it was more step up and target training tonight. zeba did great! he even gave me a beak-to-lip kiss when i made the kissing sound.

he didn't really want me to scratch/touch him too much if i didn't have a piece of walnut between my fingers so i decided to back off a bit and i lied down, on my back, on the floor, away from zeba. well, he came waddling up to me, climbed onto my chest and stood there with one foot tucked under his feathers.

zeba also started doing that weird "tick" again - the head-flit/wing-flit movement. i found that when i made soft, high pitched noises (mimicking the noise that zeba was making), he exhibited this tick more often. maybe its a mating display thing? my husband caught a bad virus and he's been coughing a lot so zeba might not be getting enough sleep because of that. im not sure what we're going to do when zeba comes out of quarantine and is moved into the living room...we have the tv running till about 11pm. :-/

zeba is really a great bird, but you can tell that he has apprehensions due to what he has experienced in the past. he doesn't really know how to play with toys; it seems that he wants to be close to me, but i usually can't make the first move to play with/scritch him otherwise he just backs away; you can't get anywhere near him with a wooden stick in your hand; he can't stand to be moved downward on a hand/arm too quickly - the movement actually has to be quite slow otherwise he will jump off and fly to the ground.

with time and constant tlc, he will break through his boundaries. he has broken through alot of his hesitations already! and can you imagine? an amazon that doesn't bite? (pertaining to only women so far).

yesterday i tried to have zeba step on my hand/arm from the top of his cage but it didn't work. he "beaked" me a couple of times and i backed off from asking him to do it, but i stayed next to him and preened him instead. well, he knows that he won't get a walnut if he doesn't want to step on my hand. thinking about it, i guess i should also not give him head scritches either since that could be seen as a form of reinforcement.

i used the word "beaked" because it wasn't a bite at all. he just put his beak around my finger and pressed lightly...so light that there is hardly a difference between him wrapping his foot around my finger or his beak. (he is SO good about this, i just dont want to pressure him into thinking biting harder will get him what he wants).

he did give me kisses yesterday. i said "kiss, kiss" and i made a loonnggg smooching sound. he made the sound back to me and extended his top beak to my lips! isn't that sweet! needless to say...i melted on the SPOT. lol

Zeba stepping up for me tonight..this one is for a walnut.



Tonight, Zeba stepped up for me a few times without being lured by a walnut. there was one time where he was wandering into the bathroom (i was in there just a few seconds before and didn't close the door). i didn't really want him in there so i offered my hand and asked him to "step up" and he did! there was a little hesitation, but it was amazing that he did step up on my hand.

i did start with him stepping up on my arm since it was a much more stable area, but i have been training him more and more to step up on my hand. the reason for this is that when we do move out into the living room or if we go somewhere that i want to have control over zeba's movements, it would be best for him to step up on my hand (actually, along my pointer finger near the base) so that i can hold on to his feet with my thumb. since zeba will still do almost anything to attack my husband, i think if i had control over his feet, my husband will be much safer. ;-)

zeba did some of his little "ticks" tonight. not too much and not as often, but when zeba was still and comfortable, he started doing his wing-flit/head-flit tick. but if i were to scratch his head or when he starts moving around, it would stop.

Zeba is just a stunning bird with such a gentle personality (to women only at the moment...sorry guys.)

a little of Zeba's preening session is caught on camera here:

(he has been going at it for about 5 minutes and he is still working hard at keeping his feathers nice and tidy even as i write this.)

Edit: zeba's preening session actually lasted for about half an hour. lol. time for another shower, zeba?

Zeba stepped up on my arm without even looking to see if i had a walnut in my other hand! yay!

