Zeba's Daily Journal

ADOPTED!

2007-07-31T15:12:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-25T15:11:00.000-07:00

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. :-)

2007-07-05T11:35:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-06-19T21:07:00.000-07:00

its been a few days since we moved zeba into the "quarantine room". so far it has been working! zeba has really calmed down! i spend some quiet time with him in our bedroom and i can scratch him around his head and deep into his feathers for a while. i havent been able to do that for a while now because he would just constantly pin his eyes at me while he was with pico.

zeba does pin his eyes less and less each day, and he has his large-eyed look again - something very similar to a puppy-dog look. i usualy lie down on the ground and read a book and zeba will just climb and sit contentedly on my leg or back. he even preened my hair tonight! its great to have this lovey-dovey zeba back.

i think on the weekend, i will allow zeba to come out and visit pico on the playstand. its good for him to have a buddy. but he will continue to live in the other room just so that he doesn't get over excited or territorial around pico as much as he used to be.

2007-06-16T14:16:00.000-07:00

to start off, here is a video of zeba running from our bedroom to the playstand in the living room where his buddy, pico, is waiting for him. (forgive the clutter)

don't you just LOVE his waddle technique? and my husband is the one that is taping this...notice how zeba just buzzes past him without a care and goes directly to pico!

anyways, we have made a few changes in this home...the reason for it is zeba. well, pico, my amazon, should get some credit for this change as well, but since he is our bird and this is zeba's journal, i will talk about it being zeba here. (sorry zeba!)

well, for a few weeks (about a month or so), hormones have come into play with the behaviors and personalities of ALL birds in this home, and it has not been pretty for the most part. (don't worry...no casualties!)

zeba and pico has seemed to really have become good buddies. we thought it was more of a "hey, im an amazon, YOU'RE an amazon...lets help eachother break those pesky new feather sheaths?!". we believe that these two birds are male, but we have no DNA evidence to back that up. and so far, there have been no "mounting" issues, so i continue to believe they are both males.

sometimes they decide to try and climb down from the playstand. if one goes down, the other one is sure to follow. this is NOT good since zeba will go after any and ALL toes. and pico will come to the rescue of zeba if we try to step him up onto a stick to place him back on the playstand. it just makes it really tricky and difficult to put both back on to the playstand. (we can usually catch them before they get to the ground tho, but it is me - not hubby - who is capable of doing this, otherwise zeba will be on him in a second).

zeba has also been constantly hissing and pinning his eyes at me. when i step him up on a stick to transport him back to his cage, he would more frequently aggressively bite on the stick and try to inch his way up to my hand to take a bite. i have tried - with mixed results - to offer him a good-sized nut to keep his beak busy. i have also - with much unhappiness on my part - tried holding a small towel in one hand and zeba on the stick in another and warded off any attempt at biting the stick and me. zeba absolutely HATES towels and he will fight constantly if towelled (which is why i served him his meds in goldfish crackers). thats why i didn't like having to do that.

SOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooo, I decided to move zeba's cage into the now empty quarantine room. my reasoning behind this is to get zeba to a calmer state of mind. taking pico, for the most part, out of his sight will hopefully lessen his aggressive territorial behavior while being around pico.

knowing how zeba was while in quarantine and just being around me, i miss that about him, and i do want to encourage that lovey, gentle personality. i can tell that it is still in him...i have occasionally taken him with me into my bedroom, closed the door to avoid any distractions and just sat with him. after just a few minutes, he calms down, fluffs up and gives me the most contented looks. he does pin his eyes a bit sometimes, but he never tried to bite me. i turn down my energy levels and i exude a calm, friendly feeling. zeba would just climb onto my leg and perch calmly, sometimes perching on one leg. if he wants some scritches, he will slowly make his way closer to me and fluff his feathers. its really cute.

just to keep zeba company, i have also moved bentley in the room with him. they seem to be doing well in that room.

i don't allow it every day, but maybe once a week and on the weekends, i allow pico and zeba to spend some time together. they are of course excited to be with eachother (saw the video above?) but i'm hoping it will be for the better that we keep the two apart for most of the time. i want to get back to target training with zeba, and i definitely could not do that with zeba and pico being together - they would constantly go to eachother and contact call one another when the other was not in the same room. being for the most part away from eachother, they dont contact call each other as much.

i have only moved the two apart since the beginning of this week, so its still in the infancy stages. *crossing fingers*

2007-06-09T20:31:00.000-07:00

2007-06-09T19:45:00.000-07:00

2007-06-03T19:46:00.000-07:00

a family came to visit both zeba and bentley today. they are mickaboo-approved, so they were interested in finding the right bird for them to adopt. how exciting!

zeba does have a personality that requires an experienced handler. he does have his loving side, but he has been previously abused - for how long, we don't know. i have had him for only 5 months and that hardly allows for much healing of old wounds. although zeba did show some of his nice side to the mother and daughter of the family, i think his "rough" personality made them shy away from him. i really don't blame them at all. the family has only experience with smaller birds and if i was them, i would also opt for a friendlier amazon to start with (hence bentley will probably be adopted by them - woohoo!)

i did learn a few things about zeba with their visit...

1) zeba has gotten better around men...from what i understand, although the father was in the room with zeba (as he was out of the cage), zeba stood at alert, but did not attack him.

2) zeba will take advantage. the mother did get bitten by zeba. the reason for the bite was because she had him step up on to a stick and tried to put him back into the travel carrier i placed him in. (i allowed the family the choice to allow him out of the travel carrier or not). the bite wasn't as bad as it could have been, but i think it left a bruise and it did break skin.

in the right hands, zeba will do very well. i tried to do some one-on-one training today with him, but when i parted him and pico (my amazon) to take him into the bedroom for some isolation and training, pico and zeba constantly called to each other...needless to say i couldn't get any training done. zeba was only alert to hear pico's next call. i think the only time i can work with zeba is after i put pico to bed.

so it will be that zeba will continue to be available for adoption. i really dont mind this, but i need to put more emphasis on training and honing his energies to more positive behaviors.

2007-06-02T17:35:00.000-07:00

videos of zeba talking with me this morning...he was getting excited to meet some visitors today.

2007-05-23T13:05:00.001-07:00

pictures of zeba at the playground watching some softball (video of him below)

2007-05-23T13:03:00.000-07:00

pictures of zeba at the playground watching some softball (video of him below)

2007-05-23T13:02:00.000-07:00

zeba enjoying a day out at the playground, watching some softball...

2007-05-05T17:39:00.000-07:00

today, zeba was quite active. after meeting with pico yesterday, i think he wanted to spend the entire day with him. i was pretty busy making "mike's manna mash" (it took me three hours..its a great bird food that is made of cooked beans and lots of great fruits and veggies high in vitamin A all mixed and mashed together) so i didn't want to put them on one playstand. so whenever i saw zeba climbing down his cage, i went over, stepped him up on a perch and put him back at the top of his cage.

we did this a few times until i put him on a playstand that is closer to the kitchen and one where there is no way down except fluttering to the ground (which he didnt want to do it seems). anyways, after making the mash, and zeba (all the while) trying to find a way down from the playstand that i put him on, i took him in for a shower. oh boy, did he have a blast! we talked all the way through and he got soaked!

well, after that, he must've been pooped! see the following pictures for yourself. if you ask me, it looks like he was leaning against his hanging toy while taking a snooze!

