New Baby

[Milo]

If she's biting when you when you try to get her to step up she's very uncomfortable. Don't try to force that for now, let her figure out things on her own. If you absolutely need her to step up try using a perch right now instead of your hand, you definitely don't want to perpetuate the biting. Remember that you're doing things on her timeline, not yours

I recommend Harrison's lifetime coarse for pellets

 

[EsJ87]

@Milo - Thank you for the advice. Obviously, I had to handle her a few times yesterday to have her come out of the carrier cage, put her in her new cage and again to place her new furnishings in the cage before bedtime... I Don't intend of forcing her to hang out with me constantly or over-handling her just for my fun.
I do plan on getting a clicker on the weekend and start training that way with treats in her cage at first. Just to show her, Hey when she comes around I get treats! But I am having a hard time thinking of what COULD be a treat considering she's on an all seed diet (sunflowers, almonds, millet, etc....) So that'll be a bit tough to switch her out to pellets and fruits/veggies. I am hopefully going to segue clicker training into having her step up for me over the next couple of weeks.

I am not sure if this makes any difference or not, but she seems pretty comfortable on me once the "step-up" process was over. Stretching her wings out and even appearing to be sleepy. However, as I mentioned previously, she was in her carrier cage w/o handling the first 4 hours or so, and I only handled her directly for about 20 mins total last night while doing the transfers to get her situated.

RE: our dogs. They've had experiences with dogs before. We've never left our dogs & bird unsupervised (even when in cage) before and don't plan on doing it now. I'm usually pretty suspect of them so, overly protective and whatnot.

I did get her to play with a few of her new toys last night which was cute! She seems to like the shredding one and the little cat ball (which I only let her have under supervision) the most. She doesn't appear very fearful and is pretty curious about everything in her cage which is great.

Anywho - I got lots of figuring out to do as she settles in!

 

[Milo]

If the step up process is traumatic right now I'd still hold off, eclectus are very different from other parrots in their mannerisms, so she may be stressed without overtly showing it. Biting, even if she's not breaking the skin, is a display of extreme discomfort with what you're doing. How are you approaching her to step up? Offering your hand or nudging her feet?

In terms of treats, try pomegranate. The vast majority of eclectus I know go crazy for it!

 

[EsJ87]

Excellent suggestion - Will def pick up some POM and try to use that. I love it too, so i may participate in the treat taking as well haha.

Yesterday I would just offer my hand, moving it very very slowly towards her, and pausing, then moving a bit closer, then pausing. Until I'd be close enough to gently pet under her chest. I don't think she KNOWS what step up is at all, because she never did. Unfortunately, since I did need to move her around yesterday to get her out of carrier and in cage I prodded her bum a smidge to get her to come onto my hand after 10min or so of trying to coax her.
That's OK we'll just start from the bottom, she is still a lil baby so I don't expect her to want to do anything right now

I'm going to try the sitting next to her cage and talking and then placing my hand on the cage approach. Just to get her used to seeing it at least.

 

[EsJ87]

Status Update on my red chicken's 4th day in her new home!
Wednesday night I gave her some watermelon to try, she wasn't a huge fan. But yesterday's slivers of carrots were huge hit! The treats through the cage bars are working well and she'll quickly scuttle over towards me when I come to sit by her cage now. So today we had this event . . .

I decided to spend some time thing morning hanging out with Poppy. I opened her cage door and enticed her to come sit with me at the edge of her cage . . . She seems to love watermelon and mango! We sat like this for about 20 min or so. She'd occasionally go to nip my fingers or thumb, but nothing too terrible. I never attempted to have her step up or the like... Just as I finished her fruits, she got a little over eager hanging over the edge and lost her balance. My reaction was to stick my hands underneath so she wouldn't fall to the ground. I gave her a sunflower seed shortly after as she hung out on my forearm momentarily. No attacks or biting, but she did start to reach for my skin and pinch, so I figured it'd be best to put her back int he cage for some R&R. I gave her another sunflower seed as a reward for stepping up to her perch.

I'm in my room working while she's out in the living room, and I can her here cooing to herself. I'm so in love! lol

 

[EsJ87]

Today's incredible Milestone.
Poppy's 1st enthusiastic STEP UP without finger sawing!

I COULD CRY! She's officially been in her new home 1 WEEK, and this is more progress than i thought possible.
Of course, she proceeded to scurry up my arm, sit on my shoulder and take a quick taste test of the nape of my neck. But i will totally forgive her.