Zeba is also turning into a very playful bird. there were a few times where i would play with him with a piece of wood and he would get so into it that he would just flip himself over on his back and wrestle with the piece of wood.

here are some short movies that i shot of zeba playing and getting head scritches from me: (give the videos about 24 hours before viewing - youtube sometimes needs some time to get newly uploaded videos ready for viewing)

Edit: LOL, i didn't realize it at first, but the radio was on during the first video..the song kinda matches, dont you think? ;-)

we did more step up training today. so far, zeba won't step up onto my arm unless i bribe him with a piece of walnut. we're working on it.

another thing he can do is the wolf whistle. i was in the bathroom when zeba first did this. when i came out, i asked my husband if he whistled, he said no. then i heard it again and it came from the bedroom where zeba is in. that guy just amazes me!

more "step ups" were on the agenda today, and zeba complied for the most part. from my leg (i sat on the ground and zeba likes to climb up on my leg) on to both of my arms. from the ground to both arms. i tried from his cage door to my arm, but i dont think he liked the shaky door and refused to step up. when he thought i was trying too hard, he gave me a slight nip (not at all hard) so i backed away (and took the yummy walnut treats with me).

tonight zeba was very active, talking up a storm and just full of energy, therefore i made it a point to spend some out-of-cage time with him. while i was lying down on the ground zeba came slowly closer and closer to my face. i was a little nervous because i know he could inflict serious damage to my face if he wanted to. but he came right up to my face, tried to get to my mouth with his beak (im thinking he was expecting me to regurgitate for him) but avoided it, and he also nudged the top of his head up against my chin. very cute.

he was trying to bite on the carpet a few times, which i gave a stern "NO" to and a disapproving look and he stopped after a few of those. he wasn't too happy about me giving him orders...but limits must be set.

since going to the vet and me starting to cover him up at night, zeba has not shown his "tick" that i was so worried about. maybe it was just sleep deprivation. i am still keeping an eye out for it.

BREAKTHROUGH

i again tried to lure zeba to step up on my arm...3 times. THIS time, he stepped up ALL 3 TIMES! WOW! i am SOOOOOOO proud of this guy!! i used a small piece of walnut, and he was already standing on my leg. i gently pushed against his lower belly, near his legs as i said "step up" and offered the piece of walnut just out of his reach. like magic, he stepped right on my arm. i praised him a LOT, gave him the walnut piece and allowed him to go back on my leg when he wanted to. then i tried again and again. im just amazed!

when i started covering his cage with towels on tuesday, zeba hated it. but quickly got over it once the cage was completely covered and started eating his pellets. zeba has taken it a little personally, however, and i have felt a little hesitation with allowing me to scratch his head. i do believe this is either due to the cage covering OR of the toweling i had to do with him to get him in the carrier to take him to the vet...or a little of both.

today, however, when i covered zeba up tonight, he was less afraid of it. each night, i tell him exactly what im about to do and why. i say "zeba, its time for you to go to bed and i will cover you up so that you can have a good night's rest. the last couple of nights, you haven't been disturbed by my husband or myself coming in so i think the covering of your cage is a good thing, right?" he probably doesn't understand one word, but i think it calms him down, as well as myself.

before going to bed, zeba allowed me to preen his head, neck and beak for what felt like a nice, long time. he occasionally licked my finger. zeba, i found on many occasions, knows perfectly well how much beak pressure is okay on human skin. he is really a gentle giant. i purposely placed my fingers near his beak, preened his head and neck with a little more pressure, touched his toes, etc. just to see if he would try to hurt me with his big beak. nothing. he didnt even move his beak in my direction nor parted his beak as a little threat. he has a heart of GOLD.

the only thing that brings out a clear sign of aggression from zeba is, so far, men. zeba's short stay at his first foster parents showed that he was aggressive to the husband in the family. it is the same here. one explanation of this could be what we know of his past experiences with "masculine" people. they were the ones who mishandled him. another explanation is that currently birdie hormones are raging. my own birds show this, and through parrot forums, it seems that birds all over this country are also feeling the early spring feelings in their bones. zeba could have picked me as his "mate" and is just protecting me from any other human.