*yawn* tired!

eyes...

getting...

heavy...zzzzz......

2007-05-05T17:35:00.000-07:00

yesterday zeba and my amazon, pico, touched for the first time. we have been keeping them apart but they saw each other each day since both of their cages stand in our living room. i guess they got used to each other since zeba moved into the living room and the pictures are of what happened when we put both pico and zeba on the same playstand. all the while, i was standing by, of course, just in case i had to break up an amazon fight. it was, at the very least, a cute meetup.

2007-05-05T17:34:00.000-07:00

2007-05-05T17:32:00.000-07:00

2007-05-05T17:26:00.000-07:00

2007-04-27T22:46:00.000-07:00

the weather was optimal for taking a bird outside to watch my husband umpire softball at a nearby playing field, so we decided to take zeba. we had a great time! zeba was a little nervous about the people passing around him so he wasn't much in a talkative mood, but i think with a few more of these outings, he will feel much more comfortable.

its very interesting when i go out with a bird to these parks. i find a lot of people (some kids) ask me a bunch of questions about the type of bird zeba is, what he eats, how long he lives, if he bites...and of course, does he talk? they are so amazed how old he is and that he could live up to 70 - 80 years if well taken care of and with a little luck. and most of them commented on how big zeba is. zeba is a big bird, yes. he probably weights about 1/2 a pound. he stands at about 13 inches from head to tip of tail.

male amazons tend to be a lot bigger than the females. i only realized this just recently when i saw a female yellow naped amazon. she was maybe 1/3 the size of our amazon! she looked like a baby. (females also tend to be less aggressive than their male counterparts).

zeba was very nice to the visitors. he didn't charge or lunge at any of them. it looked like he was even a little afraid of the people that came by to see him. poor guy. overall, though, i think he loves the sun on his feathers and being out under the blue sky.

2007-03-24T13:43:00.000-07:00

not much new to report about zeba. from the past few days. we have brought in another foster amazon, which has peaked zeba's interest, but they will not be meeting face-to-face for at least 2 months (quarantine!).

zeba continues to be very mellow with me. he preens my hair, he loves to just hang out on the back of the sofa while i sit next him. he eats well, poops well...he still doesnt really play with much of the toys in his cage, but he does seem to like to chew on shreddable things.

zeba still doesn't seem to mind when my husband moves slowly around the living room. just when my husband shows some excitement when talking to another bird, then zeba tries to swoop down on him.

zeba will also try and attack toes - it doesn't matter if its mine or my husbands. it maybe a warning to make sure that we keep away and not accidentally step on him. i keep him at bay by placing the "step up" stick between me and him, which he usually ends up stepping up on, and i can take him back to his cage or somewhere less tempting for him to chew off my toes. :-)

ps: zeba has a really good wolf whistle now. whenever he gets excited and starts talking up a storm with the other birds, he sometimes starts to whistle. i have been whistling the wolf whistle back at him and he has been imitating me very well.

2007-03-20T15:39:00.000-07:00

last night, zeba was in a "cuddly" mode. i opened his cage and he came straight to me on the couch and gently preened my hair. since my hair is a little long, i had to help untangle him from it a couple of times, but he just kept preening. lol. and i got to preen him a while too.

zeba did not attack my husband this time, although i stood between zeba and my husband as he went to clean our amazon's cage (just in case).

zeba has also been eating like a PIG lately when it comes to the pellets. upon coming home, i saw that he pretty much ate this whole bowl empty! i've never seen this before with him.

not much else to report.

p.s. zeba loves peas (fresh, in the pod) and fresh edamame (i get them shelled).

2007-03-19T09:08:00.000-07:00

this past weekend showed more progress with zeba - to an extent.

zeba still allows my husband to scratch his head. whenever my husband is calm and moves calmly - on staring at zeba eye-to-eye - zeba is calm. zeba will allow my husband to move around the living room without getting ready to attack as long as my husband shows no excitement.

once my husband talks in a excited tone with other birds, or even at the tv, zeba gets into position and launches himself in my husband's direction. once on the ground, zeba shows no mercy and tries to latch on to his feet.

one such occasion happened during the weekend. my husband forgot that zeba was lounging with me on the sofa and he got up from his chair at his computer, walked up to his amazon and started to talk happily with him. well, zeba did his thing and launched himself in the air, flapped furiously and tried many times to run and attack my husband's feet. my husband agilely dodged most of zeba's attacks. zeba did get hold of his house shoe and held on as my husband jumped on one foot with zeba hanging off of the one in the air.

anyways, i offered to get zeba, but my husband wanted to handle this a bit. so he put up a towel barrier between his feet and zeba and talked to zeba for a few seconds. then after a little bit he allowed me to go and get him to step up on to a stick. zeba still looked a bit aggressive with his tail splayed and his neck feathers on-end, but he didnt try to jump at my husband again. i placed him in his cage to cool off.

this may just be something that can be worked out with time, but zeba sure needs patience and dedication for him to overcome this aggression. i can't say whether this aggression comes from fear (due to his previoius owners he has had) or from pure hormonal rage (since it is spring!)...to know this is to be able to live with him for at least a full year and see how he is during each season.

2007-03-17T17:10:00.000-07:00

after-bath zeba pics from today...

2007-03-14T11:37:00.000-07:00

Monday - zeba jump-attacked my husband, fortunately zeba didn't reach him with his beak. husband doesn't blame zeba for the attack tho. there were some movement going on when it happened, probably a little too much for zeba and he lashed out at the closest person - my husband. i was getting up from the sofa where zeba was to put the conures on their play stand, my amazon was making some noise on his playstand, and my husband was sitting at his computer and was moving his chair backwards (towards the sofa where zeba was) to get up. a very minor "set back" considering just a few minutes earlier, my husband - for the FIRST time - tried to give zeba a piece of walnut while zeba was OUTSIDE of his cage. zeba accepted the nut very calmly and nicely. YAY!

Yesterday i took my conures out on their playstand and i put my amazon on his playstand. then i took zeba out of his cage and set him on top. but all he wanted was to be near the other birds, so i got the idea (not sure exactly if it was good or bad....) of putting zeba into my amazon's cage with his much closer to the playstands so he can actually be around them, plus that cage is so big (its more of a macaw cage: 40" wide, 70" tall about 24" deep) that its like a play area). oh my, it was yelling, talking, noise-making all around. i dont think my amazon liked the idea of the intruder in his cage, but he soon quieted down and just enjoyed being on his playstand. zeba was climbing all over the place in the cage. i think he enjoyed it, especially being able to be so close to the other birds (at least to the other amazon, anyway).

i have been continuing zeba's target training (he is doing very well on that...i will have to think of more complicated tasks somehow) and i have also added a wooden ring into the picture. at first i rewarded zeba when he touched the ring with his beak. now i just reward him when he holds on to the ring for at least 3 seconds. he is quite a fast learner. the main thing is getting him used to the object. he is VERY wary of new things. once he gets over the initial fear of something, he does really well in learning. what i hope to take this (the holding of the ring) to the level of him placing the ring over a stick...something like a ring toss for birds, only he doesnt have to toss it, he just has to place it over the stick.

zeba doesn't really seem to be a forager. i have a pretty "simple" foraging toy in his cage where he could actually see a little of the goodies in the wooden foraging toy, but he doesn't really touch it.

