Helping a new bird adjust

[molly]

Hi! This is my first post, but I've been reading the forum for a while.

I just picked up a DYH Amazon (from an individual on Craigslist who was afraid of him) a week ago. He's roughly 18 (unsure of his exact age, but the vet guessed 18) and has had two owners before me. The first was a man who had about 12 dogs, smoked in the house, and generally provided a disgusting and horrible habitat for a bird. The second owner was the woman I got him from - she took him out of his previous situation, but he was too much bird for her and after a couple of bites, she stopped even touching him.

He is a SWEET bird. He has been a little nippy and cage-aggressive, but I've been working with him on it and he is the step-up master. He's very smart and very sweet and very quiet unless he's talking (he says hello, goodbye, goodnight, kisses, and I guess he sings a few songs but I haven't heard that yet). Only once did we hear him yelling, and that's because he was in his cage when he didn't want to be.

I'm worried that he's depressed. I hope this is just part of the settling in to a new home process, but so far he is mostly interested in sitting. He doesn't like to play with his toys, and he only sits on one perch in his (huge) cage. He won't play with toys when he is out on his playstands, either. We have a manzanita tree with tons of toys hanging off it, and a stand that my husband made for my Senegal, in two parts of the house. He likes to just sit, and preen, and eat - that's about it.

I really want to encourage him to come out of his shell and have a little fun. I've been playing games with him like peekaboo, and switching out his toys, and pretty much anything Mattie Sue Athan suggests, but he doesn't care. My Senegal runs around and constantly plays all day, and sings and whistles and is so happy, but Oliver is like a sad sack compared to her. What do you think would be a good way to get him to open up a little and help him to realize that he is in a safe, forever home?

[Vikki]

Time and patience, that's all I can say. At the rescue we deal with this on a daily basis and just from personal experience, my Jardine was rehomed twice before me. He was never abused, but he was neglected socially and sometimes that the worse thing for a bird. Before I got my Jardine, I read all kinds of books and asked all kinds of questions and was excited to hear that they were very talkative, playful, cuddly birds...that they liked toys, loved to hang upside down and be monkeys, i couldn't wait to get him. When I did, I was disappointed. He (like your little guy) has a HUGE cage full of toys and all he did was sit on the same perch and only moved to eat or drink. It worried me. He didn't speak a lot or even sing. He stepped up, but when I would try to cuddle him or flip him upside down, he would attack me so bad that I still have scars on my hands to this day.

Now, 3 yrs later, I can do all that and sometimes he doesn't shut up. What changed? Nothing really. I let him settle in. Every day when I came home, I went to his cage, opened the door, talked to him. If he wanted to come out of the cage I let him out, otherwise I would try to be in the room with him as much as possible (I had his cage in my office, where I was constantly on the PC) and always talked to him as if he were just another person in the room. Asked him how his day was, what he ate, what he did all day... If I was eating, as I often did in my office, I would share it with him (they see that as a flocking gesture and will appreciate it) Every other day or so I would coax him out and I would work on his comfortability level with me, whether it was just getting him to let me scritch him or teach him how to hang upside down... whatever it was, I had a schedule of doing it regularly and always gave positive reinforcement, even if it was just an excited word and a kiss. It took nearly a year and a half before he started to show any Jardine traits like the ones I had read about... and he's still growing and learning.

So just be patient and loving and he will come around. Being passed around as some of them are, they just get to the point where they don't know who to trust and it just takes diligence on your part. Good luck to you both!