HELLO FROM BELFAST NORTHERN IRELAND

[brian73]

hello everyone
my name is brian
myself and my better half have a 3 year old male congo african grey called rocky and an 8 month old female kakariki called polly
the grey is hand tame and loves my wife but dont like me, the problem here is im the animal lover and the 1 who feeds and cleans the animals as my wife has severe rhumatoid arthritis..
when we first got him last summer he bonded with her within 2 hours and loves her touching him but will not let me stroke him
i have scars all over my hands where he has bitten me over and over until the day i took a firm hand with him and he got the message that bitting me was not gonna make me go away...
he will step up onto me when i let him out but he just will not let me stroke his head or touch him at all, apart from him standing on my arm i have no pleasure with him
Polly our little kakariki is sooooooo cute with her big eyes haha she was not hand reared but i have handled her and clipped her wings and am trying everyday to gain her trust
so any help i can get from everyone with the congo situation would be so great

[greymatter]

Welcome Brian, Rocky, and Polly!

We have the opposite issue - our Grey LOVES Husband, and he loves me (just less than Husband), but our Caique had a bad inicident in the past that he's been overcoming the past few years, and after much determination from Husband (Rosco LOVES me), we are now at the point where Rosco can be in the same room as Husband without pinning, making warning signs, or biting him.

Husband started out wearing a winter coat/gloves/hat/scarf in order to have Rosco out with him out of fear of being bitten (Rosco would fling himself at Husband); to just holding him in welder's gloves, to being able to sit in the same room with him.

It just takes a lot of patience and persistance sometimes.

We're happy with the progress made so far, and accept that Rosco may never like Husband.

I hope your grey learns to at least tolerate you (he does step up) - just remember he may never accept you petting him or snuggling .

[patdbunny]

Hi Brian and welcome!

Yeah, the grey may never like you. Just not attacking you may be the best you'll get.

Think of it this way - The dude at work that you freakin' absolutely despise insists on coming up and hugging you every time he sees you. How annoying is THAT?! If you two could come to a mutual understanding somewhere in the middle, that would be livable.

The birdies have preferences just like we do. It can be disappointing when we are not their preference, but hopefully we can come to some middle ground understanding with them that's livable.

[captwest]

My wife and i can handel each others pets, yes they show a strong onepersonness, but we don't try to change that.If your not the favorite person, just be happy with any kindness showed you and DON'T give the bird too much attention, if he wants to sit with you, put him away after a mintue or two, don't make him tell you that that's enough .If he wants a stratch,do it for a couple of seconds and quit, don't make him bite you to let you know that that's all he wants.I have seen the farvorite person change before , usually immatures birds, but you never know with parrots.It can happen.Oh and buy the way, Welcome to the forum.

[Miramis]

Hello and welcome to the forums! Fellow "noob" here with similar story, ie my parrot fell in love with my fiance, while I am the animal lover, trainer, cleaner and feeder! Ahhh well, at least I am lucky enough that Sazu lets me train him, and he steps up for me etc. As long as I do not try to show him any kind of affection, we get along fine, otherwise it may hurt a tad...

Would love a at some point, but that one I will lock away in a separate bedroom and never let my hubby to be see... (j/k natuarlly.. I think..)

[Margaret]

Polly our little kakariki is sooooooo cute with her big eyes haha she was not hand reared but i have handled her and clipped her wings and am trying everyday to gain her trust
so any help i can get from everyone with the congo situation would be so great

Hi Brian + Better half + Rocky + Polly ! Welcome
I'm more than sure that here you'll find help about your congo african grey.
Tell us more about your Kakariki, please... I'm very curious!

[brian73]

hi there

i bought polly in a pet store while buying food for rocky..
i walked in and she caught my eye straight away, beautiful colours and big brown eyes the cutest little thing i ever seen.
when i asked about her i was told she was hand tame HAHAHA WHAT A JOKE!!!! no more hand tame than the man on the moon...it was clear she had never been hand tamed. but i had her now so was sticking with her and have time on my hands to work with her best i can. when i let her out of her cage you could see she was well used to flying ans she was like a rocket all over the room but in time she would go back down and into her cage. i made the decision to clip her wings so as to be able to work with her better.
i read all about this target training and such but she never seems to want treats from my hands so finding things very slow. and also our daughter is moving into her 1st house and is taking polly with her for company.
if i work out how to put up photos i will put some up

[patdbunny]

Yeah, it's amazing what sellers consider handfed/handtame. I've seen a cage full of birds listed as handfed/handtame being sold for premium price. . . you slowly raise your hand to them and they all flutter, screaming, to the other end of the cage. Stinks.

So, you going to get another kak? They are so super cute and so fun to watch when they go walking on the ceiling.

I think CaptWest had some great advice. It had never occurred to me to try what he's suggested. Then again, my husband doesn't care enough to try to handle the birds that don't like him.