murfchck Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 A little back ground on these two. Mary Anne is the scarlet who was in a cage with Oliver and who is who picked him bald. Now Oliver, in return, picked her also but as bad since she actually has a head full of feathers and several that could come in on her body, she just picks them out. She is 14. https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-ie7OzNtVD1I/VNeolAvnOSI/AAAAAAAABEs/ZwwJFfrEf3I/w326-h579-no/20150208_121640.jpg She is a mans bird and that did worry us, we have heard stories about how she chases feet and won't stay on a stand bites and is just mean. So far none of that. She let me get her out of the cage yesterday, I put her on the stand and other that falling off of it on accident and listening to me when I told her she needed to get back up, it wasn't floor time yet but that she would get it soon, and then letting me help her back up she has been great. She has let me touch every part of her and I even got to groom some of her tail feathers. She use to get her tail tapped or jerked on so her letting me touch her tail was exciting. Marley is the military, I met her when she was just a baby who was starving because the owner had no idea how to feed. She was eventually taken to a breeder to finish the weaning. She has never learned to step up, because I was told she didn't want to force her to do something she didn't want to do. OR maybe she was scared of Marley and since she didn't spend time with her anyway, just never taught her. Marley though is smart as crap at 1 year old. In just a few simple training moments, she will come to me and hit a target. She refused to go back in her cage but last night on our 3rd target training, I had her coming down to the door perch so I could close it and she could eat. Awesome. She does have a few weird ticks, first one is that she hangs from a toe on top of the cage, even to sleep. The second one is she opens her beak very wide, sticks out her tongue and licks your fingers. Not sure at all what that is. lol https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-3ewYJRAws_0/VNgVLgOvLYI/AAAAAAAABFk/R8zmX8A5e8k/w326-h579-no/20150208_170550.jpg These two did not come from a happy home, lots of yelling and the f work is used in almost every sentence. Just bringing them to our house, they wore large welding gloves if that paints a picture of the fear they had of them. It is a big shock to them to get to be out with everyone and hear laughing. We joke because its like the Kevin Bacon, 7 degrees. Almost half of our birds have crossed paths somewhere in their past. I should say, Marley's name is actually Harley but I tend to say my Harley and it comes out Marley and since we are not fans of the name Harley for her, it seemed natural to just go with it. lol Mary Anne's name was Mary Anne before she moved in with the neighbor, but since it was her husbands old girlfriends name, they called her Little Girl. She is now Mary Anne again and responds to with much more ease than little girl. She use to say Mary Anne but I have not heard it in years, I hope it comes back to her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywings Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Scarlets are very smart and can be challenging, Militaries seem easier going to me. Lots of Macaws like to lick things I don't know if it is a texture thing or a mineral salt interest. Marley has a nicer sound to me too. Good luck with all the new guys and the old ones as well. Are the grey feathers falling again? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted February 10, 2015 Author Share Posted February 10, 2015 Lol. Nope cuz he knows them already. Plus he gets extra attention when the others are eating their night time nuts, lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted February 17, 2015 Author Share Posted February 17, 2015 Miss Marley is going to be a tuff cookie. Since she wasn't handled and doesn't step up we have been target training and she is just great at it but still won't step up. I can pet her and get kisses as long as she is inside her cage and the door is shut, once it is open she gets independent. She is clumsy as poo too, but likes for some weird reason to put things on her head. She broke a big ball in two and had one side in her beak flipping it up (like a hockey goalie's mask) then up to her head. She does that with rings too though so I have had to make some changes in her cage so she can't do that when I am not there, I can just see her flipping a ring over her head and hanging herself. The only way she was taken out of her cage was with a towel so I tried to get the step up last night from inside her cage. She went on a full attack, biting and screeching and yet not one bite on me. So sad that at 1 year old she doesn't know the basics, she wants to know them but is scared. Mary Anne, I was told, would never let me handle her, she is a mans bird. HA! She lets me be her transportation so that is a step in the right direction. lol She is in season though and sees my hubby and turns her back to him, throws the tail feathers in the air and purrs. She loves her Pat and even says his name already. I am starting to think that Pat is just a parrot noise, not that they are saying his name.lol, yes I am jealous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted February 21, 2015 Author Share Posted February 21, 2015 Things are moving along with Marley. She is so afraid yet so brave. Last two days I have had her on my arm/shoulder. I only count yesterday though since she came to me on her own and not because she flew to the floor as she did the day before. I have been able to put a little piece of walnut on my lips and she will take it from me without even touching me. Hubby says I am crazy, I told him I just wanted a matching lip scar from when Bubba got me. You can not move you hands around when you are near her either, petrified is being mild in a description of her. I don't know what happened to this little one but she is coming around slowly to me. Not the hubs, but he keeps saying that I need a big bird of my own so he isn't pushing it. The only birds I actually can call mine are Bongo, Chacho and Lily and Koko. I am thinking that the cockatoo's are big birds but, what ever he say's. lol Mary Anne is also doing great, she loves Pat beyond words. We were told she would be a pain, not letting me handle her and getting on the floor chasing us around. I bring her out from her cage, I put her in her cage and she has stayed on her stand not trying to get to the floor at all. It makes a difference when they are a part of the group, not in a room by their selves wondering what is going on outside their door. I like her because she eats everything I give her and gives me a Mmmm when she puts her face in the bowl! