IndianRingNeck.com

Hello, my name is Meghan and my husband and I recently purchased a green IRN from a local pet store. He is about 14 weeks old and is still being weaned so he can't come home yet! We've named him Elliott even though we are not sure he is a boy! I have done a lot of research on IRNs and I think I know what to expect when he comes home, but would like as much advice as possible. This is our first bird, as a family, I owned a cockatiel when I was a lot younger. I was hoping to just kind of list the items we have already purchased for him and get any advice or additional items that we will need for him when he gets home....
~Cage- 36x30x22 inches with a playtop. Do you think this is big enough?
~Food- ZuPreem fruit pellets, Safflower blend seeds (I heard sunflower seeds are bad because they are so fatty), Higgins bocca nuts and truefruits
~Toys- I got him alot of chew toys, mirrors, bells, one of the toys that you hide a snack in it and they have to try to figure out how to open it, ropes and one of those little tee-pees to sleep in if he wants to
~Perches- I have a lot of the sand perches in different sizes, wooden perches, a rope perch, and an edible perch
~Carrier for taking him to the vet
~Mineral block
I feel like I am forgetting something, or maybe I am just worried!!
I try to spend at least 30 minutes a day visiting him at the pet store. I bring him fresh veggies and fruits and just sit and talk to him. Today he flew for the first time. It was really scary and exciting at the same time. He was spooked by something and just took off! My husband had to climb up and get him off of the top shelf! So we had them clip his wing so he wouldn't get hurt. Is it bad to clip their wings this young?
He is really sweet! He squaks pretty loud but when you hold him close to your face and talk softly he sort of coos.
Well, I think this is enough...now that I have written a book!!! Thanks to anyone that takes the time to read all of this and I would really appreciate any advice that anyone could offer!!!
I am also new to the whole message board thing so I need a little guidance!! Most importantly I need to know how to upload pics!
Thanks~ Meg

**as you can see I managed to get a pic for my avatar, now how do I resize it??? It is huge!!!!!! And I added some pics in the photo forum**

Welcome to the family ..

Plenty of fresh fruit and vegi's as the main diet with pellets as secondary .. no avocado, no apple seeds, no onions, no chocolate stuff, nothing too sweet or too salty. Garlic and hot chilli peppers are great for them especially as a natural wormer. And mine love to tear into chicken bones.

For a treat try some dried mellon seeds, mine kill for them.

Get a bath for them to wash in or a good spray bottle for spray showers every other day or so.

And its always good to have some corn flower handy to paste onto broken blood feathers if they ever break one.

Just the basics off hand for now ..

Oh and plenty of interaction, make sure you handle your baby as much as possible, even if he seems to not like it, get him use to being picked up not just by stepping him up, but by actually grabbing him full hand around the body. Play with him, tickle him under the wings, to keep him use to you touching him, holding him, grabbing him. This makes it easy for future inspections and care whenever needed.

Talk ALOT ! tell him everything you are doing, even before you do it. You can never talk too much, they love it.

Ok .. thats it for now I think

There is alot to learn and you have a long future with your fid. There will be ups and downs, they have moods just like any other creature, good and bad, get to know him and he will get to know you too. Most of all, stay the BOSS. Or pretend to be anyway .. lol

-thinking... thinking... thinking...-

And MILLET! It's a great seed for weaning birds. They love it, we love watching them eat it. And it's a healty treat too!

I feed sunflower seeds but only as treats and only every few days. As long as your bird is getting exercise, they're okay.

Clipping is still up in the air, so to speak. I like to let them learn how to land before I clip. It only takes a few days for them to figure it out and then I can clip the chick's wings. You can't reverse the clipping at this point but next time his wings grow out you may want to let him learn to fly before clipping. Once they learn how to land, that reduces the chance of injury to a clipped bird (so they don't go 'splat' onto the floor every time). The longest feathers on the wing provide the lift so only clip those for now. I like to leave the other feathers so they can glide to the ground.

Make sure you have soft-wood perches too. Everyone sells these 'indestructable' perches now but our babies need to learn to chew. They'll keep their beak in top condition on their own if they can chew to keep it that way. Knawing on rock-hard wood just isn't fun. Open-ended perches are the easiest to chew, where they only bolt to one side of the cage.

Cuttlebone. I like them because they're natural so have natural minerals. And our IRNs love them. I drill a hole through the center and use a leather thong to tie it to a toy or the side of the cage. Those metal holders just never last through an IRN.

Your cage sounds fine. Mine is 32"Length x 23"Depth x 42.5"Height inside dimensions, basically just taller. But after all the toys and perches it seems smaller. And they DO use every inch of it. Here's where I bought mine: http://www.demsondpetdepot.com/servlet/-strse-82/Parrot-Cage%2Cwrought-iron-cage%2CBird/Detail
It was $200 with free shipping in the continental US.
But what you have sounds big enough, just don't overcrowd the cage with toys, lol. We rotate our toys every week or two weeks so they don't get bored. And to keep us from trying to give them every toy we have... And since your IRN won't be inside the cage all the time, it should be fine!

You may know most of this already but I like to be sure. It's great that you've done research! Always happy to hear that.

Thanks so much for your help....I am just nervous! I don't think I was this nervous bringing my newborn son home!!! I just want to make sure that I am doing everything right!!

Hello Meghan. Congrads on the new bub! Elliot sounds adorable. Looking forward to getting to know the new lil one! I dont think I have much to add. Any questions feel free to ask.