More behavior questions vis-a-vis Joe

[greymullet]

As I mentioned in a prior post, at night he gets this intense desire to be with me and cuddle. Recently, this desire seems to be occuring sooner and sooner in the day, especially on days when I have been at work and I come home. He will fly to where I am and want to be held. I take him back to his perch, and then bam, he's flying to where I am. What I am afraid of is 1) the flying (he had his wings clipped last week and he is still able to bang the flight out) and 2) catering to a behavior that I sould not be catering to. I spend alot of one-on-one time with him so it is not like I am ignoring him, and I do try to keep him bust with toys when he does try to fly to me (that works about 15% of the time). Is this just normal baby hehavior? What about the flying...can a clipped bird still fly or was the clip insufficient.

 

As an update, we already taught him a trick...to avert that beaking behavior...we don't scratch him until he puts his head down...we ask him, Joe, do you want a head scratch...it takes about three repeats of this until he puts his head down to get his scratch..pretty cool.

[judygram]

Joe has had a moderate clip that limits his ability to gain height but still fly and not drop like a rock, thats good unless you don't want him flying at all then more will have to be clipped off.

 

As far as him flying to you when you don't want him to is you will just have to keep taking him back to his perch or wherever you want him to stay, this will have to be repeated as often as necessary, maybe hundreds or thousands of times but he will eventually learn he is to stay where you put him.

 

Just because he wants to be held and cuddled all the time doesn't mean he should have it.

[greymullet]

Thanks for reply!

[danmcq]

Judy gave GreYt advice.

 

One thing to consider also, if your gone to work all day and return home. Consider your Grey like a child. They have missed you dearly all day and it is a VERY exciting event after all day to see you home. They have an intense desire to be with you.

 

The same scenario exists at our home. If we don't want our birds to fly at us the minute we walk in the door. We say hi, leave them in the cages and go change, open the mail etc. Then we let them and just know know they will be permanently clinging to one or the other of us for atleast an hour. Then they will go off and play, forage chase each other etc. Then around 7pm, is when the cuddle time urge kicks in and they remain that way until it's their night-night time. :-)

 

Do not expect your bird to just go sit on a perch after you have been gone all day and just let him out of the cage. I can guarantee you that is not going to happen. Just leave him in the cage until your ready for him with your undivided attention. :-)