Post by dl on May 4, 2014 5:37:08 GMT -7
I got to work with a "virgin" bird yesterday. They have a moluccan cockatoo, that I'm sure is a male, for their daughter who is 10. I haven't worked with them at their house yet, just at a local bird facility. They have had the bird for 3 years and they got him young, so he is still a baby. They are pretty much doing everything "wrong,".... petting him down the back, giving him shampoo baths, letting him have the run of the house, not to mention a male moluccan on a 10 yr old's shoulder........ but they have managed to do that without breaking the bird's trust (a big miracle, in this case). The bird is just now starting to bite people.
They came into the facility for some advice on food and to get the bird's beak trimmed. For some reason, the bird only uses one side ofhis beak, so it's getting badly scissored. I talked to them for about an hour. In that time, I was able to train the bird to bite a stick on command, target the bird to a dowel rod, and get him comfortable with being put in a carrier. These things could take MONTHS to do with a bird who had been forced or whose trust had been broken.
Sometimes greys just come with trust issues. I raised a pair of brothers who were only two days in age apart. They were fed the same things, exposed to the same experiences and neither one had any incidents with being mistreated or accidents (sometimes the bird can break his own trust by falling getting caught in a toy for a second) but one of them just was scared by EVERYTHING, ALL THE TIME. The other bird was one of the most awesome greys ever. In his whole life, the scared one only slightly calmed down. He never got to the point where people could handle him regularly. But that is how he preferred it and I found an experienced bird owner to give him to who was willing to live with him on his terms. (Interesting note... both birds were in their early 20's when they passed away about 4 months apart from causes that could not be determined.)
I'm rambling now, but these days, I don't often get to see birds without issues. They are SO much easier to work with!
They came into the facility for some advice on food and to get the bird's beak trimmed. For some reason, the bird only uses one side ofhis beak, so it's getting badly scissored. I talked to them for about an hour. In that time, I was able to train the bird to bite a stick on command, target the bird to a dowel rod, and get him comfortable with being put in a carrier. These things could take MONTHS to do with a bird who had been forced or whose trust had been broken.
Sometimes greys just come with trust issues. I raised a pair of brothers who were only two days in age apart. They were fed the same things, exposed to the same experiences and neither one had any incidents with being mistreated or accidents (sometimes the bird can break his own trust by falling getting caught in a toy for a second) but one of them just was scared by EVERYTHING, ALL THE TIME. The other bird was one of the most awesome greys ever. In his whole life, the scared one only slightly calmed down. He never got to the point where people could handle him regularly. But that is how he preferred it and I found an experienced bird owner to give him to who was willing to live with him on his terms. (Interesting note... both birds were in their early 20's when they passed away about 4 months apart from causes that could not be determined.)
I'm rambling now, but these days, I don't often get to see birds without issues. They are SO much easier to work with!