Fallen in Love...

[georgina.chelsea]

Hi, i recently came accross indian ringnecks on youtube, and after a visit to an exotic petshop i have found myself in love with these birds, and altho it may be selfish to want to keep a bird in captivity, i would really love to have these beautiful birds in my home.

Before I go about finding a breeder, i was hoping for plenty of information into the care and nature of these birds before i commit to one.
I work 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, and i understand that although this may not be ideal, I am home every evening and weekend ( I have a 2 year old daughter, so im always home when not at work).

I have a couple of questions that i hope the experienced members of this forum can answer:

Is it possible to keep a IR and work the hours i do?
Would it mean that another bird for company be better?
What environment do they prefer? i have a quiet household with only my daughters goldfish, no other pets.
Would a male bird suit a female person more?



I have many more questions to ask however, unless a bird would be happy with the lifestyle i have (working fulltime) then they may not be relevant.

Any help/advice is much appreciated

[kimijean]

Hi georgina.chelsea,

I work odd hrs, some days I’m gone from around 11am to around 10pm and I have birds. It works out just fine. A single bird can be perfectly happy, so it would be up to you if you get more than one. If you get 2 (or more) they may bond more closely with each other than with you. I have a dog, 2 cats, and 8 birds. They all seem happy, noisy or not. Male or female IRN does not matter, however I have heard females tend to be friendlier. ?? I’m fairly new to IRN’s so I don’t have much experience.

Kim

[ellieelectrons]

Hi Georgina.Chelsea

Firstly, let me commend you for finding out all you can before purchasing!

Would it mean that another bird for company be better?

We chose to get a second bird so that our Janey wouldn't be lonely whilst we were away from home and it has worked out really well. Our avian vet also says that having a friend of its same species is ideal. Our two are both tame and have bonded with each other and us. Although we did have our first bird for at least 18 months before we got our second. I still believe it would be possible to tame two birds at once but definitely harder.

Is it possible to keep a IR and work the hours i do?

It is possible. Many people would work these similar hours. I would recommend finding out the types of toys your bird likes and constantly rotating through them. I would also recommend plenty of foraging opportunities. Here are some links about this:
http://www.indianringneck.com/forum/vie ... 01&p=69400
http://www.indianringneck.com/forum/vie ... =4&t=13466
http://www.parrotenrichment.com/ - this site has some free ebooks to download

What environment do they prefer? i have a quiet household with only my daughters goldfish, no other pets.

They are pretty adaptable. I think they will fit in fine, however, they can get noisy at times, so make sure you are prepared for that.

Would a male bird suit a female person more?

I only have experience with my two birds. We had our female first and then we got our male. All birds have their own personalities so it is difficult to generalise. My experience has been that our female is more inclined to bite hard than our male. She is also bonded to us more strongly which can cause problems... For example, she gets very agitated/excited when my husband walks into the room... so agitated she can't focus on anything else and she may bite if you get in her way... so if she happened to be on your shoulder when he walks into the room, you may get a bite on the ear... and she can draw blood. This could be because she is female, because we got her first and she was an only bird or because we made more mistakes raising her than we did without our second bird. Both our male and female are quite attached to us and they are attached to each other.

Ellie.

[georgina.chelsea]

Thank you both for your responses. I feel hopeful that I could make a bird happy

I think as you said Ellie, it would be better suited to start off with one bird first purely to build up my experience with IRN's.

I shall keep reading up on habitats and diet and then hopefully I will find a breeder in the UK!.

Thank you both for your replies