A Little Guidance Needed for New IRN

[KaiNinaste]

Hello,

Firstly, I apologise that I am adding a new "new IRN need help" kind of question, I have gone through the forum, however, would like some personal opinions!

Last Friday I was blessed to get Yoshi, and eight month old IRN. I was told he was male, however, he only has a very faint ring around his neck so I believe that he is a she?

Unfortunately he had never been let out and hadn't had much human interaction as the owner had dogs, which he really didn't like!

He lives in the living room, where both my partner and I spend most of our time, and he is let out of his cage very often (obviously he was a sod to get back in the first time - but we perservered with getting him to step up onto a perch and getting him near the cage so no need for towelling!). When he is a little more tame I will work on training him to go home - he goes in willingly when he likes and doesn't go bezerk when we shut the cage on him, I do let him go in the cage and not shut the door as obviously I don't want him to think that everytime he does go home he gets stuck!

As this is turning into a bit of a novel, I will post a few questions:

1) We have quite a large living room, with two TV's etc, could this impact on training as he has many places he likes to perch, sometimes if I approach him he just flies off before/after he has stepped up or taken a treat. Could this be an issue?

2) I am trying to get him used to my hand, I do this sometimes by just giving him treats between the tips of my fingers, when he is more comfortable I move it up to the palm of my hand so he has to get closer to me to get the treat. I did this this morning and he decided he was going to nibble my finger and just hold onto it for ages, is this a good sign?

3) I am a little worried that as he gets so much freedom (only when my parter and I are around) that he will prefer to be a bit of a "lone" bird. I would still love him all the same, but I would love for him to be a big member of the family and I wouldn't like to think that because he now has freedom and places to sit that I am merely the "treat bearer" per say.

4) To get him used to me and movement, I get him to step up on his perch, give him a treat and bring the perch a little closer to me and blow lightly on him or slowly move my hand up towards him until I can see he is a little uncomfortable and bring the hand down slowly - is this okay?

5) I leave his favourite treats near me on the sofa, as a little bribe if you like, to come closer to me. As of yet he has only flown at/around me, as if to test whether I am going to try and snap himm out of the air. Is this a good idea?

6) I talk to him a lot in the cage, I am able to put my hand in to give him a treat without him going crazy, sometimes when I do this he climbs around his cage, hanging upside down staring at me. He is not frightened or flustered, and sometimes I just put my hand in the cage for him to look at and explore.... look at being the operative word at the moment. Is this okay to do?

I know he will take time and patience, and I have all the time in the world for him, I just don't want to do anything that will impact our relationship or make him feel uncomfortable!

Thank you for your help

Jade

[KaiNinaste]

Just another little note - he allows me to get my finger almost to his feet, then he gives a very slow bite. I just wait until he lets go, and ignore him. Is He being nasty or is he testing the water/letting me know it's too close for comfort ? He doesn't fluff up or fly off, just a very slow and sometimes painful nip!

[subodhhire]

Hi Jade

It seems you already know a lot and are on the right track. As you yourself said patience is required to gain his trust. So be patient and things will change. All the best.

Subodh

[MissK]

Hi Jade,

I agree with Subodh

[sanjays mummi]

At eight months it is too soon to tell if Yoshi is male or female, the males do not get their collar & tie until they are well over two and a bit.

[MissK]

They could have had blood test done......

-MissK

[subodhhire]

Hi Missk,

Juveniles do have faint rings.

Subodh

[KaiNinaste]

Hey everybody, thank you for your replies and help .

Yoshi is making immense progress, the biting has stopped - he merely moves to the side rather than trying to remove my finger. He's just let my partner and I stroke his wing a few times and is now letting us stoke his toes a little. Taking him into a smaller room with less distractions is also really helpful, he responds so much better with training and is far less stubborn!

We did have to towel him the other day, we had a bit of crisis so had to go sort that out - after eventually getting him in the towel he was very subdued in the cage, which is when we were first able to stroke him. I was giving him some walnut in his cage and unusually he wasn't taking it and moving away, I was able to get very close and even stroking his toe he didn't seem to mind. I literally caught him and put him in the cage, I have no intention of flooding him but since then he has got a lot better. I did leave the towel near his cage so he can get used to it as I don't want him getting scared of it if we have to do it again. Even more oddly, when I brought it through this morning he saw the towel, and immediatly went and sat on his cage! I think he hated it so much to him towel means get in the cage or face being wrapped up in blue stuff and put in there!

Does anyone have any opinoins on towelling? It didn't seem to have an adverse effect on Yoshi, other than calming him down a little. I have read places that if you do towel your bird to get them home, they can eventually learn that towelling means home time, so literally showing them the towel means go home. I'm not sure I like the idea of "go home or get something you don't like" to be honest.

[subodhhire]

Hi Jade,

I have posted on a different thread about my experience with toweling. I have just copied that post from there. See if its helpful.

I was only 10 years old then and i had a female IRN named julie. She was very sweet when she was in her cage and use to whistle and call me by name. I wanted her out of the cage and so i started keeping the cage door open for her to come out. In a few days she started to come out but she never used to let me handle her. I was a kid then and was desperate, so inspite of her biting and screaming i started to handle her. Initially i used a towel, I used to catch her with the towel wrapped around her and then i used to speak to her very softly. In the begining she was just struggling to get free but after handling her for a couple of times she calmed down and started to respond. I then stopped using the towel and handle her with bare hands. He did not bite me again. She became so friendly after that she always wanted to sit on my shoulders and roam around. I never closed the door of her cage after that. She used to go inside the cage all by herself in the evenings and come out in the morning. She had got into a habit of climbing on my bed and calling my name to wake me up.

I still miss her a lot

Subodh

[MissK]

Very interesting behaviour!

-MissK

[KaiNinaste]

From what the last owner said she never towelled him, because he was never let out (that was evident when we first let him out bless him!). Maybe it's a mixture of becomming more comfortable with us and him just catching on quick towel means hometime! I now only need to pick up the towel, he flies to his cage, and put it near him and he jumps straight in. As he goes in I tell him to go home and he gets some apple when he gets in - I hope to eventually eliminate the towel altogether.

He is progressing incredibly well. He's started letting us stroke him with his stick, I put my finger down the side (as close as he is comfortable wtih) so hopefully I can almost trick him into being stroked by hands at some point. But he does love being petted with the stick! He still goes for the odd bite when we get him on the perch (especially if our hand is quite far up the perch) but we just distract him by giving him his treat for stepping up or moving the perch closer to us. I believe he is a clever little bird, just he hasn't been given the chance he deserves yet!

He's very cute when we ask him to step up onto our hands - he hasn't yet done it but he'll grab on (lightly) and lift our hand away. He's getting there with a lot of love, patience, and baby noises haha.

Oh, he's started to immitate laughing and guess what... SEAGULS! *hangs head in despair*

[MissK]

HAHA! That all sounds just wonderful!

-MissK