dmundt

Hi, first off thanks for the tips. For the most part over the last few weeks I've just been giving her her space and letting her get settled in. I took her to an avian vet for a checkup/dna sex testing (she's a girl and I've named her Pika) and so far she is very healthy. She is almost 8 months old now. I just thought I'd update and ask a few more questions. For the most part I just let her be and she's quite content on the play gym or the perch on top of her cage (she has the type of cage with ladders and a perch etc attatched to the top). When I open her cage door she comes out immediately and either wants to come with me or go up to the top of the cage. She's started vocalizing a LOT more and even mimicing a few noises and trying to say "hello"... she likes to chirp and whistle to the kids when they're outside, and to the other birds if they're not in the same room. The biting has nearly stopped and she's started using body language instead of just immediately striking out. For example, if I go to get her to step up and she doesn't want to, she'll back away instead of immediately biting me (which I respect and leave her be if she doesn't want to come up). Other times she'll flap her wings or whistle at me and literally hang off the edge of her cage until I go pick her up. However, she still isn't comfortable with being pet or being "cuddly". She'll sit nicely on my arm (I don't let her up on my shoulder anymore), but if I try to pet her she'll turn around to avoid it. Do some birds just not like to be pet, or is this still a trust issue? I feel like we've come a long ways since the pet store, but I'm worried we're not bonding that well. Am I on the right track, or is there something else I can try?<br><br>Post edited by: dmundt, at: 2009/09/30 05:52

I recently bought a 7month old congo grey from a local pet store .. I had been in and out of there for weeks looking at her and trying to make sure I was making the right decision, and she had been in there for a good few months. The pet store had a bit of a time selling her because of her biting problem, but instead of seeing a "mean bird" like most people I saw a beautiful mistreated baby who desperately needed a good home By the time I bought her, I was well aware of her behavior and tried to arm myself best as possible to try to make sure was going to be happy/healthy/well taken care of. However, as useful as the endless plethora of information on the internet and in books can be, there's nothing quite the same as first hand experience, which I am lacking I just have a few questions and clarifications to make sure I'm taking the right steps so that we'll have a healthy and loving relationships until we're rocking away as little old ladies! First off, as mentioned above, she's very bitey (the pet store didn't take very good care of her, her cage was right near the registers and I can't even imagine how much she was harrassed by customers during her time there) but this has improved quite a bit over the last few days. This morning she even flew from the perch on top of her cage over to me at my desk :side: One of the biggest questions I had was, is biting truly something that can be "untrained"? I believe I'm pretty good at reading her body language, I'll let her to play on her own if she doesn't want to come to me, and other often times she will step up very eagerly (she has a pretty distinctive chirp she uses to call me and waits on the edge of her perch for me!) However, even acting slow and gentle, she still nips quite hard at me a lot of the time (which is understandable given her time at the pet store) .. from my understanding the best way to deal with this is to just ignore it and not pull my hand away (if she goes to bite I usually try to ball my hand to save my fingers! and let her go at the back of my hand). I'm guessing that she learned to bite to get rid of all the fingers that poked her at the pet store While I completely understand and respect that the road to gaining her trust will be a long and hard earned one, will the biting stop along with it? Just as a note, she generally only tries to bite my fingers. She never lunges at me and she's not really aggressive. Outside of a playful nip/taste on my nose while she was eyeing my glasses, she's never bit anything other than my fingers. Having said that, I still sometimes feel a little vunerable having her on my shoulder, should she decide to go at my ear or my cheek/face. Is this something that's common with biting that I should worry about? Also, a lot of the time I get her to step up she immediately goes for my shoulder, which I don't mind, but it feels like it's impossible to get her down without losing a finger. (This is moving my hand slowly and being careful to keep it low/at breastbone/stepup level) I usually have to walk over to her cage and have her go over to the top of her cage to get her off. She also likes to chew on my hair, is this behavior that should be discouraged? Also, she seems a little afraid of water, can anyone recommend a good way to get her to start bathing? My cockatiel LOVES being sprayed with a little mister bottle, but even a small little squirt near her seemed to really scare her Anyways, sorry for the book of a post, and any information/advice would be much appreciated!