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".
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".
posted by kate franz mickaboo.org at
1:24 PM
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