Problem Stepping Up

[SoaringBirds]

Are 4 hours out of cage and 1.5 hour of training enough? Other than of course interaction inside the cage.
-She is fully flighted.

[Pajarita]

You can't train for an hour, much less one and a half! Training sessions should be very short. The recommended length is closer to 5 minutes at a time than it is to 10 and maybe twice or three times a day, but I don't think that this will work with an IRN as, like I said, they are not companion birds, they are aviary birds so, although you can train them, you need to take a completely different approach from what you can do with, say, a Senegal, a gray or even a cockatoo. Parrots are not all the same, different species have different needs, different degrees of intelligence, bond, etc. IRNs, for what I have read and gathered (I don't have any personal experience with them), do best when allowed to interact on their own with their owner, allowed to roam around and just do their thing. Four hours of out-of-cage time is the very minimum that companion species need so I would imagine that aviary species need more than that (they are more flighty). Then they need one-on-one time and that does not mean training, it means spending time with them like playing, talking, etc - just keeping them company and loving them. For companion species, it's said that the very minimum is two hours but, personally, I think that, if they are the only bird, they need more than that. The basic difference between aviary and companion species is that you need to spend longer both out of cage AND one-on-one time as well as have a different approach to it because unlike companion species which are happy just perching on you and kissing your cheek and would, out of their deep love for you, be willing to learn how to please you, with aviary, you need to entertain them and work harder on keeping them bonded to you.

[SoaringBirds]

Thanks!!!

[ParrotsForLife]

Mango uses his beak all the time when he steps up and uses his feet for almost everything like holding his food or playing with toys.