itsmeorthebird

When he's in my lap he's moving and exploring and generally happy. I talked to my father-in-law over the weekend and he told me that if he would move his hand (even gently) to Bogart then he would attack it, but if he set his hand down and let Bogart come to it he wouldn't bite at all. That matches what I've seen, it seems like he doesn't like anything moving toward him except tor food. It's make teaching "step up" nearly impossible. I've tried it using a perch and it's the same, if I move it towards him he backs away or lunges and attacks it but if I set it and let him come to it he'll step right up without any bidding. I haven't tried to touch his head or back because of all this. Actually, I haven't tried to touch him at all, any physical contact has been initiated by him.

Because the story of Bogart in our home is one of re-homing and leaning I think it would be appropriate to add any updates in this section. I haven’t been able to post anything lately, but there have been some interesting developments. One day last week I went to spend time with Bogart after I got home from work. We have developed a routine where I first give him a light spray bottle bath (which he seems to enjoy) and then give him a treat. I keep a rocking chair next to his tower so I can sit and spend time with him, and I was sitting there at the time. As I reached to put the container of peanuts on the floor he flapped into my lap. Normally he only tries to fly after he’s tripped or lost his balance in an effort to reach the floor safely, this is the first time I’ve seen him actually try to land on something. I immediately gave him another treat, and after eating that he started gnawing on my shirt (I guess he thought it needed some ventilation). Fortunately the shirt was loose fitting and he didn’t catch my skin. I offered him the perch and he stepped right up on it, then I moved him safely back to his tower. And gave him another treat. Over the last few days he’s been trying very hard to get to me, and when I don’t pick him up he will eventually get more aggressive. He follows me as I move around and stays on the edge of whatever surface he's on, and seems ready to jump off to me at any moment. He seems very frustrated when I don’t get close enough for him to make contact. I’ve been cautioned about taking things too fast, but it seems like he’s the one who wants action NOW. I can see progress being made and I am taking things slowly, being careful not to rush things. It’s difficult to figure out what the next step should be. Bogart seems to have no problem coming to me or climbing into my lap, and I feed him treats from my hand every day which he takes quite gently. I'm still very nervous about offering him my bare hand though, because when he does bite he bites like a dog: he chomps and gnaws and won't stop or let go until he's good and ready to. I understand overcoming this (my fear and his ferocity) will take time and I will not rush it, but I really don't have any idea of how to go about overcoming it. All I really know to do is continue to try keep him comfortable with me, but how do I reciprocate when he jumps into my lap and shows trust and affection without making him uncomfortable? My wife says I should just pick him up and deal with the bites, but is that really the best idea? What are the consequences of not handling him? On a positive note, the progress made since I began leaving his cage open is remarkable. He used to climb around the inside of the cage, and if let out would carefully climb the outside. Now he’s more surefooted and confidant by the day. He’s also exploring more and getting into anything he can, even climbing to the floor sometimes. He definitely seems much healthier and happier.

I tried to post an update here yesterday but apparently it didn’t take. We had an interesting development yesterday when I went to spend time with Bogart after I got home from work. We have developed a routine where I first give him a light spray bottle bath (which he seems to enjoy) and then give him a treat. I keep a rocking chair next to his tower so I can sit and spend time with him, and I was sitting there at the time. As I reached to put the container of peanuts on the floor he flapped into my lap. Normally he only tries to fly after he’s tripped or lost his balance in an effort to reach the floor safely, this is the first time I’ve seen him actually try to land on something. I immediately gave him another treat, and after eating that he started gnawing on my shirt (I guess he thought it needed some ventilation). Fortunately the shirt was loose fitting and he didn’t catch my skin. I offered him the perch and he stepped right up on it, then I moved him safely back to his tower. And gave him another treat. I can see progress being made and I am taking things slowly, being careful not to rush things. I’ve read the behavior guides, but it’s frequently difficult to take what I’m seeing and match it with the descriptions. It’s difficult to figure out what the next step should be. Bogart seems to have no problem coming to me or climbing into my lap, and I feed him treats from my hand every day which he takes quite gently. I'm still very nervous about offering him my bare hand though, because when he does bite he bites like a dog: he chomps and gnaws and won't stop or let go until he's good and ready to. That does a lot of damage. I understand overcoming this (my fear and his ferocity) will take time and I will not rush it, but I really don't have any idea of how to go about overcoming it. All I really know to do is continue to try to get him more comfortable with me, but how do I reciprocate when he jumps into my lap and shows trust and affection without making him uncomfortable?

An interesting event happened today. I went to spend time with Bogart after I got home from work as usual. We have developed a routine that the first thing I do is give him a light spray bottle bath, which he enjoys, and then I give him a treat. I keep a rocking chair next to the surface of the cat tower he plays on, and I'm usually sitting there during this routine. Today as I turned to put the container of peanuts down he flapped into my lap, a distance of about 18 inches. Usually he only tried to fly when he's tripped or lost his balance to get to the floor safely, I've not seen him intentionally flap to something before, so this is a development. As soon as he got to my lap I gave him another treat, once he finished that he proceeded to gnaw on my shirt (I guess he thought it needed ventilation), but as it was loose fitting he didn't catch my skin any. I was able to remain calm, and I offered him a perch. Normally he bites the perch unless he's stuck on the floor, which has made teaching "step up" a challenge, but he stepped right up onto it and I moved him safely back onto his tower. And gave him another treat. I've been trying to take my time and not rush things, I find it's difficult many times to tell exactly when to take the next step or what the next step should be, but we're both learning and I will continue to update as new developments take place. Thanks to everyone for the shared information and for helping me to interpret what Bogart is telling me. I've read the general behavior descriptions, but sometimes it's very hard to match what is written with what I'm seeing. Right now the two issues I'm dealing with are that 1: he's a very picky eater, he won't touch any vegetable I offer and most fruits are out too. I feed him a seed/pellet mix, he eats the seeds but nothing else. He will also eat apple, and he loves peanuts so I reserve those as treats. 2: he snaps or lunges when a hand gets too close. He doesn't do it if the hand has food in it, and he doesn't always do it. I'm still trying to find a cause beyond it being a learned behavior from his past life, but I haven't found anything yet.

