IRN gone wild!

[ParrotMommy]

Hi,
i have previously received councel from some kind persons on here about my aggressive IRN. They suggested we clip the wings and use the shuning method. unfortunately this has not worked. We got his wings cliped and now he is more grumpy than EVER! It is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to shun him. As he climbs out of his cage he lunges at anyone approaching him. Then if we can lure him to his perch he becomes extremely aggressive. no matter what we offer him (our hand, a treat, a perch) he puffs up twice his size pins his eyes and if its not removed he lashes out.
we cant even get him to the ground when he needs to be there. and not to mention when its time to go back in his cage! HELL!
i am giving up because i have tried everything and nothing works. i think i will have to sell him. Also he can fly considerable distances even though his wings have been professionally cliped.
(also parrot councelling is not an option where i live)

 

[LordTriggs]

Step back, take a breath, clear your head.

you need to give him TIME Stuff like this doesn't get sorted in a couple days. We said you should wait to clip after trying to curb behavior but you instantly jumped to it. He's probably quite upset right now that he got clipped and is unsure who to trust right now.

Go right back to the start with him, offering treats through the bars, talking in the cage, treat him like he's only just come to your home. I will Iterate over and over he's not going to snap change overnight, this can take MONTHS or even over a year to work through. Don't give up on him because he's become scared and confused and certainly don't kill him for that! That's frankly horrific that you're thinking of putting him down because he's not behaving how you want, I get that things can be said in the heat of a moment but try to look at things from his view right now. He's most likely frustrated, unsure what's happening to him each day, doesn't know who to trust, who is a friend who is a foe, will that treat actually be a trap. It's terrifying for him so the only thing he is left to do is to defend himself with the only tool he has

 

[ParrotMommy]

Thanks. I understand what you mean. It would break my heart to put him down. i didnt realise that you meant we shouldnt clip his wings right away, but he wouldnt stay on the floor otherwise.
Also i forgot to mention that we recently had to adopt 3 baby budgies who were attacked by another bird. we have to feed them before we get to him on mornings as they are babys and cannot wait for food. he doesnt attach them like when we bring then near his cage or once he tried to fly and landed on top of a baby that was on the floor and he just walked away.

also he is from wild parents as he was an orphan. would that make a difference?

 

[Betrisher]

Is your IRN definitely a male? The behaviour you describe sounds a lot like a sexually frustrated female defending her cage and territory from all comers.

My own bird was quite aggressive when she first arrived. I immediately began target training her and she caught on straight away. While her unfortunate behaviours are still a work in progress, getting her back in the cage is easy peasy because she targets faultlessly every time.

Check out our training section and/or look up some videos on targetting on YouTube. If you can get your bird to target, you can then easily target him into his cage and he'll go in order to earn a treat from you. It's very important that you ONLY reward when the bird pecks the END of the target stick. If you reward him for simply touching the stick anywhere along its length, you've lost your chance to pinpoint the exact place you want birdie to go. IRNs are very intelligent. I reckon it'll take you about ten minutes to get a decent targetting response from your bird.

Also, if you use target training it gives the bird a chance to do Good Things and earn rewards from you. That's the beginning of a good relationship.

The fact that your bird was wild-caught may make a small difference or it may not. In my experience, wild-caught chicks generally imprint on their human family fairly well and go on to make great companions. I'm sure others will know of birds in which that hasn't been the case, but for now you need to watch yours and see if you can identify what sets him off. He may be afraid of some sound or some change in your appearance (my own Alexandrines nearly went bananas when I got new glasses!). You might have inadvertently bumped his cage and given him an earthquake. Or you might have raised your voice and frightened him without realising it. There's any number of things that could terrify a caged bird and we're not always quick enough to notice what they are.

If you really want to help this bird, then you'll need to be very patient and start again with him, taming him as if he had only just arrived at your home. Please don't put him down. He hasn't done anything wrong, he's just responding to some mysterious thing in his environment.

If you pass him on to someone else, please make it clear that he has aggression problems and allow them to decide if they will still take him. It's not much fun being landed with a bird that has aggro problems and not everyone is equipped with the patience and motivation to keep trying.

I do wish you all the best with this bird. I'm quite sure if you go slowly and reward his good behaviours he'll improve over time.

 

[SilverSage]

Please don’t put him down!

He sounds like he was weaned poorly
unfortunately clipping the wings of a ringneck can sometimes make them more aggressive; it seems to have the opposite effect on ringnecks as it does on conures (conures seem to be able to have a bad attitude literally clipped away sometimes).

Be patient, the advice to start target training is GREAT advice. I also agree that your bird sounds frustrated and it is likely sexual. What is he/she eating? And have you done a DNA test? Where are you located? I may know someone in your area who can help evaluate your situation.

