Squeeing_Onion
Active member
- Oct 10, 2018
- 134
- 162
- Parrots
- "Bongo" - Green Cheek Conure
“Echo” - Indian Ringneck
"Chicken" - Sun Conure, rest in peace, my precious friend.
Heya! Man, it's been a while since I've posted on the forums here, but I've poked my head in now and then over the years to read up on other posts.
A handful of you may remember me as my late Sun Conure, Chicken's owner -- I am now a very proud caretaker of a little sassy Green Cheek, Bongo, and a newly adopted, Indian Ringneck, of whom this post is for in particular.
Some history on my IRN:
His previous caretaker (Let's call her PC for short) had him for about two months I wanna say, before I adopted him. PC reached out to me from a Craigslist ad I posted searching for a second bird to adopt, and of all the people she reached out to, I was apparently the only one to respond. I was informed that he was an untamed, hand-shy, previously very neglected bird who had a fear of being confined to a cage and could not fly or glide with a very badly botched wing clip. He had a legband that was very carefully cut off because it was too small for his leg and digging into it; fortunately he doesn't appear to suffer any long-term damage from that as he moves very well and doesn't seem sore at all. He had rubbed a hole between his nares and rubbed off some forehead feathers, in his efforts to try and escape confinement (I was told he was "kept in a small aquarium" poor baby ;-
. Both these injuries were healed by the time I met him, and his forehead feathers regrown.
After many weeks of PC being in contact with the store he was held at, she went in one day to discover he was no longer on the sales' floor, and asked about him; PC was told that "there's something wrong with him, so we moved him to the back" into a dark backroom. When she asked what was wrong with him, they told her that "he had become very mean" and they could no longer feed him without being attacked, and forget handling him anymore.
She eventually purchased him on 'clearance' price from the store and reported them to an animal welfare group, I am unclear on if they were made to pay his resulting vet fees for the legband removal or not, but the report was submitted.
Anyhow, Echo then moved into her home with two other birds, and unfortunately, threw off a very peaceful flock dynamic they'd been enjoying; he and PC's Amazon did NOT get along, and actively picked fights with each other. I'm told he got along with her cockatiel. PC had a spare cage to keep him in for part of the time when she needed to let her other birds loose, but he was otherwise kept as cageless as possible due to his neurotic escape-behavior that had led to his prior injury of a facial wound.
I went down to meet him before committing to the adoption, and met a bird who was content to watch and observe me, and would quietly move away from me to a further perch if I drew too near for comfort. I stopped and backed up each time he moved away, and I considered this a better sign than I had hoped for; my first two parrots were ones who came to me with already established biting (and in Bongo's case, screaming) habits, so it was a bit refreshing to be faced with one who was wiling to simply remove himself first instead of going straight into a territorial threat display.
Fast forward another month -- I had to wait to bring him home until I had completed a week long road trip I flew home from, to help a friend move cross-country -- and PC drove him up to my house to deliver him, and I paid the adoption fee that covered her costs for his initial purchase and care. I do have an agreement that if things don't work out with him in our home to return him for a half refund, but so far, as I've an obligation first to Bongo, however I am very optimistic this will be his forever home.
By the time he was dropped off, PC let me know that he had taken his first flight and flew to her in the office, so I changed my gameplan a bit for having an untamed, flighted bird in my house.
We estimate him to be no older than eight months. A store employee said they got him from a breeder in the cities. I contacted them hoping to learn his exact hatch date from the breeder, and they have yet to reply. (Honestly, I don't expect them to, but it was worth a shot!)
I've named him Echo, which he responds to though I'm not sure he quite realizes it's his 'name' yet. He was called Mr.Bean by his previous caretaker; he didn't respond in any way to that name, and I didn't feel it fit him, hence the renaming. If he'd been attached to the name, I wouldn't have tried changing it.
He came to me on a diet of mostly veggie chop, fruit, with a seed ball or two, and a treat every day. I am hoping to convert him to primarily pellet diet as his main course with the veggie chop supplement, and ofc, treats here and there. I feed TOPS and Harrison's pellets; he seems interested but skeptical about the TOPS, and promptly threw all the Harrison's out of his bowl, so I've kept those for Bongo for now.... they expensive and my wallet was crying XD I'll offer them again once he's figured out the TOPS.
