Dutch parrot owner

[GingerBird]

Hi!!
I was amazed by seeing the video's from youtube about Michael the Parrot Wizard. So I thought this forum might be fun!

I am the owner of one lovebird, his name is Boris and he is now 10 years old, he was just 6 weeks old when I got him. He is a sweet bird, sometimes grumpy. He trusts me enough to be picked up, sleep in my t-shirt, lay on his back in my hand and he is able to step up. But, he does not know any tricks. I tried to, but he is not the easiest one for learning tricks etc.

After being a happy bird owner for 10 years, I decided to to buy a second bird. My lovebird has some issues by being nice to strangers and this was always a bummer when I had visitors. I bought a Meyer's Parrot: Maya. She is now 10 months old and I bought her when she was 7 weeks. She is much smarter than Boris, and she is also a little naughty. It is fun to spent time with her, and she is the main reason for being interested in this forum.

I know she is able to learn a lot and be a perfect parrot. She is relatively young and I just want to give her anything to be happy, and becoming a perfect Parrot Partner !

[Wolf]

H-m-m-m! Perfect Parrot Partner, huh? Interesting concept, indeed! Well I suppose that would depend upon ones definition of perfect. For example, I could argue that your first bird, Boris, has been a perfect parrot partner for you, and that the reason that he is not looked upon in that way is that ( 1 ) your definition of perfect has changed and ( 2 ) any area that he falls short of perfect is due to your not knowing how to do more advanced training.
Boris may be getting old but he still has a few years left in him and because of this ,he is still able to learn new tricks and things. I am not intending to say that anything is wrong with you getting a new bird, or in wanting to take its training further than you have done with Boris. I am just speaking up for Boris, as he has obviously been a good friend to you for many years, and attempting to remind you that he still has a lot to offer. I also fail to understand why Boris, being nice to strangers would be a bummer for you or anyone, unless you didn't like him to be nice to strangers.
Ok, so Maya is 10 months old and I am guessing that by now you have developed a bond with her based on trust and respect. Now you are considering teaching her some tricks. Have you decided upon any tricks or in which direction you want your relationship to progress towards? Can you define what a perfect parrot partner means to you? I would love to hear about what it is.

[Harpmaker]

Welcome GingerBird! I also have a Meyer's Parrot . Mine is about a year older. I think she is as smart as the Parrot Wizard's Kili, but he is a LOT better trainer than I am. We also have lovebird owners. Enjoy your stay!

[GingerBird]

@Wolf: thank you for your response, speaking up for Boris is important!
The problem I have is, that he is cuddling with me, and very easy when he is outside his cage. He just sits on my shoulder and stays there, sleeps a bit, and cuddles with me. It is very cute and if strangers see him, they love to touch him or have him on their shoulder. I did not explained well enough in my previous post: But it is like Boris is protecting me. He wants to be cuddled by me and only me, he does not want to be touched by anyone else. I feel bad for other people, because I have this cute bird in my shoulder and they are not allowed to touch him because he will turn into a bulldog....

That is why I got Maya. Boris seems very happy with the situation where he is getting attention from me. Now my family is able to play with Maya. I don't have to put Boris back in his cage when I have visitors, and they seem to be very happy.

That is where my Perfect Parrot Partner is about: I would love to understand my parrots better, so they will be happy. I think both parrots will be happy if they are challenged, but I don't really feel when they like the challenge or just hate struggling. Maya loves almost every challenge, while Boris just does not seem to like anything new.
I love to teach him tricks, but I don't want him to force into something. So I really hope that I will understand my birds better so we will live in harmony together!