if in his cage, zeba actually allows my husband to get near him, even allows a little preening. but being out of his cage changes him. it could be because when he is out of the cage, i am there to watch him. it could be different if my husband were to be the one to allow him out of the cage and watch him. we will be working on making my husband someone that zeba could look forward to by letting him be the one to offer zeba walnuts. i will try to use strictly raisins.

my goal of getting zeba to step up on my arm has been reached! it is by no means a "done deal", but its reached. i will continue to practice it with him, but i think i can slowly move in another direction. i have been looking at his toe nails and i think he really needs a trim. since he allows me to touch his toes, im hoping i can train him to stand still while i clip his toe nails so that i dont have to towel him. also, id love to get him used to a travel carrier because i also dont want to towel him to get him in there. and of course, the big project with finding a "truce" between zeba and my husband.

i had a little scare tonight..i came home to find what i think was blood on his beak. with the "tick" he was exhibiting on the weekend, going to the vet yesterday and now THIS...it freaked me out. so i took pictures of the blood and showed them to the mickaboo amazon coordinator to see what i should do next.

well, if i was thinking correctly, i should've realized that it probably wasn't anything if there were no other traces of blood in or around the cage. he does have rather long nails and could've easily scratched himself a little too hard. i looked all over his cage and found no other drops of blood, so any opened wound he might have made was probably very shallow. i will keep a close eye on him. i am still waiting on the results of the tests the vet did yesterday...

i tried to lure zeba on to my arm today with pieces of walnut. no success tonight, but as you can see from my pictures, i was able to lure him on my leg with a piece of walnut. that's not bad - not what i had planned, but im happy with that.

my husband also spent some time with zeba and he seems to be doing well with zeba, as long as zeba stays in the cage, and probably when i am out of the room. it is spring season and hormones are raging among all birds in this house, so zeba probably just wants me to himself. i think i will have my husband be the source of all nuts so that zeba looks forward to his presence. i will have to use something else to pursuade him to step up on to my arm.

oh, i DID have some success with target training. with target training, i use a wooden chopstick with a round wooden ball attached to one end. i then ask zeba to "touch" the wooden ball. he did this a couple times and i rewarded him with lots of praise and a piece of walnut. he learns so quickly! i hope to be able to use this to get him to step up on my arm...we'll see.

have i also shared with you that when zeba talks and he is in his cage, he loves to hang upside-down? he's a funny talkative acrobat bird! :-)

Some pictures i took tonight during zeba's out-of-cage time.

Part II for today:

i got off of work early today so that i could pick Zeba up before the rush of work traffic began to fill the streets.

i got there and the receptionist hands me zeba's leg band that they cut off and a cool wall calendar of parrots! it is sooo beautiful. i have to open it up and see all the cool parrot pictures they have in there.

i asked the receptionist if they did any other tests on zeba and from what i remember, in addition to the physical exam, they did a gram stain, a liver history and i think a blood test. we'll see what the outcome will be.

the receptionist and a nurse/vet tech also said that he was a great bird. i was so happy to hear that, that i rewarded zeba with a short stay alongside ocean beach to do some people-watching, surf watching and to also watch a beautiful sunset. zeba was just happy to be out of the vet's office and happily sounded off with some english words as well as some "r2d2" sounds. (hehe...if zeba wasn't named zeba, i would call him r2d2 because he makes very similar sounds as the famous robot).

there are some things about zeba that i have so far forgotten to mention..

1) zeba likes to put his foot toys in his food bowl. i like to spread his foot toys (so far two) around his cage and i have found them, more than once, nicely collected and placed in his food bowl. what an intelligently odd action...i find it fascinating. i have unfortunately not been able to witness his cage foot toy "round up".