zeba has shown a LOVE for the birdie kabob - soft pieces of balsa wood threaded on a sisal string. after beaking it a few times on the first day, he has now ripped it up pretty well. i think i will have to give him a new one today.

zeba likes apples, carrots (cooked), corn (what bird doesnt!), pizza crust (as a treat..shouldn't be part of the staple diet), pasta, rice...i put in a whole bunch of shredded veggies (i love my new food processor) in his food bowl for breakfast and dinner, so i dont know what else he loves from that. this week in the veggie mix is:
spinach
jalepeno pepper
carrots
broccoli
zucchini
red bell pepper
parsley

in addition to a beak appetite/various cooked beans mix.

just to make sure they take in some vitamin A, i also mix in some organic baby food pureed carrots or sweet potatoes.

next week, i'll probably give some brussel sprouts and collard greens instead of spinach in the veggie mix. its good to keep changing things so that they don't get bored with the food.

what i also do, if i do have the same stuff to give them is to play around with different condiments...italian seasonings, oregano, crushed dried red pepper flakes, garlic, ginger, or a little dab of honey. i also sometimes sprinkle some regular quaker oatmeal over everything.

2007-03-11T22:17:00.000-07:00

this whole weekend was a BREAKTHROUGH for zeba, i think!

on saturday and sunday, i was actually able to have zeba out of his cage, sitting with me on the couch in the living room AND have my husband seated at his computer (also in the living room) at the same time with NO attacking from zeba! zeba is more comfortable if my husband is facing his computer monitor (he can't really see my husband then), but every once in a while my husband would peek around his chair and say hi. zeba would become more alert, but won't try to run and attack him.

that was absolutely wonderful! we also took our amazon out of his cage and set him on his playstand about 8 feet away from the sofa where i sat and they were completely fine, just eyeing eachother a little. i think that just having zeba out in the living room, makes him more aware of the "flock" that lives under this roof and just feels more comfortable around everyone.

as each day passed after i introduced zeba out into the living room, i can see that he is feeling much more comfortable. his eyes pin less, his feathers are more fluffed and relaxed...

today, zeba even started playing around with me. he will put a foot on my hand as i scratch his head and he would gently beak my fingers, then push his head into the palm of my hand to get a good rub. its something like a gentle and playful wrestling. he used to want to play around like this in the bedroom and i was actually able to flip him onto his back while playing and he didnt even notice. lol.

im really happy that zeba is such a happy, adaptable, friendly and playful bird. and i can finally have him out of his cage most of the time in the living room with the rest of the birds AND my husband, instead of being isolated and having to go to the bedroom to have some out of cage time. this is SUCH GREAT SUCCESS.

zeba still shows his head/wing-flit every once in a while, mostly when he is completely contented and a little dozy and i try to excite him a little with some talking and noise-making. its actually kinda cute when i know that it isn't a health detriment. :-)

2007-03-11T18:48:00.000-07:00

more zeba pics! yipee!!

oh, i guess i should explain some...most of these pictures were taken this past friday. we enjoyed some sun in our spare bedroom. (i offered to take zeba to the beach, but he didn't feel like getting in to the travel carrier so we did this instead). the pics where zeba looks a little brown on his stomach was taken after his bath today (sunday).

2007-03-11T18:26:00.000-07:00

more zeba pics! yipee!!

2007-03-11T18:10:00.000-07:00

more zeba pics! yipee!!

2007-03-11T18:04:00.000-07:00

more zeba pics! yipee!!

2007-03-09T08:14:00.000-08:00

zeba talking in the shower:

actually, in the beginning of this, im making the most noise (keep in mind that we were in the shower a few minutes already before this film was taken, so he WAS more talkative before this and picked it up later in the film. :-)

ps: i swear, i was just giving him a shower...even tho it might sound like i am killing him or something by the way he moans. lol...silly bird!

2007-03-07T09:13:00.000-08:00

okay, so zeba is not perfect. lol

i just realized that most of the stuff i have written tells of a cuddly, lovey side of zeba (except for when i talk about him and my husband..).

well, yesterday was a case where zeba just didnt really want to interact with humans much. i think it was the hormones raging in him.

i took him into the bedroom so that he could roam around freely, and i did my thing as zeba did his own thing. well, after a few minutes, zeba usually wanders over to me for some companionship, but that night, he was checking out a small hole (that i mostly covered up with my night desk, but you could still see a crack of the hole) and im sure just seeing that dark, small opening made him want to nest. when i tried to approach him, he occasionally lunged at me. i gave him a firm no, backed off a little and he stopped and went back to whatever he was doing.

so to avoid anymore lunging that night, i covered up that little hole he was seeing and he wasn't soooo hormonal...but the funny thing was that when ever i looked at him, he would show displacement behavior - he would look at me, then, realizing i was looking at him, he would nibble at his feet. its like him saying "what? im not doing anything....see? im just nibbling at my feet...". lol its like he knows he is doing something that i might not like and he is trying to show me that he's "innocent".

zeba still shows my husband that he is not allowed to interact with him outside of the cage. inside the cage, zeba gets initially excited when my husband first approaches him, but soon calms down and allows him to scratch his head while my husband calmly talks to him.

when zeba is roaming around the bedroom, though, zeba runs with an open beak and flayed tail towards my husband, fully intent on biting him. this happens whether i am in the bedroom or not. we will have to find a way to somehow try to get them to interact with eachother in a completely neutral room with me out of the picture (zeba might be more on alert to protect me if i am present).

2007-03-05T12:49:00.000-08:00

zeba is progressing nicely. ever since we moved him out into the living room, zeba has a chance to interact with my husband every day - whether it is ambient or one-on-one. this has been a VERY good thing because zeba is slowly accepting my husband's presence and doesn't get anywhere near the level of excitement/aggression he used to be at before.

yesterday, i cleaned zeba's cage before putting him to bed, so i placed him on a playstand about 10 feet away from my husband's desk. well, while cleaning, my husband had to go to his desk, so he slowly approached it. before, zeba would've jump/flown at my husband just at the SIGHT of him. now, my husband was able to sit at his desk as zeba watched on. i also had to pass my husband's desk to get to zeba's cage, so when i got zeba and moved to his cage, i gave him a small piece of walnut while passing my husband and zeba didn't even look for my husband - he just ate happily on his piece of walnut.

needless to say, i lavished him with praise and a few more bits of walnut!

this change could've also come from us clipping his toenails and 3 more wing feathers on each side. zeba could easily clear 20 feet (or more) before landing on the ground, and i've seen him flap his wings and actually keep his distance from the ground for a second or two. so we thought he could use a little more wing trim. now, he doesn't fall like a rock, but can only clear about 5 - 10 feet at most.

you can also tell that zeba is getting used to my husband's presence by seeing how zeba will come to eat from his food bowl while my husband and i are seated next to his cage, at the dining table. when we brought him out to the living room, he rarely went near his food bowl while my husband and i sat so close to him, but now, he will eat with his "flock". its sooooo cool to see him progressing so well!

note: zeba loves cooked carrots. raw carrots he doesn't touch, but steamed ones...mmmmmmmmmm....

he also likes cheese (stay away from mozzarella tho...this can lead to problems with the crop).

zeba continues to be a funny, cute guy, for me anyways.. (once the weather gets warmer, we will have to take him outside (in a carrier) and see how he does with other people). while i sit on the sofa (which stands right next to zeba's cage) zeba will occasionally make these cute sounds, its not a constant thing, but every once in a while you'll hear something like a squeek or low grumble from his cage. i guess you could say its his own way of purring. LOL. i'd answer him back and it will become an back-and-forth thing. my husband is in the room and he would just start laughing because his sounds are so adorable! my husband lovingly calls him an ewok (from the star wars film) because of his little sounds, but i think he sounds more like an r2d2. lol maybe i can catch some of his noises on film.