@Harpmaker: Thanks for your response! Hope to learn a lot from the forum

[Wolf]

Boris is protecting you. He sees you as his mate and he will sacrifice himself to protect you from intruders, strangers and rivals. He doesn't care about who they are or how big they are, but he knows that they take your attention away from him and will fight to prevent that from occurring and to keep you from any situation or anything that he perceives as a threat. Although it is possible to teach him to be better behaved with other people, it is possible that in the long run that it is just not worth changing. His species normally live about 15 yrs., so it may or may not be the ideal thing to do.
Enter Maya ! This is a good choice for you and Boris especially if you choose to leave things the way they are with Boris, which is not bad, just a bit of a pain for others. I have seen, so many times that someone is not pleased with one or two things with their bird ,so they acquire a new bird and the first bird starts getting shut out, which is not fair to that bird nor is it right and it ends poorly for the first bird. I , therefore, spoke up for Boris in the hope that this was not the scene and if it were, in hopes of changing it. You know Boris much better than I do, but I think that he is much more intelligent than you give him credit for. As for Boris learning tricks, I think that the real problem is in your approach to it, not with the birds intelligence.
I think that I have said enough about that, so I will leave it alone. One more thing, be careful with bringing these two birds together. Boris may get aggressive towards Maya as lovebirds are known to get aggressive towards larger birds and Meyers can be a bit of a bully themselves and Boris doesn't stand a chance against Maya.
I think that Maya is going to make a great friend for you and that you are in for a lot of good times together, and yes, she is capable of some things that Boris is not. With that welcome to the forums, we will be happy to assist you any way we can and look forward to hearing about your experiences with your birds.

[Pajarita]

Well, for once, I am going to disagree with Wolf. I really don't think that you should insist in teaching Boris any tricks. I think he is absolutely perfect the way he is. Lovebirds are usually quite nippy, even with their chosen one, so the fact that he is so sweet with you, makes him perfect in my eyes. Of all the lovebirds I've had, only one was like that and I adored that little bird (she was my princess bird) to the day she died (at 13.5 years of age).

Now, a word of caution. Maya is a baby and babies are easy going when it comes to been touched by other people. They know they are vulnerable so they don't retaliate in any form but it is a bit stressful for them to be handled by too many people for a long time so, please, limit it to very short periods and just two people at a time. Also, please take into consideration that although Meyers are not as bad as Senegals with the one-person thing, they can become very jealous and would bite if they bond deeply with one individual.

[Wolf]

I didn't mean to insist on teaching him tricks, just that the thing about him not knowing any tricks was not a matter of his intelligence or ability, but in the approach that was previously used. I think that he is already the perfect parrot partner. He loves the person that he is supposed to and that is way more important than ant trick could ever be, at least in my opinion. Sorry if I was not clear enough on that point, and thank you for calling it to my attention, I will try to be more clear in the future.

[GingerBird]

Thanks for your answers! I love Boris, just the way he is. He does seem to understand some things, but working with him is on a different level than I work with Maya. I did not want to imply that Boris is not smart enough, or not good enough!

I have to admit that I did made a mistake with these two birds together... They live in the same room and I did not want them to fight each other, so the first few weeks I took only one of the two birds out of their cage instead of together. Now I experience some jealousy between them, and I definitely watch them very closely when I have them with me at the same time. But, this "I dont care about the other bird" is really hard to achieve. And I am very cautious with having them together. Maya is indeed stronger, and Boris will protect me for everything so I guess they won't leave each other alone. If you have some tips, I would love to hear them!

Also, I have been mentioning visitors etc together with Maya. But she meet new people at most once a week, and for 10 minutes max. for several reasons. Never thought about the vulnerability thing though.
You did mention that she might love just one person in the feature, how can I stimulate her to accept strangers?
Thanks for all the nice advises!

[Harpmaker]

On this forum under Taming and Basic Training, the top thread is "how to overcome one person parrot aggression". Meyers' are not usually as aggressive as Sennies, but they are all individuals, and anyway, the thread is somewhat generalized.

I haven't had problems with my Corsair , but one of my grown daughters "rescued" her from a corner with a towel (and a cat watching), and hasn't been forgiven yet. She did start some hard pinching and a few bites (parrot bites don't count unless you bleed) at about one year, but we got through that with distractions.

I have been doing a fair amount of "human perch" exercises all along, so perching on anybody's finger is normal.

[Faraaz]

Welcome!