Greetings!

[Ash]

I am new to the forum. I just wanted to drop in and introduce myself. My name is Ashley. I have owned birds in the past when I lived with my family such as

Now, it's just me and my boyfriend, and about a month ago he agreed to sharing our household with a bird. I adopted a 15-year old Maximillian Pionus parrot. I figured I'd join the forum considering how much I've been reading it lately I look forward to making new friends and sharing my birdie experiences here!

[liz]

Welcome to the forum. Glad you could join us. Thank you for adopting a mature bird.

[Pajarita]

Welcome to the forum, Ashley and pie! What is his name and what do you know about him? I know... we are terribly nosy but we just love to hear about other people's birds!

[Ash]

Welcome to the forum. Glad you could join us. Thank you for adopting a mature bird.

Thank you, Liz! I actually thought a mature bird would be best at this time in my life. Young parrots can be a lot of work! Old parrots too it all just depends. No regrets yet, haha! She's really the best behaved bird I've ever encountered!

Welcome to the forum, Ashley and pie! What is his name and what do you know about him? I know... we are terribly nosy but we just love to hear about other people's birds!

Thanks for the warm welcomes! I named her Yona. She's a very good parrot! She's not the cuddliest bird in the world but like most Pionus parrots, she loves her head being rubbed! It took her a good 2 weeks to warm up to me. I don't believe she's 100% sold with me but I'm hoping she comes to trust me more. I'm very patient with her. It might just be her personality to be standoffish. I did a lot of research on the breed before going through with the adoption so I had an idea of what was the norm with this bird. Being shy seems to be common.

Yona loves boys! She will fly to my boyfriend's shoulder when he is in the room. He's not even a bird person! I'm like, "No, Yona, fly to me! I feed you and give you love and clean your cage!" But no

Oh, and Yona doesn't talk but she does crack up laughing from time to time. It seems so out of character because she is just so quiet and shy. As a matter of fact, she is seriously the quietest bird I've ever met. I took her to the vet for her check up and according to the vet, she's very healthy. I know being quiet is a common trait in Pionus birds but I was at least expecting a morning or evening flock call! She'll chatter and make snorting noises when she's more active. The only time she whistles loudly is when she has a reason to--something frightened her or she wants different food, stuff like that.

[liz]

Do you know anything about her past? She may be holding onto many words but not ready to let you know what she can do.
Wolf's rescued Mimi came with a lot of baggage. To his surprise when he fed her one day she said "good food". She has even told him some of her past. What she said was how awful her past was so Wolf had something to work with. Wolf lives his life for the love of his birds. Although he takes time with her and takes care of her she claims his lady as her #1 and not him.

[Pajarita]

It sounds as if she is not quite 100% comfortable in her new home but that's to be expected. They all take their own sweet time... Didn't she have a name already? Because using her old name will help her tremendously in her adjustment period. Parrots understand the concept of proper names and use them themselves (they are named at the nest by their parents and the babies continue using the same name to identify themselves for the rest of their lives, just like people do!) so when you change the name of an adopted parrot, you are making things more difficult to them -and, most likely, she will never really relate to her new name. Sometimes they come with names that are not gender-appropriate or we don't like but, in those cases, what I do is change it to another one that sounds almost the same (Elliot became Ellie and Nathan became Naida, that kind of thing), and, sometimes, we don't know what the previous name is (that was the case for Pookey and Peachy who were found lost in the street).

Now, I know that it's very disappointing when our bird chooses another person but that, sometimes, they just fall in love with them at first sight and there is nothing we can do about it. This doesn't mean that we cannot have a good relationship with them, mind you! Because parrots can have a 'chosen one' AND friends, too, so keep on working with her. And, sometimes, they seem to prefer one person first just to change their allegiance as they settle into their new lives and this can take up to two years so there is hope yet, Ashley!

[Wolf]

When Mimi came here she decided on my Lady as her special human as did Kiki, but in about a year she changed and chose me.

[Ash]

Do you know anything about her past? She may be holding onto many words but not ready to let you know what she can do.
Wolf's rescued Mimi came with a lot of baggage. To his surprise when he fed her one day she said "good food". She has even told him some of her past. What she said was how awful her past was so Wolf had something to work with. Wolf lives his life for the love of his birds. Although he takes time with her and takes care of her she claims his lady as her #1 and not him.

Unfortunately, Yona is a mystery. I don't know anything about her past. The girl I adopted her from inherited the bird from her grandmother. She didn't want the bird so she put her up for adoption. It would be neat if Yona spoke. And maybe she is reserving her words for later--who knows.

It sounds as if she is not quite 100% comfortable in her new home but that's to be expected. They all take their own sweet time... Didn't she have a name already?...Now, I know that it's very disappointing when our bird chooses another person but that, sometimes, they just fall in love with them at first sight and there is nothing we can do about it. This doesn't mean that we cannot have a good relationship with them, mind you! Because parrots can have a 'chosen one' AND friends, too, so keep on working with her. And, sometimes, they seem to prefer one person first just to change their allegiance as they settle into their new lives and this can take up to two years so there is hope yet, Ashley!

I feel that too. I asked the girl I adopted her from what her name was and she said she's just been calling her Crackers. Given the response, it sounded to me that that was a name she gave her while under her care. I have no idea what the bird's name was originally. I tried calling her Crackers and she never responded to it. By the second week I've had her I decided to go with something different.

Yes. I'm not too upset about her being taken with the bf. I think we've at least bonded on a deeper level thus far than her just using his shoulder as a perch. It's not like she wants to cuddle up on him or anything...That would DEFINITELY make me jealous Actually, there was this one time we were sitting down with the bird watching a movie together. We both were petting her, and pretty soon she started to do this sleepy sway number and she began making new sounds... To me, I think we inadvertently aroused her! WHOOPS! After we stopped petting her she stopped and reverted back to her usual reserved behavior. It was kind of funny. I told the bf "She REALLY likes you!"

I know it's going to take time here, and that's fine. I'm a patient person And what we have right now is nice too. I'm considering clicker training now that she finally accepts food from my hand. I successfully limited her bird seed and got her on pellets, veggies, and fruit (as well as some other occasional nummies)! She actually didn't start taking food from my hand UNTIL she was off seed. I understand it's like french fries to them xD That would explain her chubbiness. She checked out fine at the vet but the vet did say to get her on pellets because I have an overweight parrot... Yona's a very good eater though. Transitioning her was a breeze. I'm a lucky bird owner!

Thank you for your kind words, advice, and encouragement!

When Mimi came here she decided on my Lady as her special human as did Kiki, but in about a year she changed and chose me.

Aha! There's hope for me yet! <3

[Wolf]

Although it doesn't change the message in my post, I suppose that I should clarify my statement. Mimi is still very much bonded to my Lady and I do not expect that to change, Kiki on the other hand is the bird that first chose my Lady as her human but about a year later changed her mind and chose me to be her human.

[liz]

A two syllable name works the best. You will know she got it when you call to her and she responds to your call.
She is really trying to fit in the house and her new family. Even those who came abused or neglected are still afraid of a perfect home and family because it's whole world changed and it is confused.

I think Rambo is the only parrot that had come into a new house with strange people and a lot of other pets and took over. He claimed Alfa with the other pets and gave me a crash course in Rambo. I had always thought that a talking bird was just repeating words it heard. Rambo came in like a storm and we were so amazed with his vocabulary and how he moved his words around to actually tell us something.