2007-03-05T12:40:00.000-08:00

zeba's after-dinner face!

2007-03-02T14:21:00.000-08:00

tuesday was the last day i wrote in this blog, so i feel its time for another entry.

not much has changed since the last report. i think i will have to towel zeba and cut his nails. ugh...NOT looking forward to it. i haven't been able to get too close with the nail file.

zeba, i believe, is getting better around my husband. whenever i see them interacting, zeba allows him to preen his head and neck feathers. its so great! we will have to work slowly on introducing zeba and my husband while zeba is outside of his cage.

i do have to work on zeba stepping up on my hand. he has been doing very well on stepping up to a stick (big difference from when he used to be chased by a broom and being REALLY afraid of sticks).

when he has out-of-cage time, i just let him do what he wishes and roam around my bedroom. he usually ends up on me somewhere to get some attention.

and i am happy to report that zeba is slowly starting to play with his toys. i put in a birdie kabob and i saw him yesterday beaking it, unsure of what it is. but he sure seemed interested.

zeba LOVES to hang upside-down when he goes into his talking mode. not sure exactly why, but i think it just attracts more attention to himself.

what i learned from zeba #1:

To forgive is not to forget, but to learn and move on.

2007-02-27T15:23:00.000-08:00

ah....well, the adoption fair has come and gone. there was quite a few people and birds there (even tho the weather was rainy and cold - yuck!). many of the people who came were quite enamored by the large birds on display there. i don't blame them! the three large macaws were beautiful, as well as the handful of mini macaws and amazons.

zeba was quite excited and talkative on the drive to and from the event, but at the event itself, zeba was mostly interested in watching the dogs outside the window. (the place where the adoption fair was held is right next door to a vet hospital and i guess some of the dogs that were being held there were being given play time outside.

zeba hardly even gave me the time of day. not very interested in being touched or given attention. i wouldb't blame him tho...the bustle of people and the loud noises coming from the surrounding birds were quite overwhelming for him. he did however love the piece of apple and 2 whole almonds given to him by the Mickaboo amazon/macaw coordinator!

driving home, i noticed his nails have grown quite long...im wondering if i can file them all the way down or if i have to towel him *EEK* and cut his nails...i will probably try to file them down this week and if that doesn't work, my husband and i will have to try and do some nail trimming.

zeba is slowly getting used to the pace of living room life. he sees more of my husband and 100% more of the other birds in my home so in the beginning it was rather over-stimulating him. now he is more mellow upon seeing my husband (but does get charged up a little when he approaches his cage - we still do not allow zeba out of the cage when my husband is in the same room). when i do let zeba out, he still tries everything to get to my other amazon's cage. we cover up the side of my other amazon's cage that zeba can see in hopes that it won't fuel his urgent need to go over there and "say hi"...but he still tries to climb over there. well, this gives me the opportunity to get him to step up on to a stick (too dangerous to have him step onto my hand when he is so excited as he tries to go over to the other amazon) which he is now doing very well, and place him back on his cage or take him to another room where he can roam around.

zeba now allows my husband a lot more chances to scratch his head (when inside the cage). i think the key here is to keep zeba calm - to approach him slowly and to talk to him calmly - when my husband approaches. if we can do that, we can start trying to let zeba out of his cage with my husband there. its like zeba could be calm as can be, but when my husband approaches his cage he is at 100% excited. he will climb as quickly as possible to where my husband is and raise his neck feathers and splay his tail. zeba even tries (sometimes with BOTH feet) to reach out for my husband - once caught, zeba tries to pull him near so that he can bite my husband. it may not seem like it, but zeba has come a long way to "accepting" my husband. he is probably about 25% less aggressive towards my husband than the day we brought him to our home.

2007-02-22T11:52:00.000-08:00

a few things have come to light since moving zeba into the living room area that i wanted to comment on.

1) it could just be the time of the year, but zeba would probably do best in a home without other amazons (smaller birds are fine), especially males. he does get very excited when he sees or hears my other amazon (male), has occasional sound-offs to see who is louder, and at this point i would never allow the two out of their cage at the same time.

when i first took zeba out of the bedroom, i placed his cage close to my other amazon, since they both seemed so interested in each other - BAD IDEA. they constantly displayed at each other and both wondered "who is that disrespectful bird who has decided to come so close to my territory! how dare!". being the "mom" of the house, i thought i could try and calm zeba by giving him a head rub - ANOTHER BAD IDEA. all the while, zeba was displaying and pinning his eyes and dumb me, i poke my finger in there asking if zeba wants a head rub...he bows down like he wants it, but backs away and WHAM! he lunges after my finger which made a good 1/2-inch long gash on my index finger. TOTALLY MY FAULT. it all happened, literally, as i blinked.

i went to clean up my wound and when i went back to zeba, i noticed a piece of his right side beak chipped, actually looks more like flaked, off. he was bleeding a little, but it soon stopped. then i was more concerned about him. it doesn't seem to bother him tho. he was easily able to eat pellets and normal food.

well, after that i promptly moved zeba's cage away from my amazon and placed my conures' cage and the sofa in between. as sson as i did that, i approached zeba and he calmly allowed me to scratch his head. it was just a rude introduction of the two amazons on my part. i should've really known better. i may slowly move them closer to each other, but only after they get used to eachother being in the same room.

they continue to sound off to each other once in a while, but it seems that they are getting used to it. being the only female in the house, i do however feel tensions in the air when i move closer to one cage or the other - my conures could care less about the two macho guys (they would rather stay away from both) so i usually take them out while those two simmer a little when i get home.

i find that my amazon now tries to lunge at me at every chance he gets. when i walk around his cage, he constantly keeps an eye on me and follows me. i just think he is really excited and wonders how dare i spend time with that OTHER guy...last night when i came in to the living room and sat on the sofa, i had a weird feeling and i looked up at my amazon - he was staring at me, then i looked at the conures - they were staring at me, and then at zeba - he was staring at me. LOL. i whispered it to my husband and, that crazy man, he turned around and STARED at me. what an odd feeling being stared at in my own home by a bunch of male animals!

okay, on to the next one...

2) i knew this from before, but even more so, i think zeba would do best with a female human. when zeba and i are alone, he is suuuuuuupppeeeerrrr mellow, the friendliest bird who preens me so carefully and gives me such a puppy-dog look (i never thought a bird could have that look, lol) when he wants to be scratched and get attention. but he does have a very guard-dog type personality...yet again, this could be attributed LARGELY to the time of year, but also his past could have also something to do with it. from what i heard from the people at the vet clinic he went to, he seems quite friendly to all females. with my husband, when zeba was in the bedroom, zeba would usually calm down and allow my husband to preen his head, but now that he is in the living room, zeba seems to be more on the defensive.

the move probably made him uneasy, and i dont think he is really used to new things happening. my husband does talk to him softly and spends some time near his cage, but zeba has become noticeably more easily excited now. in time this could pass. i do want him to get used to new things and to enjoy it.

i have not been able to test him out with kids yet.

