The great female debate

[Sophiesmom]

So I have to say that I was happy to find this site with such great information, especially when it comes to the females. I have read such terrible things on other sites on how females make terrbile pets and they arent ever sweet. Then I read here that isnt the case, granted all birds are different. So with us getting our 2 year old sophie girl next weekend I am very very interested to learn how she will be.
How many of you have females? And how many of you have adopted a bird over 2 years old? How long did it take for them to trust you and are you happy you decided to take on a bird with a past?

All my other birds have been several years old and rescued with the exception of my tiel baby. I love finding out what makes them tick, and it sure does keep you on your toes

[Datsun and Family]

Great questions and a very interesting topic. I would love to hear about those who adopted older birds and also more about those girls, I have had my boy since he was 6 weeks so I am no help but I am sure others will be along soon...

[Lauren]

I too have heard alot of bad things about females but then I've heard good things about them too. I don't judge a bird by its sex and I would love to have a female one day. Who knows maybe my Yoda is a female. But I'm leaning towards thinking Yoda is male based on behaviours. Right now, Yoda is doing the trance dance to the wall and kissing it. But they can surprise you!

I got both my birds around 3 - 4 months old so I'm not too experienced in adopting older birds. But definately something I will do in the future. I too am interested in how people do it and how they gain the trust of an older bird.

I'm a believer in 'you can teach an old bird new tricks' and that goes for IRNs as I've heard older IRNs can be difficult to tame and teach new things. But, I don't believe this is true.

[Donna]

I've adopted older birds but mostly the large type like the cockatoo's and macaws. But I did adopted a very sweet ringneck girl that is 2 years old. She was very spoiled in her previous home but due to work times changing they thought it would be best to put her with me. She has been one of the sweetest ringnecks I know and she has been that way with me since day one. I think most of your older birds that are rehomed depends on the way they were raised from the start. Sometimes birds aren't treated well in their first homes and then they bring all their bad baggage with them when you get them. I don't think the sex of the bird makes a big difference a lot has to do with how they were raised from the start.

Donna

[ringneck]

Donna, you could have not said it better! Females make wonderful pets. I have seen females who are gentile and docile. When talking to other owners most of them said their females went through a more extreme bluffing stage. With that said, the key to molding their behavior is constant interaction. I have one female ringneck Regan. She was so mean during her bluffing and now she is such a sweet bird. She let’s me pet her anyway she wants.

Though I do not keep her like Archimedes, I still hold her everyday. She is housed outside and enjoys me. She is very loyal to me and will not tolerate anyone else, except for my twin.

So speaking from my experience, females make wonderful pets. It all comes down to socialization and interaction. Also, keep in mind the female ringneck is hardwired genetically to be in control and when handfed, we are teaching them to adapt to our lifestyle.

So, I must commend you Sophiesmom. I hope you can put to rest this horrible rumor. It is sad because when I purchase my breeders, I always find unwanted handfed female ringnecks—nothing gets me more angrier—after all we don’t dispose of our children because they have behavior problems.


Best wishes and keep us updated,

Imran Chaudhry

[Bryan]

I’m, a total disbeliever in "can't teach an old dog new tricks" take for example my Galah Rosco 5 years old no human contact what so ever, aviary bred etc, one day I taught him step up three days was sitting on my shoulder and now a few months down the track and has become a good friendly loving bird who I take out in his harness and likes to meet new people. I have recently brought an albino female IRN and she is 2 and a half years old. One day, stepping up two days, sitting on my arm eating from my hand and three days I was giving her cuddles fart kisses on her belly and kisses on her beak. She was aviary bred not human contact and I have formed a strong relation ship with her nearly as strong as the one I have with my chook

[kyria]

yep bryan you have done an amazing job with Rosco.

I do believe IRN are a little different when it comes to taming them down from aviary birds. And then even handraised IRN's put out to aviary for long periods have the tendancy to revert or become less tame.

I think an IRN is one of the most challenging birds to tame from wild of all the breeds I know of so far.

My Kai was handfed (not really raised if you know what I mean) and then put out to aviary until he was 11 months old, when I came along as a new bird owner, not really understanding IRN's that much.

I think my ignorance in a way was my saviour, I took a positive and direct approach with him and was determined to interact with this blue beauty, Sophie, with alot of patience and hard work progress was slow, but there were steps every day, trust is what needs to be built and that takes time and experiences (alot good and some bad) on both the birds part and yours. My kai took about 6 months to become a loving kissy tame pet, although he never came to like scratches or pets and was still a little jumpy and nervy of hands.

Other breeds will tame down to cuddly and affectionate but if you want this from your IRN, Its safe to say you are expecting the almost impossible, unless you get a handraised baby that you spend "at least" an hour or two with everyday, cuddling and petting them. IRN's just seem to be the type of bird that wants to look pristine all the time and hates to have its feathers messed up.

I don't know much about the females, I do have a female lutino that was paired with my pet blue and they have become a proven breeding pair since, but Mickey (the female) is timid and hangs around behind kai most of the time, she will follow him up onto our knee at times, but as for interaction with her, thats it.

[kyria]

There are two Imran's ?? no wonder you get so much done

[ringneck]

LoL...i am a twin....

Best Wishes,

Imran

[kyria]

Are you the good one or evil one .. Just j/kg are you the older or younger ?

