I need advice

[Hoosierparrotmom]

I need some real advice from some big bird people on my Mealy as I am at a breakthrough point and need to know how to proceed. I do not need advice from people who are going to tell me how Mealies are gentle giants as this one is not, no offense.

Okay, so I'm cleaning cages this weekend, just your average Saturday, and I see the Paulie keeps standing on one foot. Normally, he is very aggressive, hormonal, and cage territorial and he kept his usual screaming at me up, except that the displaying was a bit different, yet eyes were still pinning. (Thank god I bought the cage with the divider or I'd never be allowed to clean it!).

I'm going about my business in the bird room and he keeps this one foot thing going on and I start to worry that he got hurt! I'm going over and peering through the bars at his foot, and he's just standing there with it in the air. Frozen.

I go away and ponder it, and I step up Mattie to move her to clean her cage and Paulie bounces and gives a few hollers. This is not unusual, the first breakthrough was that he hates when I pay attention to the other birds, LOL.

But when I look at him, he's giving the wave and waving his foot around. I put down Mattie and go over to him and say, "Did you want to step up?" Really incredibly surprised as we are still in the attacking stage with him.

He reaches for my hand, except there are cage bars between us and he realizes it at the last minute. Well, he slammed the cage with his beak and looked furious. I know this sounds crazy, but I think I hurt his feelings??? I think he thought I teased him. I was surprised and not really realizing what was going on is all.

SO, again being the crazy bird lady I apologized to him, and he let me give him a quick head scratch (these are rare and much appreciated by me) and I went back to cleaning.

Here is my question, what would you all do next? Be brave, and when the opportunity comes stick your arm in the little can openers cage? Use the hand in the pop bottle stick trick? What?

I need help.

 

[ncGreyBirdLady]

Katie,it sounds as though He is trying to be friendly,and wants to interact with You! I myself would probably-take the chance and the next time he "Wants" to step up to you,would go ahead and put my hand in the cage and see if He will step up.Just have a tin of band aids handy

 

[Beatriz Cazeneuve]

I would try to get him out of his cage first and then put, not my hand, but my arm (make sure you are wearing a long sleeve thick sweat shirt). You need to give the aggressive birds the chance to 'be good' even if it means that you are going to get hurt in the process. I have this theory that large birds that are consistently aggressive is because they lost trust in humankind altogether, but these same birds were handfed so, once upon a time, they did imprint to people and the dichotomy must, by necessity, make them extremely unhappy which creates the vicious cycle: they are aggressive because they don't trust humans and humans perpetuate the situation by not trusting them. Ergo, showing them that we do trust them and giving them the chance to prove to us that they can be trusted goes a loooong way in the road to recovery.

 

[TwoG2s]

I am not a big fan of sticking my hand into aggressive bird's cages.

I agree that you should let him come out of his cage on his own and then you can start stick training.

It doesn't sound from your post that the two of you have built up enough trust to go straight to offering your hand to him as an appetizer.

My worry is that if he uses his beak in anyway that you will react negatively and it will set you back from any strides that you have made.

Can I ask a silly question? Are you sure this bird is a Mealy?

 

[JLcribber]

I agree with Bea and Jaye.

 

[Welshanne]

I know nothing, zilch about a mealy but a lot of the experiences at taming a bird, large,medium small and any species is a lot the same.
In my own experience with a blue fronted Amazon who I swear has a set of false teeth in his beak! I have found with our ongoing relationship the worse part is me finding the courage to take the next step.
Having been badly bitten more often than having hot dinners, it tends to wear your confidence in the bird down a lot. Because of this the vibes from me to the bird are coming over all wrong for him.
Even by taking things slowly and at his pace, he has come onto my head and sat on my shoulder talking to me and being sociable, then sinking his beak in before flying off.
A stick or perch approach is like a red rag to a bull with him and will not be even looked at. The colour red is also inflammitory I have discovered painfully.
The chink of light that is now coming through with our relationship is the constant kind words and show of love that I have constantly shown him is beginning to weave its web, and he is showing signs of loving me back and the bites are now usually a thing of the past.
When I know he is in a bad mood and spitting feathers over anything at all , I give him a wide berth and wait for it to pass.

 

[Brigidt36]

Katie, allowing him to come out of his cage on his own will help build trust between you two. What has worked for me with my amazon is that I put a perch on the inside of his cage door. When the door is open he has a nice, safe place to perch that is technically outside of his cage. Everytime Max would climb onto his door perch I'd praise him and give him a treat. Once we were both comfortable with this I then offered him my arm to step up on (always my arm, never my hand...I need my fingers for my job, lol). At first he would act like he wanted to step up but shy away at the last minute. Everytime he tried I rewarded him with praise and a treat again and kept my arm there. He soon gained the courage to step up on my arm; granted he didn't stay on my arm very long at first, but he increased the amount of time at his own pace. Max loves his door perch now. When he climbs on it I know he wants an invitation to come out of his cage. Good luck. Trust is a two way street. You want him to trust you, but you also have to learn to trust him.

