ADOPTED!

As of 7/29/2007, Zeba has moved in with his adoptive parents! Gosh, I'm going to miss you, Zeba, but I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO proud of you on how far you have come in trusting people. It was a true pleasure to have spent the last 7 months with you. I wish you much success with your new family and all the happiness in the world! you are one of a kind!

Love ya,

kate

Nothing much has changed with Zeba except that he has become exceptionally calmer since moving into a room of his own, away from our own amazon. he also r-e-a-l-l-y looks forward to target training. to start the training (to let him know we are starting), i lay out different pieces of toys - wooden balls of various sizes, a target stick, some wooden and acrylic rings, a bowl, etc. then he startes approaching me and we begin. he knows how to pick up certain things when i say "hold" and point to an object and he knows to touch the target stick with his beak when i say "touch" (even if he has to walk a distance to touch it). i am working with him to hold an object and drop it into a container...not very easy, but we'll see.

Zeba seems to now love to hang upside down in his cage and talk to you..probably his way of getting attention now that he is not in the living room. what a cutie!

Zeba will actually be going to his adoptive parents this weekend so my time with him is limited. these people that he is going to have shown much dedication in getting to know him as they have driven 30 minutes (one way) to come to my home and spend time with zeba once a week for the last month. i think they could make a great home for Zeba. :-)

zeba still continues to live in a separate room from the other birds, due to him becoming aggressive to anyone in the house except for Pico, his amazon buddy. since moving him in there, we have allowed contact between zeba and pico occasionally, but usually on a non-touching distance. (they seem to be okay just being able to see eachother)

zeba has consequently become much more calm. he is almost at the "cuddly" point that we had before he came out of quarantine. when zeba hears the other birds calling, he does look up and tries to look for them, but he doesn't become as aggressive as he used to be. i am also working more with him one-on-one. we are working on targeting a stick and holding rings. i am trying to progress him to a point where he will place the ring on a short spindle. i have also started working with him on stepping up on my arm. he feels uncomfortable stepping on to my hand, but we'll work on that. so far so good!

the last time he bit me was last week, and it was my fault. i was walking into his room, and he was out of the cage on the ground. i took a step in and he went straight for my feet. he got 3 of my toes and i (as gentle as possible) shook him off. he usually does go for toes, but in that room, he's never lunged for me so i thought i was safe. YEAH RIGHT! well, no going in there barefoot if walking upright, or if you are barefoot, enter the room on your knees!

yesterday was the 4th of july. it was SUCH a beautiful day - GORGEOUS! we decided to go on a short hike somewhere on the peninsula and took zeba and our amazon, pico. first off, zeba was absolutely happy to see pico again. lots of pinning eyes and flayed tail, but was okay. we kept zeba in his travel carrier on the hike so they were kept apart, but they could still see eachother. the hike was about 2 miles roundtrip and it was mostly shaded, which was a relief from the hot sun. every once in a while we came across some other hikers and we talked with some about zeba (zeba and pico were calling for attention every once in a while as well with their banter. ;-) ).

at mid point, we all got to eat some apple and nectarine. the two amazons preferred the apple, so my husband had to share his (i had the nectarine).

when we got home, everyone was pretty tired, so both amazon went to their own cages to calm down and rest. i spent some time with zeba and he really calmed down to where i was comfortable with him standing on my chest as i laid down on the bed in his room. he took a short nap while standing there (i think i did too) and we had some preening sessions, target and step-up on my arm training as well. all-in-all a very good day with no incident to report.

pics of zeba on the hike - he seems to think he is a green species of bat!