Hello From India!! Need Help.!

[Pajarita]

And the light schedule, too.

[Wolf]

Right, Sorry about that. The light schedule would be helpful as well.

[Raja]

Hello Wolf & Pajarita,

Thanks for the reply...

I understand that it’s against the law, But this two IRN’s attached with my whole family and it’s very hard for us to leave them.. But I will keep them healthy…

As they are new… I still didn’t don’t follow any food schedule and trainings… I just feeding them whenever they want…


Cage Size : 1.5 (L) * 1(W) * 3.5 (H) (Meters) .. I Know it’s not required size… After checked your other comments I came to know IRN required bigger one, So I planning to buy large one in few days..…Advise me a cage size for 2 IRN so that I go for it…

Outside & Inside : Every morning I just keep them in balcony for an hour and mostly they are cage free in home except night to and afternoon…

Food: Sunflower seeds, Apple, guava, Sugarcane (is good to feed??), Carrot...

They hate cooked rice and pettet... shall i force them to eat??


If anything additional things i need to follow just inform to me and tell me about "light schedule" as i'm not aware of it...

[Pajarita]

Light schedule basically means at what time in the morning they become exposed to light and at what time they are not and whether this light is artificial or natural. Please give us that info so we can give you specific pointers.

[Raja]

Usually I keep them in balcony every morning for an hours till sunrise..... And I will feed them and let them to roam around my room freely.... Put them back to cage till afternoon.... My mom will take care till evening..... Once i back from office... I let them out till night.....

So I keep them in natural light only in morning that too for an hour.....

[Pajarita]

Well, the morning seems to be fine but I am not sure about the evening. See, the trick is for them to be exposed to the sunrise and the sunset without any artificial lights before the sun is out or after the sun is halfway down to the horizon -and, of course, there should be complete darkness after the sun sets because that's when they go to sleep. Think of the birds out in the trees and do exactly for them as they would get if they were in the wild.

The diet can use a lot of improvement, too. You can't just feed them sunflower seeds and a couple of fruits. They need A LOT of variety when it comes to fruits and vegetables as well as different grains and seeds. IRNs eat a lot of fruits but they also eat some seeds, not a lot but definitely some. Sunflower seeds are not bad per se but they are real bad if that is all you feed because they are very high in oil -and that's not good. Can you get a seed mix made for smaller birds, something that has millet, canary seed, safflower, oats, etc?

[Raja]

Well, the morning seems to be fine but I am not sure about the evening. See, the trick is for them to be exposed to the sunrise and the sunset without any artificial lights before the sun is out or after the sun is halfway down to the horizon -and, of course, there should be complete darkness after the sun sets because that's when they go to sleep. Think of the birds out in the trees and do exactly for them as they would get if they were in the wild.

The diet can use a lot of improvement, too. You can't just feed them sunflower seeds and a couple of fruits. They need A LOT of variety when it comes to fruits and vegetables as well as different grains and seeds. IRNs eat a lot of fruits but they also eat some seeds, not a lot but definitely some. Sunflower seeds are not bad per se but they are real bad if that is all you feed because they are very high in oil -and that's not good. Can you get a seed mix made for smaller birds, something that has millet, canary seed, safflower, oats, etc?

I have tried to feed them with other food as you mentioned above... But they interested in sunflower seeds only and ignoring other foods ...So shall i force ( By not giving sunflower seeds) them to eat other foods like pellets, millet, canary seed, safflower, oats, etc??

Especially they never touch pellets...

[Wolf]

Let me see if I can sum this up a little bit and then make a comment or so that might help out. Your birds need to get up in time to be exposed to the dawn in the morning, that is when the sky is just beginning to lighten up and then they heed to eat breakfast and maybe have a short training period or time for interaction with you, It would help them if someone could let them out of their cage for an hour or two and then put them back in for their mid day nap. Then they should be let out for interaction with someone and free time in the afternoon for another couple of hours followed by being returned to their cage in time to begin eating their dinner just as the sky is starting to darken or a couple of hours before sunset so that they can relax while eating and enjoying the twilight period we call dusk and then they should go to sleep by dark. This is a very basic idea of a schedule that would work for them that has plenty of room for you to adjust to fit better in your lifestyle.

Now lets start working with diet and see if we can improve this until you have them eating in a more healthy manner.
You are telling us that they refuse to eat millet, canary seed, oats, safflower seeds and pellets, so I am assuming that you have these foods right now, is this correct? You also have a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, is this correct?

Allow me to explain why your birds are not eating foods other than just sunflower seed and what you will need to do to teach them to eat a larger variety of foods leading towards a healthier diet. When the breeder weaned them, they were weaned on to a diet of seeds and probably little else and since the breeder fed a seed mix that had a lot of sunflower seeds in it the birds found that they could get by with just picking out and eating the sunflower seeds. Now, I said the breeder fed them this seed mix, but if there was another owner between you and the breeder then it could have been them that fed this seed mix, but it doesn't really matter about who did this, only that it happened. For whatever reason during the weaning period the bird were not given and taught about other foods such as fruits and vegetables or whole grains. Because of this they do not recognize these things as food or that they are good to eat. Leaving you this task at a much later period of time than when this would have been fairly easy to do.