 

[southerninak]

I just recently (last week ) brought a DYH into my home. His previous owner said she could not get him to step up in his cage at all nor get him to come out of his cage without force. The second day he arrived I sat next to his cage, placed a perch on the outside of his cage . I sat there for two hours with his yodips,which he loves....it took him two hours to come out and even longer for him to want to be picked up. Now just today he picked up his foot while in his cage to step up.( I was just cleaning his cage) he stepped up onto my arm ,but he did growl. no nipping or anything just a growl. i every bird is different so maybe this will work maybe it will not .

 

[Hoosierparrotmom]

Thank you all for the advice. Here's the other facts so far:

He can be stepped onto a stick, I've done that before.

I'm not sure if he's a mealy, but when I posted pics of him nobody disagreed?? He's huge and very hormonal.

I've tried the come out of cage thing, but he comes out and goes up and plays King Kong. Anyone have tricks for stopping them? I'm thinking some sort of plexiglass contraption that sticks straight out and doesn't allow the up-climb?

Also, he's flighted. Hence the forum.



Keep the advice coming, I'm learning every minute! I haven't had the re-opportunity yet, he's been cranky as heck...

 

[Hoosierparrotmom]

Now I'm freaked out on this mealy thing. How can I tell what he is?

 

[Hoosierparrotmom]

I know nothing, zilch about a mealy but a lot of the experiences at taming a bird, large,medium small and any species is a lot the same.
In my own experience with a blue fronted Amazon who I swear has a set of false teeth in his beak! I have found with our ongoing relationship the worse part is me finding the courage to take the next step.
Having been badly bitten more often than having hot dinners, it tends to wear your confidence in the bird down a lot. Because of this the vibes from me to the bird are coming over all wrong for him.
Even by taking things slowly and at his pace, he has come onto my head and sat on my shoulder talking to me and being sociable, then sinking his beak in before flying off.
A stick or perch approach is like a red rag to a bull with him and will not be even looked at. The colour red is also inflammitory I have discovered painfully.
The chink of light that is now coming through with our relationship is the constant kind words and show of love that I have constantly shown him is beginning to weave its web, and he is showing signs of loving me back and the bites are now usually a thing of the past.
When I know he is in a bad mood and spitting feathers over anything at all , I give him a wide berth and wait for it to pass.

This is me.

Except this bird is as big as Tika on JL's shoulder in that pic, and I'm not letting him near my face! I'll lose my nose!!

 

[Brigidt36]

Katie, can you post some more pics of him so we can see all of him? Maybe that will help to see if anyone knows if he is a Mealy or not.

 

[Hoosierparrotmom]

Sure. I'll take some new pics of him now that he has feathers in where he had rubbed them off in his old ick cage. Thanks!

 

[BraveheartDogs]

Now I'm freaked out on this mealy thing. How can I tell what he is?

Post pictures again and maybe other mealy people can post their pics.

 

[Sharpie]

I'd let him come out of his cage and work with him from there. Even my cuddly YNA can be a bit reactive working in his cage, and I can only imagine how much worse it would be with a bird who's NOT cuddly and happy.

 

[Hoosierparrotmom]

Okay, some of these are very bad pics, but here they go:

 

[Hoosierparrotmom]

He's still molting and did I mention there is the possibility that he was wild-caught.

 

[Brigidt36]

Katie, thanks for posting the pics. He is beautiful. I'm a real sucker for amazon's. I'm not all that familiar with Mealies, I'm sure some Mealy parront will be on soon to help you.

 

[TwilightsImprint]

I would personally take the chance but I have zero fear of being bitten. which is likely why I have so many holes in my hands. LOL. but if he's showing interest I'd take the chance but be prepared to dodge and drop.

 

[Jadie]

Paulie def looks like a mealy to me!! Very handsome boy!
The good thing about amazons are that they mood is very recognizable by their body language, so you'll probable know when he wants to interact, they get ansty and they have"a look" . That would be the perfect time to be brave (yikes!). They really feed of of your own emotions and body language so try not to go in nervous and jerky, it'll just fuel the fire. Speak to him calm and nicely at the door and ask him if he wants to come up before going in...at that point his reaction to you being so close may indicate what to expect when you stick your hand in...if you get scared and he doesn't look ready..try again later, there's no rush! And of course if he does step up give him a treat(that's the way to a mealies heart).
If he steps up nicely/calmly on a perch get try getting him out this way, bring him away from his cage then try to transfer him to your arm (not your hand). Even my very sweet/tame mealy gets grumpy sometimes and doesn't want to step up, or he gets a little cage territorial ...luckily he's perch trained and steps up on one with no problem!
I also know the problem with them being on the top of their cage. Charlie loves to hang out on top of his and he is usually fine and will go where ever he wants and we have no problem getting him to step up but again once in a while he gets stubborn (he's also a very dominant bird) so we pretty much have to get on the couch(or something so we're taller than him) and intimidate him to get him to step up onto our arms or the perch if he's moody.

Again, treats never fail!! Good luck with your baby, be brave my friend!