Hello from San Diego, CA!

[sivie]

Hi everyone!

I'm Siva. I'm from San Diego, CA. I WAS the proud owner of a beautiful 3 month old silver male IRN. His name was sherlock. He was very gorgeous but HATED me. I mean, growled at me, flew away from me, ran from me, the works. I emailed the breeder asking about advice and tips for how to work with him and she asked me to bring him down to see her. I told her how I noticed he wouldn't eat if I was around/looking at him and if I walked in on him eating, he'd immediately run away and go back to his little stoop at the top of his cage. She tried to handle him and we both decided he'd be much happier around other birds and back at her house. So, sadly I decided to return him to her He just wasn't the fit for me and as selfish as that sounds, I gave him back for his own well being. Because if he wasn't happy here with me, I didn't want to hinder his life. Now I'm waiting 4 more weeks to get my new baby from her. He's a gray IRN and his name will be benedict (anyone who watches the BBC sherlock show, you'll get the name choices. although, my husband picked this new name and I decided I liked it too haha) The breeder is awesome and sends me updates on the babies, as well as sherlock. She may end up keeping him as a breeder because he's not responded well to her trying to work with him. I feel like I scarred him But she says it wasn't my fault so I hope it really wasn't. She has her last clutch of the year and my baby is a part of it! 4 weeks is rolling by very slowly for me. She said she's going to keep an extra eye out for a goofy personality one since she knows I'd love a goofy bird haha. Also, since it's the last clutch, I feel like she may be able to give him a little "extra" attention and work for me so he isn't as flighty and immediately paranoid of me, like sherlock was :/

Well, sorry for the long intro! This site is new to me and I'm reading up on everything since this will be my first IRN. I have a lovebird named bijou who is the joy of my life but I have been wanting to add to my family and IRN's are my choice just because their colors and personalities fit mine very well Any advice, tips, and such would be greatly appreciated! also, for future references, how would I even begin to train a bird to wave? like, do I wave at them with my hand? I guess I should youtube this hehe...

[ellieelectrons]

Hi Sivie

Welcome! Sounds like you have found a wonderful breeder there!

I have two IRNs. Our first bird (Janey) was just weaned and not flying when we brought her home and she was never scared of us. Our second bird (Charlie) was older when we brought him home and I was surprised at how scared he was of us despite being handraised. We persevered though and he started to tame down - I'd say it took a good month, possibly longer. Now he's the sweetest little bird. He loves hanging out with me. He's learnt lots of tricks and he's a good talker too.

Even though Charlie was harder to tame, I feel that he is the more well-adjusted of the two birds. Sometimes I think Janey's not quite sure whether she's a human or a bird... whereas Charlie knows he's a bird but also likes the company of humans.

The first steps with your little guy is to get him taking treats from your hands - start offering it through the cage bars. When they're young, they may not know that what you are offering them is a treat, so you may need to start by leaving a few treats in their bowl so they can recognise it as food.

You also asked about waving, you can see a youtube of my guys waving here:
http://youtu.be/xYrNZ3-ZVio

I trained this in a very similar way to the doing 360s.
See http://www.indianringneck.com/forum/vie ... =2&t=15083

I would stand there and wait for them to move their foot, even slightly, and then give the signal to wave and say the word wave, follow it with a "good boy/girl" and give them a treat. It takes a while but eventually they get it... and soon you can get them to do it when you ask them to do it. Now, it's become the standard way they signal to me that they are ready for another treat - it's kinda like in a bar when someone raises their hand for a top up!

I think waving was the second trick they both learned. Doing a turnaround was the easiest trick to teach and that's what they learned first.


Good luck with your new little guy.

ellie.

[sivie]

The first steps with your little guy is to get him taking treats from your hands - start offering it through the cage bars. When they're young, they may not know that what you are offering them is a treat, so you may need to start by leaving a few treats in their bowl so they can recognise it as food.

Yeah I tried that with sherlock and the second he even saw my hand come towards his cage, he'd drop to the very bottom (hitting perches and stuff on the way down might I add) and then flap around on the bottom of the cage, making this awful honking sound, which I dubbed his "smoke alarm" since he only did it with he thought someone was coming to get him.

Thanks for the links and the advice though! I'm definitely hoping this new baby will allow me to at least walk in the general direction of their cage, so I can begin to work with it and train it.

[ellieelectrons]

Give him some time to get used to you. Make sure he is placed somewhere in the house where he can see you when you are going about your daily business without him being the centre of attention. Perhaps you could start by leaving a nice treat in his food bowl a few times a day.

Ellie.

[ellieelectrons]

I try to use what is called positive reinforcement training with my birds. I tend to follow the models described by Barbara Heidenreich www.goodbirdinc.com. What I have learned is that if your bird isn't doing the behaviour that you want, then you try to break it down into smaller behaviours that when put together will lead to the bigger behaviour.

For example, at the moment we are trying to get Sherlock to take treats from your hand but the problem is that as soon as you approach him, he freaks out. So... we need to try to break into down into something easier for your bird and gradually build to getting him to take treats from your hand through the cage bars. There are no right or wrong ways to break it down. You just try something, see if it works and if it does, try to progress it further. In bird training language, each step that you break the behaviour down to is called an approximation. So, here are some ideas of approximations you could try.

Overall aim: get Sherlock to take treats from Siva's hand through the cage bars

Step 1. Cut up a heap of different birdie-safe treats and put them into a special treat bowl in Sherlock's cage. Step back far enough so that you Sherlock is comfortable but so that you can also observe which treats Sherlock likes the most. Do this for a few days in a row.

Purpose of Step 1: Figure out your bird's fav foods & make sure your bird is used to eating them and knows what they look like.

Step 2. Withdraw the most fav treats from the birds regular diet. From a distance where your bird feels safe (that is, it isn't panicking), hold up the treat so that the bird can see it and take one small step towards the cage talking gently to your bird. If your bird freaks out, stand there calmly but don't move close. Wait until he is calm again and say "good bird" or whatever cue you want to use to indicate that your bird has done the right thing. As you say "good bird", pop the treat in your bird's food bowl.

Purpose of Step 2: Helps your bird associate its fav treat(s) with you.

With step 2, over time, you should be able to get closer and closer to your bird's cage before it freaks out and eventually you can be holding the treat between the bars for your bird to take it. At this point, your bird my freak out again... so once again, you wait until he calms down, and reward him for being calm by saying "good bird" and placing the treat in his food bowl and moving away. Next time, maybe he will take a step towards you before retreating... that is also a step in the right direction, or maybe he will look longingly at the treat... also a step in the right direction.... reward that behaviour with "good bird" and put the treat in the food bowl.

At any stage, you can refine the steps. See what works and adjust accordingly. For example, when I was taming Charlie, I used a plastic baby spoon to give him treats before I got him to take them from my hand. However, at first he was also scared of the spoon... so that won't always work either... Go with what works. If you ever move to quickly through the steps, just go back to the last step that worked and try again. Eventually, with patience, kindness and a bit of smarts on your part, you'll figure it out... and the good thing is that you will have a relationship with your bird that is based on trust and respect.

Sometimes progress will seem slow, so remember to reward yourself and tell yourself how good you are doing even with the slightest bit of progress... .and you know you can always share your progress on here too... because we will understand where non bird people may not!

Good luck and best wishes! Don't give up on Sherlock, there is always hope.

Ellie.