New arrived IRN behavior

Moderator: Mods

Post Reply
Lady-E
Posts: 29
Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2016 3:34 pm

New arrived IRN behavior

Post by Lady-E »

Hello everyone, I'm new here, as a proud owner of newly arrived beautiful lutino baby IRN but I'm a bit worried about him for now. First he doesn't eat his seeds at all. Only seed he eats is sunflower and I know it's not good for him to eat only that but it's hard to get him to eat anything that's in his seed food except from our hands. If it's too small he won't eat it. Also he's picky with veggies too and fruit is more appealing to him. He was alone at home for longer time yesterday and he didn't even touch the seeds but other food we left him like eggs, carrot, apple he eat. But bigger problem is he appears to be afraid of dark and being alone. He's sleeping but as soon as I turn of all lights he starts climbing on his cage. Covering him is out of question, he starts climbing all around his cage and won't calm down until we take the cover of. And when we leave the room he starts the same thing, when we get back he calms down. I don't like making him unhappy but problem is we can't be with him all the time clearly so could this be just his adjusting period or is this a real issue. Beside that he's very nice bird, he was biting a bit at first day only and no more. He doesn't scream, made some noise just 2-3 times so far, he was hand fed so he's pretty tamed and loves to be with us outside his cage
sanjays mummi
Posts: 2050
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2012 12:07 pm
Location: Bedfordshire UK

Re: New arrived IRN behavior

Post by sanjays mummi »

Like all babies, your chickster has to adjust and learn, he needs at least 12 hrs sleep, under cover, he will get to enjoy his "me time". As for diet, just keep putting healthy foods on offer and he will soon start sampling them, I can remember Sanjay at 8 weeks making yummy noises over his first taste of melon.
Lady-E
Posts: 29
Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2016 3:34 pm

Re: New arrived IRN behavior

Post by Lady-E »

First thank you for your reply. Now about covering him, as it is now cover is a big no no. He goes crazy as soon as we try to cover him, he also won't stay calm unless there is at least a bit of light in the room, As soon as I turn of the light he will climb up to tightest corner of the cage and lean on the bars of the cage so strongly that he's touching it with his head and chest and chest feathers are outside of the cage. I can tell he's really frightened of dark so if I make him stay under cover or don't leave some night light on I feel like I'm torturing him. His fear might be because of his travel to us, I didn't mention that part, he traveled in carton box at night in bus trunk like 6-7h from his origin town to us so maybe he relates dark to that scary experience for him? Anyway my biggest concern is he still won't eat anything when we're not at home. And that's a problem because sometimes we're absent over 12h a day so he goes crazy for food when we are there but whatever we leave him with, we find that food untouched.
nicolem
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri May 06, 2016 3:46 pm

Re: New arrived IRN behavior

Post by nicolem »

Hello, congrats on your new baby! I have two boys, so I don't have the problem so much about them being alone/lonely....however, I wanted to chime in that I don't cover them at night. I live in an apartment, so I do close the shades so the lights from outside don't shine in as strongly, but they do get some natural moonlight/sunlight from a window facing another direction. If I enter their room when it's dark, I try to always make a noise so they know its me and don't freak out. Every so often, I will hear a flutter in the middle of the night (which is why I think it's not a bad idea for them to have SOME faint light to get their bearings), but that has gotten more rare now. I do also notice that when I turn out the lights, they start moving around a bit...I think they're just working toward their roost to get comfortable.

For the food, have you tried pellets at all? That could also help with nutrition, especially since most seeds in general aren't too nutritious, not just sunflower seeds (my boys get sunflower seeds when I'm training with them, or as a reward when they go back in their cage). I mostly feed my boys a mix from their breeder which has a mix of various pellets, varied seeds, and dried fruits. They always fight over the dried fruits first, haha! You might also experiment with sprouting seeds too for added interest/appeal and nutrition as well. Good luck!
Post Reply