Building Trust with My New BFA and other ?'s

[Kathryn]

I recently purchased my wonderful new feathered friend, a blue fronted amazon this Wednesday, October 18th. He/she was born on May 1st, 2017 and I was wondering how I would work on building trust with my new baby? I want the bird to be well socialized with all members of the family. Right now my husband is the only one that can really get the bird to step up off the top of the cage. I will see that the bird uses the beak to explore so I have not been being pushy with it. I do not want to mess up my trust with him/her. Also, I have a peach faced lovebird that is very aggressive toward the new bird. Is this normal for him to be so aggressive with my BFA? I really appreciate any help anyone can give me. I want to learn and love my new bird the way it deserves to be loved.

 

[Clueless]

I have old Amazons......

You should get some folks bouncing in shortly

 

[greys4u]

Your baby has had his whole world turned upside down! Let him chill, let him go at his own pace. Read softly sitting by the cage, patience, no hands in the cage to get him, patience, did I say patience? Did you quarantine, you have only had him for a day, its so exciting when you get a new bird. Yes, your bird will be aggresive toward the new bird, thats the reason for a quarintine and to make sure there are no diseases, make a vet appt.

 

[fluffypoptarts]

Very differently sized birds - make sure to keep them apart. Your lovie may get himself hurt or killed.

 

[Dartman]

Big birds tend to be scared and upset by little birds, and little birds have no clue they aren't eagles and love to bother big birds so yes be very careful. Beeper, the house finch we raised, loved to hang out with Nerd, my maxi Pionus, by his cage. At first they were fine with each other but as she grew and started flying around he got scared and jealous of her and made it his mission to get rid of her one piece at a time. She lost the end of several toes and got her foot broken before we finally figured it out and after that they were kept far away from each other and got separate out times. She did adapt to her problems and lived a year and a half she wouldn't have gotten with us and Nerd was so happy when he didn't have to share us anymore.

 

[Pinktaurus732]

I recently acquired a 13 year old BFA (named Ray) as my neighbor no longer had time for him. We will have him a month this week.

I also have a yellow sided GCC and a parakeet but they haven’t met Ray yet since we are still in the quarantine phase so I can’t really help much in that department but I will say when we do introduce them their cages will be in the same room but whenever one of them is out of their cage the other two will have their cages covered to prevent any injuries if one were to fly/climb to another’s cage. Also we will only have one out at a time for the same reason.

As far as building a relationship between you and your BFA I will say give it patience and earn his/her trust. My BFA chose me as his person, I’m not sure why other than I spent more time with him and found things he liked and repeated, Ray seemed to really like the Andy Griffith theme whistle so I would whistle it to him and found a ringtone and YouTube video of it. We play peek a boo, and I would talk to him as much as possible. I also gave him treats but placing them on his perch from the outside of the cage, some he liked some he threw on the floor, whatever I found he liked I kept treating. When I would put the treats on the perch I would make sure to say ‘treat’ so he would learn the word to hopefully help with the training process. He also let me know when and if he wanted to be touched by coming to the corner of the cage and putting his head down for me to give him scritches, once he started doing that I used the word ‘cuddle’ and would ask if he wanted to cuddle and he would start coming to the cage bars if he wanted to. This we did for almost 2 weeks before letting him out of the cage, we wanted him to adjust to all the new changes, sights, sounds and smells before letting him out. Once he came out I started treating from my hand, letting him come to me for the treat. After a few days he would come over to me to ‘cuddle’ when he was out of the cage. At the 2 1/2 week mark he actually came over to my hand that I was purposely resting on the top of the cage opposite of him and he got on my hand to step up on his own. At this point he still would not step up on my hand to get in and out of the cage but would step up on a wood perch and let me place him in or out of the cage. I let this happen another couple of days and once he got on the wood perch I started offering treats from my other hand to get used to my hands more and learn that he could trust no harm would come to him from my hands. Once he trusted me more I would offer my hand to step up on from the wood perch and eventually he started stepping up more and now steps up on my hand in and out of the cage, he lets me know when he doesn’t want my hand and I will instead offer the wood perch, I never force anything on him.

We are now working on him to get used to and trust my wife which is taking a little bit longer but he actually did step on on her hand for the first time last night. I noticed him wanting to try to fly to his cage last night, I usually assist him when he wants to go to his cage or play top or wherever he wants to go instead of letting him fly to prevent him from getting injured since he is in our office right now so instead of me helping him I asked her to offer her hand to him and he stepped up right away and let her take him to his cage top.

