JeffNOK

Well, the reason today was such a good day was that I have been struggling lately and really doubting myself. Gracie has always been independent. She is not a cuddle bunny or overly affectionate. When I brought her home she always stepped up when asked, though, and rarely complained or nipped. As I posted before I may have pushed things too quickly and Gracie started to be suspicious of me. She didn't want to step up and she appeared wary. I decided to back off and just give her space to make decisions for herself. This approach seemed to work somewhat, but the last couple of days she was indifferent towards me and didn't appear to want to interact with me at all. Every time I asked her to step up she just pushed my hand away. This morning I uncovered her cage and invited her to step up, and she again pushed my hand away. I felt so awful. She had always wanted out in the morning, but this morning for the first time she just pushed me away. I thought, "we are moving backwards. I'm making a mess of this." I walked back to my bedroom and said a little prayer and asked God to help me be a good parront to Gracie. I went back and put my hand in the cage and asked Gracie to step up. She readily hopped up on my hand. I was so relieved. Then throughout the day she reached out to me. We did about five or six "rescues" from the artwork on my wall as I described above. We sang to each other. She even called to me four times today to take her out of her cage-which I happily did. She has never done that. Until today I had initiated all interaction, but today Gracie reached out. Today was great. Who knows what will happen tomorrow, but I felt something shift today. Maybe it was something in me. Maybe it was Gracie. I don't know. I only know that I went from feeling very very down to having more hope and confidence.

Today has been hands down my best day so far with Gracie. I could go on and on, but I'm afraid I'd bore you all.

Wow. It is certainly something unusual. Is it just a feather issue? I wonder if anything can be done to improve its quality of life. Cute but sad.

LuvParrots: I would love to get a pic or video of it. I will probably have to get someone else to film it though since I only have a short time to rescue Gracie before she crashes to the floor, and I'd feel terrible if I didn't get to her in time just so I could get the shot.

Gracie's bird room happens to be my ex-dining area located a few feet from the living room where I spend most of my time. Although I removed all of the dining room furniture, I left some artwork on the walls. One cheap little South Seas print is affixed to the wall about 9 inches from Gracie's cage. Well Gracie just isn't very impressed with the print. In recent days she has made it her mission to destroy this "Tahitian Abomination"-as she mentally refers to it. Perhaps she would prefer a Congolese Tribal Mask or an ivory sculpture due to her African heritage. Now, she can only reach the edge of the print with her beak if she scales down the side of her cage and stretches her neck out as far as it will go. She can get a good grip around the bottom of the frame, but that's about it. Well, inevitably, she loses her grip on the cage, and I find her hanging from the bottom of the plastic frame, wings akimbo and flapping, and legs scrambling in the air as if she is peddling an imaginary bicycle! (Please don't worry that the print will fall on her and injure her. It is very light cardboard and plastic, and I have it securely bolted to the wall). Well, this is my signal to rescue her. I go over, put my hands under her feet, and she grabs onto my fingers for dear life. I place her back on her cage and she begins her demolition attempt again. Aside from the comic element to all of this, what I love is that I can rescue Gracie. I notice that before she grabs onto to the print, she glances over at me first as if to be sure "Emergency Services" are standing at the ready before she attempts her death defying feat! I love her confidence and daredevil personality, and I am seeing that she trusts me to be there for her as well. Parronthood is begining to get fun.

One other step in the right direction is how Gracie is communicating with me. A few days ago when Gracie didn't want to be bothered she would do a bluff lunge or even give me a little nip. Since I have backed off, Gracie no longer does that. If she doesn't want to be bothered she just lowers her head and lightly touches her beack to my hand--very gently. I just say "OK Gracie" and give her space. When I return later she happily steps up. I'm just so happy things are heading back on the right path.

I'm glad you are reaping some rewards from your time and work with your bird. good luck with more progress.

