Hi Deb:
Thanks for your comments and ideas. Also, thanks for sharing your experiences. It sounds like you have a closer relationship with Tamber than I do with Bailey. Bailey really does prefer men for some reason and really does want to be with my husband. Bailey is okay with me and definitely has the propensity to entertain and make me laugh, but I really don't spend much time with him on my shoulder. For one thing, my hen Babylon won't tolerate that - but even out of her sight - Bailey is a bit edgey with me. I honestly wonder if a lot of this is flock dynamics. Bailey has some fear of Babylon, perceives that she and I are close allies....so he just doesn't 100% trust me. To put it simply, the friend of your enemy is my enemy kindof thing.....but not quite so extreme.
As far as removing the broom.....I probably need to rethink the broom because it clearly is an aggression trigger for Bailey; however, not a simple solution because Bailey seems to want to chew up the door and I need to somehow keep him from approaching and doing that (because I like the door whole - not decorated with parrot bites).
The scenario is that: Bailey and the flock are in a bird room with tons and tons of things to chew up. I have pictures of that room on my website
www.flyingparrotsinside.com. The birds have a Get-a-Grip and tons and tons of boxes, wooden items, bird toys, junk strewn every where. When Bailey came to my house probably three years ago, he wasn't really big on toys. I don't think his owners gave him very many for much of his life. He's much better about toys and chewing wood up now (be careful what you ask for) and he WILL get distracted from the door and find something to chew appropriate if I am lucky.
A funny story is that Kiri (my grey) really likes to wander around the bird room and find and chew wooden objects up. Bailey isn't always a big talker but there are days when I will hear the funniest little conversations going on in the bird room. I will peak into the room and Bailey will be following Kiri around and just chatting away with her. I can't always understand what he is saying but he's very enthusiastic. As far as I can tell, she pretty much ignores him and just keeps chewing on whatever has her interest. I wrote an earlier post about the day he said quite plainly to Phinney, "What do you think you are doing?" when the two of them confronted each other and then took off flying across the room.
I think my problem has more to do with the fact that Bailey will get a bug in his head and just want OUT the door and away from the rest of the flock every once in a while. He wanders over to the door, sees the wood and chews the moulding around the door. Kiri has also done this on occassion but she is extremely easy to distract and doesn't get aggressive. The real solution would be either disposable doors or marble doors but that clashes with my decorating dreams
I agree with you that I think being on the floor does lead to aggression issues with a lot of parrots. When loose in the birdroom, my flock has a lot of freedom so it isn't worth arguing with them about being on the floor. We do have cheap carpeting so I quit worrying about what's going to happen to that. Also, they are only loose like that for an hour or so a day so destruction is kept to a minimum. I really find that it is easy to clean and it's one way to have a flock of parrots as companions without feeling like we live in an aviary with them. The floor aggression issues aren't really a problem or any thing I can't handle but it is something to be aware of and to keep in mind. It they were running around in our living space, I could see that it would be a problem because they would be chasing feet. When they are in the bird room, people are not in there with them and I just go in every once in a while to check on them or run an errand and when I do that, I just keep a close eye on where every body is and I wear SHOES. They have different rules for living room (and our living space where we relax) vs bird room (people not relaxing in the room with them)
So...Thanks for your thoughts on this! We are still a work in progress....
Mona