Above all please do not kill the bird. If you rehome him without resolving his behavior issues please see that he goes to an AVIARY home where he will have space to fly and bird companions.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ChristaNL]

Great advice here, it is not just about 'I've tried everything' but also 'are you listening to the bird?'.

If you go too fast, move too close the bird will defend itself. And if you make it a pattern, he wil strat displaying and giving all kinds or warning to leave him alone even before you've done anything.
I believe you did things right, but your timing is a bit off.

Go back to the 'building trust' sticky and pretend you just got this bird, you've *never* seen each other before and go from there.
(Get him used to people just passing by and giving treats... so he can 'drop the act')


==
Sunny got here as 'a somewhat tame macaw' and even so she only started to mellow out / grow calm after 11 months of constant care, training, affection etc..
I am allowed to touch her inside the cage now- 6 months ago she would try to bite my fingers off /if I was so stupid to try it at all.
And she is one of the fast ones
There are so many people here who had to work with a bird for years before they got a nice response (and of course a lot of lucky ones were the parrot was nice within hours/days/weeks).


Do not give up too fast


It is about babysteps: if the lunging starts when you are 2 steps away from the cage instead of 3 steps away THAT is *huge* progress!
Keep a diary, you will be amazed how much you actually win each month.
(and you can read about what you did what gave a positive response / or a negative...so you do not make the same mistake twice)

 

[Sunnyclover]

I have a bird who acted like this and it took months to get him to where I could handle him knowing I won't get my hands and face bitten off. To me personally this sounds lovely me like an abused bird who might still be getting abused. Is there someone else in your home who maybe hurting the bird or scaring the bird on a regular basis? I know this sounds insane but you'd be surprised what an angry kid who doesn't like the bird screaming can do to a bird just by yelling at the bird on a regular basis. Are you yelling at the bird? If so...stop because this is emotional abuse. If neither of these things are not what's happening I personally would recommend rehoming the bird temporarily or putting him up in a boarding place for a couple of weeks to give you both a break. Sometimes this can really really help. Also, don't put the bird down...that's a really drastic step to end someone's life because you personally can't handle the bird. I would never put a bird down unless it's on the advice of a vet who tells me it's better for the bird. If you must please rehome the bird... perhaps someone else will be able to tame him and even if they can't they might not care and just try to make him as happy as possible and accept him how he is.

 

[ParrotMommy]

Thanks. I dont think he is being abused. everyone in the house likes him and even though my dad doesnt apreciate his screaming he doesnt abuse it. if anything he shouts at me.
also 'SilverSage', i weaned him personally and he weaned naturally. we fed him until he didnt want it any more. sometimes i still syringe feed him as a treat when i feed my other babies (and it teaches him to take a syringe in case he is ever sick). also we dont know if its a he/she and its ony about 10 months old. DNA testing is not possible as i live in the caribbean.
Thanks to all the great people who replied.

 

[EllenD]

How old is this IRN now? So you bred and hand-raised him, or he was originally fed by his parent-birds and then you took-over? I guess the question there is how old was he when you first started hand-feeding him formula?

If he was older than 3 weeks when you started to hand-feed him and he was fed up until that point by his parent-birds, then that is a big part of the puzzle...I've seen many people who have allowed their birds to breed, they wanted to hand-raise/hand-feed them, but they waited too long to remove them from the nest-box and from their parents, and for whatever reason when you wait longer than 3 weeks, regardless of the type of parrot, it's like it's just too late, and they can't seem get into the groove of being handled by people anywhere near as easily as a baby bird who is between 2-3 weeks old...Even just waiting until they are 4 weeks-old is enough to cause issues with "hand-taming" them...

I think the best advice we can give you has already been said; This is going to be a marathon, not a sprint, and it can quite literally take months and months to well over a year to earn their trust and get them to bond with you...And though I don't know much about IRN's, I do know that for whatever reason, they seem to be a bit more prone to being "wild" than other species of parrots...But giving up on him at this point will only result in him being passed from home to home to home to home, until someone ends-up killing him or he get's loose...So I suggest you just "Hit the Reset-Button" and start over like it's day #1...

 

[gracebowen]

Like others have posted. Please don't put him down. If nothing else send him to a rescue or give him to someone who is willing to take the on the challenge.

I've had my lovie Cora for well over a year now. Her previous owner rescued her from an abusive situation.

I knew she was cage aggressive and bite when I brought her home. I still can't touch her. She will tolerate my hands to take a bath but also lightly bite me during her bath.

I still get bit (not hard) when I feed her.

She will occasionally land on me. She occasionally preens my hair.
If I ever forget to feed her she will fly to my head then to the food.

She will also on rare occasion eat from my hands.