New owner

Let us know a little about yourself! Tell us about your birds and why you are here.

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amylouisecullen
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Aug 04, 2014 3:40 am

New owner

Post by amylouisecullen »

Hi I've just got this IRN Tiko a few days ago the man that I got it from said it was 12 weeks old I noticed that it has a pinkish beak compared to other photos I've seen of other IDR they have orange beaks is his normal
Donovan
Posts: 833
Joined: Tue Oct 08, 2013 4:18 pm
Location: North Carolina

Re: New owner

Post by Donovan »

yeah it'll darken up over the next few months
alvittos
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Aug 06, 2014 4:09 am

Re: New owner

Post by alvittos »

Hello from me my name is Alvara!
alia_sa13
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Aug 06, 2014 12:46 pm

this is so new to me!

Post by alia_sa13 »

Hi everyone, my name is Alia and I am a recent owner of a turquoise Indian ring neck, Meeko. He was sent to me by a breeder down in Florida (I live in VA). It's been about a month since he's been here and i am learning so much from him, i.e. favorite foods, toys, behavior etc.
I hope i am doing a good job. Hopefully I will learn more on this forum!

Thanks for reading :wink:
lpmurdock831
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Aug 17, 2014 12:35 am

Re: New owner

Post by lpmurdock831 »

Hi my name is Liz and I brought home my lutino IRN Snow about 7 months ago now.
I have one tip for fellow newbies like me:

Spare your fingers!!!

For various reasons, I bought Snow aviary-raised. I knew it would be a challenge, since I'd only ever had budgies and cockatiels before, but I was eager to learn what I could. From the start he(?) was very flighty, the flightiest bird I'd ever seen... but I kept at it with soft words and yummy treats. Eventually (about 3 months of daily-to-twice-daily one-on-one) he settled down and stopped fluttering every time I walked by the cage. We got to the point where I could rest my hand almost-touching his little feet on the perch... but it didn't matter how yummy the treat I was offering or how gently I talked to him, he absolutely REFUSED to touch my fingers, let alone step-up on them.
I tried everything, including following the ill-advised advice of a well-meaning friend, which resulted in him sitting on my finger but trying to drill a hole in it at the same time.

Partly in desperation, I decided to see if he would step-up on a branch instead of my hand.

You've never seen such a change! In three days he was coming out of the cage very politely on the branch, looking at me like he was ready to learn whatever I had to teach him. I could also pick him up from wherever he happened to be hiding in the room when he was out, without it being a big deal. It totally eliminated the stress on both him and me!

At about the same time, I also started teaching the touch command. Sometimes when he would go to bite the branch before stepping onto it, I would ask him to "touch" it and take the branch away before he got a foot on it. Then I would reward him with a treat in his food dish. Eventually he learned that he didn't actually have to bite the branch to get it to go away.
We have currently been using "touch" to work on getting him over his dislike of hands. It's been a bit slow going, but for about the last week I've been able to get him to "touch" my knuckle (gently). He complains loudly about it, so I'm almost certain it's a personality thing, but he still does it for the reward so I'm hopeful someday I might get a polite step-up on my finger. Someday.

Just thought I'd share this because I really wish I'd thought of using a branch about 6 months ago. It would have set Snow and me off to a much better start.
Wessel Gordon
Posts: 408
Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2011 12:02 pm
Location: South Africa
Contact:

Re: New owner

Post by Wessel Gordon »

Hi to all the new members.

Welcome to the forum.

Training an IRN takes time, patience and consistency and about all 3 in equal measure so it's not something that will happen overnight. In my case it took me literally months to convince a so-called "hand-reared" bird to approach me and take a treat from my hand. Since I have a flock of 6 IRN's I'm not even considering training them beyond them taking treats from me. At the moment I have 3 that will actually clamour towards me to get their treats and of the other 3 only 1 (which is actually a breeder in an aviary) sometimes will take a treat from my hand...the other two haven't showed any interest so far (although I'm hoping that all of them will eventually do it). The thing I noticed with IRN's is to work at their pace: if they don't do something for you today tomorrow might be a completely different story so the key is not to give up.

Liz, it sounds like you are doing something right to get Snow to step up so quickly after thinking of the branch so keep up the good work.
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