New joiner to the club - INR MUMMY

New joiner to the club - IRN MUMMY

Hi There

I am a newbie parrot/parakeet mum (can someone please clarify this, some articles state Indian Ring Necks are Parrots, others Parakeets?!).

I own a male and female IRN - bought them off a breeder (Big mistake, I know, but I'm hoping I can give them a MUCH better life).

If there are any expert owners who can share some tips and tricks - please post here!

My babies seem to be settling into their new homes, they are 2 weeks in and I'm already in love!!!

Muchos Gracias,
Bee -xo

Welcome to you and your flock!!! Now you're a parront like us!

Parakeet is a term sometimes used to describe parrots with long tails. All parakeets are parrots, but not all parrots are parakeets. Parrots are classified as having curved beaks and feet with two toes in front, two in back.

We talk about parakeets here on the forum in reference to a species native to Australia, budgies, which has their own separate subforum. IRN's are in a subforum of their own.

I bought my weaned baby from a breeder and he is so sweet and awesome.... I don't see the issue with buying from a breeder so I'm not sure what you mean exactly by big mistake?

Stick around, there's lots to learn around here!

Hi Itzjbean!

Thanks for the explanation, I was very confused to begin with!

After I had met my breeder, I had a feeling the parrots were not treated warmly, and more as just stock. Totally new to this world and only learned of "cowboy" breeders after!

I was told the ringnecks were hand tamed, etc but they are 100% not! They were very timid and were only fed seeds and apples - I have since learned that they need veggies, etc. Lovely to hear you had a great experience though!

Thanks for the tips

Welcome! Hope you’ll share pictures of your babies . My biggest piece of advice to a new parrot would be to move at the birds pace when it comes to bonding, socializing and training a timid bird. Tons of great info here and lots of people to answer any questions that you have.

Hello and welcome! Those little guys can take a little bit to warm up, but from that point on they are fantastic!

Welcome to the forums! Wish I had good advice but not familiar with IRNs.

This is a favorite thread to help build trust and develop closer bonds: http://www.parrotforums.com/general-parrot-information/49144-tips-bonding-building-trust.html

Thanks Scott!!

Jen5200 said:

Welcome! Hope you’ll share pictures of your babies .

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Hi Jen, Here are my babies from 2 days ago! Will post more pics soon - however I'm having some trouble at the mo!

one of my babies seems a bit unwell - she was not eating properly yesterday started "sleeping" a lot in the eve, woke up this morn and she's the same so worried right now! Taking her to the vet, hoping it isn't too serious but she's taken no interest to food at all today, which is not like her at all!

Oh dear, I hope everything is ok with your little one. So pleased to hear you're reacting so quickly to signs of illness.

Just wanted to mention that if you're in the UK you can get pet insurance (don't think it's as easy in the US or other parts of the world) that will cover birds. I pay about £14 for £1500 of cover.

Other than that I'm intrigued about what the IRN experts think about your babies... one looks to have a darker beak, which isn't typical in IRNs so I wonder if you have an interesting mutation, a very young bird or possibly an ARN...?

How much do you trust the sexing? Just wondering if you think you do have a male and female if you think you were mislead about how tame they were?

Hi Bee,
Nice to see pictures!! If you didn't turn the cage just to take pictures. I would keep the long side of the cage against the wall. This gives security to the parrots. I will think this is best for most parrots, but is very important with less socialized parrots. Gives them a chance to relax their gaurd. Best of luck to you and yours.

Welcome and be welcomed.

IRN's ARE parrots 100%.

Now to reality. Breeding pairs taken out of that environment are hard to socialize since they have already chosen thier "people". It's going to take a lot of PATIENCE to accept human contact.Yes, their life will (hopefully) be better than just pumping out babies, and I hope that you aspire to give them that. It will take time with setbacks along the way. Thisforum is your best source of information and advice and help that could possibly be imagined.

More reality -IRNs are notorious for going back to the 'wild' state if not handled and interacted with almost daily. Wild, what does that mean? Parrots are not domesticated animals like dogs and cats. Those animals have thousands of generations of breeding by man for the traits welove about them. Parrots on the other hand have barely left the jungle in comparison. Most parrots available today are at best 3 or 4 gerations away from being caught in the wild and many are less, all are way too soon for any type of breeding for traits to emerge. Come back in 100 years and maybe a mlore domesticated parrot will emerge. It is only their propensity for companionship that makes then suitable as human companions BUT we have to re-enforce that propensity for them to be that. Any parrot left alone, devoid of intimate huiman contact, in a cage or bird room or aviary/zoo will loose whatever tameness it had. IRN's loose this faster than most species. So it's going to be important with your pair to have that contact. Cute IRNs on Youtube just dont happen, it takes lot n lots of work, training and socializing to get and keep them that way.

If I haven't scared you off,, IRNs do make wonderful companions. They are really smart and love to be with their "flock" - you and your family ! Good luck and dont be afraid to ask any questions. We have a lot of very eperienced owners here.

wrench13 said:

Wild, what does that mean? Parrots are not domesticated animals like dogs and cats. Those animals have thousands of generations of breeding by man for the traits we love about them. Parrots on the other hand have barely left the jungle in comparison. Most parrots available today are at best 3 or 4 generations away from being caught in the wild and many are less, all are way too soon for any type of breeding for traits to emerge. Come back in 100 years and maybe a more domesticated parrot will emerge. It is only their propensity for companionship that makes then suitable as human companions BUT we have to re-enforce that propensity for them to be that.

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Very well said, Al. Worth remembering when we try to bring them into our lives.

I hope everything is okay with your bird this must be stressful for you

Jottlebot said:

Oh dear, I hope everything is ok with your little one. So pleased to hear you're reacting so quickly to signs of illness.

Just wanted to mention that if you're in the UK you can get pet insurance (don't think it's as easy in the US or other parts of the world) that will cover birds. I pay about £14 for £1500 of cover.

Other than that I'm intrigued about what the IRN experts think about your babies... one looks to have a darker beak, which isn't typical in IRNs so I wonder if you have an interesting mutation, a very young bird or possibly an ARN...?

How much do you trust the sexing? Just wondering if you think you do have a male and female if you think you were mislead about how tame they were?

Click to expand...

Thank you so much for all your advice, appreciate it. We've had a pretty terrible day today, the parrot with the darker beak (who we were told is the female), is the one who has fallen sick. Unfortunately she deteriorated pretty quickly at about noon, and the vet we had taken her to was not an Avian specialist. Much to our dismay, all of the specialists situated about an hr's drive from our house were either closed or not in. I wish I had picked up the signs sooner and been better prepared, they were blossoming so well and didn't expect things to deteriorate so soon.

The general vet we saw has prescribed her with some antibiotics and asked us to feed her pureed apples through a syringe. She's not as drowsy at the moment, but still very weak. Unfortunately with the bank holiday, I've been told to wait til Tues as all the nearby emergency hospital's do not have a specialist! What a terrible day it has been

wrench13 said:

Welcome and be welcomed.

If I haven't scared you off,, IRNs do make wonderful companions. They are really smart and love to be with their "flock" - you and your family ! Good luck and dont be afraid to ask any questions. We have a lot of very eperienced owners here.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your words of wisdom. I totally am prepared, the parrots were a surprise gift from my parents and as such was not as prepared as I would have liked to have been. I bonded with these little bundles of joy a lot faster than I expected and started picking up on their character, what they liked and didn't like but I have so much to learn I thought it was time I joined the forum. Happy to see the community is so helpful and supportive!

Welcome! ! !

ps: As a new "parront", be sure to look into the dangers of Teflon/PTFE/PTFOA (they hide in irons,ironing boards, pans/cooking stuff, rice-cookers, space-heaters, blow-dryers, curlers, pop-corn poppers, bake-in-a-bag meals and so on).
Also, research the dangers of cleaning chemicals of any type (other than vinegar and avian-safe varieties), fumes etc etc. Even essential oils can hurt birds when inhaled via defuser.



I had no idea how fragile bird's lungs could be years ago, so make sure you research, as things like hairspray can really hurt them.

Good oint Noodles. We can get so preachy on behavioural stuff that we fail to advise new owners on the deadly stuff that modern Man has created for his benefit and convienence that is deadly to other life forms.

Thank you Noodles, I was made aware about the dangers of Tefllon, but did not realise the long list of toxic stuff!!

Really appreciate everyone's help here! Wish I had joined sooner!!