Biting phase

[Angie]

@ Wolf. My math wasn't off. I put her in at 21:00 and take her out 12 hours later at 9:00 (or 10 hours later cause sometimes people are a bit noisy in the morning), not at 4:30 cause I'm asleep at that time.

What would I have to give her in the mornings if not pellets and seeds and the fruits? I try to give her as much vegetables and fruits as I can, but she still doesn't eat as much from them as she does from the pellets. What would be a good replacement to start with?

@ Pajarita. I understand that I'm still a newbie when it comes to body language, I find it very difficult to understand. Especially when it comes to the eye pinning/flashing cause her eyes are so dark.

I let her out of the cage before breakfast cause she was used to that already, but I could change that if that would be better.

It does get light around that time here, is why I got the cage covered. Or does this not help? It doesn't cover the whole cage so light may be coming from beneath it and maybe it wakes her a lot earlier than I would like her to.

I could try to change her eating pattern to giving her soft and warm food in the morning, but what kind of soft foods would be best then? Something like oatmeal or homemade applesauce?

As for the nipping, from what I've seen.. She would be sitting on my moms shoulder for maybe a few minutes and then she'd look at her skin and reach for it, twisting it. I'm probably missing some clues there, cause I can't see what she's doing with her eyes, but I do see no change in the feathers. I will have to pay close attention to this and read some more about body language!

I know she doesn't dislike me, but it must be frustrated for her that I have no idea what she means. She doesn't do this 24/7 and always wants to cuddle with me whenever she gets a bit tired. Guess I just get a bit frustrated as well since I find it difficult to understand this all, but I will work toward improving on this so I can make sure she's happy.

Also, are there any other caique owners on this website, any people you know whom I could pm? I haven't seen a whole lot of them.

[Wolf]

Ok then! I was looking at the post time and the last time I checked on it was with someone who was in turkey and maybe I am mistaken but I thought that the time on the post was from there. So I apologize for misunderstanding and thank you for the correction. It isn't important most of the time but sometimes it is.
I make a cooked food mix for my birds consisting of cooked beans( white, black and red), Whole grains, pasta, brown rice, lentils, mixed veggies( corn, peas, green beans, carrots, lima beans) or ( broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, green beans, sweet peppers) and dried fruits. I give this to them in the morning and then put some fresh vegetable and a fruit in the cage for them to nibble on during the day. I give a seed mix in early evening before dusk.
Although I am up between 3 and 4 am my birds don't wake until just after dawn as that is what wakes them up and they go to bed shortly after dusk. I remove the seed mix after my birds go to sleep, this way the only thing they have to eat in the morning is my cooked food served warm or a fruit and a vegetable. I do this because they are naturally hungrier in the morning and if I leave the seed mix in then they will eat that instead of the healthier foods.
On the topic of body language. Sometimes the cues that they give are very subtle and easy to miss as they are for other birds, not humans. Sometimes the pull their feathers tighter and flatten them to their body, other times they puff all or part of them up but the time span varies from briefly to so short a span that if you look away and right back you can miss it, sometimes the cue is a matter of body posture and again it can be the entire body or just a part. It takes a lot of time watching for them before you begin to see them and recognize them for what they are. Unfortunately, without someone who knows the general body language of the species in question to share this knowledge with you, I don't know of any shortcuts to this.

[sidech]

I agree entirely with everything Pajarita wrote ! Good advice, very well said !

Parrots are very hard to figure out if you're only used to cats and dogs. You need to learn about them and everything will come into place.

[Pajarita]

Does your mother have beauty marks, freckles, skin tags or anything on her neck? Because, as far as a bird is concerned, anything that is a different color or shape needs to come out right away -LOL. Or maybe your mother is cooking and starts chopping something or reading the newspaper and changes the page or a dog barks outside or a car honks - my point is that you need to look at the big picture and pay attention to everything that is going on immediately before she nips. We get so used to everyday chores and sounds that we no longer register them and, although these noises and movements will become commonplace to your bird (my birds don't even blink when they hear the dogs barking and the most they would do is tell them to "SHUT UP!"), Monty is a baby and still not used to them so he/she might be reacting to them.

[Angie]

Thanks a lot for all the advice, it's been very helpful!

Been busy with giving her more healthy food in the mornings by slowly removing the pellets and seed mix. I'm still keeping a bit of it in there, but it looks like she's been more interested in the healthy food now.

If I would make the same cooked food mix as Wolf does, is it better to make a big batch so I could use this several days or to make a new small portion everyday?

[Wolf]

Sometimes I make small batches and sometimes larger batches as you can freeze it safely. So it really just depends on the amount of time you want to devote to this. I have 4 birds with the largest being an Amazon and making about a cup of dry measured ingredients lasts my birds about a week. by the time it is cooked it makes a little more than 2 cups to which I add a few fresh items when I serve it.