Diggy my little foster

[Eurycerus]

Here's Diggy my little buddy. He's a difficult one to crack, but he's so cute it's okay. He's still extremely tentative of hands. He must have been grabbed out of his cage, or something, many times to have upset him so. :[ He's grown a little more trusting of me and really wants a head scratch through the bars but hasn't quite figured out where to put his head, silly boy. I had to bribe him with treats to convince him it was okay to be so close to me when I took these pictures (I took a million, but just chose two cute ones).

Here he is biting his little ball which makes me happy because I feel like since he didn't have anything but bells, he doesn't quite understand the concept of parrot toys... buut he loves the woven palm leaf shredders.


And here he is looking a little skeptical about what my motivations were to get him close to the front of the cage.

[Andromeda]

Here's Diggy my little buddy. He's a difficult one to crack, but he's so cute it's okay.

This is exactly how I feel about my rescue Poi.

He's still extremely tentative of hands. He must have been grabbed out of his cage, or something, many times to have upset him so. :[

Poor little Diggy.

He's grown a little more trusting of me and really wants a head scratch through the bars but hasn't quite figured out where to put his head, silly boy.

Aw, that's adorable, he will figure it out! I am glad he's coming around a bit.

My hand-shy Poi also likes head scratches through the cage bars but only from my husband; he is not interested in that from me as I am a woman and he has a grudge against women.

I had to bribe him with treats to convince him it was okay to be so close to me when I took these pictures (I took a million, but just chose two cute ones).

You did a good job getting those pictures! I have hundreds of pictures of my Poi but he is mad in 99% of them because he does not like the camera.

Diggy is very beautiful! His chest so so yellow, I have never seen a Senegal with that much yellow covering the chest!

I am so happy you are fostering him and he has nice parrot toys now and someone who is patient with him even though he is a 'fraidy bird.

[marie83]

Aww he is gorgeous

[friend2parrots]

what a cutie pie!!

yeah, i also noticed that he's got a lot of yellow on his chest, more so than most senegals.

very cute holding his food like that in the second picture (i LOVE watching parrots eat with their feet i think its adorable )

looking forward to hearing more about him on the forum!

[Eurycerus]

My hand-shy Poi also likes head scratches through the cage bars but only from my husband; he is not interested in that from me as I am a woman and he has a grudge against women.

You did a good job getting those pictures! I have hundreds of pictures of my Poi but he is mad in 99% of them because he does not like the camera.

Diggy is very beautiful! His chest so so yellow, I have never seen a Senegal with that much yellow covering the chest!

I am so happy you are fostering him and he has nice parrot toys now and someone who is patient with him even though he is a 'fraidy bird.

Thanks! He's a handsome guy. Yeah Diggy feels more comfortable around men. Shortly after my boyfriend came over he let him give a good head scratch through the bars, but not me after spending over a week with him. >_< What's the story on your poi? Was a woman mean to him?

Just yesterday after posting these pictures I got a good cheek scratch in through the bars. I felt pretty happy that he let me and I think he was grateful for some lovings. He always has to keep an eye on me though, that's probably why it's been difficult. He is having an internal battle over whether to let me give him a head scratch or keep watching me. Silly boy. Nika doesn't give a crap about scritches which makes me sad but oh well. Whenever Diggy gets over being so afraid of hands and me, he seems like a lover. His previous foster guy said he begged for head scratches frequently.

Diggy was nervous about the camera, but because it is digital I quickly figured out if I kept the camera lower, pretending like I wasn't taking a picture, and kept an eye on the large screen, I could sneak pictures of him. So devious.

[janetafloat]

He's gorgeous! Lovely pics, I particularly love the second one with his little claw up....and I noticed his super yellow chest too, he's definitely a lover He's got his beady eye on you, for sure, but he looks pretty chilled, you must be doing a great job with him

[Andromeda]

What's the story on your poi? Was a woman mean to him?

His original background was that he was with an elderly lady who just kept buying birds until she had so many she was overwhelmed and surrendered them all. When he came to us he was very fearful (and he was this way when we visited him at the rescue as well) so I don't think he had been handled very much. However, he would step-up onto my hand so I think in time we could have been friends if he hadn't been sick.

Sadly he was sick and we realized it a few days after adopting him so I had to take him to the vet. He was still okay with stepping-up after the first vet visit. However, he did not get better and I had to take him to the vet again, and after that second visit he would run screaming from me if I approached him with my hand. The vet could not diagnose his illness despite repeated visits over the course of six months. He was poked, prodded, restrained, had injections, had blood drawn, and was even anesthetized to have x-rays.

After six months I took him to a different vet. They were not able to identify his illness initially but on the second or third visit they did a sinus flush which led to a diagnosis of strep pneumoniae. It took another six months to treat him and the treatment included a monthly sinus flush which he despised; he would pout for days after he had one and I don't really blame him because having a sinus flush looked like a miserable experience.

I estimate that he had ~25 vet visits over the course of his first year with us and both vets and every vet technician that assisted was a woman. On top of that I was the one who was bringing him to the vet in the first place and I was sitting there in the room while he had all these horrible procedures. As a result his opinion of me and women in general is pretty low. My husband can scratch his head or get him to step-up onto his hand but I cannot.

I have been doing positive reinforcement training with him over the past year in hopes that our relationship would improve but so far it hasn't. My super long-term goal is to be able to touch him and hold him on my hand but at this point I think he will always dislike me. When I approach him he gives very clear signals that he wants me to leave such as turning his back to me, raising the feathers on his cheeks, or pretending to yawn in an exaggerated way over and over again (silly bird). Sometimes he will do this if I just talk to him from across the room! Occasionally if he is in a really bad mood he will growl or hiss at me.

He always has to keep an eye on me though, that's probably why it's been difficult. He is having an internal battle over whether to let me give him a head scratch or keep watching me.

Aw, poor Diggy! My Poi would just stare at me and my husband all day, too. When he ate he would grab a pellet from his dish as quickly as he could and then turn around and just stare at us the whole time he ate it. Over time he stopped feeling as threatened and he's not like that anymore. Diggy will come around.