulder happy and talking to him/ her also and all of a sudden bite my ear or bite my freckles on my neck or I maybe holding a toy whilst he chewing on it and nip me on my fingers or he starts trying to bite through my clothes or hanging upside down on my arm and bite my elbow he will willingly step up but sometimes bites when I tell him/her to step up too I'm hoping this is just a stage ? And chews and licks everything is that also normal ?
He/she likes to whistle and I always encourage that rather the screaming and I've Tried to ignore that but still screams is that normal ?
What age do they start talking ???
Thanks all look forward to your Reply's

[Wessel Gordon]

Hi

Welcome to the forum.

I'll answer your last question first: there isn't a specific age an IRN starts to talk. Think of it this way: all humans (in theory) can sing but some people don't because they don't like to, some people like to sing but they can't really sing so they don't and then there's a group that can sing and do sing but doesn't sing as well as a select few talented musicians. IRN's are exactly the same: some are more inclined to talk and mimic sound than others...it depends on the bird and on the bird's environment and interactions with humans.

The biting you describe can just be something called "bluffing" - it equal to the teenage stage in humans where the hormones go haywire and both teens and IRN's behavior is unpredictable for awhile. However, if it is bluffing, ride it out without making too much of a fuss when he does bite and you'll have your sweet bird back soon. I know it's hard not to react from a bite but if you do Tekki might notice he gets a reaction whenever he bites and thinks to himself "oh nice...he reacted...let me tried that again!" and then you might start a vicious cycle where he simply bites just to attention.

IRN's are known to pick certain people in a household to bond with so that behavior on Tekki's part is completely normal. What I would suggest is that the other members of your household spend some time around his cage and give him some of his favorite treats if he doesn't back away from them. That way, in Tekki's mind, there will be a link after awhile between them and a yummy treat. I would also ask house-members to help with changing the food and waterbowls regularly so Tekki gets used to them faster and builds trust and a relationship with them faster.

As for the screaming: is it only at certain times of the day or a constant non-stop scream? It's completely normal for IRN's (and most birds) to be more vocal during sunrise and sunset. If he only screams early in the morning or late in the afternoon he's just displaying normal bird behavior, but if he's screaming at other times it might be a good idea to try and figure out what trigger it.

Kind regards,

Wessel

[InTheAir]

Welcome to parronthood!

I've got a couple quick suggestions:

Get the rest of your family to give Tekki his favourite treats. If he doesn't feel safe coming near them, they can drop treats in his bowl every time they pass his cage. He will warm up to them quickly. Make sure they are very aware of their movements, especially if there are kids in your family, as sudden or extravagant movements may be scarey for Tekki. At that age he shouldn't take a hugely long time to make friends with new, well behaved people.

I dislike blanketing every bite under "bluffing", I don't think enough information was provided to make that assumption. With him sometimes biting whenyou ask him to step up: someone could have forced him to step up and ignored the signs when he showed reluctance to step up. He may have learnt that biting is the only way to say "no". Do you reward him when he steps up? Is he biting always from the same place? Do you try to make him step up when he doesn't want to (ie: you bring hand towards him and his head goes fluffy and eyes pin). Try giving him a treat almost every time he steps up for a few days, then move to randomly rewarding him for stepping up. There is no ddamage done by not forcing the bird to step up every time, quite the reverse.

The other biting, nipping fingers when playing with toys, can be from overexcitement/ over stimulation.
Chewing freckles and moles is kind of a parrot thing, my 2 tidy up cuticles too. Nila completely removed a wart from my bfs finger and tried to remove a mole from my chest. We distracted him from them after that and he's gotten used to us having lumpy bits that look wrong.

Check out http://www.behaviorworks.org and read the written works and pocket behavior guide. Best thing you can learn related to parrots is a little bit of applied behavior analysis. There's some good articles on biting on that site.