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birdhouse Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 "I like her because she eats everything I give her and gives me a Mmmm when she puts her face in the bowl" There you go! Take all the time you need w/everything else. lol She's so young & apparently doing so well bonding w/you. Hopefully this will be the magical combination for a rapid transition to "normal". Also, by now, you've gotten so much experience reading & handling these guys that she may even seem easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted February 26, 2015 Author Share Posted February 26, 2015 So I got the hardest bite ever from Marley yesterday. Usually bites are just a few holes left in the skin from the beak but I had the entire beak print in my arm. She finally stepped up for me, then realized what she had done, looked down, saw my arm and bam! Of course I couldn't react because this was her first step up, if I had twisted my arm to make her off balance to stop the bite it would have ruined all the time I have spent working with her. So I just took it telling her softly not to bite, while hubby is watching with a grimace saying "that is going to leave a mark". And it did too, not nearly as bad as we thought it would though, lol. I get so upset thinking about what this little girl(or boy) went through the first year. It really sickens me because she is just so sweet and wants to learn so bad. She gives full on kisses when she is in the cage and last night I got them, I had just put her dinner bowl in, she came running to me putting her whole beak through the bars, tongue sticking out so I gave her kisses, lots of kisses. By the time I went in the other room to deliver their dinners my lips were on FIRE! She must have just finished a pepper. Little stinker! Mary Anne is also getting more relaxed. Right now her stand is just a T-stand because we were told she would stay on the big tree stand. She has been on her stand now for just shy of 2 weeks without an attempt to get down so we decided yesterday to bring the big tree out for her. She wouldn't budge from her T-stand. We left both stands there for her for an hour or so, so she could decide which one she wanted. She hated the big one so T-stand it is. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greytness Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 What did she do after you didn't react to her biting? Did she remain on your arm, or did she high tail it back onto her perch? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted February 27, 2015 Author Share Posted February 27, 2015 She stayed on my arm. Yesterday I took her into a totally new room and we worked on the step up and step down. We only did this for about 20 minutes and she did not bite once, stepped up after a few tries and after me rolling my arm for her off just once for the step down she mastered that. Once back into the main room though it was like she didn't want to remember anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted March 4, 2015 Author Share Posted March 4, 2015 Marley is stepping up! Not without the occasional bite from being unsure. We started off in a room away from all the birds and from the floor learned the step up. I would take her from the floor to the bed to learn step off. We then moved to her stand and did several attempts to step up from there. It didn't work to well from there though, she had to many toys to distract her but I was able to get her to use my arm as a bridge back to her cage, slowly moving the stand further away. Last night the bulb went off in her head and she now steps up from anywhere, including from inside her cage! Still not 100% but I was so excited I could hardly sleep last night. I wanted to wake her up and keep working with her! She raises that cute little foot of hers asking me to pick her up, it is just so darn cute. Two weeks of daily training with her but so worth it, this reinforces why I have chosen to do what I do. God only knows what this baby went through its first year of life, but we intend to be sure the rest of her life will be filled with love and attention and flying along with the others who we live with!! On the bright side of this for me, the extra time working with her and the 4 birds who attack Pat now and being sure Bongo has his extra attention, my housework and cooking has decreased some so Pat is doing more of that for us! Yeah!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birdhouse Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 Awww Sounds like somebody's smitten. That's so sweet. She's certainly coming along pretty quickly, too. Pat may have taken a bit longer, but it sounds like he's coming around nicely, too. lol Good news all around! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted March 5, 2015 Author Share Posted March 5, 2015 Yep and in typical bird fashion, yesterday was not a good day for stepping up. She did step up but not without challenging me when she was on my arm. She just kept reaching down and biting me. She was thinking, okay, you got me here now what if I bite you, what will you do then? One bite had me to my butt on the couch in case I had to roll her off (I wanted a soft landing for her, she had me in her beak at the bend in my arm, you know that really thin skinned painful area, lol.) Ah well, just gotta keep on trying. At least now I know she really can do it, just have to make her want to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywings Posted March 5, 2015 Share Posted March 5, 2015 One step up forward and only one back, still a win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted March 6, 2015 Author Share Posted March 6, 2015 A step forward for me! Found out she doesn't like sleeves and that is why she was biting me the other evening. Where she came from they always wore those long welding gloves when they handled her, now that she has touched and used skin, that is what she wants! We were back to normal last night and even got to walk her into the kitchen. Usually she starts to panic about half way through the living room but made it all the way. She is demanding to