Prior threads:
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Summary of Week 5
Cage behavior
There are days where she is restless. She clambers all over, and she is much more likely to call loudly and for longer spans of time. Then there are days where she is content and happy. When she's happy, she can still be a loud bird, but the scrambling is non-existent and the calls she chooses to make are all interesting and not stressed or stressful.
We keep the blinds in the main room near her cage closed first thing in the morning and again in the evening as the light is fading. Our thought is that this reduces stimuli when she is most likely to call excessively.
We added the cage-top play-stand to her cage. It took her 3ish days to come out on the door again, but that was likely from the combination of her 'travel' and the new scary cage object.
Travel
She unexpectedly came off her cage top at some point and did some gliding across the room. She speed waddled back to her cage immediately after. This happened again a few days later, and this time, she climbed up onto the legs of my office chair and hung out with me for 40 minutes. When she eventually found her way back to the cage, she climbed inside and didn't emerge again for a few days. She was loud and anxious again, almost like she really WANTED to come out, but she couldn't (because she was scared).
Yelling/Calling
She can be too loud when I'm teaching, so we've continued to try new routines - wait until she is too loud and then roll her outside, roll her out preemptively, and put her in the bird room. The best option is to roll her outside right before I start teaching. I just wish I didn't have to. When she's in the room with the student and me and not yelling - she's a hit! Everybody loves her chatter and her clambering happily around.
Summary of Week 6
Yelling/Calling
This has hugely improved since those first 3.5 miserable weeks. Unfortunately, we had a change of routine that really rocked the Bea boat.
We started having trouble with Bea's cage attracting ants when it's outside, so we stopped rolling her out after breakfast while we worked out a solution. This resulted in her immediately being too loud and getting rolled into the bird room. If we had thought 3 hours of constant calling was bad...ha! On Monday, she yelled nonstop from 11am-7pm. The only time she paused was the limbo time between students and for my very brief lunch.
Nonstop. Yelling. 8 hours.
Clearly, she was not fond of the bird room idea. We settled on creating mini moats around each of the wheels, and once again, started rolling her outside.
[Note: this is not us 'giving in' to Bea's desire. Monday was crazy, but if I wanted her long-term in the bird room, she'd be learning to cope with it. I want her outside for a portion of the day. Putting her outside allows me to have Cord out of her cage, and I get to stop worrying about her (Bea's) contentment and status for a good chuck of the day.
Cage and Travel
She came off the top of her cage again, this time from being a wild hooligan. She was swinging her head around and calling, playing vigorously with toys...and then she suddenly found herself gliding through the air, then sliding on the floor, and then coming to a stop against a wall. She turned around and immediately headed back for her cage, scaled the front and put herself inside.
She got over her fear much faster this time and was outside within an hour. She uses her cage top all the time and gives me no trouble when I need to cue her to return inside.
Training
Training was put on hold during the adjustment period of the play-stand, because she didn't want to exit her cage and her fear seemed to have put her back in an 'everything is worrisome' frame of mind.
We resumed mid-week of week 6. She's stepping up (one-footed) much better and is less likely to bite once she gets ahold of my finger. I haven't resumed the stick training yet.
It's easier to work with her on the outside of the cage, rather than inside, and I think that's helping us both. I'm working on holding the treat further and further away from the cage (rather than higher up) so that she might step out. Stepping up was not working for us earlier, but I'll try it again from time to time to see how she responds.
She's so awesome at her one-foot stepup and her target touching, that I decided to try another hands-off trick. We started 'turn in a circle'. She was freaked out the first few reps, because she doesn't like my arm being anywhere above her. (I try my best to lure with a treat in such a way that she doesn't have to worry about my arm, but she's still aware of it and bothered.)
By day two of training, however, she was much more relaxed and willing to follow the treat. I even did a few reps without the lure, and she did well.
By day 3, she was turning much more readily. She also stepped fully off the cage door. She's not confident yet, so I only hold her aloft for one Mississippi-second and then I lower her back down. During that time, she is off the door, but her second foot is lagging behind her, ready to find the door again at a moment's notice.
Hormones/Handling
We had an exciting change in this department as well! Either because the season is changing or she is just adjusting, she rarely does the squat-moan routine. I've even scratched her head! Before, whenever I tried to scratch her head, she wanted to grip my finger and quiver. Now, she relaxes the feathers on her head and lets me give her a good scritch.