3) zeba does not respond well to negative reinforcement. if i give him a firm NO and a mean look, he only gets more excited/aggressive. this will not work with him. what DOES work is ignoring him when he is being bad (or time out) and using positive reinforcement to reinforce good behavior. the best is just to try and avoid any situation where he could show signs of bad behavior.

last night, i wanted to give zeba some out of cage time, but my husband was home and he works extensively on the computer in the living room. so what i did was kindly ask him to leave the room until i have zeba safely in our bedroom where he can go wherever he wants and do whatever he wants. it worked well. i got zeba in the bedroom and he was such a mellow bird. followed me wherever i went and when i laid down on the floor (stomach side down) he climed on my ankles and proceeded to preen them. lol. and then he wandered up to my lower back and continued to preen my hair.

4) zeba is very difficult to keep in one place, especially when there is someone he does not approve of, in the room. this is due to the fact that zeba used to be able to fly.

since his previous owners allowed him to grow out his wings, he has a lot of flying muscles. even with a good clip on both wings (ALWAYS clip both wings!) he can flutter about 10 feet away from his cage. this is why i wont allow him out of the cage if my husband is in the room. zeba can easily reach him if he launches himself off of the top of his cage.

this is much unlike my own amazon. wherever you put him, if he can't climb down to the floor, he will stay put. the only time i know of that he tried to jump off and fly, was last year during breeding season and he tried to attack me (i guess i was too close to his playstand). normally he wont try it. from what we know, he was never able to fly - i guess that helped.

with zeba, he is absoultely not afraid to jump/fly anywhere at anytime, which makes him a little more "dangerous" if you dont keep a close watch on him. if i ever do take him outside when the weather is warm, i will either have to keep him in the travel carrier or somehow work with him on wearing a harness.

5) you can probably discern this from the things mentioned above, but just to be clear...zeba becomes aggressive when excited. its usually called amazon overload behavior. this is what can make an amazon have a dr jekyll/mr. hyde personality, and this is exactly how it is for zeba.

if zeba is calm, with someone he likes and trusts, he is the most gentle bird you will meet. he knows his beak strength very well and doesn't try to inflict any pain. if you are doing something (i.e. reading the newspaper) and he wants your attention, he will quietly and slowly approach you, and get to a position where he places himself between you and what you are doing and just stands there waiting for your scritches, kisses and attention. he will preen you, he will coo to you. i've never met a bird who was so gentle.

BUT, if he gets excited such as you just come home and you greet him, or if there are other birds in the home and they start sounding off (especially if there is another bird of the same type - amazon), or if there are people in the room that zeba just doesn't approve of, or if you just open his cage for him to come out....all these things excite zeba to the point where interaction with him at that moment could lead him to bite you. (i've been bitten 4 times so far).

you just have to keep in mind that:

1) this bite does NOT mean he hates your guts and he'll never like you again. he will probably forget about it a minute after biting you.
2) when he is latched on to you, DO NOT throw him hard on the ground. all you have to do it shake your arm a bit while keeping your arm low to the ground. you can easily break his wing(s) or bones if you slam him to the ground.
3) don't yell or cause a scene when zeba bites. anything that calls attention to something he does can become a reinforcer of his action, and you DONT want to reinforce a bird to bite. yelling is what birds do sometimes when they are happy or playing...zeba may think you are playing with him by screaming back when he bites. keep calm, zeba probably doesn't have the ability to bite a finger COMPLETELY off, so dont worry...it will heal (make sure you wash out ALL bites well with warm water, soap and follow up with hydrgen peroxide).

so, to lessen the chances of being bitten:

scenario: if he gets excited such as you just come home and you greet him...

solution: give him about 15 minutes after you come home to cool down and settle. talk to him but dont try to touch him or let him out of his cage. let him be for a few minutes before touching.

scenario: if there are other birds in the home and they start sounding off (especially if there is another bird of the same type - amazon)

solution: dont pay any attention to the birds sounding off. let them get it out of their system; it will pass. once they are quite for a few minutes, start talking to zeba calmly and you will be able to tell from his body language if he is calm enough for touching.

scenario: if there are people in the room that zeba just doesn't approve of

solution: leave him in the cage when those people are in the room. he will be very aggressive at any point that you let him out and that person(s) is in the room. for me, this person is my husband. there is no way i can "wait till he goes home" because he IS home, so i ask him to temporarily go to another room while a let zeba out. i take zeba out and transport him on a stick (yipee! he's getting better with stepping up on a stick!) to our bedroom so that he has full range of the room to explore and my husband can go back to what he is doing.

if the people he doesn't approve of are willing to work on their relationship with zeba, they should be patient and dedicated to commit the time and effort to build that trust with zeba. men will need to do this. zeba has been man-handled and abused by men in his 13-yr past; can you blame him for having trust issues with men? it won't happen overnight, it probably wont even happen in a few weeks. but if you work with zeba to create a bond of trust - EACH DAY, twice a day for 30 minutes (it has to be at two different times) giving zeba one-on-one attention in a calm, respectful way - he may be able to trust men again. it may take a few months or even a full year of doing this, but if in the end he does give you his trust, it will be soooooo well worth the committment.

scenario: if you just open his cage for him to come out.

solution: i just let him come out of his cage on his own. he likes to exit his cage on his own terms, and he is more calm when able to, so i give him that freedom.

there was one time last night when i wanted to let zeba out (hubby moved to another room for me to take zeba out). i opened the cage door, and just at that moment, my other amazon (who was already covered up to go sleep already) started to sound off. well, you guessed it...zeba got overexcited. i just wanted to get zeba out of there as quickly as possible, so once he stepped out of his cage, i had him step up onto the stick. as i was walking to the bedroom (all the while zeba was trying to sound off with pico with his eyes pinning and tail flayed) he walked up the stick toward my hand and gave the base of my thumb a good chomp (not the worst ive gotten from an amazon but it did break skin a little). i gave the stick a little wobble to make him unstable and stop biting, but he didn't like the wobble at all and fluttered off the stick. i got him to step back on the stick and proceeded to the bedroom, he tried to attack my hand again, but this time i wobbled the stick very, very slightly (it only takes a v-e-r-y slight movement (up-down) to make him unstable) to take his mind off of biting my hand and more on him getting his balance and he stayed this time. i got him to the bedroom and he was fine.

2007-02-20T21:56:00.000-08:00

zeba and my 3 birds start conversing right after zeba being introduced and moved to the living room.

2007-02-20T20:24:00.000-08:00

pictures from last night...

2007-02-20T19:27:00.001-08:00

2007-02-20T19:25:00.000-08:00

2007-02-20T14:43:00.000-08:00

GOOD NEWS!

I just got off the phone with the vet with the results of his last culture test and it showed only healthy bacteria! he is healthy! WOOHOO!

we will now be taking zeba out of quarantine. he's been in quarantine for over 2 months and since he has been an only bird at his previous owner's home where he lived for half a year, everything is a-ok! im sure he will be happy to be able to see the other birds that have been making noise in our home. :-)

WOW, i guess i have to make some special dinner for all of us... woohoo!