Thanks for the responses, the blowing technique will be completely abandoned. It didn't work anyway. To clarify, I dd not pick him up from his cage, he was on the table next to the cage. I only put my arm into the cage to change food and water and to clean, and preferably not when he's inside it. I also don't give him treats when he's in or on his cage. I reached into the cage this time to give him somewhere to go if he wanted and to try and make him more comfortable. When I came back after this interaction he was still trying to get to me as always, and he seemed quite happy. Upon reflection, it is my conclusion that he hates the gloves and jacket. He does not seem uncomfortable with them when I'm simply standing there, but when he was on my arm all he wanted to do was attack and nothing seemed to distract or dissuade him, so those will also be set aside and only used in dire need. I'm afraid there will be a lot of trial and error involved here, but the comments and insights are very helpful. There is a lot to learn. As far as family interaction goes, the children still don't quite understand fear and they touch and grab things without reluctance and until that changes I can't give them much access to the cage. They are starting to learn not too touch certain things, so it hopefully it won't be too long. The ultimate plan is to have him in the living room with the family during the day, it will just take a little time to get there.

The user name was my wife's suggestion, fortunately she wasn't serious. I tried to get a good picture but as he's always moving they all turned out blurry, so that will have to wait for now. There is a development today: I actually let him on my arm a few minutes ago. Knowing his history I couldn't bring myself to offer him bare flesh, so I donned my armored motorcycle jacket and gloves. I know many say never to use gloves, but he has always been handled before with them and he showed no discomfort with them or the jacket. Even after donning said attire he was practically jumping off the perch to get to me, so I offered my arm. He immediately stepped out onto it and proceeded to attack it mercilessly. He seemed puzzled that I didn't flinch or react, so he attacked the arm some more. It really is a great jacket. During this I tried firmly telling him "no" and blowing on his face (as I've read that can stop biting), but neither had much effect. I had put my arm inside his cage both to keep him from trying to go up my arm (which he didn't), and to give him a place to go if he wanted. After about 2 minutes he climbed onto the cage, I stepped away a bit for a couple of minutes then came back and gave him a treat to try and keep it a positive experience. All in all it didn't go badly, I'm unscathed and hopefully this will help teach him that biting doesn't work. At least he didn't seem to have any fear of coming to me.

Thanks everyone! I will get some pictures as soon as I can. I've tried to do a lot of research already, but some of what I found was conflicting and most of it was very general. I've already found some good information here, and decided to join because people seemed so helpful. This is all new to me, I've never had a bird before, nor even handled one. I am optimistic though, as he seems to be responding well and learning so far.

I have "inherited" a 30-ish year old timneh called Bogart. The story I'm given is that my mother-in-law found the bird in a pet store, he was growling and miserable and so was the owner because the bird was frightening his customers. Feeling pity for the bird, she asked how much the bird was. The owner replied “give me $100 and get it the **** out of here”, so she did. He was young at the time (probably 1988-89), and almost definatly wild caught. I’m told he was handled and did some tricks but they stopped handling him because he bit a few times, and also had the habit of terrorizing my wife (as a young child). She still doesn’t really like the bird but does tolerate him, and most of the dislike is due to bad behavior which was poorly dealt with. It seems that they tried to train/discipline the bird using the same methods they used on their dogs, which as you can imagine didn’t work so well. I met the bird when my wife and I started dating and I was told then not to put my hands near the cage because he bites. He was kept mostly in his cage and only occasionally let out. He was cared for as far as food and water but as both parents worked and 2 of the 3 kids had moved out he didn’t get a lot of attention. Last year my in-laws sold their house and moved into an RV trailer while they began building another house, and as there was no room in the trailer for the bird it came to live with us. The house is still not built yet, and they have decided that the bird is much happier here and gets more attention so here on a more or less permanent basis. I didn’t know anything about Greys when Bogart arrived here, but as I’ve learned things I’ve tried to make life a bit better for him. We open his cage all day so he can climb around it again, I obtained a disused cat tower from my sister that sits next to his cage, and he loves to climb all over both. My wife and two children (ages 28 months and 15 months) are home all day, so he has company. I try to spend at least 30 minutes with him after work. We have a two story house, and we have to keep Bogart upstairs because of small fingers and the history of biting, but he stays at the top of the stairs and still has contact with those downstairs. He doesn’t fly, but he has flapped down to the floor a few times. I don’t handle him yet, though I think he really wants me to. I’ve been trying to take time and just get him comfortable with me (and me with him). I typed all that this morning. This afternoon I went to spend some time with Bogart, he climbed down from the tower for the first time using a ladder I had put there. He waled around a bit and seemed to be having fun, the walked up to me and climbed into my lap (I was sitting on the floor). I was giving him treats and showing I was happy, but he seemed more interested in exploring than eating. It should be noted here that a little nervous, especially when he loses footing and flaps and such. I think he knew that, and he got a little aggressive. I moved my arm closer and he lunged at it, I firmly told him "no," he lost balance and I had to catch him with my hand which now has some nice new scratches on it. I got him back up to the tower and game him another treat, making sure to end the experience on a positive note. Even though he drew blood I'm excited about this development. I was planning on joining this community today, but after this it became a necessity, because I need guidance to be able to give him a good home and overcome 30 years of bad habits and misunderstanding.