I've had this honor THREE TIMES!
Diet Transition
I'd caught her eating her dry Harrison's pellets on a few occasions, so I stopped giving her sweet potato-pellet balls as her main food. For several days, I gave her a few in the evening after she finished the dry pellets, but then I got the impression she was waiting for them (and not eating the pellets). So I stopped altogether and now give them randomly as a special treat.
Bird-bird Interaction
This is not a thing. If Cord is out, Bea's door is closed. If I'm training Bea, Cord is in one of her cages.
Bea on her cage-top play-stand. That wingnut toy is her absolute favorite. Since taking this picture, I've twisted rope perches around the ladders so that she has a fatter and more dynamic climbing surface.
Routine
Here is our current routine:
Feed birds around 7:15am once I return from the gym. They have to eat in the bird room. I shower and make my own breakfast.
I eat my breakfast with them (with ear protection). Bea is usually quiet-ish, even if she doesn't always eat.
When my husband returns, and if she has been behaving well, I roll her cage out to the main room. I open the cage door, and my husband offers her all sorts of prized goodies (e.g. cheese, grapefruit, nuts).
Cord hangs out with me, outside her cage. She snuggles in my shirt or we train or both. This is her time for life to be like it once was. When I've completed my admin work, she goes outside to her outdoor cage.
Bea remains in the main room, often times getting covered up for a few minutes at a time, until I begin teaching. Her door is open and she is welcome to come and go. If she is calm, I will do a training session with her.
She goes outside around 10:45am. Cord comes inside around 12:30 to have her midday meal and to return for the day to her main cage. Bea is now outside by herself.
I finish around 6pm and bring Bea back in. If I'm done a little early, she can have her door open for a bit. Otherwise, her door is closed and Cord comes out to join us. Cord eats on the counter while Bea gets dinner in her cage. Around the time we've finished preparing our human food, it's 7/7:15pm and time to put them in bed. Cord goes to bed first and Bea immediately follows if she has been beak grinding and acting sleeping. Otherwise, we offer her more open cage time. Most of the time, she seems to prefer to go to sleep with Cord. She now always sleeps in the bird room.
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Summary of Week 5
Cage behavior
There are days where she is restless. She clambers all over, and she is much more likely to call loudly and for longer spans of time. Then there are days where she is content and happy. When she's happy, she can still be a loud bird, but the scrambling is non-existent and the calls she chooses to make are all interesting and not stressed or stressful.
We keep the blinds in the main room near her cage closed first thing in the morning and again in the evening as the light is fading. Our thought is that this reduces stimuli when she is most likely to call excessively.
We added the cage-top play-stand to her cage. It took her 3ish days to come out on the door again, but that was likely from the combination of her 'travel' and the new scary cage object.
Travel
She unexpectedly came off her cage top at some point and did some gliding across the room. She speed waddled back to her cage immediately after. This happened again a few days later, and this time, she climbed up onto the legs of my office chair and hung out with me for 40 minutes. When she eventually found her way back to the cage, she climbed inside and didn't emerge again for a few days. She was loud and anxious again, almost like she really WANTED to come out, but she couldn't (because she was scared).
Yelling/Calling
She can be too loud when I'm teaching, so we've continued to try new routines - wait until she is too loud and then roll her outside, roll her out preemptively, and put her in the bird room. The best option is to roll her outside right before I start teaching. I just wish I didn't have to. When she's in the room with the student and me and not yelling - she's a hit! Everybody loves her chatter and her clambering happily around.
Summary of Week 6
Yelling/Calling
This has hugely improved since those first 3.5 miserable weeks. Unfortunately, we had a change of routine that really rocked the Bea boat.
We started having trouble with Bea's cage attracting ants when it's outside, so we stopped rolling her out after breakfast while we worked out a solution. This resulted in her immediately being too loud and getting rolled into the bird room. If we had thought 3 hours of constant calling was bad...ha! On Monday, she yelled nonstop from 11am-7pm. The only time she paused was the limbo time between students and for my very brief lunch.
Nonstop. Yelling. 8 hours.
Clearly, she was not fond of the bird room idea. We settled on creating mini moats around each of the wheels, and once again, started rolling her outside.
