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Purchase Indian Ringneck Fully Weaned or Not?

Ira B

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Hi. I had a yellow Naped Amazon for 37 years that passed away last month. I'm looking to purchase an Indian Ringneck. Some breeders say their birds are fully weaned onto fruits, vegetables, and pellets, and also hand tamed. Another highly recommended breeder, recommended that I receive my bird still getting 2 hand feedings by syringe a day, and that myself and my family should finish hand feeding it to ensure better bonding, tameness, and socialization. First off, how easy, or tough is it to hand feed and convert to solid foods? Secondly, is there a usually a difference in tameness and sociability from either method? What are your thoughts? Thanks.
 

GoDucks

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I have never heard of a bird, or any animal for that matter, bonding and socializing better with the people who hand feed it. I personally find bottle or hand-feeding an animal to be a chore. At the very least it is a pain in the neck, at the very worst, it can be very dangerous.
 
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Shezbug

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Better bonding? You were fed bull poop regarding the bonding.
More money for less work is why breeders sell unweaned babies.
It’s not recommended to ever buy an unweaned baby bird- too many serious issues more often than not arise for the new owners.

My vote is to buy a completely weaned bird :)
 

Destiny

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I recommend fully weaned birds every time.

The idea that hand-feeding the bird yourself will give you a stronger bond with the new baby is misleading and dangerous. It has cost the lives of a lot of baby parrots. Hand-feeding is a skill that improves with practice and experience. It is hard to learn from a book. And doing it wrong can cause a variety of problems, some of which are potentially fatal. It is not a simple task for a beginner.

More importantly, it is not necessary for bonding. Early handling and positive experiences with humans are important to encourage a baby parrot to trust humans. If handled correctly at a young age, babies will learn to tolerate gentle handling and hopefully not fear hands. This is a big part of why hand-fed babies tend to be more sociable and easier to tame than parent-raised birds. But a good breeder should already be providing those positive experiences for your bird. And you can build off those good memories, whether you are getting a baby, fully-weaned bird, young adult, or even a fully grown bird. You do NOT need to be part of the hand-feeding process to solidify the bond.

I do think it is very important to learn as much as you can about hand-feeding and gather the necessary supplies before you get a baby parrot, even if it is coming to you fully weaned. Sometimes baby parrots will revert under stress and require additional hand-feedings. And sometimes they are "force-weaned" and would benefit from being allowed to hand-feed at liberty until they are truly ready to wean completely. And also, teaching your parrot to accept liquids from a syringe (and learning how to feed them from a syringe safely) is a very useful skill, should you need to administer liquid medications at some point, so it is nice to have the supplies available, even if you don't end up needing them.

But as far as intentionally getting an unweaned baby to bond better ... nope. Don't do it. It is not necessary and could go horribly wrong, especially if you are going in "blind" with no prior experience with hand-feeding techniques.

Breeders that encourage buying unweaned babies or only sell unweaned babies are, at best, passing on bad information. At worst, they are intentionally encouraging a dangerous practice, so they can sell babies faster and at lower cost to themselves.
 

Sodapop&Co.

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fully weaned onto fruits, vegetables, and pellets, and also hand tamed
Now those are great breeders! Hard to find them sometimes. Those babies are gonna come to you confident and healthy and already knowing how to eat healthy! Awesome! At the very least it's great to support good ethical breeders like that, but i think you'll really be happy with a baby raised this well too.
 

Ira B

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I'm definitely not going the pre weaned route. I have 2 breeders that hand feed, wean, and hand tame their birds prior to shipping. I do want a male because I love the black ring. One breeder says that she can sex them 99.9% of the time without DNA by looking at and watching them. Do you think that is possible with IRN? Or should I go with the one that uses DNA test? The breeder without DNA has a beautiful neon green with a cherry red beak that is adorable.
 

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Shezbug

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I’d personally opt for the DNA test as it’s the only certain way to sex a bird. If I definitely wanted a male then I wouldn’t want a guess made as to what sex paying for DNA tests cost so little and are so simple to do so choose the breeder you like best and push for your DNA test.
 
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GoDucks

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This is the DNA tested male that is available. Also a beautiful bird. Also yellow highlights, but not as dominant.. Both breeders get great reviews. The one without DNA testing I think she said she has been breeding them for over 20 years.

What a stunning looking baby bird. They are so smart looking.
 

Sparkles!

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Unless you adamantly really care about the gender of your bird, I always advise to go with the baby you like best. But if you 100% want th black ring, then 100% get a DNA tested male.

My home has occasionally been full of foster critters given up that were “supposed to be” one gender and turned out to be the opposite or were sold as something that turned out not to be. And often, these critters were sold by very experienced veteran breeders. The breeder can truly honestly feel “that one’s going to be male” and be wrong. Doesn’t make them a bad breeder, just makes them either bad guessers or a bird that acts more like an opposite sex if they’re wrong.

I personally really like the bird from the first photo. I would ask the breeder to DNA. Depending on purchase price I may or may not expect the breeder to pay the cost.
 

