Luna3391
Meeting neighbors
Hello.
It's been quite a while since I've been here, mostly because of some health problems and we recently moved.
Daxter is almost a year and 8 months now, and has been with us for a year and 5 months.
We found out he's a she (Can't recall if I ever revealed that here)
She's a hardy little bird. Other than a couple little foot toys, I've never seen her scared of a new toy, situation, or place, as long as her cage is within sight. Moving her to another room without the cage quiets her down and makes her nervous for a bit, and a lot more susceptible and willing to "step up."
She handled a very quick, very sudden move (from sale of home to out and in an apartment in 2.5 weeks) like a champ, and is already queen of the castle. The neighbors say they can only hear her occasionally, and we have a friendly agreement, I won't complain about the dogs and 2 year olds, and they won't complain about the bird, haha. We've also hung a few audio dampening sheets and panels to help with the echo/sound.
She's still pretty awful when it comes to hands in general. We've been slowly target training her, and she enjoys and understands how that works, but fingers are usually a big no no... the exception being with the very occasional head scratch my husband can get away with (Even less so with me). Very rare. Very precious. Doesn't last too long, lol. Its almost like she wants it, and really seems to enjoy it, then suddenly remembers that you're petting her and goes "Oh, wait, what's happening? Nope."
On that note, she still gets in the occasional hard bite, but I can't actually remember the last time it was hard enough to break skin or draw blood.
She LOVES kisses. Can't get enough of them. Never cares to nip or bite anything that isn't a finger, hand, or oddly enough... elbow. Wants to kiss you on the cheek. Wants to kiss you on the chin. Wants to boop your nose with her nose. Wants you to kiss her on the beak. She'd damn near climb into your mouth if you let her (We don't, of course, but it amuses me that she's more afraid of the fingers than anything else.)
If she hops down off her cage or startles, or we take her into another room, she's perfectly content to be a "boob bird" (Collar of shirt) "Shoulder bird" or if she's really stubborn, "Top of head bird."
She LOVES breakfast burritos. She will sit on the perch next to the couch and share a burrito with you any day of the week. (Egg, ham, and tortilla.) She'd kill a man and hide the body for fresh Mango, skinless grapes, and granny smith apples.
We're still struggling to find a way to get her to eat all her veggies though. She's good with pellet.
She gets an average of 5-6 hours out of cage time on weekdays, and allll day on weekends while we're home. Usually gets let out from 9 am to 8 pm unless we need to go somewhere.
We shut things down at 8 pm to be courteous to the neighbors. We don't need to cover her whole cage, just three sides of it (The top is covered by a tray), and close the blinds. The living room is dark enough for her to sleep peacefully through the night, but not dark enough to where she'd get startled if one of us walked through. She hates having the front of her cage covered.
She's still got a spot on her chest that makes me nervous because the feathers seem thin, but its the SAME spot that she's had since we got her at 3 months old, and I've NEVER seen her pick at it or over groom it, etc.
Anyways, those are my updates... if anyone has more tips on helping her get less afraid of hands, I'm always willing to listen, we've tried a few different methods so far. Also, she's not the worst when it comes to screaming by any means, but trying to encourage other behavior is still pretty hit and miss. Any tips for that is welcome as well.
She's a little punk, but she's our little punk... lol.
Have some pics:
The rare head scritches in the new apartment
Burrito buds (one month ago...Old house.) She also has a bigger, newer jungle gym now as well.
It's been quite a while since I've been here, mostly because of some health problems and we recently moved.
Daxter is almost a year and 8 months now, and has been with us for a year and 5 months.
We found out he's a she (Can't recall if I ever revealed that here)
She's a hardy little bird. Other than a couple little foot toys, I've never seen her scared of a new toy, situation, or place, as long as her cage is within sight. Moving her to another room without the cage quiets her down and makes her nervous for a bit, and a lot more susceptible and willing to "step up."
She handled a very quick, very sudden move (from sale of home to out and in an apartment in 2.5 weeks) like a champ, and is already queen of the castle. The neighbors say they can only hear her occasionally, and we have a friendly agreement, I won't complain about the dogs and 2 year olds, and they won't complain about the bird, haha. We've also hung a few audio dampening sheets and panels to help with the echo/sound.
She's still pretty awful when it comes to hands in general. We've been slowly target training her, and she enjoys and understands how that works, but fingers are usually a big no no... the exception being with the very occasional head scratch my husband can get away with (Even less so with me). Very rare. Very precious. Doesn't last too long, lol. Its almost like she wants it, and really seems to enjoy it, then suddenly remembers that you're petting her and goes "Oh, wait, what's happening? Nope."
On that note, she still gets in the occasional hard bite, but I can't actually remember the last time it was hard enough to break skin or draw blood.
She LOVES kisses. Can't get enough of them. Never cares to nip or bite anything that isn't a finger, hand, or oddly enough... elbow. Wants to kiss you on the cheek. Wants to kiss you on the chin. Wants to boop your nose with her nose. Wants you to kiss her on the beak. She'd damn near climb into your mouth if you let her (We don't, of course, but it amuses me that she's more afraid of the fingers than anything else.)
If she hops down off her cage or startles, or we take her into another room, she's perfectly content to be a "boob bird" (Collar of shirt) "Shoulder bird" or if she's really stubborn, "Top of head bird."
She LOVES breakfast burritos. She will sit on the perch next to the couch and share a burrito with you any day of the week. (Egg, ham, and tortilla.) She'd kill a man and hide the body for fresh Mango, skinless grapes, and granny smith apples.
We're still struggling to find a way to get her to eat all her veggies though. She's good with pellet.
She gets an average of 5-6 hours out of cage time on weekdays, and allll day on weekends while we're home. Usually gets let out from 9 am to 8 pm unless we need to go somewhere.
We shut things down at 8 pm to be courteous to the neighbors. We don't need to cover her whole cage, just three sides of it (The top is covered by a tray), and close the blinds. The living room is dark enough for her to sleep peacefully through the night, but not dark enough to where she'd get startled if one of us walked through. She hates having the front of her cage covered.
She's still got a spot on her chest that makes me nervous because the feathers seem thin, but its the SAME spot that she's had since we got her at 3 months old, and I've NEVER seen her pick at it or over groom it, etc.
Anyways, those are my updates... if anyone has more tips on helping her get less afraid of hands, I'm always willing to listen, we've tried a few different methods so far. Also, she's not the worst when it comes to screaming by any means, but trying to encourage other behavior is still pretty hit and miss. Any tips for that is welcome as well.
She's a little punk, but she's our little punk... lol.
Have some pics:
The rare head scritches in the new apartment
Burrito buds (one month ago...Old house.) She also has a bigger, newer jungle gym now as well.
. My guys are kind of the same way in that they are hesitant of stranger's hands but are perfectly find giving kisses and allow petting if they use their face lol. They are fine with my hand though. It's cute that she likes burritos but I hope you aren't giving her pieces that your mouth has touched. Mammal(human) saliva can be toxic to birds but I haven't seen this first hand, just read about it.