2007-02-20T11:59:00.000-08:00

last night, zeba seemed to be more explorative. he wanted nothing to do with me really (until he got to look at things he wanted to first) and once i let him out of his cage, he was off in all different directions. climbing on the bed, looking at things we have near the bed, looking down each side of the bed....

i did take some pictures, but i haven't had time yet to go through them and take them off the camera. i hope to do that tonight.

it was my turn to get preened tonight. okay, id like to say here that normally, i would never allow a bird - let alone an amazon - to do the following things, but i could tell zeba was r-e-a-l-l-y calm and there was not even a hint of aggression in his body gestures, postures and movements, so...

zeba preened my eyebrows, my hair and my face (i dont wear make up or use any harsh chemicals in my hair and face and skin) for about 5 minutes then we traded off and i preened him. he is such a snuggle-bug. but still, once my husband shows up, he is on the defensive. its probably hormonal, mixed in with defensive feelings from being harshly handled by men in the past. but he IS getting better about it.

in the beginning, once my husband showed his face in the room, zeba would immediately try to fly-attack him, eyes pinning, tail feathers splayed and neck feathers erect. now, if my husband pops his head in the room, zeba will just stand where he can see him with neck feathers up and eyes slightly pinning. tail feathers don't splay very much. slowly i allow my husband to come into the room when zeba is out of the cage.

when zeba is in the cage, zeba gets a little excited in the beginning, but soon calms down when my husband sits by zeba's cage softly talking to him. zeba also allows him to preen his head. its coming along.

we did target training and he walked in to the travel carrier (for a piece of nut) a couple of times. i didnt work on step up training because he wanted to do his own thing. we'll see about tonight.

2007-02-18T20:34:00.000-08:00

Zeba's head/wing-flit...

While taking the meds, i haven't seen zeba do this so i thought this might be over. but just 3 days after the meds, this is what i saw...it occurred during the same situation - he is relaxed, contented. in the movie i made, you see him walking closer and closer to me. seems like he just wants to be near me and be scratched. is this something neurological? sinus problems? or hormones?

he plays and acts normally..he likes to explore as usual, eats, poop is well-formed. no nasal discharge, no breathing problems that i can observe. he moves around great, perches without a problem. its this wing/head flit thing that occurs occasionally, and tonight you can see it was quite often. after filming that, i moved away to upload the file (but still in the same room with zeba) and zeba went exploring around the room on his own, like nothing happened.

zeba has taken to preen my hair...and another thing that i am a little worried about. i have never seen amazon regurgitation, nor have i ever been honored with this. but after seeing my two green cheek conures regurgitate for eachother, there is a lot of head-bobbing involved. but zeba...he tried to regurgitate (or vomit) twice in front of me. nothing actually came out, but the way he did it, was he opened his beak wide, stretched his neck out as much as he could and heaved. he tried this a few times on two different occasions. he keeps his beak open and stretches his neck, heaves and retracts his neck, and it starts again.

nothing comes up (thank goodness). but is this amazon hormonal "love" regurgitation? or is this a dual attempt to vomit? there was no head-bobbing motion, just a neck stretch. ugh, 2 scary signs in one night (the "tick" and the vomit motion)..please tell me that this is just amazon love and i will be at ease! im just worried that zeba has a more serious illness than the vet had originally diagnosed. im crossing my fingers for a good outcome.

wednesday i will be able to call the vet to see what the follow up culture shows.

----------------------------

okay, well, i just wanted to fill you in on what we did on saturday...it was a beautiful day yesterday and it was actually WARM in daly city. zeba was quite active, so my husband and i decided to take him outside (in the travel carrier) to a playground up the street from us just to hang out and enjoy the sun. zeba went straight into his carrier when i opened his cage (he knows that there is usually a small piece of walnut in there waiting for him) and we walked up to the park. well, zeba surely wanted to announce his presence to the world. as we went downstairs from our apartment to the door leading to the outside, zeba starting talking loudly. and as we walked up the street, he continued to babble. "hi zeba", "hellllllooooooo", "hi zeba, good boy!", "oh my goodness!" LOL all the way to the park. once we sat down, however, he was quiet. we enjoyed the sun, the great view (all the way to the ocean), a few planes flying overhead...and zeba's feathers just looked so brilliant in the sun. i cant wait for the warm weather to start up again. im sure zeba would love to spend more time outside.

after that, i took zeba in the shower. last shower was 2 weeks ago, so it was his time. didnt really know if he liked it in the beginning, but soon opened his wings up for a good drench under the wings.

OH, another thing. i got zeba to step up on to a STICK! yep! well, it only happened once, but i will try again many times. the trick is to have the stick on the ground, between zeba and your hand holding a walnut. i gave zeba the step up command and showed him the walnut. he stepped up obediently, i picked up the stick, and gave him his just reward (the walnut piece). it is on that stick, that i carried him into the shower. isnt that cool? from a bird who was chased around by a broom, to one that actually was okay standing on a stick? that was so awesome!

2007-02-16T14:06:00.000-08:00

about the last dosage of cipro yesterday, when i got home, zeba seemed to have taken it. i only saw pellets. i looked around his cage and in the poop pan, and there were no signs of goldfish pieces. yay!

this morning, i took zeba to the vet. the last 2 weeks getting zeba used to the travel carrier really paid off. as soon as he "woke up" (about 10 - 15 minutes after i uncovered him and opened his cage door this morning) he walked over to the carrier and entered it to eat the small piece of walnut i put there before i let him out. what a good boy!

he will have the culture test redone to see if he has recovered from whatever infection he may have had. *fingers crossed*

i will be picking him up later today, maybe we will again make a visit to the beach. its supposed to get warm today and tomorrow (around the 70s F) and since the sun is staying out longer, it may be a great sun bath before a nice sunset. :-)

--------------------

continuation...

so i went to the vet to pick him up, the women working there said that they had fun with zeba and he was talking up a storm after lunch. some of them shared their salads with him during lunch and he got some small piece of cheese and some popcorn. wow, sounds like he was having a wonderful time there! spa treatment with women giving him attention and food.

anyways, as i walked to my car with zeba in his carrier, zeba happily talked a bit, telling me, in his own way, about his day. we hopped in to the car and went to ocean beach. we got to enjoy some sun for a bit and watched a great sunset. throughout all that time, he was constantly in the mood to communicate. i heard him say "uh-oh", and this usually happened when someone walked past our car. lol. he also did a whistle that i've never heard before - something like a wolf whistle but deeper and drawn out. he laughed when i did and we both experimented with different sounds back and forth. he was just full of energy. i think the fresh air and sun helped.

we got home, i put zeba in his cage to eat some dinner and have some time to himself. about an hour or so later, i went in to spend some time with him. it was also then that i ask him for the first time, to step up onto my hand since i started giving him his meds. he lifted one foot, i slid my hand under it, he clamped his beak around the fleshy base of my thumb - but not hard at all...more like for stabilization - and i lifted him up. GOOD BOY! i gave him a piece of walnut and praised him for being a good boy. i will try to work with him more on that this coming weekend. i also should give him his shower sometime this weekend.

needless to say, it was a great day!