2) like a mentioned earlier, zeba makes r2d2-like sounds, especially when he is roaming around or trying to communicate to me while his attention is also elsewhere. its really cute!

zeba is definitely a bird that loves to communicate. sometimes when i talk to him, he tries to mimic the sounds that come out of my mouth. although i have not yet heard all of his 100-word vocabulary, i can tell he can learn a whole lot more than 100 words given time. and the amazing thing is that its not monotone talking that zeba speaks - he puts in emphasis and feeling. zeba is a true wonder.

my goal right now is to teach zeba how to step up and to lessen his hatred toward men. the latter will be extremely difficult but if my husband is ready, i think i can help him. pico also hated me alot in the beginning - i have the scars on my arms to prove it. but through learning from eachother, pico has come to trust me and it has been a few months since he last drew blood for my hand/arm. i am hoping we can do the same for zeba.

okay, i have to wrap it up here. i have to put zeba to bed.

this morning was a little traumatic for Zeba and i. to give you a little bit of background, Zeba has been exhibiting a little "tick" (what i call it) since saturday. i notice it when he and i are sitting on the floor together and he's very comfortable, (eyes slightly closed, sometimes on one leg, a little fluffed from contentment) he will shake his head slightly (as if he has something on his face or in his nose that is bothering him and he wants to get rid of it) and at the same time slightly lift his wings away from his body - only about an inch or two max. its a head-flit/wing-flit. and he did this every few seconds or so continuously until either i reached out to give him head scritches or he starts waddling somewhere else.

i was getting a little more concerned about it on sunday when he continued to show this "tick", so i called the amazon coordinator of Mickaboo about Zeba and we got the go ahead to set a vet appointment for this morning.

well, i gave Zeba a few minutes to see if he would go into the travel carrier on his own (with a big "juicey" walnut placed in the rear of the carrier. He didn't budge and knew something was up (outsmarting a bird is a very difficult undertaking!) so i unfortunately had to towel him. i turned off the light and caught him in a towel and gently placed him in the carrier. he surely did NOT like it. i really felt guilty doing it and i was only hoping that he will forgive me one day.

that was the traumatic morning. i took him to the vet and i had to leave soon after to go to work.

the avian vet called me and to make a long story short, on physical examination, nothing looked wrong with Zeba. They may have to do more tests to see if there are any other underlying problems. But i also voiced my concern about Zeba possibly not getting enough sleep and if that could be the cause of his "tick". Zeba lives currently in our bedroom as he goes through the regular quarantine period. my husband and i both go to bed a little late, i sometimes toss and turn and my husband uses the bathroom in our room during the night. i was also keeping a night light on for him thinking that could ease him to go to sleep.

well, i will be making alot of changes - 1) no night light; 2) no use of the bathroom in our bedroom at night; 3) Zeba's cage will be covered when he goes to sleep; 4) Zeba will be going to bed a little earlier.

when the weather gets warmer and if he is still in quarantine, we will put him in our second bedroom so that he has his own space with no disruptions.

well, i will keep you posted...

The weekend was full of new and exciting things for Zeba and I; some not so pleasant than others...

i allowed him a lot of out time this weekend from his cage. i feel comfortable with him walking around the ground near me, although i am still unable to have him step up onto my hand/wrist/arm. i dont think he is ready for this, for reasons only he knows, but he surely allows me to get close to him when he is free and roaming around the bedroom.

saturday, i let him out and he went on the floor from his cage. i sectioned off a space that is the length of our bedroom, but about 3 - 4 feet wide. i placed a few "toys" at different distances from his cage - a roll of paper towel, an acrylic bird toy shaped into a person with moveable limbs, a couple of empty plastic water bottles (16oz size), a wooden perch, a plastic nut/bolt bird foot toy and....me. i usually laid down and did some sudoku or crossword puzzles as he did his exploration.