Now, for teaching your birds to eat the foods that it needs to be eating, I use a method taken from the way that their parent birds would have used to teach them about what foods were good for them to eat, if they had been raised by them in the wild. So after your birds are awake and have done their morning poop, that is the big one first thing in the mornings, you need to have some fresh produce cut into small pieces for them to eat. Let's start off with one fruit like apple and one vegetable, like carrot, because you said that they would eat these two things and one other fresh vegetable that they don't eat, something like corn or green peas or maybe a bit of broccoli, just the stalk and not the florets, save those for the humans for now. these all need to be ready and in a bowl or on a small plate so you can get the one that you want easily and that you can keep out of their reach as well. Now it would help if you have two perches so that the birds are near each other but separate but you con use the top of their cage or a table top as well. Get their attention by talking to them and then pick up a piece of the fresh vegetable that you know they will eat and show it to them and then you need to eat it with them watching you and make happy noises to let them know how good this food is. Do not offer any of this food to them, eat it yourself. pick up another piece of the same food and repeat the same thing. soon they will start asking for a piece, but you do not want to share it with them, yet. Just pick up another piece of the same food and start eating it, still not offering them any of it and soon they will be begging you for a bite of the food, but you must not offer them any of it. Just continue to pick up a piece of the same food and showing it to them and then eating it while making happy noises, telling them how good this food is. They will start demanding some of this food, maybe even screaming at you and trying to get to the food. When they start demanding and trying to get the food away from you, then you want to allow them to steal a piece of the food. Do not offer to share this food with them as you want them to steal it or even allow the to take it away from you either way as long as you do not offer to share it with them. once they do this then you can offer the a couple of bites, but that is all as you still need them to be hungry, you do the same thing with the fruit that you know that they will eat and then with the new vegetable. then you can let them have the dish of this food and allow them to eat what they want of it. This is very close to how the parent birds would have taught them what to eat in the wild, I like using this way because since it is the way that the wild ones are taught they are naturally predisposed to learning about food in this way.

This works very well for teaching to eat a wider variety of fruits, vegetables and even leafy greens and even though it may be a little bit messy it would also work with the whole grains or any other food for that matter, but let's try something different for the whole grains. For this you will need to cook the whole grains in plain water until they are about half done, this way they resemble seeds in their texture, soft on the outside and hard on the inside and although this is just opposite of they way seeds are it is close enough to work. you want the half cooked whole grains in their food dishes and no warmer than room temperature and as much as I don't like pellets, add some pellets in with the whole grains, make this half pellets and half whole grains. You can add the pellets while the whole grains are still to warm to serve and that will help to soften the pellets while helping to cool the grains . make certain that there are no hot spots in this mix of grains and pellets or it could burn the birds crop which is very bad. serve only when this mixture is room temperature or only slightly warm to the touch. Now if your current seed mix already has sunflower seeds in it, then you will want to do the following in advance. Put three fourths of the seeds in a separate container like a tray and remove the sunflower seeds from it and then save both the sunflower seeds and the seed mix without sunflower seeds in separate bags as you will use this seed mix for your birds dinners and the sunflower seeds for treats only. The smaller bag of the seed mix that still has sunflower seeds in it you will use with the whole grain and pellet mixture.
When you give your birds the grain and pellet mixture for breakfast which is about an hour after the fresh raw produce, you will want to put about half a teaspoon of the seed mix with sunflower seeds still in it on top of the grain/ pellet mixture and just feed that normally by placing their food dishes of this food in their cage for them to eat as they choose. Let your birds have both the fresh raw produce and the grain mixture in their cage all day until you remove it at dusk to give them their dinner which is the seed mix that you removed the sunflower seeds from. This seed mix needs to be removed from their cage when it gets dark and your birds go to roost for the night.

If your birds hold out and do not eat any of these food for two days then give them a couple of meals of the seed mix that has the sunflowers seeds in it and then go back to the feedings that I have just described to you.

I hope that you find this helpful in getting your birds to begin to eat a better diet, and thank you for allowing me to try to help you with your birds.

[Raja]

Let me see if I can sum this up a little bit and then make a comment or so that might help out. Your birds need to get up in time to be exposed to the dawn in the morning, that is when the sky is just beginning to lighten up and then they heed to eat breakfast and maybe have a short training period or time for interaction with you, It would help them if someone could let them out of their cage for an hour or two and then put them back in for their mid day nap. Then they should be let out for interaction with someone and free time in the afternoon for another couple of hours followed by being returned to their cage in time to begin eating their dinner just as the sky is starting to darken or a couple of hours before sunset so that they can relax while eating and enjoying the twilight period we call dusk and then they should go to sleep by dark. This is a very basic idea of a schedule that would work for them that has plenty of room for you to adjust to fit better in your lifestyle.

Now lets start working with diet and see if we can improve this until you have them eating in a more healthy manner.
You are telling us that they refuse to eat millet, canary seed, oats, safflower seeds and pellets, so I am assuming that you have these foods right now, is this correct? You also have a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, is this correct?