2007-02-15T16:19:00.000-08:00

today's last dosage of cipro was given to zeba in an empty food bowl, but it must've been too early for him to think about eating, so he didn't actually eat the cipro goldfish before i left. so i put the goldfish into the foodbowl with pellets, changed his water bowl and left for work. i will update you on what i find.

there is a small cute story i wanted to share...

yesterday, when i got home from work, i put together zeba's cipro goldfish, i gave them to him in an empty food bowl and talked to him a bit before leaving the room (he doesn't really like to eat in front of others). about 5 - 10 minutes pass, and then zeba says "momma!" "mom!". of course im thinking he is calling me so i go to him and, it could be purely coincidence, but i find that he has gobbled up his goldfish. zeba gets his fresh warm dinner after his meds and i'm thinking he called me to tell me he took his meds and was ready for dinner! the thought was cute! he's never done that before, so its probably more of a coincidence than anything else, but it made my day! :-)

2007-02-14T15:06:00.000-08:00

Sunday: dose #12 & #13 - given successfully!
Monday: dose #14 & #15 - given successfully!
Tuesday: dose #16 & #17 - given successfully!
Wednesday: dose #18 & #19 - given successfully!

wow! how time flies! i cant believe that by this time tomorrow, all necessary dosage of cipro will be administered to zeba! he has been wonderfully gobbling up the 2 goldfish crackers i give him with .20 dose of cipro smeared all over it (and in it) twice a day, so the time has been going nice and quick.

we already have a vet appointment made for this friday for a follow-up checkup - keep your fingers crossed for mr. zeba! - and hopefully that will be the end of that.

ever since towelling him a few times, zeba has lost some trust in me, which i have been trying to make up for s-l-o-w-l-y. it doesn't help that the hormonal season is upon us. he has bitten me twice (surprisingly not drawing blood, but one did give me a good bruise). i did reprimand him with a firm NO and an evil look, but i have been giving him his space lately. he does get his out-of-cage time, and i let him come to me when he is ready. usually this happens when he sees a large piece of walnut between my fingers. LOL

i have not tried to get him to step up on my hand since administering his meds because i can see that he is not ready for it. he has been hissing, displaying himself and pinning his eyes alot lately (although he doesn't lunge at me) so i know he is already on the defensive. i think once his meds are over, i will slowly try the step up training again.

what i have been continuing to work on with him is target training - i have a woodenchopstick with a colored wooden ball at the tip that i give the cue "touch" and zeba goes over and touches the wooden ball wherever it is and he gets a tiny piece of walnut - and getting him used to the travel carrier cage. with the cage i just put a half walnut shell, open side facing upward, in further and further into the cage with a bigger piece of walnut in it. so whenever he goes into the cage he gets 2 praises - the walnut and my oral praises. he's been doing well on both.

i hope he will go into the carrier easily on friday when i have to take him to the vet!

2007-02-11T13:13:00.000-08:00

more zeba talk...in this one, you can hear him "answering the phone" when the phone rings.

2007-02-10T23:33:00.000-08:00

dose #8 and #9 happened on friday with the goldfish crackers.

dose #10 and #11 happened today.

im glad to say that zeba has been happily eating the goldfish completely covered with his meds. i know its not the most healthiest way of administering the meds to him, but its the least traumatic way.

i have been trying to put it on grapes...zeba only ate one of the grapes so that wasnt really helpful. i also tried putting it on pieces of pasta...he caught on that one pretty quickly for some reason and didnt touch much of the pasta.

with the goldfish crackers, i have been trying to rub as much of the salt from the outsides off as much as i can.

what has also happened lately with zeba is his excitable/aggressive side has been showing. he has bit me a couple times at the base of my right thumb (since it is the easiest target to get to when i try to have him step up on my hand. i've been allowing it to heal (no blood but i had some tenderness and bruising) before i try to ask him to step up again.

i think his aggression could stem from two things - from me towelling him a few times to give him meds, and hormones. the mix of the two seems to have really made things a bit worse. zeba has also charged at my hand if i got to close to me, and lately when i have been approaching his cage, he starts to his and display his wings, tail and pin his eyes. when he does this, it is very dangerous to get close, so what i do is turn my back on him and pay attention to something else - read a newspaper/magazine/book, work on my laptop, eat a walnut, hum to myself, etc. then when i dont hear him, i turn to him and softly talk to him.

usually he then calms down and i can give him a head scratch. i also allow him some out of cage time. when i open the door, he usually perches on top of the door for a bit, till he feels like wandering over to me (i usually situate myself about 10 feet away) where i am doing my own thing, not paying attention to him. (i also entice him over to me by showing a large piece of nut next to me). when he walks over to me, he is usually very calm. if he starts to hiss, i just dont pay attention to him. if he is calm, i give him small pieces of nut and give him head scritches.

i just dont want to reward aggression. i completely ignore him when he shows aggression, i try to turn my back on him when possible. nothing from me for about 20 - 30 seconds.

i also baked some "birdie bread". it came out a little wetter than i expected, but i should've known since i put in 1 egg, 1 cup organic pureed pumpkin, 1/3 cup organic apple/apricot sauce, and 1 1/4 cup of freshly minced stuff(beet greens, mustard greens, carrots, and 5 almonds) - all wet stuff. the dry stuff was an organic cornmeal mix with no sugar (2 1/2 cups), so that wasn't too much dry stuff...i should've added some flour...well, next time.

my birds devoured it within an hour or so. zeba didn't really touch his. i will try to offer it to him again tomorrow.

i also added 1/2 tsp. of an organic powder that i bought yesterday from Whole Foods. it is a mixture of bee pollen, spirulina, chlorella, wheat grass and barley grass. ive done a lot of reasearch on the web and these things work wonders on a bird's plumage and immune system. but it is also VERY POTENT. just 1/2 tsp is enough for a dose to an amazon-sized bird. i used 1/2 tsp. to make 21 muffins. and i only gave zeba 1/4 of a muffin. its good to start small and slowly.

oh, and zeba is starting to like my husband more and more. zeba allows him to get up to his cage, as my husband quietly talks to zeba. zeba then climbs down to a spot in his cage closest to where my husband sits. they just quietly converse, zeba doesn't display and pin his eyes at him too much nowadays, zeba even allows him to scratch his head. those are extremely great steps. i asked my husband if he wants to try and let zeba out of his cage while he is in the room, but it seems that my husband isn't ready for that great leap of faith just yet. i can't blame him. not after seeing how quickly and far zeba can jump with clipped wings! we'll see what the next few days brings.

2007-02-08T21:52:00.000-08:00

BREAKTHROUGH

well, while at work, i was thinking about foods that zeba likes, and i kept telling myself that he only likes walnuts and fresh edamame..2 things that can't really be used to soak up the meds to give to him.

