by Wolf » Tue Jan 20, 2015 5:23 pm
Well, why don't I just jump right in here and try to find out how long it will take for me to stick my foot in my mouth.
You got your bird for New Years, what a novel way to start off a new year and it makes things easy to remember. I was guessing that this was your first bird, but after reading a little further along I discovered that I was in error about that. I would like to hear more about both of these birds as I am somewhat fascinated by these creatures. I was a total novice not too long ago, when it came to birds, until one morning my life was suddenly and unexpectedly invaded by a Senegal parrot who ran away from home and wanted to come live with me. Talk about going through a crash course in parrots. And I see no signs of my research into their care letting up anytime in the near future either. right now I am focusing mostly on nutrition and it is a lot to take in.
I started out with seeds and pellets and then I learned that this was not really the way to do it as they needed the addition of fruits and vegetables, which I soon discovered that for the most part they had no idea as to what all of these brightly colored things were and refused to eat them. Can you imagine my chagrin when soon after starting to teach my birds to eat veggies and fruits, I learned that whole grains were also a required ingredient for them to have a good, healthy diet. I went out and bought several varieties of these whole grains with the thought that they looked like seeds to me, so this shouldn't be so difficult to get them to eat since they ate other seeds, right! Wrong!! I don't know why they are so difficult for my birds to accept and eat, I mean, really, they look just like another seed to me, but apparently not to them. My research told me that I should not switch them over to a new diet too fast as it could cause them some digestive issues, as if this was in any way possible. After having my birds for three years, I am still in the process of getting them to eat a healthy diet. It is like I must have mentioned the words healthy and diet to my lady at some point when referring to the birds and they said, healthy diet for us, ain't happening.
Now I brought this up, at this time for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that Pajarita mentioned gloop to you and that is what I am feeding my birds for breakfast each morning. The second reason is that you have just got this last bird and he is still just a baby, so this is the best of all possible times to start looking into and giving your birds a healthy diet. It also fits in with the fact that there are many things that you can do right now that are useful for you and your bird while you are earning his trust and creating the beginnings of your bond with him instead of training. The act of eating food is a social as well as a bonding activity for parrots of all types so I see no reason that you can't use this to your mutual advantage.
The single most important thing that you can do at this stage of your budding relationship is to hang out with him and talk to him and sing with him, you could probably also get away with teaching him some whistles. The more time that you spend with him doing these things be better your bonding will progress. It is very important to remember to let him set the pace and to not push him. You can also learn about his body language now as well and it will save you some problems later on. You will find that after a time he will begin to look forward to this time that you spend with him and not only will he not move towards the back of his cage when you approach, he will start coming to the front and may even start trying to talk to you, in parrot of course. Now as to time out of his cage goes, I find that the best way to begin is to let him outa couple of hours before dinnertime as he will be more receptive to going back to his cage for dinner and to go to sleep for the night than at any other time.
Well it appears to me that I may have gotten through this without eating too much shoe leather this time, and I hope that you will find this to be somewhat useful.