Mockinbirdiva

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I'm definitely not going the pre weaned route. I have 2 breeders that hand feed, wean, and hand tame their birds prior to shipping. I do want a male because I love the black ring. One breeder says that she can sex them 99.9% of the time without DNA by looking at and watching them. Do you think that is possible with IRN? Or should I go with the one that uses DNA test? The breeder without DNA has a beautiful neon green with a cherry red beak that is adorable.
Ultimately the decision is yours but after having several people advise you to go with a weaned baby I'm surprised you are not going the pre weaned route. I used to raise green cheeks and crimson bellies and never sold one baby that wasn't weaned and eating on it's own. As a breeder, I wanted to make sure my babies would transition to a new environment as independent and healthy birds. If you are having a bird shipped to you it may have to wait hours for a feeding. Without knowing your or their location... bad things do happen in cargo where a wait is too long. Many babies refuse to take formula from their new owners because they aren't a recognized food source.... which can take 2-3 days in refusing to eat and puts the young bird at risk. Ultimately, if a bird dies most breeders are not responsible because you accepted that responsibility. It's heartbreaking to new owners to go through. I do not think a breeder can sex a young ringneck still on hand feeding by watching them. If I had my heart set on a male I would definitely go with a DNA test to be sure. Many ringnecks go through a lunging, biting phase when the weaning process begins... certainly shocking their new owners how their sweet babies suddenly turn into little monsters that want nothing to do with you. FYI so you aren't surprised.
 

Ira B

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Thanks for all your replies. I commented using wrong wording before, I am going with a fully weaned bird. I purchased the fancy neon green one with the cherry beak from the lady who says she is "100% sure" it is a male. Hope so, but either way he is a beautiful well tamed bird. He arrives at LaGuardia airport tonight. The night before she ships them, she and her helper handle those birds and sends photos and videos to the purchasers. The first photo was from a couple of weeks ago (the photo I purchased the bird from), and the second photo and video was from last night. Can't wait to pick him up. (Can't post video so I did screenshot of sections)
 

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MR. Mango

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can't wait for updates!
 

Ira B

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His "Daddy" has his new home all set up and waiting for him. I hope he likes my decorating. I have it pretty much set up so that no perch or toy is near to or below another perch or toy, except the ladder, to keep them (hopefully) free of poop. I'll see how well that goes.
 

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MR. Mango

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The setup looks great I would just recommend putting some natural perches in too rather than all dowels,
 

Ira B

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Thanks for your recommendation. I do have 2 natural wood perches on the left side. One is leading to the breeder door which is going to remain open for his access in and out of the cage, and the second is coming from the back wall to the big hanging Bonka toy. All the perches for the food dishes are rough surfaced for nail and beak maintenance. I have a rope perch near the top right corner of he chooses that area to sleep, and I added two more rope pierced of different sizes on the cage play top. He is going to be out of the cage a lot. I also have a free standing playground perch (need some toys), and I just received this piece of Java wood today to make a table top play perch for sitting with us and I'm going to see if I can potty train him on that one. Thanks again.
 

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Gigibirds

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Oh wow! Looks like your new bird is going to be very happy!!! Now, I know that you will bond completely fine with your new bird, but I'm actually with the breeder on that one: Hand-raising a bird does give you a stronger relationship with it far sooner than when you buy an already-weaned bird. I have an AMAZING relationship with a bird that I bought fully weaned, but it took me nearly a year to get there. But with birds that I hand-raised, I always had their full trust, basically from the day I brought them home. I also genuinely like feeding them and stuff because I think that it is incredible to watch them grow like that. But congratulations on your new bird!!! Your setup looks incredible, and I'm so happy for you and your new feathered friend!! :D
 

Sodapop&Co.

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Oh wow! Looks like your new bird is going to be very happy!!! Now, I know that you will bond completely fine with your new bird, but I'm actually with the breeder on that one: Hand-raising a bird does give you a stronger relationship with it far sooner than when you buy an already-weaned bird. I have an AMAZING relationship with a bird that I bought fully weaned, but it took me nearly a year to get there. But with birds that I hand-raised, I always had their full trust, basically from the day I brought them home. I also genuinely like feeding them and stuff because I think that it is incredible to watch them grow like that. But congratulations on your new bird!!! Your setup looks incredible, and I'm so happy for you and your new feathered friend!! :D
The main point honestly isn't the bond but rather the unweaned babiy's health! Though the bonding thing is always what gets people's attention, but it's not always accurate either. Birds often "turn" after maturing no matter how "Bonded" they were to their hand-raiser previously. I actually had the most problems with my handraised baby. He went straight from loving mommy to seeing me as his bonded partner. Regardless, I love my baby. <3
 

Ira B

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Hi all. Meet Charlie. I picked him up at LaGuardia airport Tuesday night. It was horrifying for a while. He started his journey at 1:00pm from Sarasota Florida and was landing at 11:00pm with Delta cargo in NY. I get to the cargo building at 10:30pm because the flight was coming in early and Delta cargo was CLOSED! Found out from a maintenance guy in the lot that they have been closing at 8:00pm because of Covid. How do you have live animals coming in at 11:00 and you close 3 hours before.? The guy told me to come back tomorrow. I wasn't leaving. I went to Delta arrivals to the lost baggage office and told them about it. They didn't even know that cargo closes early. They spoke to a supervisor and again I was told tomorrow. I went out to baggage claim where one of the supervisors was, right next to a luggage carousel with people all around that have been waiting for their luggage for an hour already, and proceeded to get loud. " How can you ship someone's pet and close the building before the flight even landed? MY BIRD WILL BE DEAD BY TOMORROW!" They quickly brought me back into the baggage office and miraculously another supervisor called to tell them that an employee is bringing my precious cargo to me there. 15 minutes later my little boy was in my hands. I actually cried when I saw him. I was so worried. I will post my experiences with him when I got home in another post. The good and the bit of bad. Thank you all for your help in advising me for getting my little boy.
 

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