He really, really loves me!

[Pajarita]

I know! I was amazed myself and couldn't believe he was actually trying to get rid of me! He is the only bird that is 100% clear in his communications and he is not shy at all when it comes to making his wishes or feelings known! (He used to preen and kiss his first love, Tobita, and while he did it, he would say very softly to her: "You are such a pretty bird!" This bird is a genius when it comes to cognitive speech!

And, yes, he has changed A LOT! I remember the first time he perched on my shoulder... I was terrified! But he did not bite me (he was perching next to Tobita whom I used to call 'my brooch bird' because she would 'attach' herself to me as soon as I stepped into the birdroom and would not fly off until I told her to when I was leaving it). He is not a bird that I could do anything I wanted with -like I can with others- but he no longer attacks me and he now not only enjoys (and asks for) scratches, he also rides my shoulder (or hangs from my chest supervising the food and water preparation), comes out of the birdroom with me, steps up (but I only ask him under special circumstances when its warranted -otherwise, he flies to me when he feels like it) and likes to have conversations with me.

[Weka]

What a great story!

It really gives me hope for the situation between my husband and Skeeter...


--W

[Pajarita]

If there is one thing I've learned about parrots is that there is ALWAYS hope! It might take years and it might take a lot of tweaking here and there but they are inherently loving and forgiving animals and, if you keep at it (love, persistence and patience), they do respond. The response might not be all the way up there on our list of desires (meaning a loving bird that kisses us and shows us his love unconditionally) but they do improve.

Let me tell you another story. Pedro is a 31 year old yellow nape male amazon. He is a wild caught but he must have been caught as a juvenile and not a hatchling so there is no doubt in his mind that humans are not part of his family. He was acquired by a mother and daughter who had a female (also a wild-caught but she must have been younger when she came across people) they though wanted to breed. But they were not friendly to each other (the female was too young and they obviously did not know what they were doing - thankfully!) so they put him in a different cage and that's where he lived the first 27 years of his life, never interacting with humans or the female. Fast forward to the time when the mother became bed-ridden and they couldn't take care of them any longer (the daughter is mildly developmentally disabled) so they gave them to a friend of mine who knew them through her work rescuing cats. This friend loves birds and has experience with small and medium size hand-fed species but none with large aggressive ones or wild-caughts and she mistakenly thought that 'dominating' him was going to take care of his aggression which was a HUGE mistake. She also allowed them to interact and they bonded - but that made his aggression even worse because now, it wasn't only a matter of distrusting humans, it was now his job to 'protect' her and he could come out of his cage and started to fly. My friend has a bad back and is on blood thinners and couldn't move fast enough to avoid his bites and each bite meant lots of bleeding and/or huge bruises so back he went into the cage until, two years after she got them, she asked me to take them in.

Precie (the 33 year old yellow nape female in the story) is now mate bonded to Zeus, a younger (maybe 15), and abused male yellow nape (the owner admitted to 'taking his fist to him' so, needless to say, another one who doesn't 'like' people too much) who fought Pedro for her about ten months after they came to live with me and who, virtually, banned Pedro from their 'territory'- and that did NOT help with his mood!

I've had a hard time with Pedro because, at the beginning, he used to fly out to attack me which caused a number of bad bites - this slowly stopped but he would still come to the very edge of the platform or down from his perch to attack me any time I got close to the cage where he now hangs out with Naida (bluefront 30 year old female) and Mami (old amazon -possibly 50- which I thought was a yellow front but now appears to be a Panama). Pedro would watch me with evil eyes and, as soon as I started walking towards this cage, he would jump down from the perch and standing at the door, prevent me from getting close enough to clean, feed and water so everyday, it was a frigging federal project to get this done. But, thankfully, he is beginning to change and now that the days are getting real short he has calmed down A LOT to the point that, for the last three days in a row, he has not jumped down from his perch so I can do my work without having to trick/avoid him! He still looks at me with the evil eye but now he just bites his rope toy into shreds and, in my mind, I can hear him saying something like: "This is what I want to do to YOU!" But I praise him profusely, telling him he is a good boy for doing it and, tomorrow, I am going to start rewarding him with a nut for it because, although this is not a behavior that I would normally condone, displaced aggression is a HUGE improvement in his case and another step in the right direction! And it only took a bit over 2 years!

[Lizz]

Myrtle loves me and it is clear in every way but one. She will not let me touch the top of her head or back unless she is hiding under my hair. She even flips over in my lap to foot fight. I can kiss her face, neck, chest, feet and even under her wings but not her head.

[Pajarita]

She is a normal zon, Liz, they are not very touchy feely birds... And be careful with under the wings, it's an erogenous zone for them. I have a few birds that love for me to tickle them there (I say: "Tickle tickle" and they separate their wings from their bodies to give me access ) but I am VERY careful to do it only once in a blue moon, as a very special thing.

[Lizz]

She is touchy feely. If she had her way I would do nothing but cuddle with her all day. That is how she gets mixed up with the cats and dogs. When I have a pile of furries on my lap she walks down the front of me so she can pet them too.

There were two different nights in the last 3 years that she would not go to bed. She stayed on my shoulder. I finally gave up and changed into my night gown with her hanging in my hair. She slept on my left shoulder with her beak behind my ear.

[Pajarita]

AWWWWW, she loves you! Freddy (LSC) would do that if I allowed it - every now and then, he absolutely refuses to let go of me and I end up having to feed everybody with him hanging from my clothes and putting his face in front of mine with his beak resting on my lips while he watches the dogs and cats with those rolling Marty Feldman eyes of his And twice I had to go into my bedroom with him! But, thankfully, he got hungry and allowed me to put him back in the birdroom so he could eat his dinner and go to sleep.

[Lizz]

Myrtle is like an ornament that keeps moving position as I move. One time I was so busy that I forgot she was there. Then my daughter started laughing because she was hanging off my shirt tail.

I let her sleep with me twice because I could not tell what was wrong. Maybe she had a belly ache. Maybe something scared her. I just wasn't going to make her do something that she was telling me she didn't want to do.

When I woke up this morning, Rambo was looking at me. He has not slept in my bedroom since the two weeks after my mother died. I didn't ask him why and he did not volunteer the info.

[Pajarita]

Please be careful about sleeping with a bird. They can be smothered and/or crushed very easily.

[DanaandPod]

Just goes to show that if you never give up on someone...even if it takes years...they will progress. Cheers to you and your bird for such victory!