Temporarily clipping 4 month old IRN?

[Crayfish066]

I just noticed this thread what is now almost a month later and I thought I'd give a bit of an update.

He has good control of his flying skills now, and regularly grazes my hair with his feet as he's aiming to land on my monitor and then does a sharp 180 degree turn to land on it.

He still occasionally crashes but not at high speed, usually when he tries to take flight from a cluttered area, so it doesn't worry me much.

I'm still pretty nervous about leaving the curtains open when he's out though probably because when he was first let out he flew into a window and winded himself despite the fact that he'd been playing on the window frame minutes before.

He's not currently clipped at all and while he was a bit of nuisance to begin with he now spends 90% of his time near my desk, this creates a whole new array of problems but nothing clipping would be much help with.

When you say "leaving the curtain open" I HOPE there is SOMETHING on the window such as a stencil (with NO spaces that the bird thinks it can fly through) or blinds??? It does not matter how much you THINK the bird KNOWS there is a window there... windows must ALWAYS either be covered with blinds or stencils... NO exceptions!

Putting a stencil in the middle of a large window is a waste because the bird will simply try to fly around the stencil and slam its head into the window. Use LOTS of stencils spaced accurately in order for it to be effective.

My tiels KNOW where there are windows in my condo but if something spooks the birds or whatnot the bird, I don't care if it's an IRN or what type of birds it is... is going to fly head first into the window suffering a serious concussion and it's the swelling in the brain that if left untreated, is OFTEN fatal to them.

You are lucky your bird is alive after flying head first into a window without getting treatment! Head injuries in birds is extremely serious.

I've never intentionally left a window visible, the curtains were drawn and he'd gone behind them. He began to panick so I opened them to let him out, he flew to the other end of the room, turned around and flew directly into the window.

He had a small crash into a mirror today (introduced him to a new room in the house and I overlooked it) but he was going at a low speed and didn't seem phased by it in the slightest.

I'm considering getting him a partial clip so he can avoid some of more dangerous hazards that are mostly high up, e.g. lights whilst still allowing him the enjoyment of flight.

 

[Tropical]

I just noticed this thread what is now almost a month later and I thought I'd give a bit of an update.

He has good control of his flying skills now, and regularly grazes my hair with his feet as he's aiming to land on my monitor and then does a sharp 180 degree turn to land on it.

He still occasionally crashes but not at high speed, usually when he tries to take flight from a cluttered area, so it doesn't worry me much.

I'm still pretty nervous about leaving the curtains open when he's out though probably because when he was first let out he flew into a window and winded himself despite the fact that he'd been playing on the window frame minutes before.

He's not currently clipped at all and while he was a bit of nuisance to begin with he now spends 90% of his time near my desk, this creates a whole new array of problems but nothing clipping would be much help with.

When you say "leaving the curtain open" I HOPE there is SOMETHING on the window such as a stencil (with NO spaces that the bird thinks it can fly through) or blinds??? It does not matter how much you THINK the bird KNOWS there is a window there... windows must ALWAYS either be covered with blinds or stencils... NO exceptions!

Putting a stencil in the middle of a large window is a waste because the bird will simply try to fly around the stencil and slam its head into the window. Use LOTS of stencils spaced accurately in order for it to be effective.

My tiels KNOW where there are windows in my condo but if something spooks the birds or whatnot the bird, I don't care if it's an IRN or what type of birds it is... is going to fly head first into the window suffering a serious concussion and it's the swelling in the brain that if left untreated, is OFTEN fatal to them.

You are lucky your bird is alive after flying head first into a window without getting treatment! Head injuries in birds is extremely serious.

I've never intentionally left a window visible, the curtains were drawn and he'd gone behind them. He began to panick so I opened them to let him out, he flew to the other end of the room, turned around and flew directly into the window.

He had a small crash into a mirror today (introduced him to a new room in the house and I overlooked it) but he was going at a low speed and didn't seem phased by it in the slightest.