All of these are recent, some from today -- What do you think? Is he just a chubby IRN, is he actually a bit big for an IRN, am I just being a typical new parrot owner who is clueless? XD
For reference, his cage is literally only a centimeter shorter than Bongo's, and has a larger bar size, but they're otherwise the same dimension. She's in a preview hendrix flight cage. He's in a similar model but probably a different brand, as his only has two doors (a good thing, and perfect for him, because I'm told he's an escape artist. PC found this out because she came in to find him escaped from his cage... and he let her other birds out, too!)
Here's some photos PC gave me before I met him:
Here you can see the little hole he rubbed above his beak :< poor baby
I've been able to keep him happy when he is confined in his cage by putting newspaper in the corners, so he shreds and chews on that first instead of shoving his face into the bars.
Another early vet pic -- this was the too-small legband they removed from him.
This injury has since healed, his feathers
I believe this one was taken at the store he was rescued from, I'm not clear on that.
This was one of the first photos I got of him, and the one that stole my heart. THE LITTLE TOOOOEEEES. SUCH POOF. SO FLOOF. TOOOOOOOES.
So, anyhow, there's my long-winded intro to Echo the Possibly-Chubby Indian Ringneck.
Thoughts, advice, input?
Where we're at now:
He gets out-of-cage time each day because he's learned he can fly to and from his cage and birdie-safe areas, and let's us close the door without fuss. I've made sure we haven't closed the door every time he finally goes back in, and to play with it now and then and bring a treat over to his food dish while he's inside. Sometimes he lets me walk within a few inches of him (usually if he's shoulder-high and higher on the playgym, he's wary of hands) without moving away; he'll eat, preen, and play with his toys now. We hear new vocalizations from him each day as he settles in; I'm told he does speak english words, his favorites at the moment are simple birdie burbles and possibly mimicking Bongo's GCC call (which sounds ridiculously adorable in his deeper voice compared to Bongo's little squeak). He lets me service his food and water bowls without attacking, he just hangs back in the corner and eeeeevery so often will remain put in his middle perch instead of moving away.
All in all, he's settling in much faster and smoother than I had hoped for, though I also feel a little like I'm 'waiting for the other shoe to drop.' He bit PC once in her keeping -- I didn't get he story on how that transpired -- but he has been content to simply move away from Mama or I when he feels insecure, instead of lunging at us, and we're being very careful not to force him into a position where he feels he has no other choice but to bite.
He won't take treats from our fingers yet; once he does, I'd like to start him on target training so he can have hands-off interaction with us and get more comfortable around our hands.
A handful of you may remember me as my late Sun Conure, Chicken's owner -- I am now a very proud caretaker of a little sassy Green Cheek, Bongo, and a newly adopted, Indian Ringneck, of whom this post is for in particular.
Some history on my IRN:
His previous caretaker (Let's call her PC for short) had him for about two months I wanna say, before I adopted him. PC reached out to me from a Craigslist ad I posted searching for a second bird to adopt, and of all the people she reached out to, I was apparently the only one to respond. I was informed that he was an untamed, hand-shy, previously very neglected bird who had a fear of being confined to a cage and could not fly or glide with a very badly botched wing clip. He had a legband that was very carefully cut off because it was too small for his leg and digging into it; fortunately he doesn't appear to suffer any long-term damage from that as he moves very well and doesn't seem sore at all. He had rubbed a hole between his nares and rubbed off some forehead feathers, in his efforts to try and escape confinement (I was told he was "kept in a small aquarium" poor baby ;-
. Both these injuries were healed by the time I met him, and his forehead feathers regrown.After many weeks of PC being in contact with the store he was held at, she went in one day to discover he was no longer on the sales' floor, and asked about him; PC was told that "there's something wrong with him, so we moved him to the back" into a dark backroom. When she asked what was wrong with him, they told her that "he had become very mean" and they could no longer feed him without being attacked, and forget handling him anymore.
She eventually purchased him on 'clearance' price from the store and reported them to an animal welfare group, I am unclear on if they were made to pay his resulting vet fees for the legband removal or not, but the report was submitted.
Anyhow, Echo then moved into her home with two other birds, and unfortunately, threw off a very peaceful flock dynamic they'd been enjoying; he and PC's Amazon did NOT get along, and actively picked fights with each other. I'm told he got along with her cockatiel. PC had a spare cage to keep him in for part of the time when she needed to let her other birds loose, but he was otherwise kept as cageless as possible due to his neurotic escape-behavior that had led to his prior injury of a facial wound.