Allow me to explain why your birds are not eating foods other than just sunflower seed and what you will need to do to teach them to eat a larger variety of foods leading towards a healthier diet. When the breeder weaned them, they were weaned on to a diet of seeds and probably little else and since the breeder fed a seed mix that had a lot of sunflower seeds in it the birds found that they could get by with just picking out and eating the sunflower seeds. Now, I said the breeder fed them this seed mix, but if there was another owner between you and the breeder then it could have been them that fed this seed mix, but it doesn't really matter about who did this, only that it happened. For whatever reason during the weaning period the bird were not given and taught about other foods such as fruits and vegetables or whole grains. Because of this they do not recognize these things as food or that they are good to eat. Leaving you this task at a much later period of time than when this would have been fairly easy to do.

Now, for teaching your birds to eat the foods that it needs to be eating, I use a method taken from the way that their parent birds would have used to teach them about what foods were good for them to eat, if they had been raised by them in the wild. So after your birds are awake and have done their morning poop, that is the big one first thing in the mornings, you need to have some fresh produce cut into small pieces for them to eat. Let's start off with one fruit like apple and one vegetable, like carrot, because you said that they would eat these two things and one other fresh vegetable that they don't eat, something like corn or green peas or maybe a bit of broccoli, just the stalk and not the florets, save those for the humans for now. these all need to be ready and in a bowl or on a small plate so you can get the one that you want easily and that you can keep out of their reach as well. Now it would help if you have two perches so that the birds are near each other but separate but you con use the top of their cage or a table top as well. Get their attention by talking to them and then pick up a piece of the fresh vegetable that you know they will eat and show it to them and then you need to eat it with them watching you and make happy noises to let them know how good this food is. Do not offer any of this food to them, eat it yourself. pick up another piece of the same food and repeat the same thing. soon they will start asking for a piece, but you do not want to share it with them, yet. Just pick up another piece of the same food and start eating it, still not offering them any of it and soon they will be begging you for a bite of the food, but you must not offer them any of it. Just continue to pick up a piece of the same food and showing it to them and then eating it while making happy noises, telling them how good this food is. They will start demanding some of this food, maybe even screaming at you and trying to get to the food. When they start demanding and trying to get the food away from you, then you want to allow them to steal a piece of the food. Do not offer to share this food with them as you want them to steal it or even allow the to take it away from you either way as long as you do not offer to share it with them. once they do this then you can offer the a couple of bites, but that is all as you still need them to be hungry, you do the same thing with the fruit that you know that they will eat and then with the new vegetable. then you can let them have the dish of this food and allow them to eat what they want of it. This is very close to how the parent birds would have taught them what to eat in the wild, I like using this way because since it is the way that the wild ones are taught they are naturally predisposed to learning about food in this way.

This works very well for teaching to eat a wider variety of fruits, vegetables and even leafy greens and even though it may be a little bit messy it would also work with the whole grains or any other food for that matter, but let's try something different for the whole grains. For this you will need to cook the whole grains in plain water until they are about half done, this way they resemble seeds in their texture, soft on the outside and hard on the inside and although this is just opposite of they way seeds are it is close enough to work. you want the half cooked whole grains in their food dishes and no warmer than room temperature and as much as I don't like pellets, add some pellets in with the whole grains, make this half pellets and half whole grains. You can add the pellets while the whole grains are still to warm to serve and that will help to soften the pellets while helping to cool the grains . make certain that there are no hot spots in this mix of grains and pellets or it could burn the birds crop which is very bad. serve only when this mixture is room temperature or only slightly warm to the touch. Now if your current seed mix already has sunflower seeds in it, then you will want to do the following in advance. Put three fourths of the seeds in a separate container like a tray and remove the sunflower seeds from it and then save both the sunflower seeds and the seed mix without sunflower seeds in separate bags as you will use this seed mix for your birds dinners and the sunflower seeds for treats only. The smaller bag of the seed mix that still has sunflower seeds in it you will use with the whole grain and pellet mixture.
When you give your birds the grain and pellet mixture for breakfast which is about an hour after the fresh raw produce, you will want to put about half a teaspoon of the seed mix with sunflower seeds still in it on top of the grain/ pellet mixture and just feed that normally by placing their food dishes of this food in their cage for them to eat as they choose. Let your birds have both the fresh raw produce and the grain mixture in their cage all day until you remove it at dusk to give them their dinner which is the seed mix that you removed the sunflower seeds from. This seed mix needs to be removed from their cage when it gets dark and your birds go to roost for the night.

If your birds hold out and do not eat any of these food for two days then give them a couple of meals of the seed mix that has the sunflowers seeds in it and then go back to the feedings that I have just described to you.

I hope that you find this helpful in getting your birds to begin to eat a better diet, and thank you for allowing me to try to help you with your birds.

Hello Wolf

Thanks for your explanation! I will follow your above instruction and let you know the outcome of this practice...

[Pajarita]

Actually, he shouldn't be mixing grains with pellets for breakfast. IRNs eat more fruits than anything else so they need less protein and fat than other species.