I'm considering getting him a partial clip so he can avoid some of more dangerous hazards that are mostly high up, e.g. lights whilst still allowing him the enjoyment of flight.

Partial clips mean he crashes more often (I have a partial clip on one of my tiels and he's far ore likely to injure himself than my unclipped tiel as they don't have the same control with a partial clip)... why not simply ensure the window is BIRD SAFE??? It's not difficult to ensure windows are bird safe... Birds can still fly head first into windows with a partial clip. Regardless if a bird is FULLY clipped, partcially clipped or fully flighted... exposed windows around birds should NEVER exist.. it is a huge NO NO!!

I have TONS of windows in my condo and one of my tiels is unclipped... it is very EASY to bird safe a window using either stencils or blinds or various curtains that still allow light to pass through. A partially clipped bird can sustain serious life threatening head injuries flying into things... and even a clipped bird can fly into an oven.

 

[Crayfish066]

When you say "leaving the curtain open" I HOPE there is SOMETHING on the window such as a stencil (with NO spaces that the bird thinks it can fly through) or blinds??? It does not matter how much you THINK the bird KNOWS there is a window there... windows must ALWAYS either be covered with blinds or stencils... NO exceptions!

Putting a stencil in the middle of a large window is a waste because the bird will simply try to fly around the stencil and slam its head into the window. Use LOTS of stencils spaced accurately in order for it to be effective.

My tiels KNOW where there are windows in my condo but if something spooks the birds or whatnot the bird, I don't care if it's an IRN or what type of birds it is... is going to fly head first into the window suffering a serious concussion and it's the swelling in the brain that if left untreated, is OFTEN fatal to them.

You are lucky your bird is alive after flying head first into a window without getting treatment! Head injuries in birds is extremely serious.

I've never intentionally left a window visible, the curtains were drawn and he'd gone behind them. He began to panick so I opened them to let him out, he flew to the other end of the room, turned around and flew directly into the window.

He had a small crash into a mirror today (introduced him to a new room in the house and I overlooked it) but he was going at a low speed and didn't seem phased by it in the slightest.

I'm considering getting him a partial clip so he can avoid some of more dangerous hazards that are mostly high up, e.g. lights whilst still allowing him the enjoyment of flight.

Partial clips mean he crashes more often (I have a partial clip on one of my tiels and he's far ore likely to injure himself than my unclipped tiel as they don't have the same control with a partial clip)... why not simply ensure the window is BIRD SAFE??? It's not difficult to ensure windows are bird safe... Birds can still fly head first into windows with a partial clip. Regardless if a bird is FULLY clipped, partcially clipped or fully flighted... exposed windows around birds should NEVER exist.. it is a huge NO NO!!

I have TONS of windows in my condo and my bird is unclipped... it is very EASY to bird safe a window using either stencils or blinds. A partially clipped bird can sustain serious life threatening head injuries flying into things.

I'm not considering getting him a partial clip because of windows. I always have all of my windows covered when he's out and they're not high up regardless.

Even with my light cords wrapped in protective material there are small exposed areas that are practically impossible to cover up and when he trips the power to the light he often panicks in the dark.

 

[Crayfish066]

He's come along massively in the past few days, he runs along my back and arms and doesn't really lunge at my hands very often at all anymore.
He seems to have recall trained himself to a certain degree, I hold my arm up like people do with falcons and he'll land on it lol.
I dunno how IRN's ever got the reputation of being unaffectionate.

Do you think it's too early to attempt harness training? I'm really eager to take him out exploring.

 

[Anansi]

Once fully feathered, I believe they are good to go for harness training.

I'm glad to hear you've made such progress with him! Make sure and post some pics!

 

[LordTriggs]

Sounds really good! Yes when they decide they're going to be affectionate it can be incredible. I would wait on the harness training for now, get him used to you touching him in different places and holding his wings out. Then you can start the harness training