IndianRingNeck.com

Greetings Everyone.

I just saved an IRN from certain death, I found him on the streets of the city where I live. He could barely fly and didnt seem like he even had the strength (wings are fully grown) was cold, nervous, hungry, thirsty, and scared out of his wits. I managed to catch him by distracting him with my wife shaking the truck keys and I sneaked up behind him and tossed a light blanket on him (more like a throw). Surprisingly he was very calm and allowed us to pet and touch him up until my wife scared the heck out of him by making a sudden movement reaching for something infront of him . Ever since he will not let us touch him. I also have no Idea how old he is.

The problems we encounter are:

If we come near him, he moves to the opposite side of the cage.

He goes crazy (squaks and flaps) when we open the cage and reach in to put in food or water.

We cannot reach in and touch him. I had to move him to another cage and when I got my hand on him he growled, squaked, fluffed up, and bit my pinky finger.

I offer fruit and veggies or treats by hand and it seems that he does not even see it. He goes crazy (flops and flaps from perch to perch in the cage).

I want to clip his wings but Im afraid he will hate me even more.



What I am doing is:

-I put him by a window for good daylight (non direct)

-I cover him at night with a blanket (the cage)

-I put FFV(fresh fruit & veg) on the bottom of his cage and he gobbles it up (when we arnt looking)

-I keep his seed mix full and water fresh every evening

-When in the same room I move his cage between me and the TV (off to the side a bit of course) the only thing is that he paces and seems very nervous. Hopping from perch to perch and pacing his rope.

-moved him into a much larger cage so his tail doenst get messed up and gave him all sorts of toys. A wooden ducky with strings and plastic things hanging from it. A wooden bead thingy with a bell at the end of it. A small round mirror with a bell(HE LOVES IT!), and a rope that he loves to pace.



I have read MANY MANY of the posts here so I have alot of good Ideas but mostly what I read is that the IRNs they own are at least eating from thier hands.... I am not even there yet. As tempramental as this little guy is, I dont want to give him up.... HE I SO CUTE!

Hello and welcome to the board,
Bless your heart for rescuing this little, frightened bird. I'm new to the irn world. I started with one and now have two. My first irn, Byndi, was and kind of still is like your baby. I couldn't hold him to save my life. He bit me so very much. I've still got scars from his bites. I worked and worked to no avail. And I cried on everyone's shoulder on this board. And they helped me muddle thru! I then got Remmi. My baby irn. And we're working on our relationship as we speak. He's much calmer than Byndi ever was. Since Remmi was a baby when I got him and Byndi was over a year. We've had Byndi since Oct. and are just now able to get him to step up for us and let us "hold" him. We only hold him on his terms tho. He's not much for hands so he goes straight up to my shoulder and that's where he hangs. A lot of our board members say no shoulder time unless they earn it, but if that's where Byndi wants to hang and he's happy and content then that's where I'm going to let him hang. He still bites me. Got me good last night as a matter of fact. And some days he'll step right up and others he'll fight you every step of the way. Just keep doing what you're doing and be patient! Talk to him all the time and in a soft voice. Let him know when you're going to enter the room so you don't startle him. Keep him as near you as you can when you're in whatever room he's in. Keep the cage door open so if he decides he's brave enough he can come out if he wants. You can just sit in there and chat with him or watch t.v. but have him near you. Byndi's cage is touching the chair I sit in every evening. He's right beside me all the time. God only knows what this poor baby has been thru and it's going to take some time to gain his trust. Please don't use gloves to attempt to hold him. You gotta take the bites. That's one thing everyone is going to tell you. Take the bites and try not to flinch. I still flinch if I think Byndi's going to really get me. They hurt dang it! You sound like you have a good handle on taking care of this baby. Just hang with it. It might take days, months, years, but it'll be worth it in the end. Once again, bless your hearts for rescuing this poor little bird! And good luck! Keep us posted.

Hugs,
Jen

P.S. We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE pictures and video. So start shootin' and snappin! And post often!

It might take your bird a while to get used to the new situation. Give it time and keep trying to work with your bird. Talk to it and just keep trying, it will pay off after a while

I'd be sure to take him to a vet, he could be sick from being wild.

Athena

It was 1-1/2 years ago that I wrote the same letter to the kindly readers of this forum. That's when Pretty Girl, aka PeeGee, landed on my front lawn, exausted and starving. Even too tired to bite. I never owned a bird before, and had no idea what kind of parrot she was. My vet told me it was an IRN, probably female. I had to do a lot of research online to learn about their temperments, diets and habits. It appears that, unless hand-raised, these birds are very wild and hard to tame. My bird was obviously owned by someone because she could talk and whistle, and is usually pretty nice to me. But she doesn't like other people very much, especially men. Moods change with the seasons. Winter comes, and she becomes a sweet as can be, all cuddly and cooing. Late spring & summer, molting & mating season, she is very hormonal.