Sorry this is such a long response but it has been a long process lol. What works for me might not work for you and it may take more time but try to find things your BFA likes and repeat it and spend time just sitting infront of the cage talking with him/her and go at his/her pace, learn to read the body language, try different things until you find what works and keep repeating and don’t give up.

 

[Kathryn]

Well, we are nearing the 3 week mark and my new BFA already has my heart, the bugger. I found out it is a boy and we named him Rico. My two birds do not like each other yet. I keep them separated. They can see each other, but they are separate. Keeco, my lovebird is so jealous. Lately Rico has been picking at his dried poop. I am concerned about that, should I be? I have given him banana peppers from my garden, apple pieces, pear, and peach pieces. I sing to Rico, and he is so smart. He is already saying, "what are you doing?, where are you going?, hello, Rico is a pretty bird, and making the whistle of an attractive person going by (gee thanks my husband for teaching him this cause now he does it all the time), and when he is chattering I talk to him too. He lets me scratch his head and rub on his beak too. He sits on my shoulder pretty well also. He has been flying around the house lately a few times. I worry about his doing that because I don't want him hurt. I was singing, "Speak to Me" by Amy Lee yesterday and he was trying to mimic me singing that. It was so cute. He would look at me and try to sing too. I feel as though I already have a good bond developing with him. Does it sound as if I am doing things right?

 

[txdyna65]

Sounds like things are going well. I would def keep Keeco and Rico seperate at all times and only have one out at a time and watch and make sure they dont land on the others cage. Little birds think they are big birds and will try to attack the bigger bird and one will get hurt. Amazons love food, more veggies than fruit would be better, you might want to try sweet potato, its a good source of vitamin A, my Lucy loves it. Her other favorites are green beans, cooked or raw, bell peppers, doesnt matter on the color, she likes them all. Lucy took to me right away, its taken 2 years before she would start stepping up for my wife, so just have patience with him on that and be careful about letting him on your shoulder, bites to the ear and face can really hurt.

 

[Pinktaurus732]

I agree with Txdyna65, sounds like things are going well for you and Rico. My BFA Ray already had a small vocabulary when we got him but he now says “I love you” sometimes screams it lol and says “cuddle” when he wants scritches on his head. For some reason he will also scream “help help!” “Help this way!” “Don’t get up!” “Stop it stupid” “I’ll help you up!” , not quite sure why he occasionally will scream these things I do know loud voices trigger it. His previous owners were my neighbors, a middle aged woman with some health issues, she has had knee and hip replacements so I think she may have fallen a few times and her 40 year old son lives with her and their house is right behind a elementary school playground. I also know that Ray will sometimes fly to where he wants to go if I don’t get to him in time to help him so maybe he did the same and would fly to places he wasn’t supposed to or needed help his self if he flew some where he couldn’t get out of. I just hope we never have an issue with other neighbors when we move, the last thing I need is someone calling 911 and us having to explain it’s our bird yelling for help lol!

I have never had a bird pick at their poop before so I’m not sure about that, I have heard that dogs that eat their own poop might have a vitamin deficiency but again not sure why birds might do it or how to stop it.

I also agree on letting the bird perch on your shoulder, please be very careful if you are going to allow it. I believe there is a thread here somewhere with graphic pictures showing why that might not be a good idea to allow. I personally only allow my birds to perch on my fingers and wrist only, if they start moving up my arm I ask them to step up on my other hand, if it continues I place them on their play top, cage top etc. I have had very small bites on my fingers become infected and can only imagine what could happen to my face if given the opportunity .

 

[Dartman]

Lurch used to get frustrated that something he wanted to happen wasn't and he'd screech and bite our necks, and my ear. He didn't get much shoulder time till he and I started reaching a understanding. I learned some of the things he wanted and he learned that biting made the daddies shoulder time end. So yes be careful till you know you can trust him. Dobby is so socialized and trustworthy and trusting he never tries to bite on our shoulders so he has full privileges. Every bird is their own individual so one can be fine and the next exact same species will be nippy.

 

[iamwhoiam]

It's great that you are making a lot of progress with Rico. Sitting on your shoulder may not be a good idea so be very careful with that. My YNA almost pierced through part of her previous human's ear lobe while he was walking around with her on his shoulder. It was very unexpected since she had never done something like that before.

 

[Kathryn]

Update on my flock. Keeco still is jealous and tries to go after Rico, but I keep them separated. Rico is such a wonderful bird. He completely has my heart now just like Keeco does. Keeco is my snuggler and Rico is my talker. I do my best to spend equal amounts of time with both birds. Rico is more independent than Keeco. I like that but I love when he wants attention too. I love my birdies.