he is very calm when he walks around. he goes exploring from one end of his play area to the other just to see what's around. then he will come to me to see what im doing. but, if my husband walks into the room and gets too close for zeba's comfort, zeba will launch himself in the air about 2 - 3 feet and try to attack him. it was very alarming because his wings are actually cut but he had such powerful flying muscles from years of being able to fly that he could jump so high and far! we have to work on calming him around my husband (it could probably be that my husband was moving to quickly in zeba's direction). with early spring upon us, this will be quite a difficult task and may have to wait till the raging hormones subside somewhat.

zeba preened my hair a couple of times...i think i will have to finally go for a hair cut so that he doesn't get too tangled up in my hair. i like it shorter anyways.

he has also nibbled on my ear...i would normally NOT do this with an amazon - especially not with my own amazon - he's papa's BIG baby. LOL. but zeba was being very calm, no aggressiveness was being shown and he was very careful.

zeba has also bitten a hole in my sock..i guess he is trying to help me get rid of some extra "skin"?

he still loves to talk when he hears people talking back to him. and the more you talk to him, the more he emphasizes some of his words, which makes it sound like he's sad and wants you to visit. what a drama "queen"!

also, like i wrote previously, we found out that he can answer phones! who needs an answering machine?! it was really weird because the way we found out was after my husband's cell phone rang - and his ring is not the normal telephone ring..its some kind of song medley. anyways, it went off and a distinct "hello?" came from our bedroom. it was short, solemn, no real feeling in it...it was a completely different voice. after steffen got off of his phone, he came to me and asked "did zeba just say hello?" i said YES. so we tested him out again. i called our regular phone line and when it rang, zeba again said the "hello?". we thought it was soooooo funny so we did a BAD thing and called our phone again a couple of times for it to ring just to hear zeba say "hello?" in that voice.

sunday, i decided it was shower time for zeba. my plan was to lure zeba into his travel carrier with a walnut and lock him in there until i got to the bathtub. well, the way it went was he stepped on to the carrier and as he tried to reach for the nut, i tried to close it, but he started to flinch backwards so i just carried the open carrier to the bathtub, set the carrier down in the tub and turned on the water. i deflected most of the water so that the water would spray lightly on top of him. i can't say for certain if he liked the shower, but he had his wings spread most of the time, he tried jumping around a couple of times and he talked up a storm. he didn't preen his feathers like my amazon would during a shower when he likes it, so i don't know how zeba took it. he kept to the sides of the carrier so after the shower, i just carried him on the carrier back to his cage. (thank goodness that carrier has holes all over the place so i could drain the water!)

and what a difference a little shower makes..it lasted all of about 10 - 15 minutes and after zeba dried off, he was gleaming like a shiny new penny! his feathers were much softer and his lower body and tail feathers had an iridescent sheen to them - much like my own amazon. zeba is really a beautiful bird, but after the shower, wow!

well, that was our fun 2nd weekend together. i must admit that it is getting tougher and tougher to come to the realization that i will one day part with this guy when the right adoptive family comes along...he is SUCH a great bird! we just have to work on that itsy bitsy aggression problem between him and my husband....:-/

**new moment...

phone rings...
Zeba: "hello?"
phone rings again...
Zeba: "hello?"

And it is not in the same voice that he normally uses to talk human-speak. its more "serious" and short.

CUTE! i couldn't stop laughing when i first heard it.

**new sounds/words heard from Zeba:

my goodness
short pecking kisses - about 7 times in a row
mom

BREAKTHROUGH!

Yesterday, my husband had no classes so he stayed at home. He spend some time with Zeba and reported to me that he was FINALLY able to actually touch Zeba - toes and head - without any threatening gestures. He also reported that at one point, while he was sratching Zeba's head, that Zeba tried to grab his finger with one foot, and when he succeeded he pulled in his foot and was just lightly preening that foot (holding my husband's finger) with his beak. weird huh? he got hold of a finger but decided to ignore it and preen the foot instead. maybe it was some kind of displacement behavior? perhaps he was waiting to see what my husband will do without trying to give it much attention?

