Here in New Zealand this group is refered to as "Asiatics"

I've never heard that before... It could be that I haven't been paying enough attention, of course. :-) I wonder if anyone here in North America would know what that means?

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Nate Waddoups
Redmond WA USA

My heart missed a beat, someone else from N.Z. Love my asiatics!!

I'd love to see them. My girlfriend keeps falling in love with indian ringnecks. We've met some super-friendly ones lately that belong to friends, I can definitely see why she likes them so much.

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Nate Waddoups
Redmond WA USA

I have four Indian Ringnecks. All of them are rescue birds, both males are perfect birds just unwanted pets. 'Daisy' (yes, his name is Daisy!) is a Lutino and was bought as a hand raised baby to keep another bird company. They hated each other and Daisy was definitely not hand raised so he got moved on. 'Bird' is a green who was bought as a gift (unwanted gift as it turned out) When I found him he was in a small cage being fed only sunflower seed.
The girls are 'Gizmo' and 'Daffodil' two sorrier looking birds you're never likely to see. I found 'Gizmo' crammed into a canary cage. I don't know how long she had lived like that but she is now rather crippled with a twisted leg and a 'Quasimodo' sort of look going on. She is also a green. 'Daffodil' is a self mutilator who destroys her lutino tail to a bloody stump. Nothing seems to have an effect on her. She was left in a large avairy set up with some other birds when her owner sold up. It was nearly two years later when the remaining birds ended up with me. They had practically fended for themselves over this time with the new home owner maybe having thrown in half a dozen bags of seed (I'm talking supermarket pet size bags) in that time.
My four maybe rather motley and wild (no hand raised manners for them!) but they have a roomy avairy, heaps of good food, and someone to love them. I am amazed at their wills to survive the hard times and I can do no more than to ask them to enjoy the rest of their lives in a bit of comfort.
I'll work on trying to get some pics. They are not great model material though!!

I'm actually the Motley crew's Anonymous. I've since figured out how to post properly :)
Ohh... I forgot. Hootie's a moustache parrot so she belongs on the Asiatics list too.
Check out this sight. I learnt heaps. Now all I have to figure out is what sort of moustache Hootie is!!

http://home.wanadoo.nl/psittaculaworld/PsittaculaWorld.htm

I have just registered for this site, so please forgive any faux pas I may commit. I have a beloved Quaker(Mickey) who has the gift of being Perfect in Every way that matters. I now also have an 11 week old indian ringneck named Merlin. My Merlin is sweet as pie and twice as tasty. I make this assumption based on the fact that every animal(and there are a bunch here) wants to eat him. He and Mickey get along very well, but I do know not to leave them unsupervised! Their personalities are so very different, I'm having a great time! Yes, I know tons un necessary info. What I'm looking for is diet recommendations for my sweet little ringneck Merlin. He's pretty much off handfeeding and eats pellets and some seeds and food off my plate which is bird friendly(pretty much anything I eat is bird friendly because I like to share with my birds:) Any suggestion/ recommendations are welcome!!
Many thanks,
sherry(mommacracker)

Welcome aboard!

I don't have ringnecks but both of my birds really like corn and black beans. Those are their favorite people-type foods... Phoebe the bronzewing pionus also likes peas, and Darwin the red-vent cockatoo likes bread a LOT.

Nate Waddoups
Redmond WA USA

Hi Sherry - My IRN's love sprouts, fresh veges, fruit and birdy breads. All in all they just about eat anything that they get offered, although I have noticed that they are not too keen on peas for some reason.

Debbi
NZ

Debbie- That's so funny because I HATE peas and have been giving this baby the peas off my plate!! Maybe he's just too young to know how gross they are, but that's the one thing he seems to like that my Quaker won't touch! I thought I had the whole disposal of disgusting peas thing taken care of:( Maybe I just won't tell him he shouldn't like them.....
Do you give your guys seeds?
thanks,
sherry
fl

How about the word Precious? Works for me and describes quite well I think:)
sherry
fl

My guys do get seed. Up until I was introduced to the big wide world of the internet (not so long ago) that was really all they did get!! I know it sounds terrible but here in NZ the main diet of seed with a few greens such as silverbeet or spinach thrown in as a treat is very normal. Pellet diets are not common here either. Now of course all my birds are loving what I am learning especially at feeding time, and they love the new toys that I've learnt to make as well. :)

Debbi
NZ

In Australia like NZ we too call this group 'Asiatics'.
Didn't see a section for Rosellas ?? Does anyone else have these parrots ??

