New to Site and owner!!!!

[indiecrew]

Hello all. I just purchased a 2 year old male indian ringneck. We named him Indie and he is gorgeous. A beautiful red beak and an amazing array of colors around his neck.

My question is a few pertaining to him. First off, we have two other birds: Rudy is a 20 year old cockatile and Luwie is a younger parakeet. I'm wondering how long I should keep the three apart before I have them all in the same room. Rudie and Luwie have been in the same room for about a year.

Anything else that I should know about my newly aquired ringneck would be much appreciated. (diet, sleeping, handling, how to introduce it to talking...etc)

Thank you very much

[pinkdevil]

indiecrew

When purchasing any new birds, I would keep the new bird away from the others in quarantine for at least a month just to make sure there is no nasties hiding, or take it to a vet for a check up if you need to have them all housed together in the same area.

When you say "the same room" do you mean in the same cage or in seperate cages in the same room? Some people have a room as a cage for their birds

To introduce the birds I would do that slowly and keep them in seperate cages so they can see and get used to each other. I have found IRNs to be a bit agressive to other birds at times, especially around breeding time. But if they are raised all together then things are generally easier.

As for diet....well I have found that IRNs will eat just about anything including norty foods . A healthy diet should include seed, (not too much sunflower though, it's like the equivilent of us eating junk food, yummy but not good for ya ), fruit like apples without the seeds, citrus, pears, bananas, capsicum, etc but no advacado!!! vegies like carrot, pumpkin, broccoli, corn, peas, beans, chillies, etc. Some people also give their birds pellets. Cuttle bone is great for them to keep beaks in trim to.

It would depend on whether Indie is hand raised, hand tamed or an aviary bred bird. I find each of my birds like to be handled differently. I just try different ways until there is one that the bird is comfortable with. But I usually start with the basics like "step up & step down". There is heaps of info on here about teaching Indie the basic commands. I also find that my birds respond to treats when teaching them. A way to a ringnecks willingness to learn seems to be through its stomach lol. I find a treat they absolutely love and only give that treat to them at training time to encourage them to do the task asked of them Never force a bird to do something, try to encourage him/her with food and gentle coaxing and love. Forcing the bird will only stress it out and made the command/trick unpleasant and the bird will remember and not want to do it.

As for talking, just repeat a word over and over and hopefully in time the bird will begin to say it. You could also record yourself saying a word and leave it playing when the bird is alone (when your at work or out). Covering the bird and saying a word is suppose to help a bird talk quicker. But one of my aviary IRNs talks and has taught the bird next to him to say the same thing....done me out of a job lol So now when I go to the aviaries I have 2 birds that ask me "what are ya doin'?" lol

Well I am sure other members will have different ideas and sugestions that they have found work for them . It is good to get a few different ideas from different people and try them all lol.

Good luck and congrats on your new birdie.