Before this day, Zeba would become very agitated and attacked one of the bells on his toys wildly when my husband would walk into the room. so he slowed his approach to the cage...giving Zeba some space and slowly and calmly make his way to the cage.

i told him not to give Zeba much eye-to-eye contact, since this is the start of "hormonal" season and he could interpret heavy eye contact as a challenge. i also suggested that he take a bag of walnuts with him to the cage so that Zeba sees that he brings treats! and when he leaves, he takes treats with him. this can help build a positive, trust-building relationship with Zeba.

all this seemed to have helped and my husband also gave Zeba a few hours of ambient attention as he did his homework near Zeba's cage. as i looked in on the both of them, zeba was calmly perched on his rope perch and not in his wild aggressive state. wonderful! i think we can make him a very sociable bird afterall. ;-)

what i am also currently working on his getting him used to wooden perches. i bought a wooden stick perch and i started laying it about 10 feet away from his cage since he seemed comfortable with that. yesterday, i moved it a foot closer. Zeba looked at it and didn't freak out, so i left it.

i have not yet successfully had Zeba step up on my hand, and this could be caused by a few reasons...one reason would be me not being mentally ready for a good chomp from Zeba. i have gotten good bites from my own amazon, which has made me a bit shy, but because my amazon is trained to step up on a stick, i have no problems having him step up for me. (i am currently working on him stepping up on my arm - so far successfully!) With Zeba, when i allowed him out of his cage earlier this week, i tried to have him step up on my arm, i even tapped his toes, but to no avail - maybe he was a bit in "zen mode" after i was scratching his head previous my step up attempt).

another reason might be that maybe Zeba isn't ready in trusting me enough to step up on my hand. this could also explain why he didn't step up on my hand after i tapped his toes and asked him to "step up". i respect that.

i'm thinking that on the weekend, i will allow him to come out of his cage again and allow him MORE time out of his cage. maybe after a bit he will want to step up onto my hand. we'll see. since he didn't step up on my hand that one time, i lured him into his cage with a FULL walnut placed in his cage, and he made his own way back soon after.

there was another thing this morning about Zeba...its not quite a breakthrough but it does show that he is becoming more relaxed. Zeba made a new noise! it was a bunch of short, successive, higher-pitched whistles. something that you would do if you were calling a dog. as i heard it, i looked at my husband, then my birds, and then back at my husband..."was that Zeba just now?" my husband nodded and Zeba made those whistle sounds again. i thought that was so cute. and not only can he talk, but he can also put a lot of feeling into his voice sometimes. The more he talks, the more feeling is put into his voice. Zeba is surely a beautiful and talented bird. who knows what else he can do.

just a run down of all the words i have heard from Zeba:
Hello
Hello Zeba
Hi Zeba
Hi Baby
Hi Big Boy
Up
Im a big boy
Zeba
big boy

and he does a lot of noises that i think are supposed to be words, but i am not sure yet what the words are..im thinking it could be the words "what's up" and "i love you".

Here is a video i captured of Zeba and his talking talents. The other voice is me, speaking to him behind a door to this room. He likes to hold conversations with me....preferably when i am out of sight! Zeba actually continued talking to me for a few minutes after the camera stopped - when i entered the room, Zeba was hanging upside-down while talking to me. Can you make out what he is saying? :-)

Note: video/audio synchronization is a little off due to conversion on youtube's servers.

BREAKTHROUGH!

I am just amazed at the personalities of amazons....just one week - to the DAY - Zeba allowed me to scratch his head this morning and evening. Zeba is such darling!