You know, I think I left those out. What are they like as pets?

Nate Waddoups
Redmond WA USA

Hello all IRN owners/lovers; my husband has 2 IRN's; 1 green one named Jalapeno he bought 2yrs ago, & a yellow one named Pepper he stopped to pick up one day while driving past a cemetry, she was so exhausted she slept for 2 days straight; both birds live together in a very big, heavy cage, and we think they're both female; the bird's are my husband's choice, and they respond more to him than to me, but the problem with him being a chef working long hours away from home, I'm left having to listen to a shrieking ringneck pining for him all day; Jalapeno's shrieking drives me insane where I start thinking of throttling her, although honestly I would never have the heart to hurt any living creature; I've read the post by Isis and some of the replies to her of not responding to the shrieking, but rewarding the quieter sounds with attention and food, which I think I could try; Does anyone think it would be better to seperate Jalapeno and Pepper into seperate cages? we have a spare if need be; also Jalapeno's behaviour is rather peculiar when my husband comes near her, that we've been wondering if she is sexually maturing and wanting to mate? Jalapeno behaves like a shark who's been hit on the nose when my husband comes near her, she lowers her back and rolls back her head with her eyes closed, spreading her wings, as if into total submission, he can then scratch her chest, without her biting; of course if I come closer she jumps away from me; Any ideas what this behaviour is? And any other ideas on keeping her quieter, making her stop fighting with Pepper, and lesson the rate at which she is chewing her perches into smithereens?

Separating them might help - or it might make matters worse if they start shrieking back and forth to each other. The only way to be sure is to try it and see what happens. If they are fighting, then separate cages sounds like a really good idea (even if they're just side-by-side in the same room), as they could seriously hurt each other.

There's a pet store near me that had a ringneck that rolled his head back as you describe whenever someone rubbed the back of his head. I don't have a whole lot of experience with ringnecks, but I took that to mean that he was happy. :-)

As for the perch chewing, I don't think there's any way to reduce that, other than to keep supplying fresh stuff to chew on so they don't start chewing on furniture. I have a bunch of strips of leather for my birds to chew on, it's a little bit less messy than wood (it creates dust instead of splinters) and they seem to enjoy gnawing on it just as much.

Nate Waddoups
Redmond WA USA

Hello, all. I have three ringnecks. One is a wild green African which my son caught. It seemed young and tamed very quickly. My son and I are the only people that it will allow to pet him. We thought he was a female until he started to develope a dark ring. He lowers his head and pins his eyes when I talk to him. He sits on my finger and clucks and coo's while I stroke his head and feathers. He loves to sit on my shoulder and nibble my ear. He hates the other birds and will go out of his way to pick a fight with them.
I also have a blue/cinnamin Indian cock and an Albino Indian hen. They are about 18 months old and showing signs of wanting to breed. They are kept in seperate cages at the moment as I don't think they are mature enough to raise young successfully yet.
I was told not to try breeding the wild African with the Indian mutations because green offspring were not desirable.
Also, I was told by a breeder that a bird raised with only one color bird in it's surroundings will only breed with thar color bird.
I guess birds of a feather flock together! Hah!
I have read everything I could find on the subject of Ringneck parrokeets, which is limited to say the least. I guess the best information comes from breeders and owners of ringnecks.
These birds have quickly become part of the family and are a pleasure
to care for.
If anyone has tips on beginning to breed a young couple, they would be welcome and appreciated.
Steve.....California, USA

Hello, I just started to breed my IRN's Malibu and Midori. Whom both are beautiful in green. Which to my surprize this year we got two lutino and two green. one of the baby green sold already to a local breeder whom wanted new blood in there flock to breed in about 2 years. I have had luck mating a blue with green as well. Sky and Morgan were interduced a year before expected to breed.