Greetings from myself and my featherbabys!!

[TrishMM]

[attachment=0]image.jpeg[/attachment]Hi all ,
I am Trish , a late 30's married mum of 2 girls , and 8 pets which include 2 of the feathered kind!
My feather babies are Milo a 9 month old hand reared green cheek conure, tiny little guy with a massive personality and my most recent baby, Bailey, a currently 58 day old Indian Ringneck Chick whom we are calling a he but that is not confirmed . We are hand rearing him and he has just started to fly at day 54.
We are having lots of fun and I'm here just to learn as much as I can about my little pals to enrich their lives with me and my flock.
I look forwards to meeting and chatting to you all

[Wolf]

Hi and welcome to the forum. This is without a doubt one of the most endearing pictures of two parrots that I have seen in a very long time. I am looking forward to hearing all about your two babies, Bailey and Milo.

Although, I do not have much information about them to be giving any advice on, I think that with Bailey just learning to fly that it might be a good idea to take him around and show him all of the windows in the room that he is in and try to get him to tap on them with his beak, I would also do this with any mirrors that might be in the same room. And even then I would use the added precaution of putting a sheer curtain in front of them, until he has his flying down, especially mid air turns and braking.. The reason that I make this suggestion is that parrots do not actually see window glass or recognize mirrors as mirrors, they appear to just see an opening through which they could fly. and you really don't want him to crash headlong at speed into either of them.

[liz]

Welcome to the forum.
Milo looks like a real lover.

[Pajarita]

Welcome to the forum, Trish, Milo and Bailey! Wonderful picture of pretty birds!

[TrishMM]

Aw thank you all for the kind welcomes. So far these two are best buddies ( as you can see from the pic) but I am worried about the future as Bailey grows and doesn't realise his strength in comparison to fully grown Milo. I am hoping that letting them spend time together as much as possible will avoid future issues.

Thank you Wolf , for the tips re the windows and mirrors, we have had a couple of small bumps and I ended up closing the curtains almost all the time my guys are out for fear of Bailey injuring himself. I will definitely try letting him figure out the windows and mirrors by tapping . That seems like something I should have thought of myself !!, thank you.

It is a very exciting time for Bailey right now , between discovering new foods and new skills , he is quite a noisy little guy and his head seems to Bob from the moment he sees me til the time he settles to bed . I believe this passes but for the time being it is so adorable. I will almost be sad to see him wean and become less dependant on me.

What is the general consensus on clipping ? I haven't clipped either of my babies yet but feel that I may have to since Bailey will be a much larger adult than Milo, it may become a necessity.

Any thoughts welcome,
Trish

[Pajarita]

I don't agree with clipping unless there is a medical reason for it. The fact is that the only way you can safely clip is to use a mild one - and those are not effective in stopping the bird from attacking or flying out a window so you end up handicapping the bird and not really solving anything by it. Personally, I don't think you will have a problem because IRNs are more aviary than companion birds (meaning they love other birds more than they will even love people) so I don't see Bailey attacking Milo - he/she obviously loves him.

[Wolf]

While I know that it could change when they get older, I really don't think that you will have any problems with the IRN, Bailey attacking Milo, Truthfully, if it changes, I would think that it would be the other way around with milo becoming the more jealous of the two. While I have neither of these two species of parrots, I actually get to read quite a bit about both of these bird and their general behaviors and the GCC is going to bond in such a manner that it will want to be on you a lot of the time that it is not caged, they don't call them Velcro birds without reason. So the question in my mind is will Milo continue to accept sharing you with Bailey.

Bailey, on the other hand has a tendency to be more of an aviary type of species and it seems that if you want to keep him bonded with you that you will need to keep up a lot of personal interaction with him to keep him from reverting to a more wild type of behavior. At that time it is possible that a light clip might help to some small degree, but I really doubt it. But then, I do not clip my birds as I have no valid medical reason to do so, This limits my actual knowledge of just how much it might help. The thing in my mind is how long would the clipping need to be done and if the answer would be that relying on clipping either bird to control any possible aggression would result in have it be more than just a temporary solution, then I would not even consider it, but I feel that if clipping must be done on a permanent basis then it is not really a good solution and another way should be found.

[TrishMM]

Thanks once again for the advice. I happened by my GCC accidentally as he was an injured baby ( his momma bird picked out one eye while he was still in the nest) and the breeder didn't have time to look after him properly along with all the healthy chicks . So I took him home to give him the love he needed , supposedly temporarily but I couldn't give him back then. So for that reason I know very little about them only that he is a very friendly sweet little guy and fits into out flock very well. In my quest for knowledge on GCC I met and fell in love with an adult IRN who's chicks were just about to hatch. One of whom is our new addition Bailey. Both birds seem to be happy and both seem to be bonded with me and happily. Hopefully we will stay that way. On the question of clipping, I am glad that the general consensus is that it's not necessary. As I mentioned I haven't clipped milo so my plan is not to clip Bailey so long as they are both safe and healthy. Judging by their antics right now we have a lot of fun and enjoyment to come yet!

[seagoatdeb]

Welcome, to both you and your beautifull parrots. For your cliiping question, i am a person who will do mild clipping only when needed. I see no reason for you to clip now, since everything is just fine and they may get along well so you may never want or need to.

[liz]

Welcome.

I don't believe in the mutilation of clipping. Many of my rescues came to me clipped. Phoenix had part of his wing chopped off. When his nub healed he started to fly and become social with me. Gimpy came to me with one twisted and one missing leg. Some idiot had also trimmed his wings. It was pitiful. He was afraid of everything and the others had to spend time with him since he could not walk or fly. He can fly now. He has joined in the flock and will land on anything at least an inch wide. Yesterday he even landed in front of me.

Clipped birds do not show their real personality because they are scared. They don't have a way to get away when scared and they stay scared. The personality does develop and become social when the wings grow back. It is like two different birds.

I hoped that stayed on subject.