Blood and Tears!!

[pearllyn]

Hay Folks!

Things maybe aren't quite as bad as the subject heading says, but the last two or three weeks have been quite eventful!

Healthwise, Alfie seems to be in good form. Her feathers are well on their way, and she has regained her flight and then some (see youtube - click or paste here

and here

) !

Plus, all the tests came back negative, so other than the little inflamation seen with the x-rays/endoscopy, nothing that can't be fixed with diet and uv light.

The diet isn't going too well, she's eating plenty of fresh stuff, but after a promising start with the Harrisons, she's barely looking at it now, she only picks it up to throw it on the floor (I swear she aims at the dogs!) The only slightly encouraging thing is, she seems to be less interested in the sunflower seeds.

The blood & tears of the subject heading are all mine (parrot lovers breath sigh of relief!) With Alfie's new lease of life has come a killer attitude. Maybe it's just her age, but she is challenging me on every little thing. She bites me whenever the mood takes her, and while I accept that she probably never bites for no reason, sometimes I feel the reason just isn't good enough! She always has access to fresh food and water, but when she comes and bites me, and lately, she always draws blood - she really means it, it's so frustrating (probably for her and me!) if I can't figure out why she's doing it! If I'm late with her tea, I take my lumps, but it's getting to the stage, when I know she's in that mood, that I'm getting a wee bit nervous when she lands on me - she doesn't just go for fingers but has bitten my neck a few times too, and occasionally she tries to kill my toes.

The other time's she bites is when I'm putting her back in her cage and she doesn't want to go - she used to just hang off my finger, now she takes a hold and squeezes - and the other time is if I'm asking her to step up off of somewhere she knows she shouldn't be. Happily, all this naughtiness is reserved for me - David is getting off scott-free!!

All this behaviour only happens in the living room too, where we all spend most of our time. Could it be she is getting possesive? When I can, I take her off out of this environment, just to break the mood, it sometimes works, if I can't do that, I ignore her for a bit. Sometimes that works, sometimes it makes her worse!

We thought perhaps, now we know she's a girl, she's getting to that age, where she maybe see's me as a rival, but the strange thing is, when she wants a cuddle, it's always me she comes to. Parrots are weird!!

I keep joking that she's like the little girl in the nursary rhyme, you know the one that had a little curl?!

I know it's quite serious, but the other day I was sitting on the couch, and I could see her sideling up to me sneakily behind my back, then she dived in, bit my bum then took off. I couldn't help but giggle, but I didn't let her see that.

I could do with some advise on how to put my teenage madam in her place (or some tips on how I should accept my place!)

When she's being good she's an absolute joy, and I still love her to bits, her vocabulary just exploded and she's so funny with her little monkey sounds and uh-ohs! She blows kisses too. She will also tell herself to "have a whoopsie" then does it. She has, though, started to go to the toilet in places she shouldn't, and I'm certain it's a statement rather than and accident. The lady where I get my feed says that when ever she does it, we should leave the room. That's a bit diffocult when she dives on the desk, the laptop, or anyplace she knows to be out of bounds as soon as we dissapear!

Would love to hear your thoughts.

Hope you and yours are all well.

 

Bye for now.

 

Lyn & Alfie.

xx

[amerrie]

Wow it sounds like you have your hands full.. I guess ignoring bad behavior is difficult when there is so much bad and not much good, huh! Best of luck to you and hope that all will work out well.

[pearllyn]

Hi Amerrie,

Although her behaviour can be extreme, she is definitely still nice more than she is naughty!

x

[Keywe]

didn't have time to read the entire thing, but as far as Harrison's goes, I buy the small pellets and then add a little water to them. They turn to "mush" and Keywe loves it! She won't touch them if they don't have water.

[pearllyn]

Thanks keywe,

I will try that. ALfie does like her food warm, and although I have tried adding water to the Harrisons Coarse, the wee pellets mkay be better suited to mushing!

Thanks.

x

[danmcq]

HI Lyn & Alfie!!

 

It's great to hear an update from you. Sorry to hear your going through the maturing process with Alfie, but we all are for the most part. :pinch: All our wee children are growing up, just like our human babies did. Of course, along with growing up comes individualism, personal growth and the testing of boundaries and exercising ones will. :-)

 

Please update more often, you've been missed!!!

[Tycos_mom]

It sounds to me like youe little missy needs some gentle disapline do you have a small travel cage or carrier if so when she bites I would give her 10 minutes time out in the small cage not her own cage some place where she doesn't want to be no toys no fun. She will soon learn biting is not the thing todo.

[pearllyn]

Thanks for the encouragement danmcq. So does this mean I'm going to have a stroppy teen on my hands for the rest of my days? (deep breath!)

Actually, as usual, she came for a cuddle tonight before bedtime, and I just can't believe what a Jeckyll and Hyde character she has - she's such a sweet bird come evening, but mornings seem to bring out the Daughter of Lucifer in her!

Thanks again, will come back more often - hopeless at organising me!

Tycos-mom, I know you're right, and I did think about giving her a time out in her travel cage, but didn't want to put her off of going in that, as she loves going for days out with us, and I didn't want her to associate it with anything bad, but if you think it's ok I will certainly do that. I was just saying to David today, that it almost feels like we have to "reclaim" our territory, ie, the living room!

Will take your advice and let you know how we come on.

Thanks for the word of wisdom.

x

[Acappella]

Maybe you could do something to make the travel cage different when it's being used for a time out than when it's is used for trips. When it's a time out strip it of toys and treats and put it in a place where there's no fun, away from her flock. When your travelling put her toys and fav things back in so it's a fun place to be.

[pearllyn]

Hi Acappella,

after I posted my reply last night I was thinking about it and thought exactly the same thing - toys out and place the cage on the floor, cos when we're going out, we sit it on the table to put her in it! That should do it, eh?

Isn't it funny how you can sometimes need something pointed out to you before you can see the obvious?!

Thanks for your concern, Acappella.

x