be a shoulder bird though which I am having trouble with stopping her. I am going to say it, "Bless my husbands heart" he keeps trying to tell me what I need to do to stop her from it (like I don't know) but she is just being a snot about it. I can normally just go to a chair and sit and she will climb down to my lap where we can start again. I did this last night though and may I say thank heavens for padded bras, I thought she was just going to use her big old beak to balance down my chest but no... She got a good mouthful so to speak and I have a bruise, lucky it isn't a piercing. I think her shoulder thing is that all our greys will be on shoulders so monkey see, monkey do. Since keeping her off isn't working too good I left her there when we were in the kitchen but Pat kept telling me I needed to feel confident about it or she would sense it. Okay, I get that but I also get that my head is a wonderland of toys for her too, I wear glasses and keep my hair pulled back with an elastic band. Oh and I have ears and thin skin I want to keep in one piece. lol She did step up for Pat though which is a huge first. May Anne is such a fun bird and Pat has been working with her every night also, last night he was able to have her on her back cradled like a baby playing with her. She also likes when he sticks his finger out and she grabs it softly knowing he is going to pick her up by it. She is just a playful ham, loves to play ball and catch with him. And holy cow she loves to take baths. Not sure why snow and sleet and 17 degree weather makes the birds want to bathe but they all did yesterday. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timbersmom Posted March 6, 2015 Share Posted March 6, 2015 Don't you love those "lightbulb" moments when you figure something out? She is coming right along Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birdhouse Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 Ow to the bruise!! Yay to the progress!! What about putting a dish towel across your shoulders. If she doesn't like sleeves (maybe because they make balancing more difficult because they slip?) , maybe she won't like that either? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted March 8, 2015 Author Share Posted March 8, 2015 I think anything more than my skin and a short sleeve would make her nibble at whatever is new. We did more step ups last night and she did really well so I decided I would let her go to my shoulder for our walk about. I learned something yet again, I do not have shoulders for big birds. My shoulders are short and my posture isn't the best so they drop. She can't get a grip and slides down them. lol. They are okay for my Bongo and Chacho but even the Toos have a bit of trouble hanging on and I end up walking with a lean and that isn't good for a bad back and isn't pretty at all, lol. hahaha! We are going to stick with the arm for a while. So Mary Anne yesterday decided she wanted her dad who was outside with a neighbor talking. She held her foot up and kept yelling "What" to me so I braved it and picked her up and took her out. She was so happy and Pat and I were too since we were told she would never come to me like that when a man is around. That statement had been true until this happened! These little steps are what keep me at it! I was wishing that the neighbor we got these 2 from was watching from her window, I would never tell her the progress because she wouldn't take it well but if she accidentally saw then I couldn't be accused of rubbing it in her face. I am pretty surprised she hasn't been over or even asked about them. Oh well just goes to show that some people should not ever have a parrot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywings Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Or a dog or a cat or anything that might be dependent on their efforts. Happily they did end up in your care and have a happier busier life now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted March 11, 2015 Author Share Posted March 11, 2015 We have been working on the wrist only step up and by gosh, she's got it already. But I have created a monster now and every time she see's me her little foot goes up for her step up, sorry, her big foot. We went on a new adventure yesterday too, I can't believe it did this but I did, we went outside to the front porch to look around. I took a skittish bird, who's wings are clipped (but still) outside without a harness. I advise people all the time not to do this but I did. She did good, but she was so nervous she could have done a fright flight, but luckily she wanted my protection more. After we got outside, I thought to myself how dumb I was so we just stood at the door and she looked around for a minute and a car drove by making her duck down so then I took her back in. I am proud of her for her courage but mad at myself for doing that. lol Since I have not had a young bird like this in over 25 years, is it normal for them to not have such great balance? I keep telling my hubs it is probably because she wasn't carried around much and doesn't know to grip but she really is a klutzy bird. I am starting to wonder if she may have been dropped on her head, lol. (she still hangs upside down like a bat) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywings Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 She could be low on calcium and vitamin D3 that leads to clumsy birds. Or it could be she has just now had enough different size perches available to develop her muscular control. Whisper my big Silvery Grey girl is also a bat bird, sometimes sleeps that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted March 12, 2015 Author Share Posted March 12, 2015 Well the perch thing sounds about right, never even crossed my mind, DOH! I found out yesterday that "he" is going to be 2 years old August 28th. Poor little fella, had been sexed but the lady thinks the guy switched birds on her and she "thinks" she got the boy not the girl she was supposed to and now I am confused what he was tested as, boy or girl. We need the nails trimmed up so maybe I will see if we can do another test just so we know which to call Marley. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted March 31, 2015 Author Share Posted March 31, 2015 Been very hectic and busy around here, sorry for the delay in updating things. Honey and Sunny moved in. They are the twin blue and golds, one has a blue band, one a silver. Too bad we forgot who had which, