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Lovie Update With A Few Questions

scrape

Rollerblading along the road
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About four months in with my new SC2 Lovie. Here to give an update and ask a few questions. Lovie has been great. He is very, very active. He plays great outside of his cage when I am in the room. He has three playing modes: DESTROY, THROW EVERYTHING ON THE FLOOR, and play with a tiny piece in his mouth. He chews through rope, zip ties, and can open o rings and wire depending on what they are attached to. He is interested in metal parts. Keeping him entertained is a job, a portion of it is just trying to keep toys off the floor. Maybe because I have only been a small bird owner it is more of a challenge. He sits on my lap, he is not 100 all the time. He likes being petted, even on the beak, and would love to sit on my shoulder. He is (EXTREMELY) loud of course, but has not been screaming when I am in the room.

Here to ask a few questions:

I read the first few minutes feather-destructive birds are left alone is critical. Should I stick with leaving him in his cage when I wake them up while I make their breakfast? Or is it necessary to take him with me?

Another question is about including him. I want to bring him to hang out with the family, but he screams. He gets excited and wants attention or wants to go somewhere. Seeing the dogs and cats seem to eventually upset him as well. I take him back to his cage when he screams. How can I find a better, calmer, more postive way to include him?

What is a good stainless steel Blue toy for Toos? I want a smaller one to see if he likes that kind of toy.

And tips for shoulder rushing people? He will climb down their arm and use their shirt to climb on their shoulder. Is there an easy way to block him? Even if the hand is held high he can shimmy down to their elbow. Or if it’s close enough he will lean to their shoulder.

Any tips for harness training would be appreciated. He is doing good, but seems to be a bit uncomfortable with it “wrapped” around him. I am a bit nervous because I really want this to work. He loves running around outside and I think it would be so very healthy for him.

And any screaming advice would be appreciated. It is not an issue, but I would just feel guilty if it got worse. The conundrum I am in is he does not make any pleasant noises when I leave. He knows how to say “hi” but never says it without prompting. I am thinking about buying him a bell and rewarding him for ringing it? It would be nice to teach him more acceptable noises, but I am not sure how to go about it yet?
 

scrape

Rollerblading along the road
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Oh and he has one toenail that is really sharp and curled close to his foot. It's not long necessarily, but it just seems to curl back more than the others. I've tried clipping it and filing it but I can't hardly reach it. I am thinking I will take him to the local bird store so they can fix it for me.
 

Tanya

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That forward facing inner toe is sharp to help with gripping narrow or unstable perches. My cockatoos will take a few days after a nail trim to carefully chew that nail back into a needle point. :wacky: Sometimes adjusting your hand or arm so that it is more of a large flat perch can help reduce pain from those inner talons.
 

scrape

Rollerblading along the road
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That forward facing inner toe is sharp to help with gripping narrow or unstable perches. My cockatoos will take a few days after a nail trim to carefully chew that nail back into a needle point. :wacky: Sometimes adjusting your hand or arm so that it is more of a large flat perch can help reduce pain from those inner talons.
Oh okay! Thanks for telling me. It is much sharper it hurts my hand; I have started pulling my sleeve down. I am thinking a flagstone perch might be a good investment.
 

scrape

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Lexusblond

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Only speaking from having my two pink mad chickens :ohdrama: .... it's taken two years to get Miss Madeleine(Gerry Berry is a perfect lady)to place that we can both live together, the biggest thing was consistency and understanding that she didn't understand!?! what was acceptable behavior and what wasn't so I set boundaries and kept to them no exception but I never used her room aka cage as a punishment or put her in there when we where mad at each other... whenever I took her into a new situation I would always try and look at it from her point of veiw...small prey bird where anything and everything might harm or eat me. Trust is key to this, once you have complete trust there is nothing you won't be able to over come together! Sadly this takes time so baby steps but keep going. I have only just got my two to bed when asked, that took 2 years of patience with a few hick ups a long the way.

With the harness watch the vids on the subject there is some really goods on YouTube. Hope some of what I have said helps...:starshower1:
 

WikiWaz

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I don't know a lot about large bird needs, but maybe I can help with the stainless steel toy question. Perhaps reach out to @Jan with Blu's Bird Toys to see what stainless steel toys have worked well for customers with cockatoos.
 

scrape

Rollerblading along the road
Celebirdy of the Month
Joined
5/4/19
Messages
2,504
Only speaking from having my two pink mad chickens :ohdrama: .... it's taken two years to get Miss Madeleine(Gerry Berry is a perfect lady)to place that we can both live together, the biggest thing was consistency and understanding that she didn't understand!?! what was acceptable behavior and what wasn't so I set boundaries and kept to them no exception but I never used her room aka cage as a punishment or put her in there when we where mad at each other... whenever I took her into a new situation I would always try and look at it from her point of veiw...small prey bird where anything and everything might harm or eat me. Trust is key to this, once you have complete trust there is nothing you won't be able to over come together! Sadly this takes time so baby steps but keep going. I have only just got my two to bed when asked, that took 2 years of patience with a few hick ups a long the way.

With the harness watch the vids on the subject there is some really goods on YouTube. Hope some of what I have said helps...:starshower1:
Thank you. I can tell he has a lot of trust in me, maybe not 100% but we will get there. I have a whole playlist of ~33 educational bird videos, a lot of them are harness training. I will post a video one day to make sure I'm doing it right. I feel a bit guilty for taking so long, I see people have their Toos harness trained in a month.
I don't know a lot about large bird needs, but maybe I can help with the stainless steel toy question. Perhaps reach out to @Jan with Blu's Bird Toys to see what stainless steel toys have worked well for customers with cockatoos.
I meant to tag her, but forgot to, so thank you!
 
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