More Aloof Now that She's Flighted?

[Nostromo]

Our birbarella has been slowly building flight skills and confidence over the past year. She's not much of a flyer, which isn't surprising considering she's nine years old and this is her first time flying (to our knowledge). But she's done pretty well! She flies from her cage to different preferred spots in the house, like her perch or our kitchen table, and then back again when she feels like it. She can fly to our hands when she wants to.

One behavioral thing I've noticed is that she's much less affectionate than she used to be! She's still a gentle bird, no biting or screaming or aggression, but she just doesn't want to be bothered much. If we didn't lock up her cage and force her off to sit on her perch or come hang out with us now and again, she'd spend 99% of her day in or on her cage. She'll occasionally want to be held, particularly if we're eating bread or chips (lol), but mostly she just does her own thing. Any of you guys noticed this in your Pi? On the one hand, I'm so glad to see that she can make decisions for herself now - she's not dependent on asking us to go anywhere, she can choose for herself where she wants to be. On the other hand, I'm sad that she's so standoffish. She definitely is looking at us and chirping to us a good amount of the time, but she doesn't really want much more interaction than that. I guess this is just Pi personality?

Anyways, just looking for reassurance that this is typical of Pi's, and maybe some advice on how to interest her in a little bit more interaction?

 

[zoo mom]

Andre wants attention when he wants it. Most of the time he just prefers to be near me.

 

[Dartman]

Pionus just love to hang out close by and watch the things you do. When they are ready they'll drop their head for a scritch or jump on your knee or arm, hand, and get scritches or snooze. If they really decide your fun maybe they'll try to nibble and wrestle with your fingers and growl and scream while they do it. Give her time to adjust and get used to being able to do as she pleases and I bet eventually she'll choose to come over to you, especially if you do cool things close by. They really love to watch you doing interesting stuff. I used to fix TVs and Nerd would suddenly try to jump into the middle of whatever I was working on because he wanted to see and be incuded. Luckily he never got zapped.

 

[Fuzzy]

That’s great she has learned to fly with you! 9 years isn’t old at all. My Blue headed Pi, Kobe, will be 12 next month and zooms around the house - upstairs and downstairs.

Make it reinforcing to be around you - it is obviously very reinforcing when you are eating bread and chips!! Watch out for other things she likes to do/toys she likes to play with. I have loads of foot toys one end of my (covered!) sofa and Kobe likes to play with them whilst we watch TV.

All birds are different. Kobe would rather be out of his cage all the time. There are play stations (toys on top of the fridge, atoms and boings hanging from the ceiling, a covered bookcase that he likes to sit on, a suction shower perch on the widow, etc) all over the house to encourage him, and the other birds to hang out in other places.

You sound like wonderful parronts!