You will need to give this bird some space, until it becomes used to seeing you all the time and gets curious about you. Have lots of patience, and your bird will eventually calm down and want to be a part of your household. The bites go with the territory. After trust is established, biting becomes less frequent.

Get those wings clipped, ASAP. It helps settle them down and puts you in control.

Don't give up. It might take a long time, but these beautiful and exotic birds are worth it.

Welcome to the family, you are in good hands and it sounds like this lucky little bird is too.

^^ AS ABOVE ! ^^

I got my Kai at 11 months and he was not the tamest of birds, although hand reared he was out in an aviary with other birds, full flighted.

It took him a good month to settle into his new cage, being clipped and the new household and its many new sounds, lights, shadows and movements. But he slowly did.

I kept trying with him, often sitting and talking with him quietly, lovingly. Bit by bit and step by step, closer and more, offering treats, until now at almost 6 months down the track he is completely at ease with the family and everyone around, new visitors still get the full screach warning call treatment, but once I take him and put him onto their hand he is sure they are ok and settles.

Kai chatters and talks and will not leave us alone now and we all love him so much.

It has taken a full 6 months for him to no longer flutter around or even not flinch when I bring my hands out, or if something falls from a bench, or a child runs out from a room suddenly, etc.

One thing to remember when they are in this wild state, is that they are very scared of shadows and arms. So keep the room well lit when you attempt to get close and keep your arms back when you approach the bird and bring them out ever so slowly if you try to get him to step up.

Slowly slowly and in a few months you will start to notice a very different bird.

Age is probably one thing you will never know, I don;t think they have a way to test for age. The only thing I could suggest here is if it doesn't have a ring yet and you get a DNA test to find out its sex and it's a boy then its under 2 years.

Anyway ! .. good luck and keep on it .. I adore my kai so much and so did my son, so much that he wanted one for christmas, hence we ended up with Jordan our latino.

Take care, ask alot, share alot and thankyou for saving this bird.

Cheers !

Thank you all for the advice and kind words. I sure hope we can make a posative change with little Chief.



Here is a pic of little "Chief" aka Lani.

Bummer, the page won't display. So I can't see a picture of Chief. I hope all of our suggestions will help. Please keep us posted. Good luck and take care.

He is STUNNING !! WOW !

What a BEAUTIFUL bird! Can't imagine anyone tossing this beauty out. Sorry that had to happen to the poor baby, but luckily he stumbled across you and your wife. Please keep us posted and keep posting here!

Stunning!
People do all kinds of questionable things as far abandonment. Goes for as types of pets. I've done some volunteer work for the local Humane Society and saw all kinds of things. It's dangereous though as you want to "rescue them all"

Why is noone advising on how to find the birds owner.

What am I missing here? This isnt finders/keepers. We are adults.

The bird needs to be placed into the home in which it came from, or at least a sincere attempt to find the owners needs to come into fruition.

What if this was YOUR BIRD

Again, am I missing something?

Hey people.

Mikaela is right you know maybe you should have a look around and see if you can find the owners; I mean he did sound as if he was tame at some point seeing as he let you pet him and such? That and he doesn’t seem to bathered of you holding a camera in his face. Where about’s is it that you live? They can go some distance once the wind gets them. Its like a sudden burst of energy once they leave the confines of the home no matter how take they are they will keep flying basically through shire excitement or the noises around scare them somewhat and they just try to get away from it all.

Any whoooooo… is he close rung? If not maybe when you take him to get checked out at the vets you could ask them to scan him for a micro chip?? And I’d check all classified adds for lost and found notices.

Oh and boss lady you be looking pertty…… almost angelic one might say

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies. I have had him checked by a vet. No chip to ID the birds owner, (which i dont get cause all dogs/cats are supposed to have one i thought, are birds different?) It was one of the first things we did. I have seen that some birds at the pet store having little ID rings around thier ankle but none of those either.

I dont know about him being tame.... him letting us touch him was only from the point when he was caught on the street to the point when we made it to the Pet store to get him a cage. I figure he was just too tired to fend us off? After that he was pretty much not letting us touch him on the ride home when the wife did what she did infront of him. (moved too suddenly) The camera is zoomed, tried one without zooming in but he wouldnt stop moving.

How would I go about finding his previous owners? Local newspapers havent posted any lost pets listings. Here where I live there is only 1 major newspaper and we get it daily at the house. Should I turn him into the humane society? They just put him down in a few days if no one reported him missing right? I would rather hold onto him then him getting put down, that would be very upsetting.

What should I do?