IndianRingNeck.com

I brought home a lutino IRN for my fiance on Jan 7th that he named Mr. Mojo and on Jan 26th our landlord brought a blue IRN over. The bird was in a tiny cage not suitable for 2 budgies at a pet store and he felt so bad for the poor thing that he decided to rescue her. He told us if we didn't want her, he'd find a different home for her but since we already had one IRN, he figured we'd be interested in another. I keep calling it a HER but I don't know for sure. They said she's between 1 and 2 years old {I'm seeing a pattern here.. that's what the other place said about my lutino.. Hmmm} and they clipped her wings but they are completely butchered looking - even her secondary feathers!! So the poor baby can't even glide! I put her in the large cage we first used for our lutino but she fell like a rock twice to the bottom so we put her in a smaller one. I'm crossing my fingers about their health since I didn't know about the Quarantine procedure when bringing in a new bird >.< Neither of them seem anything other than peppy but I am still watching them like a hawk for any tiny sign that might hint otherwise.

Now the taming part! Mojo moves away from our hands and will only accept treats if they are placed in his bowl though he's gotten less and less shy about me putting my hand up to his cage to slide a treat through into the bowl. His wings were supposed to be clipped already but that's not the case and I'm still torn on if I want them to be. He is missing his tail feathers, though. He'll stare and make noises at me if I don't look at him. He also does this weird thing where he grabs onto the cage with his beak, lifts his right leg and "flaps" his folded wings slowly. I don't know what he's doing but it's cute and makes me laugh and I say "Good bird!" every time he does it. He seems to enjoy the attention so he'll do it over and over again when he's in a mood. My fiance sits next to his cage and holds a treat in his hand inside the cage for Mojo but still no luck on getting him to come close enough to taste some. He has gotten better about proximity, though. He used to fly to the other side of the cage and sit there. Now he'll climb all over the cage in wide circles getting a bit closer each time. He WANTS the treats, he just doesn't feel comfortable enough yet. Thankfully I'm patient and my fiance loves his yellow birdie so he is trying his hardest

I named the blue bird Ka, after Stephen King's Dark Tower series The first night, I tried putting a slice of apple through the bars towards her. In her rush to try and attack me, she bit into the apple and her eyes went WOAH.
She doesn't lunge at me or try to bite me anymore unless she's tired. She can get pretty cranky I can't touch her yet but I'm not too worried about that. She'll come over to the door of the cage while I have it open and take treats from my fingers and sometimes will stay close and eat them. Her beak is sharp and I've gotten a few scrapes from her so far. I just sit there and take it so she doesn't think she can boss me around Now she knows that her beak is not a weapon against me so she doesn't bother unless she's upset. My fiance, however, is terrified of getting bitten so he'll pull his hand away from her. Needless to say, she likes to bully him with her beak She'll even squawk at him sometimes and lunge repeatedly at the bars. He likes his Mojo much better rofl.

Any suggestions on what I can do with shy little Mojo? Would clipping his wings help or can I let him stay flighted? He loves flying from his perches to his swing in his cage. I know my fiance wants his bird to sit on his hand and hang out with him lol and I've warned him it could take many many months before that happens.

I'm not too worried about Ka. I'm fine with having a temperamental birdie until she gets used to everything. She used to stay in her cage when I left the door open but now if I leave the room, she'll climb out and onto Mojo's cage and make noises at him. Mojo just stares at her and moves away from her lol

hi check out my posts i have a similar bird to yours and in same position. my bird is a IRN she is very shy will only take treats from her food bowl my partner been.holding treats in the cage on his hand and the bird will do laps round the cage . she wants the treat but is not ready to take them from hand . sounds like we in same position the advice i have been given is just to persevere and be kind to her .

Ooh I'll def check out your posts thanks for the reply!

An update! Mojo no longer flies/moves away from my hand when I reach in to grab his water dish. He just watches me from his perch beside the door. He doesn't like it when the bigger door is open but it has a sliding smaller door that I can just put my hand through to reach the dishes. He also doesn't fly across the cage when I approach his food dish to give him goodies through the bars. He sits on his perch and watches me drop the treats through. I haven't tried to touch him or made ANY moves towards him. I just do what I have to do and leave him be. I sit in the bird room {so much warmer and no drafts!} and talk to them both.

Ka is still the same though now she'll make noises at me if I'm not facing her. Neither of them really make much noise when I'm in the room but boy when I leave! They make hilarious noises to each other. I need to set my webcam up and leave my laptop on lol I took pictures of them both today and when I get enough posts under my belt I can show everyone!

Hi Snowe

Kelly gave you some good advice and it sounds like you are doing everything right to me.

The other good thing that you are doing is recognising progress and celebrating that. I think sometimes people expect too much in one go but with these guys you generally need to keep looking at how far you've come and seeing your achievements. I was talking to my husband the other day and saying that for us, bonding with our birds has been a much bigger job than bonding with any of our other pets (eg. cats, dogs) has been... but it's well worth it!

Ellie.

I can't post pics on here yet but I made an album in photobucket with pics of my fids in it.
Just type in photobucket's site with /mojoandka after it

^_^ yay loopholes!


{edited to add: it looks like they have barely any toys haha I take them out for picture purposes! =p }

Holy crap! Huge progress with Mr Mojo ^_^ I always give Ka treats and I'll hold some for Mojo through his bars and then normally just drop it in his food dish so he watches me do it. Today he leaned over and tried taking a peanut from me!! It shocked me and I dropped the peanut lol. But Yaaaaaay anyway! He tried - I'm super duper happy right now

Good job! Well done! Your patience and persistence has been rewarded! Keep up the good work!

Ellie.

So I bought Ka a new cage with a playstand on top and opened the cage door so she could climb around, explore, and eventually find the perch up top ^_^ She is pretty amused being up there so far. Though I don't know if I should keep using "she" because it looks like she's got little black feathers in the spaces between her eyes and beak which makes me look extremely hard at her neck Ka still won't let me touch her but is always ready to eat a treat while I'm holding it. I've started trying to get her to go to a perch while I hold it for her to put her back in her cage. She's done it a few times for me when I say "C'mon! Get on the stick!" and being excited when she does it. The first night I tried it, she hopped up on it and then back off repeatedly so I'd get excited =p
She's started to imitate the noises that Mojo normally makes which is very cute. Mojo happily ate a piece of tangerine from my fingers through the cage bars and I made sure he was aware that I was indeed holding it up for him haha but he's still flighty/jumpy whenever a hand gets too close to him. He's actually been quieter than usual but Ka makes up for it. Sometimes she never shuts up xD when she gets loud I tell her to use her inside voice and she'll start peeping - so adorable. He does, however, make all kinds of sounds when he's looking into his little mirror toy ~ at least he'll talk to someone lol

Also: The cats have hungry eyes >.>

Not really much to update. Fiance's son and nephew thought Ka made such funny noises when he was mad/upset that they teased him by scaring him with their hands, moving them all around in front of the cage and such a few weekends ago. Ka still hates hands after that so I have to start all over again with trying to get him used to me. Just been sitting beside the cage talking to him and sharing my food with him. Fiance didn't see the harm in it and has taken the kids' side on the matter. Obviously, it irks me but what can ya do? Gotta just keep trying =\

Mojo is extremely interested in the things I drop in his food dish and hurries over to see what goodies he gets. Not trying to rush him on getting used to my hands, at least the kids didn't bother him since he's "boring"

Even if I never get to touch them, they're beautiful to look at and I love the noises they make ^_^ Even when Ka contact calls in my ear when I'm sitting beside his cage =p