Help Request, New Member

[Mazvoca]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forum but I have been reading it for some time. I didn't know where to post this so please excuse me if this isn't the right place. Also, I'm not a native english speaker so please pardon my english.

I have two flighted birds, a Budgie and a Pacific Parrotlet. Their cages were side by side for about six months, and I took them out together every day. My Budgie would groom the Parrotlet and they would never fight. They tolerated my presence and me handling them pretty well.

Then I came across The Parrot Wizard's channel on YouTube and his book, which I read. I decided to separate my birds to better bond with them and start clicker training them. They called each other for days but eventually that stopped. The Budgie is responding well to the training, but the Parrotlet has been a nightmare.

Whenever I enter the room, or even walk by the room it's in, it start squawking frantically, while pacing restlessly at the bottom of its cage. When I approach my hands, like when I need to change the water or add food, he jumps on my hands and start biting, even drawing blood. He would then fly to my shoulder and squawk rapidly, all puffed up, and try to bite my ear.

I tried renewing my approach with him. I would approach his cage slowly, not making eye contact and speaking in a soft tone. Then I would sit a fair distance away and wait for him to calm, but the last part never happens. He's restless. Curiously enough, my cats can approach him with no trouble.

I'd like to know it he's sick, or if I should continue with what I'm currently doing. Maybe I need to get my two birds together again? Maybe this is the dreaded parrot adolescence striking, as he is about 2 years old? If so, what could I do?

I would really like to get back the relationship I had with my bird, and, above all, give him a better quality of life than the current situation.

Thanks,

Mazvoca

[Pajarita]

In my opinion, it's both. The bird blames you for taking away his companion and he is now sexually mature so he is asserting himself and showing you he no longer trusts or likes you.

Bonded pairs should never be split and I seriously doubt Michael would have recommended this on his book. When birds bond with each other, they do it very deeply and suffer when they are apart (as was proven to you by their desperately calling to each other for days -didn't that make you doubt?). They know the other bird is in the house (they can hear each other) and they know it was you who split them.

When we have birds, you make a commitment to their wellbeing and, because of this, we need to adjust to their needs because, in truth, they don't adjust to ours. We can try to force an issue but, sooner or later, we will regret it. They are smart and they have long memories so they are not easy to fool and they don't react well to impositions.

Put them back in the same room and allow them to interact outside the cage and, if they love each other and want to be together all the time, let them. Don't train them or even ask them for anything for, at least, a couple of weeks. And, when you see they are content and OK with you (observe their reaction when you approach them, clean/feed/water, etc), start training again by taking them out separately for very short sessions. But allow them to go back to each other after. Training a bird is not supposed to mean making the poor thing's life miserable, it's supposed to benefit the bird by giving him focus, a routine and something to do. It's also supposed to benefit the owner because it teaches people how to properly interact with their bird, to pay attention to it, its moods, its body language, its displays... and, through this, to improve their relationship with it. But, as you can see, it made things worse between you and your bird instead of making it better and that's because you tried to impose your will on them and did something you knew, in your heart, they hated. It doesn't work that way. Especially with the little species that never bond that deeply with humans and, even when they do, they revert to loving birds more than humans at the first opportunity.