Hi from Bunbury, WA
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 7:07 pm
Hi there,
Thought it might be time to 'Introduce' ourselves, since I've been trawling this site for infomation for the last few days, and making a few post's (made my 10, just waiting for the 5 day period to expire to prove I'm not a spammer!
)
The story so far......a week ago now, my husband and I rescued an IRN from certain imminent death......when we first spotted him playing 'chicken' with several cars, I realised immediately that he was not a native Australian bird, and had obviously escaped from somewhere nearby. Now this little dude had absolutely no road sense what-so-ever, and I have no doubt that he would not have survived the day, so we're pretty sure he had only escaped that day sometime. Aside from the car issue, he also had a flock of seagulls circling around, taking a bit of interest in him
It took me awhile, but with the help from some passers-by, I finally coaxed him close enough to capture him....where he promptly started biting my hand ferociously - OUCH!! We quickly popped him into a large paper bag (I know! I felt TERRIBLE!) until we got to my sister's to borrow her bird cage. We have now been looking after him for a week, have placed Lost & Found notices with local vets, on Parrot Alert, Gumtree (Western Australia), and numerous Facebook Lost & Found pages relative to our area, with no luck so far. I have also diligently been trawling through all the sites looking for anyone who has lost an IRN matching his description, but as yet no one has listed him as missing. If we don't find his owner, then we are more than happy to adopt him, but want to take all steps possible at finding the correct owner, otherwise it wouldn't feel right. So as yet, we haven't given him a name, but I have taken to call him 'buddy' or 'pretty boy' in the interim
In the meantime, we have deduced that he was probably not hand-raised, more likely an aviary bird, so not very tame, but I've been spending everyday with him to try and gain his confidence. If I'm sitting in on the lounge on my laptop, I have him next to me on the side table, if I go outside to the patio, he comes with me, if I'm in the kitchen making lunch, I put his cage on the little table so he can see me. And I talk to him all the time. He doesn't talk back yet, but I'm almost POSITIVE that yesterday when I left him out on the patio by himself for awhile, I could hear him trying to say something....maybe "pretty boy"..???? (I say that a lot to him)....or I could be just kidding myself, lol,
And he definitely does not like our hands anywhere near him! No matter how slow and careful we are! But today I had some success!! Up until yesterday the best I could do was get him to take a small treat through the bars above his head only (won't take it if offered through the side of cage).....I worked out a couple of days ago that he absolutely ADORES fresh apple, so decided I would try and use this as his treat in training. This morning he finally took a small bit out of my palm....well it was actually sitting more toward the end of my fingers, not actually IN my palm.....but my hand was inside the cage (which he hates - the hand, not the cage).....and so long as I wasn't looking at him, he would tentatively lean over and gently take the apple....keeping a careful eye on me at the same time. I did this twice...the first time with just one piece, then told him he was a good boy and withdrew my hand. The second time I had 2 pieces, and left my hand in there while he ate the first bit, then waited (took awhile) until he took the second piece, told him good boy and withdrew my hand. Not sure if I'm using the right technique, but it seems to be working
Well, I think I've dribbled on enough for now (that's if anyone is still reading this? ), look forward to updating you all on our progress, both with finding the owner, (although we're becoming quite attached to him now ), and how our lil' buddy is going. We welcome any hints, tips, suggestions, advice and look forward to getting to know you all and your feathered friends 
Regards Deb
Thought it might be time to 'Introduce' ourselves, since I've been trawling this site for infomation for the last few days, and making a few post's (made my 10, just waiting for the 5 day period to expire to prove I'm not a spammer!
)The story so far......a week ago now, my husband and I rescued an IRN from certain imminent death......when we first spotted him playing 'chicken' with several cars, I realised immediately that he was not a native Australian bird, and had obviously escaped from somewhere nearby. Now this little dude had absolutely no road sense what-so-ever, and I have no doubt that he would not have survived the day, so we're pretty sure he had only escaped that day sometime. Aside from the car issue, he also had a flock of seagulls circling around, taking a bit of interest in him
It took me awhile, but with the help from some passers-by, I finally coaxed him close enough to capture him....where he promptly started biting my hand ferociously - OUCH!! We quickly popped him into a large paper bag (I know! I felt TERRIBLE!) until we got to my sister's to borrow her bird cage. We have now been looking after him for a week, have placed Lost & Found notices with local vets, on Parrot Alert, Gumtree (Western Australia), and numerous Facebook Lost & Found pages relative to our area, with no luck so far. I have also diligently been trawling through all the sites looking for anyone who has lost an IRN matching his description, but as yet no one has listed him as missing. If we don't find his owner, then we are more than happy to adopt him, but want to take all steps possible at finding the correct owner, otherwise it wouldn't feel right. So as yet, we haven't given him a name, but I have taken to call him 'buddy' or 'pretty boy' in the interim
In the meantime, we have deduced that he was probably not hand-raised, more likely an aviary bird, so not very tame, but I've been spending everyday with him to try and gain his confidence. If I'm sitting in on the lounge on my laptop, I have him next to me on the side table, if I go outside to the patio, he comes with me, if I'm in the kitchen making lunch, I put his cage on the little table so he can see me. And I talk to him all the time. He doesn't talk back yet, but I'm almost POSITIVE that yesterday when I left him out on the patio by himself for awhile, I could hear him trying to say something....maybe "pretty boy"..???? (I say that a lot to him)....or I could be just kidding myself, lol,
And he definitely does not like our hands anywhere near him! No matter how slow and careful we are! But today I had some success!! Up until yesterday the best I could do was get him to take a small treat through the bars above his head only (won't take it if offered through the side of cage).....I worked out a couple of days ago that he absolutely ADORES fresh apple, so decided I would try and use this as his treat in training. This morning he finally took a small bit out of my palm....well it was actually sitting more toward the end of my fingers, not actually IN my palm.....but my hand was inside the cage (which he hates - the hand, not the cage).....and so long as I wasn't looking at him, he would tentatively lean over and gently take the apple....keeping a careful eye on me at the same time. I did this twice...the first time with just one piece, then told him he was a good boy and withdrew my hand. The second time I had 2 pieces, and left my hand in there while he ate the first bit, then waited (took awhile) until he took the second piece, told him good boy and withdrew my hand. Not sure if I'm using the right technique, but it seems to be working
Well, I think I've dribbled on enough for now (that's if anyone is still reading this?
), look forward to updating you all on our progress, both with finding the owner, (although we're becoming quite attached to him now ), and how our lil' buddy is going. We welcome any hints, tips, suggestions, advice and look forward to getting to know you all and your feathered friends Regards Deb
) 
), but he isn't as fearful today when I put my hand in the cage to feed him apple off my palm, and is taking it a lot sooner than before. I think he may be getting used to me 
Looking forward to getting the new cage, and worse case scenario, if we find Charlie's owners, well we can either sell the cage, or find a breeder nearby and buy our own little guy....and maybe a little friend for him too! 
And then best of all, when he'd had enough of being out, he quietly made his way back to his cage, and after a bit of investigating, climbed back inside. All his activity must have given him an appetite because he got stuck into his seed then his vegie kabob and then his hanging fruit bar thing!! Hungry boy! 
) I'll post some pics later.
