Bringing My IRN Home in Three Weeks!

[NewbieIRNer]

Hello everyone,

I went today to place see and place my deposit on an IRN at a local breeder. Mango is currently 7 weeks old and not fully weaned yet. Thankfully, the breeder is very experienced and handles the birds everyday. I chose Mango because he seemed pretty quiet and wasn't afraid of being handled, he actually tried hiding in my arms when I went to put him back in the cage.

Anyhow, are there any things that I should know before bringing him home? I wanted to ensure that I am able to bond with him and create a very good environment for the both of us.

Thanks

[Skyes_crew]

If you can I would spend the next three weeks reading topics within the forum such as feeding tips, diet tips, foraging, toys, cage setup, bluffing, training. It has all been discussed in detail. Congrats on your new bird

[InTheAir]

Yep, what Skye said.
And some offsite resources I like are www.pamelaclarkonline.com for her articles and great links page.
Also, if you haven't already, research whether you could adapt your household to keep your bird flighted. Birds like flying and, personally, I have found that having a flighted bird has helped avoid a lot of behaviour problems and bluffing. It helps beginners like us learn how we can handle the bird, if I do something that Nele doesn't like he just flies away and doesn't bite us.
Also, when your bird has settled in and is comfortable with you try to socialise him with lots of people. We invited friends over to our house just to hang out with our bird and give him treats. ;p

It sounds like you have found a good breeder. Goodluck with your researching!

Regards,
Claire

[NewbieIRNer]

Thank you for the tips guys, I'm always doing research trying to ensure that I can provide a forever home. Noise for me is an issue and I have had a Sun Conure that I had to return as he was way too loud for our apartment. How would you say the two correlate in terms of their noise levels?

[Skyes_crew]

IRN's can be just as loud if not louder than conures. But unlike a conure, you can control it with an IRN. When he makes a loud unacceptable noise, ignore him. When he makes a softer noise or a quieter contact call, then praise him and offer a treat. And remember that any attention, even negative such as saying be quiet, will reinforce the loud calling. Only respond to the quieter call. Hope that helps

[MissK]

My bird is pretty quiet, compared to some I've seen. However, if he were not mine and I had to live on the other side of an apartment wall from him, I'd be pretty pissed off about it. I can definitely hear him when I'm outside my house, even with windows and doors shut. It's his "happy noise", but just because it's happy doesn't mean neighbors would like to hear it.

Sorry, but better you should know the truth.

-MissK

[Skyes_crew]

I can here Skye and hamlets happy chatter through my closed windows too lol. I guess their version of quiet and what I'm used to is not what others would call quiet.

[SunniDai]

They can make quite loud "music". I have found that when they start to get loud, if I talk to them, they will start talking more quietly. Although once in a while, Sunni will scream simply for the purpose of hearing her own voice, and I carry her down the hall to the bedroom and put her down on the floor. She usually stands back there and gives a couple good screams then walks back down the hallway in a quieter frame of mind.
When our little who passed (Skyelar) would scream, we would do the same thing with him. We called it "time out". One time he started getting loud, so I told him "if you keep doing that, you are going to have to have a time out." He actually climbed down off of his cage, waddled down the hallway into the bedroom, and climbed into his basket where he preceded to be as loud as he wanted. After about a half an hour, he got out of his basket and came back down the hallway.
I love my fids!
Anyway, point is, they can be loud but can be taught how to use quieter voices. Once in a while they just need to be loud, though.
Dana

[ellieelectrons]

My experience with conures is limited to making goo-goo eyes at them in the pet store; but from what I've seen, conures can make way louder, higher pitched screams than ringnecks although they don't tend to do it as often. Ringnecks are still quite loud but their loudest, highest pitch sounds don't seem to rival conures. However, I think ringnecks make noise more often. I may be wrong, that's just what I've seen in pet stores.

To be honest, I'm not sure I'd be looking at a ringie for an apartment.

... and I'd also like to add that a quiet baby won't necessarily translate into a quiet adult. Sorry.

Ellie.

[InTheAir]

I can hear the ringneck that lives 2 houses away right now!

[NewbieIRNer]

Oh man, I'm going to go discuss this with the breeder tonight when I go see Mango. Hopefully I can ask her to start working on training him to not be a screecher, but then again he's very young and is quiet all the time anyhow.

[Skyes_crew]

I have a sun conure so my experience with them is first hand conures are sentry birds. They will set off a "warning" for anything that moves within their vicinity. In my house if a door opens, if she sees someone outside, if the doorbell rings, if the dog barks, those are all reasons for her to set off her sentry call. And it is deafening. Skyes contact call doesn't come close in my opinion. Whereas I never know what will set off jewel, Skye chatters and calls sporadically. Jewel doesn't sit in her cage screeching all day, that would drive me insane, but she doesn't have a distinctive contact call that I can control the volume on. Skye on the other hand has learned that I will only come when he starts talking. So I hear thank you, give me kiss, peek a boo, whatcha doin, hello and other phrases all day instead of loud screeching. Hamlet, my 5 month old IRN is super quiet all of the time. He chatters when he is sleeping and is just starting to return my contact call but for the most part I barely hear him. When I'm up the street, 4 houses away, I can distinctly hear jewel, my conure. But none of the other birds. But everyone's experiences are different. No two birds are the same. But it's definitely something to consider when getting a bird in an apartment setting.

[NewbieIRNer]

Thank you Skye, that was very insightful and I will speak to the breeder about it tonight

So I went today and Mango is coming along and eating on his own for the most part. He is currently being caged with a Cockatiel that I also am getting so at least they will be well acquainted. One thing I did notice though, is that he is still not 100% comfortable being handled. He is definitely calm and collected and doesn't try to bite me or anything, but sometimes he is a bit jumpy and flies to the cage whereas the Cockatiel sits and has a blast on my shoulder.

Is this typical behaviour?