First time IRN owner

[sarah11]

Hi, last week we purchased a green indian ringneck. After much research we decided to get the local pet shop to order us a IRN from her breeder. Unfortunately she couldn't get us a tame one, only an aviary reared but said it would be 4 months old. I spoke to a local avian vet who advised with regular handling and patience we could tame him. We collected him last Saturday but we have now discovered that he is in fact 6 months old. Is this too old to tame? Is there any way of identifying his age from looking at him? I understand that any bird can be tamed with time and patience but wondered if there are any special techniques needed for IRNs? He seems relatively confident although isn't at the stage of handling him. We are all sitting by the cage and chatting to him daily to try and make him more settled. He seems to be grinding his beak whilst looking in his mirror and at us so I'm assuming he's content rather than stressed? We've tried him with various foods but so far the only thing he seems to like is his Parrot mix and monkey nuts. Are there any foods that IRN are partial to?
If anyone has any advise then it would be very much appreciated.
Thanks in advance

[amb4693]

Awwww sounds like what we are going through, we've got two who won't willingly let us handle them yet! If they fly off cage we can pick them up, if we are lucky we get a quick pet in, but it will be fun once they grow up, apples are a fab....most fruits, mine don't like corn or strawberries!! They love scrambled eggs and toast...we often have breakfast together!!! Grapes are a must also!! Mine are not big fans of any kind of pellets, I've tried them all...one day they will crunch a few then for weeks that's all that's left in the bowl at the end of the day!! And no you can't tell how old they are by looking at them, if they are makes they get that lovely ring at about 1 to 2 yrs old....one of mine was DNA tested they other we are clueless!! I do wish you luck...we got ours very young and still they are not big fans of being handled!!! I'm told about a yr old they come around!! Keep trying and have fun!!!
Ann

[Niccijt05]

Hi,

Im the same

I've just had my brothers IRN as he had to move and couldn't take him with him. He's quite timid at the moment and im sitting by the cage as often as possible, and talking to him. We aren't sure of his age, my bro thinks maybe 1year old but thats wot her was told by previous owner. He may of been mistreated by the fact he was quite dishevelled when my bro got him and had some feathers missing.

I'm trying desperately for him to get used to us (me my partner and my 2 girls, its not a quiet household, only in the day wen im at work (i do leave the radio on for Marley), but nites and wkends we're there all day, apart from shopping!!.

If i was to leave the cage door open, would he come and go as he pleased?. Im worried that if i leave it open i wont be able to get him back in.

Hope someone can help me too because im totally in the dark and only ever had a budgie wen i was very very young.

Nicci
xxx

[ellieelectrons]

I would let him have a least a couple of weeks in his cage before leaving the cage door open. I don't like letting my birds roam the house unsupervised as they like chewing electrical cables! However, some people do it. If you want to let him out, it's probably good for you to have a birdy play area for him to hang out on when he's out of the cage. If you put treats there, you can lure him to it. You may find it will take some time before he will choose to leave the cage as it's probably his safe haven... but if you keep trying eventually he will come out. You should do it on a day when you don't need to be somewhere at a particular time. The afternoon can be good as they will usually go back to their cage when the sun starts to go down providing you don't have any lights on (turn them on once he's back in his cage). Also, do a safety check before you let him out. Try to have all windows and glass doors covered so he doesn't try to fly straight through them. Once he understands the layout of your house, this shouldn't be a big problem although mine occasionally fly into windows if they get a fright.

Best wishes.

Ellie.

[Niccijt05]

Thank you, i will def try that, i didn't know whether to get his wings clipped untill he knows me and while taming him and him gettin used to the house, but how long does it take to grow that out?

xx

[ellieelectrons]

They grow back in the next moult season which is during summer. If you do clip, be careful who you get to do it.

Ellie.

[Larissa]

We're very lucky I guess. Day 1: We bought our IRN from a breeder on Sunday afternoon. When we first saw him, we had that feeling that he was meant for us (if you know what I mean). We instantly named him Kono. Kono is about 10 wks old, is aviary raised and just out of the nest, approx 10 wks old. He was dna tested, a male and has a light blue ring around his neck. He is going to be a real handsome boy when he is older - just like his dad. He was v scared when we brought him home, moved away from us and stuck to a corner in the cage when we came near him. We put the cage in our living room, talked to him a lot. He was not feeding or drinking so we hand fed him through the cage. He does not bite, is very quiet. We got to pet him that evening.

Day 2: We experimented, put him in a closed room, got him to climb on our fingers and took him out of the cage. We did things slowly moving him out of the cage. He flew on to the curtains and looked for something higher. He ended up on the highest shelf. I decided to clip a little bit of his wings (have done this before as we prev had a cockatiel that loved to roam and scratch around in the garden most of the day). Anyway, long story short, by evening, Kono was stepping up and eating out of our fingers, funny sight waddling around the dining, living and kitchen, trying to climb up chairs and realising they were too slippery to climb up, looking for taller things to climb up. He loved climbing around and falling off the 4 metal spokes at the base of the swivel chair.

Day 3: We know know Kono loves celery sticks, apricots, mixed small parrot seeds, cooked pumpkin, sweet corn, grain bread, cooked broccoli and banana. We offer him little bits to see what he will eat. We have a circular perch which we hang up high near the kitchen entrance so that he can see us. Since we had his wings clipped, he can fly from the kitchen table (3 feet off the ground) to a distance of 12-15 feet.

Kono is a very inquisitive parrot who likes to be hand fed as currently he won't come down from his perch to eat. We don't want to spoil him so hopefully we can entice him to come down and feed when he is hungry. For an aviary raised IRN, we think we have gained Kono's trust as he enjoys sitting near us or on our shoulder without any problems. We know when he is sitting "fluffed" up, he is comfortable. He has bowed his head for scratches, showed us his leg and wing stretches a few times (like doing tai chi), sometimes twice within less than 5 mins. Some say this is a sign of contentment/happiness/greeting/exercise?? He is also learning to set up.

We hope we are doing the right thing as this is our first time with an IRN.

I think a glove may do the trick for those who are afraid of their parrot biting. We had to use a glove when we clipped a little bit of Kono's sharp nails but he didn't nip us. For the moment, he seems to be quite gentle in his temperament. We just can't believe that Day 3, Kono will allow us to pet and handle him. Just talk, talk and talk in a soothing way, just like how you would talk to a baby and that may do the trick. All the best to those who have more difficult IRNs.

PS Since the time of this posting, saw Kono come down to feed himself, yay! Also chirped and bobbed his head for me twice today and it's only 3rd day since he has been with us!