New here with my IRN

[MilesBird]

Hi I'm Nathan and i just recently bought a 5 month old Blue He(The breeder had him DNA Sexted) is my first bird and after having him for only week i am totally in love. Every single day i am amazed at how smart he is and how fast he learns. I cant wait to get involved here and hopefully learn a few more things. And at some point ill post a picture of him he is so cute ^_^

[mrbowlerhat]

That's awesome! I've got two IRNs too, and they're really amazing birds. I'm glad you like him so much, and please do post photos!

[MilesBird]

One thing i have been curious about that i havent been able to read online anywhere is how do you stop your parrot from eating your hand. And i do mean eating not biting, I hand feed him fruits and veggies and nuts all the time. he will eat them if i hand them too him or even from the palm of my hand, but when attempting to target train him onto my hand(he goes on and off of a perch that im holding just fine) he stops and licks my hand then starts to nibble and then finally chewing(causing me to bleed just a tiny bit). up until that last part it doesnt hurt but i dont know how to make him stop or if it is just something that i have to deal with.

[spiral71]

Hello Nathan i have a IRN
when it bites you try to stay calm and don't make to much noise as you may unwittingly reinforce the biting behaviour.
You need to learn what could be possibly triggering your birds bighting behaviour. If your bird is going through the bluffing phase typigally at 3-4 months of age it will become more nippy then to test its boundries, i.e of what is socally acceptible behaviour with you. This phase is equivilent to adolesant behaviour in indian ringnecks most birds grow out of it within a few weeks.
At this point my parrot began biting my father when she stepped up onto his hand and he thought she liked the taste of his skin. He discoraded the behaviour by camly saying no and trying to distracty her with his other hand , by gently pushing her away with his forfinger frowning and saying No calmly.
She could puck up from his body language that he was not pleased he did not make to much fuss so it did not reinforce the behaviour.

You must to teach your bird what is accepable, through repeated trianing and possitive reinforcement.There are various taqueneques for coping with and avioding biting. Some people use the following techque; if their bird bites them drop thir hand suddenly causing the bird to let go of their hand. If the bird is sitting on your hand it will feel it has an unstable perch and then let go.
However you need to be careful about this as you dont want the bird to feel that it shouldn't step on to your hand. When birds step up they trypically use their beak to test if the perch is safe but this can be mistaken for biting or become biting if thie bird is startled because you react in an overly dramatic way.

Another technque is that if a bird bites you you should push your hand gently towards the bird rather than pulling your hand away so that the bird will release your finger!Whereas, if you pull your hand away with a sHout the parrot may start to view bitting you as a fun game.

please see Michel's articles on the blog on early taming and training trechneques for help with this. Its is best to try to figure out what is triggering the birds bites in the first place and try and avod those situations. It could be caused by something that you are unwittingly doing that is causing the problem, If the bird is fightend or fustrated possibly hormonal or it could be random, or as i suspect your bird is abit wild or in the buiffing phase.

Indian ringnecks can revert to their wild instincts remarkable quickly if you dont inteact with them enough but if you handly your bird for between half an hour to an hour every day up it can remain very tame even when its wings are not clipped.

I reccomend you read the page on avianweb.com on ringnecks it was useful to me have fun.

[MilesBird]

I think the nibbling might have been a territorial thing because i switched over to a perch for step up training inside the cage and it worked wonders. After he is out of the cage he will step up onto my hand no problem. Yesterday i was skyping a friend and he climbed onto my arm and started preening my arm hair ^_^ (which kinda surprised me as my arm hair is fairly short and blond ie difficult to see)

[Eric&Rebecca]

Wait till he plucks out one of your nose hairs! :p

[MilesBird]

Wait till he plucks out one of your nose hairs! :p

While i love miles he doesnt get to go on my shoulder quite yet, though that doesnt stop him from trying. He made it there twice but both times i was able to immediately get him to step up onto my hand to avoid any unwanted ear piercings or nose hair pulling lol

Also i have had my bird for almost three weeks now, and i was wondering if it is common for them to be this quiet. He has "Squawked" a few times since i got him and a few times he has made a few "im trying to use people words but i dont know how to yet noises" but other than that a very quiet bird. I was bracing myself when i bought him for a lot of noise but i dont hear any.

[laducockatiel]

Also i have had my bird for almost three weeks now, and i was wondering if it is common for them to be this quiet. He has "Squawked" a few times since i got him and a few times he has made a few "im trying to use people words but i dont know how to yet noises" but other than that a very quiet bird. I was bracing myself when i bought him for a lot of noise but i dont hear any.

I've not had an personally, however I think they do have a reputation for being quite loud. It may be that females are louder than males. It's good he is trying to talk, try associating words with situations like saying Hi when you first see him, Bye when you leave and Food or Eat when you give him food. This is how I taught my Cockatiel to talk. I guess it worked out for you that he doesn't make loads of noise

[Eric&Rebecca]

LOL oh you just wait he'll get loud. I barely had anything but peeps out of most of the birds I've owned for at least a couple of months... all of a sudden you'll miss the quietness :p

[laducockatiel]

LOL oh you just wait he'll get loud. I barely had anything but peeps out of most of the birds I've owned for at least a couple of months... all of a sudden you'll miss the quietness :p

Really? Since day 1 Ladu (my cockatiel) never shut up