Amazons have always held a fascination for me. They do have a reputation that runs the spectrum from curious, cheeky, fun friend to agressive hellish nightmare. With love, education, patience and wise choices I'm sure the nighmare can be avoided in most cases. It sounds like you all have been doing the right things.

As some of you know, I was pushing Gracie a bit too much too soon and she became wary of me and didn't want to step up as eagerly as before. Well, I have resoloved to make her feel she has choice and not pressure her to do anything she is not ready for. My only concern was that when I have to leave my condo I need her to step up so I can get her back into her cage safely. Today I had to go out of my condo twice and needed Gracie to step up from her cagetop. At first I just put my hand up and said "step up". She resisted and moved away from my hand. Then I said, "Gracie wanna go back?" (This is what I say when I put her back in her cage). She looked at me and then moved to the edge of the cage where she steps up to go back into her cage. I put my hand up, repeated "Gracie wanna go back? Step up" and she did step up without any problem. Now I wondered if it was just a fluke because I have only had Gracie 2 weeks ,and I wasn't sure if she understood what I was saying. Then a few hours later, I needed to go out again, and I again said, "Gracie wanna go back?" She promptly walked back to the place on her cage where she steps up to go back in and stepped up my finger to go back in her cage. What I learned from this experience is that it really helps to verbalize to Gracie why I want her to step up. When she knows I am going to put her back in her cage, she is fine because she likes her cage with the toys, food, and water. If I just say "step up"--she doesn't know why. She might worry that I may try to make her do something she doesn't want to do (Like putting her in the Pak O Bird carrier and carting her off in my car to an unknown place like I did on Christmas Eve). But when I said "wanna go back?"--it appears that she knew that meant the safety of her cage and she happily agreed. Maybe I was just lucky--but it really seemed she understood me.

luvparrots: I do have a foldable cage and she goes in and out of it without much problem. That's a good idea. I'm definately not going to rush it. But I may experiment with that at the house and see if that might be an option in the future when I decide to take her out with me if she is willing and happy to do so.

Seduction it is! I wondered about one other thing that came to mind. My breeder has the philosophy that the chicks should stay with their parents longer than most breeders do. Rather than pulling Gracie at 3 or 4 weeks as is typical, Gracie was pulled at 9 weeks and handfed until 18 weeks when I brought her home. Could this have had an effect on her initial bond to and dependence on humans?

Hope you had a greyt birthday!

Dave007: Thanks for your advice. Believe me when I say I only want to do what's right for my little girl. I'm putting everything on hold until we have a trusting bond, and then I'm going to take baby steps with her.

One other question. Gracie seems most resistant to me when she is on the top of her cage--her preferred place. She happily steps up from inside the cage when I take her out, and when she wants to go back in her cage, she steps up eagerly for me to put her back. She also steps up better when she is on her playstand. Unfortunately, she really prefers her cage top and it is then that she resists and avoids my hand. Should I just let this be for now, or should I do something to prevent her from staying on her cage top and have her spend more time on her playstand. Also, she absoluely never gets on couches, furiniture, or floor. It's cage--cagetop--playstand period. She probably feels safest on her cagetop and i want her to have her security.

Thank you birdhouse. You know your suggestions were very much what I wanted to hear. I was feeling this pressure to get her socialized and traveling out and about. I worried that if I didn't do it now, she would never want to do it. Now I'm just going to relax and build a bond with Gracie. As far as going to school--hopefully that will come in time, but it isn't the end of the world if she doesn't. I can probably get home during my lunch hour to see her since I live close to my school. In any case I'll only be gone from 9-3. I know many people are away from their greys longer than that, and hopefully it will just be temporary.