I went down to meet him before committing to the adoption, and met a bird who was content to watch and observe me, and would quietly move away from me to a further perch if I drew too near for comfort. I stopped and backed up each time he moved away, and I considered this a better sign than I had hoped for; my first two parrots were ones who came to me with already established biting (and in Bongo's case, screaming) habits, so it was a bit refreshing to be faced with one who was wiling to simply remove himself first instead of going straight into a territorial threat display.
Fast forward another month -- I had to wait to bring him home until I had completed a week long road trip I flew home from, to help a friend move cross-country -- and PC drove him up to my house to deliver him, and I paid the adoption fee that covered her costs for his initial purchase and care. I do have an agreement that if things don't work out with him in our home to return him for a half refund, but so far, as I've an obligation first to Bongo, however I am very optimistic this will be his forever home.
By the time he was dropped off, PC let me know that he had taken his first flight and flew to her in the office, so I changed my gameplan a bit for having an untamed, flighted bird in my house.
We estimate him to be no older than eight months. A store employee said they got him from a breeder in the cities. I contacted them hoping to learn his exact hatch date from the breeder, and they have yet to reply. (Honestly, I don't expect them to, but it was worth a shot!)
I've named him Echo, which he responds to though I'm not sure he quite realizes it's his 'name' yet. He was called Mr.Bean by his previous caretaker; he didn't respond in any way to that name, and I didn't feel it fit him, hence the renaming. If he'd been attached to the name, I wouldn't have tried changing it.
He came to me on a diet of mostly veggie chop, fruit, with a seed ball or two, and a treat every day. I am hoping to convert him to primarily pellet diet as his main course with the veggie chop supplement, and ofc, treats here and there. I feed TOPS and Harrison's pellets; he seems interested but skeptical about the TOPS, and promptly threw all the Harrison's out of his bowl, so I've kept those for Bongo for now.... they expensive and my wallet was crying XD I'll offer them again once he's figured out the TOPS.
All of these are recent, some from today -- What do you think? Is he just a chubby IRN, is he actually a bit big for an IRN, am I just being a typical new parrot owner who is clueless? XD
For reference, his cage is literally only a centimeter shorter than Bongo's, and has a larger bar size, but they're otherwise the same dimension. She's in a preview hendrix flight cage. He's in a similar model but probably a different brand, as his only has two doors (a good thing, and perfect for him, because I'm told he's an escape artist. PC found this out because she came in to find him escaped from his cage... and he let her other birds out, too!)
Here's some photos PC gave me before I met him:
Here you can see the little hole he rubbed above his beak :< poor baby
I've been able to keep him happy when he is confined in his cage by putting newspaper in the corners, so he shreds and chews on that first instead of shoving his face into the bars.
Another early vet pic -- this was the too-small legband they removed from him.
This injury has since healed, his feathers
I believe this one was taken at the store he was rescued from, I'm not clear on that.
This was one of the first photos I got of him, and the one that stole my heart. THE LITTLE TOOOOEEEES. SUCH POOF. SO FLOOF. TOOOOOOOES.
So, anyhow, there's my long-winded intro to Echo the Possibly-Chubby Indian Ringneck.
Thoughts, advice, input?
Where we're at now:
He gets out-of-cage time each day because he's learned he can fly to and from his cage and birdie-safe areas, and let's us close the door without fuss. I've made sure we haven't closed the door every time he finally goes back in, and to play with it now and then and bring a treat over to his food dish while he's inside. Sometimes he lets me walk within a few inches of him (usually if he's shoulder-high and higher on the playgym, he's wary of hands) without moving away; he'll eat, preen, and play with his toys now. We hear new vocalizations from him each day as he settles in; I'm told he does speak english words, his favorites at the moment are simple birdie burbles and possibly mimicking Bongo's GCC call (which sounds ridiculously adorable in his deeper voice compared to Bongo's little squeak). He lets me service his food and water bowls without attacking, he just hangs back in the corner and eeeeevery so often will remain put in his middle perch instead of moving away.
All in all, he's settling in much faster and smoother than I had hoped for, though I also feel a little like I'm 'waiting for the other shoe to drop.' He bit PC once in her keeping -- I didn't get he story on how that transpired -- but he has been content to simply move away from Mama or I when he feels insecure, instead of lunging at us, and we're being very careful not to force him into a position where he feels he has no other choice but to bite.
He won't take treats from our fingers yet; once he does, I'd like to start him on target training so he can have hands-off interaction with us and get more comfortable around our hands.
There's a YouTube video that's an hour long of baby IRNs that make my ARN go bonkers (he LOVES them!) so that might also prompt Echo to share new noises with you 
and recently a more obvious "hello" in beep form !
