When they just don't care...

[Rrrma]

So I've had Rosie(9yo vos eclectus) for 2 years and in that time I have tried dozens of different foods on her as treats. She has never liked any of them. She has never had a favorite food, even now there isn't a single thing that she eats on any given day that she is going to care about eating on the next... she just isn't a food oriented bird.

I had hoped to find something to use with her as treats to coax her out of places and reward her for good behavior, but she really has never had anything that she latched onto.

She is a tame bird for me. She is a rescue and comes from a bad background, but for some reason she loves me to death and will let me do just about anything to her. She listens, most of the time. She responds to verbal commands unless they mean she is going to be put up. She can tell when I'm hunting her just for a cuddle, or hunting her to put her to bed.

She is fully flighted, always has been, but I don't think she was ever allowed to fly. For a while I didn't think she could fly, until one day a neighbor came to the door and he spooked her right off my shoulder and around the house she flew. It was beautiful and scary at the same time. I don't think she even knew she could fly, because since then she has taken to flying off things when she wants to get down faster, or even flying off her perch and down the hall to her cage area.

So today we got our aviator harness, yay! I put it on her, she is used to me putting things on her, so she didn't protest. We went outside and walked around a bit. I let her perch on the porch and then we exercised her wings a little. She only fly off my hand twice and dove straight for the ground.

I know with work she will eventually fly on the harness a bit. I know she needs to work those wings! She hardly ever stretches them, but I just don't see any hope for recall flight. I worry about this though, as I don't think the ground is really a good place for a landing. She has never flown onto something, so I don't know how her landing skills are as far as that goes.

And as much as she loves me to death, it doesn't seem like I'm a very good treat to her, or I'd think maybe she would recall to me just because she likes me

So what do you do? Have any of you had this kind of experience? Recently I have noticed she really likes her pellets, but I can't take those away from her. She only eats 4 or 5 a day as it is(she eats mostly fresh foods and then a few pellets). Are we just hopeless in this area? I don't mind her not doing tricks and I don't mind if she doesn't want to come to me, but I'd prefer she not land on the ground when we are outside.

[ptuga72]

I don't have experience with this, but does she like toys? maybe find a special toy that she has to work to gain access to? If she likes pellets, maybe you could get some free samples of different ones. Maybe you'll find one that is different from her "regulars" that she'll work for?
Just ignorant suggestions, feel free to disregard
Anyways, I am happy that Rosie is enjoying her wings and it is great that the harness is working for you

[Rrrma]

She hates toys She has plenty and I change them around all the time and they still look brand new She does like to shred things, but only when she is bored. Honestly I don't know what the girl does all day. She sits there and chatters and doesn't play with things... She likes to talk to other things a lot, which is why I think she plucked when she lost her best friend. I have a feeling that her previous life was filled with cage time 24/7, and her only real companion was Cocoa the CAG(whom she still talks about all the time). She loves being out of her cage, but what she does when she is out of it is run laps around the house and attack dish rags(now this is indeed her favorite thing! but she only does it if no one is looking ). It is kind of a little game we play, I stare at you and you don't move, I turn away and you attack the rag, I turn back and you freeze, etc...

I'm still in the process of trying out pellets. We have tried almost everything decent(she can't have dies or fortified foods), last up is TOPs and Zupreem natural. If one of those worked out that would be really cool.

It has always been so annoying trying to get her foods she likes. It is like one day she scarfs down a whole plate of edamame and the next day she won't touch it, and she won't touch it again for months before doing it again. Yesterday it was peanut better toast, today she refused to go near it

And I am very glad to have gotten the harness. It means we can spend more time outside together and she can at least exercise her wings a little better without me worrying about her taking off.

[ptuga72]

She hates toys She has plenty and I change them around all the time and they still look brand new She does like to shred things, but only when she is bored. Honestly I don't know what the girl does all day. She sits there and chatters and doesn't play with things... She likes to talk to other things a lot, which is why I think she plucked when she lost her best friend. I have a feeling that her previous life was filled with cage time 24/7, and her only real companion was Cocoa the CAG(whom she still talks about all the time). She loves being out of her cage, but what she does when she is out of it is run laps around the house and attack dish rags(now this is indeed her favorite thing! but she only does it if no one is looking ).

Wow Rosie and Scarlet could be twins! When out of her cage she flaps her wings and looks for ways to torment the other birds. Luckily though, after her illness back in July she's discovered toys--well ones that are filled with her favorite treats or paper to shred and she does at least like nutri-berries and some nuts. But, like you, I worry about her having too many of these. I would hate to have her start toe-tapping (that would be fun, NOT).

Yesterday she ate all her dinner, today she pecked at it and instead ate pellets (which she doesn't really like) from a foraging toy .

Hopefully she likes the TOP or zupreem

[Rrrma]

Crazy how they do their food! At least I don't have this problem with all 3 of the parrots. Norma loves... everything, and Hardy is big on little seeds. I know I can teach Norma recall just fine, it'll be getting the harness on her that will be hard. Hardy is unhandleable, being a wild caught breeder and all.