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Advice on IRN Female/Male pair

Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2010 3:45 pm
by Vandarius
Hi there, Im fairly new to the wonderful world of IRN's but so far its been a wonderful experience. My partner on the other hand has a little more experience than me :)

Anyhow ... the situation

We have 2 IRN , a green female ( quilla ) 4 years old and a what we believe to be Grey Male ( Orcah ) 11 months old.
The Male has not been sexed however he is showing increasing signs that he really is a boy - head bobbing and tapping his beak .... talks all the time and can almost pronounce a few words. Quilla has been in the family for about 3 years .. Orcah for 4 months. Both are wild parrots and have not been hand reared - however iv been doing some good work on orcah who hops on my hand and lets me scratch his belly + hand feeding sometimes when he's had enough sleep :)

Both Parrots have cages, but we never put them in and they are free to roam around the house. They have a large area full of neat toys and obsticales/ dirftwood from the beach etc. The living/play area is located in the lounge/kitchen area of our house so we are around them most of the day. they even go to bed by themselves at 8pm ... so cute. We even have seperate feeding bowls for them.

Anyhow - The female constantly chases the other IRN around, knocking it off the perches or shooeing it away from food. They have their little beak wars going on but being the older/smarter parrot tends to go for the feet or wings thus winning the day. She seems to chase him/her around all the time for no reason other than to be a bully which is concerning me a little as i dont want him/her/it ( the other one ) to become distressed.

We live in New Zealand , and it is spring now ... so wondering if she is wanting to mate , and getting frustrated.

These parrots are treaded like kings/queens - they get taken to the beach and parks ( out of their cages to wander on the driftwood or in trees ) and get fed well. Treats ... fruit you name it !

Anyway here they are ... damn cute things.. they are pretty good to each other most of the time ...Im just wondering if anyone out there can give me an insight into whats going on.

Image

Re: Advice on IRN Female/Male pair

Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2010 4:18 pm
by ellieelectrons
Hi and welcome to the forum.

They are beautiful birds!

I wish we could take our IRNs to the beach & the park... but they are far too skittish. Even with wings clipped, I wouldn't attempt it.

I don't know the answer to your problem other than you need to monitor their interactions, and it sounds like you do. I have a similar problem with mine. There is an age difference between our two... although in our case, for some reason, the younger male seems to be more aggressive. Our female seems to spend her time trying to not be in his way.

Do yours feed each other? Ours do.

Ellie.

Re: Advice on IRN Female/Male pair

Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2010 10:37 pm
by Vandarius
Hi Ellie,

Many thanks for your reply.

Its a mighty shame, because the love it at the beach ! We have beaches close to us which are Dog free so we dont have to worry too much, although i do always keep on guard as we have had to tackle a labradore once which went for them :) Scary Bizz i tell ya.

Anyway - yea we will keep a close eye on them. It doesnt seem to bother him too much and most of the time he fights back ( normally just flys away ).

unfortunately they dont feed each other yet, although they have only been together for 3 months. She has also lost a mate before ... got a fright and flew away and couldnt find his way home. That was about 5 months ago so dont really expect her to be jumping on him yet :)

Cheers

Ryan

Re: Advice on IRN Female/Male pair

Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2010 2:28 pm
by Vandarius
still no one with a logical reason why my older female ringneck constantly tries to bite/chase my younger male.

Also, in breaking news .... we do believe now that he is a male since he's starting to do the normal cock dance :)

Re: Advice on IRN Female/Male pair

Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2010 10:52 am
by Melika
It's just how she is. I imagine especially now that he's exhibiting mature male behaviors. Female ringnecks are evil and mean (some say passionate) in interacting with their spouses. In general anyway. I've seen some breeders say they separate their pairs or specific pairs except for during breeding season.

This isn't ringnecks only. I had a female lovebird that literally starved her mate to death by keeping him away from the food dish. ):

Re: Advice on IRN Female/Male pair

Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2010 3:27 pm
by ellieelectrons
Melika wrote:It's just how she is. I imagine especially now that he's exhibiting mature male behaviors. Female ringnecks are evil and mean (some say passionate) in interacting with their spouses. In general anyway. I've seen some breeders say they separate their pairs or specific pairs except
Our pair are obviously odd... I would call Janey occasionally "passionate" with us: bit first, ask questions later.... (although that seems to have settled down now).... Our male IRN seems to dominate her. I have no idea why. I wonder if it will change as they get older? He is almost one and she is just over two. They have been DNA sexed and seem to be exhibiting the right behaviours for male and female.

Ellie.

Re: Advice on IRN Female/Male pair

Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 11:00 am
by Melika
ellieelectrons wrote:
Our pair are obviously odd... I would call Janey occasionally "passionate" with us: bit first, ask questions later.... (although that seems to have settled down now).... Our male IRN seems to dominate her. I have no idea why. I wonder if it will change as they get older? He is almost one and she is just over two. They have been DNA sexed and seem to be exhibiting the right behaviours for male and female.

Ellie.
I think Hane would be like that too, he's a really bully. But Tsume would be bossed around by his female. If we paired them off, that is. Hane's mom bosses his dad around. Every bird has his/her own personality. :)

Re: Advice on IRN Female/Male pair

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 8:50 pm
by Vandarius
Well she seems to be setteling down now. Shes got her nesting box to chill in and we have seperated their cages by about 2m and left their obsitcals/play area inbetween. He's getting older by the day and is starting to be a real cock with his wings out and neck streched ( and not shutting up hahhah )... hope he starts getting his ring soon :) gunna be a pretty boy.

It will be tough as shes already had a mate before wheather she'll be attracted to him once her matures.

if not tho we'll get him a buddy and her a male of the same age ( unless someone is able to tell me that IRN's dont care about age for mates ) ?

... she could be a cougar :)