[Note: this is not us 'giving in' to Bea's desire. Monday was crazy, but if I wanted her long-term in the bird room, she'd be learning to cope with it. I want her outside for a portion of the day. Putting her outside allows me to have Cord out of her cage, and I get to stop worrying about her (Bea's) contentment and status for a good chuck of the day.
Cage and Travel
She came off the top of her cage again, this time from being a wild hooligan. She was swinging her head around and calling, playing vigorously with toys...and then she suddenly found herself gliding through the air, then sliding on the floor, and then coming to a stop against a wall. She turned around and immediately headed back for her cage, scaled the front and put herself inside.
She got over her fear much faster this time and was outside within an hour. She uses her cage top all the time and gives me no trouble when I need to cue her to return inside.
Training
Training was put on hold during the adjustment period of the play-stand, because she didn't want to exit her cage and her fear seemed to have put her back in an 'everything is worrisome' frame of mind.
We resumed mid-week of week 6. She's stepping up (one-footed) much better and is less likely to bite once she gets ahold of my finger. I haven't resumed the stick training yet.
It's easier to work with her on the outside of the cage, rather than inside, and I think that's helping us both. I'm working on holding the treat further and further away from the cage (rather than higher up) so that she might step out. Stepping up was not working for us earlier, but I'll try it again from time to time to see how she responds.
She's so awesome at her one-foot stepup and her target touching, that I decided to try another hands-off trick. We started 'turn in a circle'. She was freaked out the first few reps, because she doesn't like my arm being anywhere above her. (I try my best to lure with a treat in such a way that she doesn't have to worry about my arm, but she's still aware of it and bothered.)
By day two of training, however, she was much more relaxed and willing to follow the treat. I even did a few reps without the lure, and she did well.
By day 3, she was turning much more readily. She also stepped fully off the cage door. She's not confident yet, so I only hold her aloft for one Mississippi-second and then I lower her back down. During that time, she is off the door, but her second foot is lagging behind her, ready to find the door again at a moment's notice.
Hormones/Handling
We had an exciting change in this department as well! Either because the season is changing or she is just adjusting, she rarely does the squat-moan routine. I've even scratched her head! Before, whenever I tried to scratch her head, she wanted to grip my finger and quiver. Now, she relaxes the feathers on her head and lets me give her a good scritch.
I've had this honor THREE TIMES!
Diet Transition
I'd caught her eating her dry Harrison's pellets on a few occasions, so I stopped giving her sweet potato-pellet balls as her main food. For several days, I gave her a few in the evening after she finished the dry pellets, but then I got the impression she was waiting for them (and not eating the pellets). So I stopped altogether and now give them randomly as a special treat.
Bird-bird Interaction
This is not a thing. If Cord is out, Bea's door is closed. If I'm training Bea, Cord is in one of her cages.
Bea on her cage-top play-stand. That wingnut toy is her absolute favorite. Since taking this picture, I've twisted rope perches around the ladders so that she has a fatter and more dynamic climbing surface.
Routine
Here is our current routine:
Feed birds around 7:15am once I return from the gym. They have to eat in the bird room. I shower and make my own breakfast.
I eat my breakfast with them (with ear protection). Bea is usually quiet-ish, even if she doesn't always eat.
When my husband returns, and if she has been behaving well, I roll her cage out to the main room. I open the cage door, and my husband offers her all sorts of prized goodies (e.g. cheese, grapefruit, nuts).
Cord hangs out with me, outside her cage. She snuggles in my shirt or we train or both. This is her time for life to be like it once was. When I've completed my admin work, she goes outside to her outdoor cage.
Bea remains in the main room, often times getting covered up for a few minutes at a time, until I begin teaching. Her door is open and she is welcome to come and go. If she is calm, I will do a training session with her.
She goes outside around 10:45am. Cord comes inside around 12:30 to have her midday meal and to return for the day to her main cage. Bea is now outside by herself.
I finish around 6pm and bring Bea back in. If I'm done a little early, she can have her door open for a bit. Otherwise, her door is closed and Cord comes out to join us. Cord eats on the counter while Bea gets dinner in her cage. Around the time we've finished preparing our human food, it's 7/7:15pm and time to put them in bed. Cord goes to bed first and Bea immediately follows if she has been beak grinding and acting sleeping. Otherwise, we offer her more open cage time. Most of the time, she seems to prefer to go to sleep with Cord. She now always sleeps in the bird room.
