Marcus "Step up!" Update

[MarcusCAG]

Hello everyone,

 

A little while ago I posted here about our Marcus, how he was throwing strange hissy fits that seemed to be re-enactments of aggressive behavior he must have witnessed in his former home pertaining to the "Step up!" command. To make a long story short, although I would like to say that we have perfected our own version of a step-up and he is the model Grey now in that regard, I can't--but we actually have made a bit of progress nevertheless. I try to remember to call his foot 'toes' now (because 'foot' is one of the words he would yell in his imitating-angry-man mode) and the equivalent of "Step up!" is generally "Do you want to get up on Mommy's hand?" or some such. Twice he has allowed me to carry him from the floor to his door-perch and just last night Marcus let me hold him in a static position on my hand for about twenty seconds while I talked nonchalantly with my husband. Then he flapped down to the floor.

 

Nevertheless, despite these happy 'baby steps' of his, I do have some questions pertaining to Marcus. He really, really is quite determined to feed my hand--and that is the only time I am able to get him to step up onto my arm or anything, when he is in 'feeding mode'. He'll be walking around on the floor or shredding paper or whatever and then, wow! Mommy's hand! And he'll run over and start doing the little bobbing thing and start trying to climb on my hand and he makes these weird hyperventilating kind of mousy squeak-sounds. I've been referring to them as his "hormonal fits" because I can only imagine some birdy hormone is making him want to feed my knuckles that badly that he sounds like he's going to blow up any second... Anyway, he has no interest in going near my hand (to stand on it, I mean--he loves getting head tickles!) unless he gets into his Feeding Mommy mode. Is this normal? Someone told me they think that Marcus is in a 'panic' like that and I got the impression they were disappointed in my parronting skills or whatever. I don't believe Marcus is upset when he gets like that, just very hormonal and revved-up. If I distract him with a toy or something he's almost immediately back to his water-drop-noise-making self (his happy sound, I've realized). Thoughts?

 

Marcus does not do this at all for my husband, though, the hand-feeding thing. My husband told me recently how Marcus was on his door-perch and lifted his foot for him, and he thought maybe in his own way he was saying he wanted to be moved, to step up. So my husband offered him his hand/finger or whatever, and Marcus lunged at him (no contact). I've noticed Marcus does this occasionally too--he's very expressive with his feet--and so later I thought I'd try it. Marcus just momentarily enwrapped his toes around my finger and then pulled his foot back to stand on both feet. So he didn't want to step up, but he wasn't aggressive with me like he was with my hubby, either.

 

The funny thing is, occasionally Marcus will still display his imitating-big-angry-human-male fit where he slaps his foot around and says his "Step up!" gibberish. Last night, I had a 'conversation' with him where this went back and forth a number of times, with me asking between his explosions what was the matter, did I do something, are you okay?... In the end, I think he was disappointed to have been asked to go back in his cage as early as I coerced him to, and so I let him out again for a bit. (Beaker our Quaker parrot wanted to go to bed, so I thought I should start up the nighttime routine a little early...)

 

It's not the issue it was though, the whole "Step up!" thing. Thankfully. But we still have quite a bit of work to do before he'll be stepping-up for us like Beaker does. One of the good things is that his vocabulary seems to be increasing. I wish I had been there to see this, but my hubby told me that when Marcus was on the floor with him the other night, he took the pen away that Marcus had been playing with and put it above him on the futon, where he couldn't see or reach it. I guess Marcus didn't notice this happening, because my hubby said he kind of looked around suddenly and asked "Where'd it go?" My husband acted like this was perfectly normal for him to say such a thing, so he reached up and got the pen and put it on the floor in front of him, said, "Here it is!" I was just particularly tickled because I know recently I had misplaced something in the boys' room (the parrots' room) and was tearing everything apart, "Where did it go? Where did it go?" So he must have picked it up from that incident. Mommy's proud!!!!

 

Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know how things have been going around here with Marcus lately. Thanks for letting me go on a bit, and also thank you in advance for any replies...

