I realise that technically I'm in the wrong place for introductions but wanted to open with a HUGE thanks and a story too...so here we are. For interest, I'm in Perth, Western Australia.
After spending months stalking the forum I invested in my first IRN 6 weeks ago. I answered a classified ad for hand raised birds and (ahem, stupidly) came home with a 2 week old IRN to raise myself. Yes, I know. Silly on many levels, grossly unprofessional of a reputed breeder (I'm not naming names), a huge risk for me personally in terms of potentially doing the wrong thing. Let's not even discuss legalities please. At least I had hand raised a few birds before many years ago and wasn't completely in the dark; I was also prepared to spend the time and energy researching and doing the right things by my bub, and so far all is well. I'm a stay home mum of four and run my own business from home, so I'm at least present and able to put time into my bird.
However, now we come to the story. Having read so much of everything so many people have written here: taming, training, recall training, learning to fly (InTheAir's youtube training videos are outstanding!), pros and cons of wing trimming etc, etc, I was still a little surprised when my pastel blue bub went from flapping his/her (for convenience I say his) wings to launching out of his box at 6 weeks old. Still, knowing the value of him learning to fly (and the reasons behind it in terms of him being a more mentally-balanced bird), he spent the next week pretty much living on curtain rods around the house, coming down for feeds and flying from place to place. Hilariously they are almost impossible to nail down to feed when they first learn to fly: there is FAR more to do than stay still to eat ('LOOK, I CAN FLY!!!!')...kinda like toddlers learning they can move around. Night time feeds with the lights off work best, haha! At night he'd sleep in his sawdust-lined plastic storage crate in an upside down box. Seriously cute.
A week ago however we had a near-disaster. Indi (un-original I know but I blame a house full of kids!) had spent a few days driving us barmy landing on our heads randomly but every time he did, I was offering a reward (a little banana or mango generally) and attention. I saw recall training in our future and thank goodness I did.
I returned from a shopping trip and as per usual went to enter the house via the tilt-up garage door. Except this time, my three year old threw open the kitchen door and barrelled out to meet me....and Indi blew by him faster than we believed possible. Cue dropped groceries, horrified kids...me standing out in the rain for the better part of 20 minutes calling to Indi who was happily hanging bat-like from the palm tree in our front year, screaming 'feed-me' noises to me as I called to him back.
Given that he has made 'feed-me' noises every time the microwave beeped for the last month (the water for his hand-raising mix is re-heated in the microwave so he knows what it means), I figured he also knew the sound of his feed bowl, so there I was, in the rain, tapping his feed bowl, calling him, heart in mouth. TWICE he flew off over surrounding houses on a huge lap calling to me the whole time....helpfully he even investigated the 60-ft pine tree across the road before coming back to our palm tree again. As an aside, my 15 year old son climbed up on the roof in hopes that Indi would fly to him and he did, once, but my son trying to hold him instigated bites hard enough to warrant letting go again. I was pretty sure he was gone and I was devastated, figuring the chances of a baby surviving were nil. He came as far down as to swoop onto the conifer by our front door and I couldn't quite reach him...his claws nearly stuck in my hair as he swooped off again.
After twenty minutes I'd begun to think 'If he just gets wet enough hopefully he won't be able to fly so well'.....light bulb moment, I had my daughter turn the hose on for me and I streamed a jet of water 7 metres into the air, onto Indi through the branch he was sitting on, long and hard enough that eventually he tried to escape it and SUCCESS, the next time he launched out of the tree there was more 'drop' than 'flap'. I was terrified of him breaking something but I'd decided if that happened I could get him seen to....losing him was likely permanent and fatal. As soon as he hit the ground I scooped him up, tucked him into my shirt and raced for the house. We were straight into the bathroom with heat lamp lights and after we got a warm feed into him (I was bellowing instructions for mixing feed as I tore into the house LOL!) I turned the hair dryer on its lowest setting and dried him from a distance while he perched happily on my hand. Even under his wings were dried but very honestly, I almost expected to come out to a dead bird the next morning.
Happily, none of us are any worse for wear. Not Indi, not my bitten 15 year old, not my ten year old daughter who helped by getting drenched while calling too....not even my 12 year old who blamed himself for telling the toddler that Mummy was home, thus prompting the door being opened. He was so relieved, he'd been in tears thinking he'd lost Indi. Everyone is fine. For now though, I've begun progressive wing trimming...thank you to whoever wrote that awesome instructional post. Indi still has flight around the house, right now I think it's just making him fitter. I do hope though that as I trim a little more off (less than an inch off the primaries for the moment) it will reduce his capability for height...because watching your baby bird SOAR around the neighbourhood is entirely over-rated! As a result of our experience, Indi now goes into his cage if I leave the house without the kids (as he's a bub, he's actually pretty happy to sit at a height rather than flap around and get into things like cords at the moment so I don't stress about that). He is also generally in the front lounge with the external doors locked and the middle doors shut so that he can't get out the kitchen again. I think for the next few years at least, he's actually going to be safer kept more heavily trimmed than I'd actually like, because my three year old doesn't understand the necessity for shut doors. Damned if I do, damned if I don't.
I wanted to say thank you though, for the absolute WEALTH of information everyone has been happy to share on this forum, because I strongly believe that if I hadn't begun my lazy version of recall training, I would have lost my bird for sure. Thank goodness he's so incredibly smart and knows where the food comes from, thank goodness he'd had that re-enforcement.
Anyway....hi, I'm Jodie, I'm an IRN addict