BUT, it occurred to me that his previous owner (the woman who surrendered zeba to Mickaboo) said that she fed zeba grapes, goldfish crackers and cookies. well, cookies are out of the question - thats a lot of sugar, plus i dont know what kind of cookies she fed him.

on my way home, i bought some grapes (both green and red grapes since i didn't know which one would appeal to him more) and a bag of goldfish crackers. i washed a handful of each colored grapes and placed a handful of goldfish crackers into a small container, got the right dosage of his meds in a syringe and headed to the bedroom.

zeba was very excited - out of fear. he knew what was coming and feared being towelled again. (i feel for him!) he displayed himself, pinned his eyes and moved aggressively around his cage. i offered him a slice of each color grape - he lunged for my fingers that held the red grape piece and took the green grape piece but promptly dropped it. i then gave him an unmedicated goldfish and he gobbled it up. i gave him another one and he gobbled that up.

so i got the syringe with the meds and smeared a little of it on both sides of the cracker, waited till it got absorbed into the cracker and offered it to zeba. he ate it without a fuss! he licked it, so i thought he was just going to drop it because of the taste of the medicine, but he ate it up! i gave him two more pieces (both with the rest of the meds) and he ate that up quickly as well. wow!

he might have dropped a few pieces of the goldfish crackers while eating it, therefore losing some of the medication, but i think for the most part, he got the majority of the meds in his system.

tomorrow, i will just put the medication on 2 or 3 pieces of goldfish crackers and place it in an empty food bowl. i think they are too tasty for him to resist and he usually eats over his food bowl, so when he eats it, the crumbs will fall back into his food bowl and he can eat that later if he wishes.

oh, i HOPE he continues to take his meds like this. then i dont have to towel him anymore...yipee! or i will have to try something else...peanut butter?

2007-02-08T09:24:00.000-08:00

dose #4 and #5 happened yesterday. i still have to revert to toweling him to give his meds. i tried offering yummy stuff in a spoon, but he was afraid of the spoon.

(mental note: i have to teach zeba to enjoy and look forward to new things.)

this morning i gave dose #6. i tried a plastic spoon this morning (i used a regular ss spoon yesterday) but he still did not like it and backed away.

i will have more time tonight to give him his meds in a less stressful way. i plan on buying some peanut butter and try to offer that on the syringe or try the spoon again (maybe the smell of it will entice him to try it).

i will update you.

2007-02-06T20:45:00.000-08:00

#2 and #3 of ciprol dosage today...17 more to go.

gosh its very difficult to administer this medication to him. he just gets so worked up. so far he has been forgiving me for towelling him. i just want these next 8 1/2 days to speed by.

zeba has been saying a few other words today - "up!" and "mom!"

another tidbit of information - from his leg band that was cut off, a birthdate wasn't given, but it does say that he came from a breeder in florida.

tonight there was not much time to do more training. but we did get to do some target training which zeba does wonderfully. i hope to extend this to luring him to places i want him to be with just a little target.

by the way, zeba will be attending the san ramon adoption fair that mickaboo is hosting at the pet depot store on the last sunday of this month.

2007-02-05T21:11:00.000-08:00

today i administered the first dose of ciprol to zeba. i had to towel him...ugh...i hate doing that to him, but we got through it pretty quickly and i put him back in his cage for a while to cool down.

i dont know how to do this tomorrow morning - i gave zeba a good 10 - 15 minutes to come to me (lured by a piece of walnut) but tomorrow i dont really have that much time to give him. we'll see. maybe i'll just start early.

im really worried what this will do to the bond of trust we've been working on for the past month. im hoping zeba will somehow know that i am doing this for his own good and will forgive me. :-/

over the weekend, and today, ive been getting him used to the travel carrier. tonight, while on the carrier, zeba happily listened to some kiddie music. he got as close to my laptop's speakers as i would allow and just sat there listening. he even lifted one foot, burying it in his feathers, and relaxed while listening to it. the songs that you can clearly hear drumming made him a little nervous for some reason...probably related to his fear of wooden perches.

2007-02-03T20:37:00.000-08:00

we got the results back from the vet. seems that zeba had some elevated bacteria levels so he will be starting some meds for 10 days to clear that up. nothing really serious so i am really happy.

zeba took a shower today. this time he was perched on my arm and it seemed at times that he dove for the water streaming down! was so cute. i deflected most of the water so it didnt come down in gushes. he sure talked up a storm during his shower!

after that got a little ... harsh. well, zeba didn't get his nails trimmed in a while - they were really long and each time i had him step up on my hand, he just digs his nails in to my skin. so i decided it was time to trim them. i tried to trim it while he took a shower, but had nothing of it. so i had my husband help me towel him. zeba gets very riled up about the towel - he hates it with a passion. none of my own birds like the towel either, but they do calm down a little once towelled. zeba on the other hand, fights as much as possible throughout the entire time. its so heart-wrenching. i think next time, instead of nail trimming, i will try to file is nails. maybe he will take to that instead of the pressure a nail trimmer puts on the nails. i will have to try that out.

i will have to try and get him used to the transport carrier, since i will have to take zeba back to the vet in about 10 days (after giving him his meds). i dont want to towel him for that as much as i can avoid it.

well, i thought i wouldnt be able to touch or go near zeba for a week because of all he had to go through with the towelling and the nail trim. but after giving him some time to himself in his cage, i went back into the bedroom and spent some time talking to him. seeing him come nearer to me i extended a finger out to scratch his head and to my amazement he lowered his head and invited me to scratch his head! he is so awesome! i scritched all over this head for a while since he let me. and as his feathers dried (they dry rather quickly) his feathers got really shiney! just like after his first shower. he's just so handsome.

2007-02-01T20:20:00.000-08:00

my husband spent most of the night with zeba just talking to him. zeba still doesn't feel comfortable around him yet, but zeba doesn't display as much and he doesn't go all crazy in his cage when my husband approaches his cage - that was great! ("go all crazy" means running around the sides of his cage, attacking his bell and displaying his wings and tail feathers).

what i saw, zeba was sitting in his cage nearest where my husband was and just stared at him while the human just talked and sang.

after having dinner, our amazon, pico, started talking rather loudly - "huh?!" "what?" "whats up?!" and each time, zeba conversed back. this went on quite a while. during this time, i walked in to the bedroom where zeba was and let him out of his cage. he climbed up to the top of the cage door and jumped with all of his might across the bedroom closest to the bedroom door. although his wings are clipped, he cleared the width of our bed and landed on the ground on the other side! he sure has strong wing muscles! and he continued his conversation with our amazon.

they were going at it for well over 30 minutes, both were very animated and zeba looked so happy. he was moving around, doing a good body and tail shake - showing contentment - and telling pico what he thought of the world, and vice versa.

i didn't have much time with him since hubby spent most of the time with him, but i did get to practice a few step ups (once without a walnut) and all went well. zeba also honored me with allowing him to give him a good preening service.

2007-01-31T22:35:00.000-08:00

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).

2007-01-31T11:09:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-29T20:26:00.001-08:00

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.

2007-01-28T17:16:00.000-08:00

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?

2007-01-28T12:30:00.000-08:00

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? ;-)

2007-01-28T01:54:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-01-26T21:12:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-01-25T20:43:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-01-24T21:06:00.000-08:00

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! :-)

2007-01-24T21:03:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-23T18:54:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-01-23T13:29:00.000-08:00

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...

2007-01-22T12:19:00.000-08:00

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....:-/

2007-01-20T11:08:00.000-08:00

**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.

2007-01-18T20:46:00.000-08:00

**new sounds/words heard from Zeba:

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

2007-01-18T13:24:00.000-08:00

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".

2007-01-14T17:23:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-01-13T18:01:00.000-08:00

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! :-)

2007-01-11T21:28:00.000-08:00

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. :-/

2007-01-10T08:42:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-01-07T21:36:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-06T21:31:00.000-08:00

Pictures of Zeba 1

2007-01-06T21:27:00.000-08:00

Zeba Comes to Our Home

2007-01-06T21:10:00.000-08:00

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.