[Mawnee]

It sounds like you are making good steady progress with Marcus. Keep at it! Be consistent, be patient and he'll come around

 

 

The head bobbing is them preparing to regurgitate for you to feed you. It is a sexually motivated action. He is trying to show you he is a good mate for you. This does mean he loves you, but you must be careful not to encourage this activity as it can lead to a ...frustrated.. and unhappy Grey. Most agree the best action is to walk away during this behavior. When ours does this we walk away and say "No thank you, I"m full" With our Grey we have also noticed certain hand positions bring it on. If you reach towards him palm up(like you are asking for somthing) he will do it. Offering him a hand palm down for a step up, does not seem to trigger it. This may be specific to our grey, but something you could try

[Birdnut]

Thanks for the update. Sounds like things are moving in the right direction.

[MarcusCAG]

The head bobbing is them preparing to regurgitate for you to feed you. It is a sexually motivated action. He is trying to show you he is a good mate for you. This does mean he loves you, but you must be careful not to encourage this activity as it can lead to a ...frustrated.. and unhappy Grey. Most agree the best action is to walk away during this behavior. When ours does this we walk away and say "No thank you, I"m full" With our Grey we have also noticed certain hand positions bring it on. If you reach towards him palm up(like you are asking for somthing) he will do it. Offering him a hand palm down for a step up, does not seem to trigger it. This may be specific to our grey, but something you could try

 

Thank you for your thoughts, Mawnee. Yes, I have read that the regurgitation is part of parrot courtship, and I had been discouraging it until this issue of his "Step up!" fear developed (or manifested itself, rather). It seems not to matter if my hand is palm-up or -down or sideways, he will suddenly start the whole thing. If Marcus is in his cage, I will say "Thank you but I don't want to eat right now" and he'll only stop if I get up and leave and talk to Beaker or something. Out on the floor, I've been more lenient because I've been wanting to see him more comfortable around hands, and since he steps all over them trying to get at my knuckle, in a way it's been working. But truly, I don't want to compound the issue by letting him get too hormonal and everything. So we are making progress, but there's still a lot of ground to be covered. I'd like to minimize our mistakes though, that's for sure! So would it seem prudent to have my husband be the one to work with him out on the floor more often anymore? They definitely have a different relationship, and Marcus doesn't get hormonal with him. They 'play' more, like Marcus will run after my husband as he crawls on his hands and knees in circles on the floor. Really cute. But Marcus wants NOTHING to do with his hands past head-tickling and he absolutely will not step up onto his arm or hand in any way, shape, or form for him.

[judygram]

It is normal for a grey to have different relationships with individual people and this is the case with Marcus, just keep doing what you are doing for it looks like you are making progress every day, thanks for the update.

[birdhouse]

He's most comfortable with you & that gives you the advantage where it comes to getting over his fear of hands. Unfortunately, he's translated that into mating behavior that you don't want to encourage. If things could only be simple, huh?

 

I still wonder if there may be some benefit in what I suggested about you hand feeding. He'll get all the precursors to overcoming his fear of hands & learning to step up. You might be able to circumvent his feeding you by feeding him. Maybe that could be how you interact with him when he's out of the cage, for the time being?

[MarcusCAG]

He's most comfortable with you & that gives you the advantage where it comes to getting over his fear of hands. Unfortunately, he's translated that into mating behavior that you don't want to encourage. If things could only be simple, huh?

 

I still wonder if there may be some benefit in what I suggested about you hand feeding. He'll get all the precursors to overcoming his fear of hands & learning to step up. You might be able to circumvent his feeding you by feeding him. Maybe that could be how you interact with him when he's out of the cage, for the time being?

 

Birdhouse, I had to read that one sentence a couple of times but I do see what you mean. I've been trying to figure out what treats he likes but so far the options are limited, he's very picky although everything I offer him is a 'french fry' (grr!). This case is far from hopeless though so I'll just have to keep at it until we make some more strides forward... I do like your hand-feeding idea though, that's even something maybe that will make him more comfortable about my husband's hands, too... Thanks again for your insights, they're very appreciated.

 

And thanks to everyone who's commented here with so much help and kindness for our Marcus.

Edited November 12, 2010 by MarcusCAG