Well, this morning, I was measuring the bottom grate of his cage to see if the bottom grate from one of our playstands would fit while i cleaned his cage's bottom grate. as i did that, Zeba came right up to me. Not knowing what he wanted, since he didn't hiss and just looked at me, i asked him if wanted a head scratch and slowly approached him with my finger. i slightly touched to top of his head feathers and when he didn't flinch back, i was like...a-ha! he wants to be preened! Oh my, was THAT an honor! I took advantage of it and preened him for about 10 - 15 minutes. i almost forgot what i went in the room to do! LOL

this evening (actually late afternoon around 5pm) i decided to clean the bottom grate of his cage. (the playstand grate would jjjjuuuuuussssssstttt fit). Zeba was just the absolute gentleman! he let me switch out the grate and he kept me company by talking to me the entire time i cleaned.

i put the cleaned grate back in and Zeba climbed down to me and i awarded him a few pieces of walnut for being SUCH a GOOD BIRD! and gave him a well-deserved head scratch. :-)

right now as i type this, i am sitting next to Zeba's cage and he is slowly getting ready for bed. he is occasionally making these really cute noises - it just warms my heart because he sounds soooooo contented.

folks, Zeba is a real "diamond in the dust". even tho he has had somewhat of a harsh past, with just a little patience and dedication to being close to this bird, Zeba easily flourishes and gives you his love and trust. He truely deserves to go to someone just as special as he is! Zeba is beautiful. Zeba is willing to put the past in the past and move on to give humans another chance. Zeba is one in a million....

ps: i need to take more pictures! Zeba is absolutely stunning...and i hope to get his funny talking antics on tape so i can give you a little taste of his talents! :-)

I had a really good day with Zeba today. His eyes hardly pinned at me, he lessened the number of hisses he did at me and as i sat on the floor and sang to him, he just came down to the bottom of the cage and stood near me...just standing there and listening. okay, so he might have just been wondering "when will this human just give me another piece of walnut?!". hehe...but he really looked like he was listening to my voice. (and i did give him a few pieces of walnut since he was being sooooo good).

and after changing his newspaper and about to leave the room, he started climbing all over his cage and fanning his tail...didn't want me to leave? separation issues? well, i think he just didn't want to be put to bed. i turned off the light soon after.

i would love to give Zeba a shower... during the weekend, i think i will just place a shallow wide bowl of water in his cage and see what he does. i am hoping that by the end of week 2, i will be able to touch him. we'll see. im not rushing anything, but id love to allow him out of the cage without worrying how to put him back in and keeping away from a sharp beak. :-/

I am happy to report that Zeba is making slow and steady progress.

I have been spending time with him, about 2x 30 minutes or so during the work week. it doesn't seem like much, but i think Zeba also enjoys his time alone; away from us strangers...

When I spend time with him, I talk, sing and eat walnuts with him. (Oh boy, does he LOVE walnuts!!). I do not let my eyes stare into his very much, especially when I can tell from his body language that he is thinking I am challenging him. When I do look at him, I get a glimpse of his beautiful eyes and then look down somewhere. He does occasionally hiss at me (I'm sure its a sign of retaliation for "stealing" him away from his beloved foster family) and he does still try to get as FAST as he can to try and bite my hands when I change out his food and water bowls.

I am trying not to make the "run to bite the nasty human's hands when it changes my water and food bowls" a habit, so whenever I see him coming, I just take out the old water/food bowl, close the door and wait till he calms down. I read a book or do something else for a few seconds. Then, when Zeba is calm, I would say "good zeba" or "hi zeba" and give him a piece of walnut. As soon as he starts chomping on the nut, i calmly go to put in the new water/food bowl. most times he will still try and reach my hands, but there was a couple times that Zeba was completely engrossed in enjoying his walnut.

Yesterday, Zeba and I enjoyed doing a sudoku puzzle. I sat in front of his cage and he came down to the bottom of his cage, nearest to me and peeked to see what i was up to. I narrated what I was doing, such as "hmmm...where does the 7 go? OH! There it goes! Yay!" and whenever I finished a line or square of numbers, i would say "yippie, yippe yippe! We finished a piece of the puzzle, Zeba!" and he would make thes cute noises. It really sounded like he was trying to say "yippe" with me. it was so cute! Then, he started talking..."Hi, Zeba!", "Hello, baby!", "Heeelllooooo".