[Sophiesmom]

Thank you so much for all the info and stories, I deeply appericate it. We are getting her on Satuday and im as prepared as im ever going to be LOL.
As far as expectations with her being cuddly, or for sake of a better term lovy, I have none. All I want for her and me is for her to be healthy and happy in my home. Of course I would welcome with open arms some lovy time but im okay if that never happens. I have all the time in the world to gain her trust and know this isnt done over night. Im just rolling with the punches on this one but its great to learn all I can along the way.

[kyria]

Well we are always here for you, for when you need advice and friends to bounce off

[Sunny]

I don't know whether my Sunny is male or female, but I'm leaning towards female. S/he is pretty placid and never bites. S/he is very affectionate and loves giving kisses. S/he talks really well too.

[darkcloudchild]

We adopted 4 year old female ringneck named Max (I think her previous owner though she was a he). We've had her for about 6 months now. She really likes and trusts my husband to at least get her away from her cage. Once she's away from her "territory" she is such a sweet bird! Anyone can give her scritches, and she'll go anywhere with us.

The only issues we seem to have with her (well, mostly I have, like I said, she adores my husband) is waking her up in the morning and changing her food. She used to have dishes you'd unscrew from the cage, well, I had to change those to ones I can just pull out because she is quite territorial with her food, or anything in her cage actually.

What's even funnier I think, is our other female Kozmo saw her getting away with lunging and biting, so she tries it. I'll have none of it from her though, and she is no where near and forceful as Max though either. Probably because she's just seeing what she can get away with, and I think Max is a little more scared/protective of her area

My 2 cents

[Bryan]

I found taming the IRN female from the aviary easier than taming the galahs. I would recommend clipping so that she can get use to u, it really does help, u can let them grow out after she has bonded with you, although misses chook is fully flighted and I had no trouble with her

[spizella]

(Hi, first post.) I also read about females being difficult, and didn't know what to expect when I adopted a female IRN I'd been told was shy of people and wouldn't come out of the cage. So maybe the rescue place gave me the wrong bird... I've had Sophie (another Sophie!) for about two months now and she's made herself at home and has trusted me from the start. She's on my shoulder all the time and screeches if I think I'm going to get away with not taking her out of her cage (wherever she came from she was able to perfect her mimicking of various cockatiel calls, which she does at IRN volume, a special gift). She can of course be nippy and bitey (we're learning "step up" right now, which also merits some growling), but for the most part she wants to hang out and have the feathers on her head scritched. Also, when I got her Sophie had shredded her wing and tail feathers (she looked like a green potato when I got her, though a very pretty green spud, of course), but now that seems to have abated and she has 1-1/2 tailfeathers and I can see her wing feathers coming in (again, I'm very lucky she's happy enough to stop this, at least for the time being). She too has her own IRN weirdo behavior: every time I run the vacuum in her room, she tries to stuff herself into her water cup and take a bath. She's not afraid of the vacuum; it just apparently inspires bathing. Anyway, just thought I'd add my two cents to this discussion. I have enjoyed very much getting to know Sophie, and I'm sure she'll continue to surprise me as time goes on.

[Sophiesmom]

Thank you so much for all this info.
I am happy to report we brought her home this weekend. It was a 6 hr trip for her on the way home and she did perfect! I have pics which I will try to post later after I read the board rules on that. She is stepping up great, a little leary of people but overall doing great. Eating anything and everything and talking up a storm. She barks, meows and now after a few days wheeks like my guinea pigs and sings like my finches! She is so great and I cant wait to get to know her more and more.
She does bob and lean way off to one side, not sure what thats about but she doesnt seem unhappy, will take it as a good thing LOL. More updates and pics to follow once I get caught up here. WE had a long long weekend to go up and get her

[tu_ija]

I adopted my female ringneck when she was 9 years old. I have also a male, whose I adopted when he was 4 years old. In my case the female have been easier pet than the male was at the beginning. Male was harder to put back in the cage (even he was able to be free all the time expect for nights) and he was made much more devastations than female. Female started to eat from hand about two weeks after she was arrived.

[Ed Loschi]

I got Kiwi August '06; so we have been together 11 months. Her leg band says she was hatched in '00, I got her from foster parents who had her for about six months. They told me her history. She originally was with an older lady, then was adopted to a college age man, then to the foster parents, then to me.
She is a big strong girl and she is very smart and really wary of what is going on around her. Her size and strength and intelligence was intimidating.
At first she was obviously nervous and was territorial and could lay a terrible bite onto a finger and she would only come out of her cage on a stick and would need to be coaxed to do that.
My experience with birds is with Bebe a male IRN now 5yo and also adopted. He and I have been together since '03 so Kiwi came into a home that had set up some routines and patterns that she could never have experienced.
It has taken some time and is an ongoing thing but she observes what is going on and she adapts herself to the routines and patterns The Beeb and I have worked out. She has perfectly mimicked Bebe's calls and whistles, She has her own whistles that we call back to, she is an early riser and is relentless about caling out until she gets uncovered in the AM, so she is helping to set some new routines and patterns in the household that we get to adapt to.
Getting Kiwi was great she has become very nice and she is really sweet, She still is the boss when it comes to interacting with Bebe, and he gives her a wide margin. The birdy politics between hen and cock is something I'm still trying to understand. She is a great addition to the home--The Beeb might disagree.
I would say it took about 4 months before Kiwi and I trusted each other; her that I was consistent, me that she wouldn't give me a bad slash. She steps up, gets showers, and is really a great little bird. Kiwi though 7 years old and now in her 4th home is a good little fid.
Good luck to you and yours, you'll do fine.