Well it's been two weeks today since I brought Gracie home. Things are going pretty well, but I am starting to see some challenges. When I first got Gracie, she would pretty much always step up when asked (although she might fly off after a couple of minutes). Recently I've been trying to socialize Gracie more and get her used to her Pak o Bird carrier. During the Christmas holidays I took Gracie over to my parents' house. The first time she stepped up and went into her Pak O Bird with no incident, but on Christmas Eve when I went to get her to go into the Pak O Bird she stepped up, but as I neared her carrier she flew off. Then she wouldn't step up. With some effort I finally distracted her wih a toy and got her into the carrier and took her over to my parents. When it was time to come home, however, she really resisted and flew around and just wouldn't step up or go into her carrier. It took ages to get her back in. Now she is wary of my requests to step up. It's like she doesn't trust me as much. She spends almost all of her time either in her cage or on top of it and occassionally flies to a nearby playstand to chill. I don't want to pressure her, but my plan was to take her to class with me daily while I teach. I don't want to leave her home alone if possible. Even when I coax her with treats or toys, she is wary to step up and seems to be suspicious about my intentions. She can no doubt sense my frustration and lack of confidence and that adds to the problem. My gut tells me to just step back and build my relationship with her before subjecting her to more Pak O Bird adventures, but another part of me wonders if this will just make it harder later on. It's times like this that make me remember that I am a complete novice with parrots and just don't know what to do. I just want her to be happy and to trust me, but I feel I'm in a holding pattern rather than going forward.

Thoughts and many prayers for Barnaby

I've traveled to more than 20 countires. (partly for work as an English teacher). I've written a musical based on The Hiding Place (Corrie Ten Boom) and a play that was performed at a local theater. I accidentally ate dog once in the Philippines--ugh sorry! I teach a US citizenship class for immigrants. I was attacked by a pack of dogs in Romania and had to undergo rabies shots (not too bad these days--no longer in the stomach with a 10 inch needle)

MarcusCag: The boings were ordered from Amazon.com but I'm not sure what store exactly sold them. I'll check.

I've posted pics on a separate thread--"Gracie Homecoming Pics"-=-=check them out. She's a cutie--I know I'm bias.

Congrats on your new fid. He is a cutie! I love your last pic--He looks like such a little Bad A$$! Thug Budgie! Best wishes and Merry Christmas to you and your fids1

Well, here are my promised pics! http://s1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee371/JeffNOK/Gracie%20Home/?albumview=slideshow

First of all I want to say that pics will be forthcoming. My digital cam is broken and I'm not one of those who has mastered the cell phone pics--I know I'm a dinosaur at 44! I will say that if I had a cam I could have already captured a lifetime of snaps of my little girl. She is a handful and so adventurous. She needs a job with Cirque de Soleil. Things have been going really well despite my contiunued mistakes. My first blunder came when I attempted to bathe her the first time. My water setting on the spray bottle was quite strong and I shot at too close a range. She was livid! She screamed and flapped arounded and let me know in no uncertain terms that I was treading on microscopically thin ice. Mistake number two came when I decided to refill her food bowl by sticking the bag in the cage rather than using the side doors. She flew out of the cage in a panic. Mistake number three happended when I tried to remove a toy from her cage while she was inside. Again--she flew out of the cage complaining. What makes me happy is that she forgives me within a minute or less. She notes her complaints, but she doesn't seem to hold it against me. I think she feels safe with me and knows I love her. She lets me know that she is not pleased, but she quickly resumes to quiet preening and happy chirps. I feel so lucky. As much as I have studied, I am sometimes surprised at my blunders, yet she gives me the benefit of the doubt and allows for my foibles. What has been so wonderful is that she is beginning to see me as part of her flock. When I visited her at the breeders (almost daily for 2 months) she seemed to know me, but didn't pay me much attention. It was hard to get much eye contact. I was just the guy that gave her treats and let her out of the cage. Now she watches me, notices what I am doing , and contact calls me when I am out of sight. She still doesn't let me pet or scritch her neck, but she allows kisses and rubs on the beak.

I couldn't be happier. Thanks for the warm regards. I'm shocked at how much she eats! She's a small girl--only 380g but she spends half her time in the food bowl. She doesn't seem to like veggies very much, though. Hopefully she'll appreciate them soon.