It seems as if I excited him with that game of sudoku. I think it was a good thing and he wasn't hissing at me. :-)

When I left the room, we continued the conversation through the bedroom door. I'd say "Hello, Zeba!" and he would reply. Once I ceased to return his calls, he became quiet soon after.

He has been eating really well. By looking at his leftovers, he loves raw edamame, peas, cooked beans, and corn (what bird doesn't like corn?). He also loves to take his pellets and dunk them in water to eat them. Its interesting to watch because his food bowl and water bowl are on opposite sides of the cage. sure gives him a good exercise routine!

To Zeba's previous foster parents: He still sure does miss you! And you're right, he is a very quick bird!

I think my body is fighting off a virus that my husband is down-and-out with, so I have been rather tired today. I did however have a chance to work a little with Zeba and I think we are doing better.

This morning, Zeba was showing that he was not happy about us taking him away from his former foster family. I think he had a great time there, was loved and well taken care of; it was heaven considering where he was before that for 5 months!

When either myself or my husband approached his cage, he would start walking all over the top and sides of the cage with his tail feathers splayed, neck feathers puffed, hissing a little and flashing his beautiful eyes. it was a blunt statement to stay away. well, going in at different times, my husband and i shared a few sessions with him the entire day and also let him be for a few hours on his own. we were able to view his actions when we were not in the quarantine room by setting up our webcam in there and hooking it up to our computer out in the living room. we got to see Zeba eating, playing with his toys and sleeping.

When I spent time with him, I made no move to touch Zeba. He didn't look like he was anywhere close to wanting me very close to him. I sang to him, talked to him, gave him pieces of walnut when he seemed a little more comfortable with my presence. Just before it was time for "lights out", I read to him from one of my bird talk magazines; I even showed him some very colorful pictures of birds. He seems very interested in all of this and intently stared at me. Zeba even lifted one foot and sat like this as I continued to read and sing to him.

Zeba, so far, seems much more vocal in the mornings. He called out to Pico in the morning, and then became quiet for the rest of the day. When talking to him, he sometimes made cute noises, but no loud talking.

Pictures of Zeba 2

Pictures of Zeba 1

Zeba Comes to Our Home

We went to pick up Zeba at his previous foster home around 6pm this evening. He was in his travel carrier and was mumbling and laughing with a slight hesitation and wonder at what was going on. We packed his cage and other things that belonged to him in our car and headed home.

He was pretty quiet on the way home. I sang and talked to him softly and he would just stare out of his carrier at anything moving.

Once we got home, it was straight into the quarantine room (our bedroom). Pico (our YNA) looked at the carrier with much interest, especially when a foreign - but definitely amazon - sound came from within. We set up Zeba's cage with food, water, his toys and a soft perch that we bought that day and set him in there by just opening up his carrier within the cage.

Zeba exited the carrier at once and walked around his cage many times, from one side to the other, upside down on the top of the cage from left to right. Zeba has sooo much energy! I sat near his cage and sang to him, but he didnt show much interest. He was mesmerized by our light on our bedroom ceiling for some reason. I offered him two halves of a walnut at different times and both times he happily obliged to take it from my fingers.

When Zeba realized that there was an amazon on the other side of our bedroom door, the talking started. So far we have identified the following phrases coming from our bedroom: "Hello!", "Hello Zeba!", "Hello Zeba Zeba!", "Zeba". At each slight sound that Pico made, Zeba excitedly returned a call with a resounding, happy voice.

At about 8pm, we turned off the light in the bedroom to put him to bed, which we also did with our other birds. Zeba calmed down soon after. He seems to be a great bird! I plan to work with him tomorrow and take it slow. I think it was a great feat that he took the walnut pieces so gently from my fingers. We'll see what we can do tomorrow. :-)

The following are some pictures I took of Zeba tonight.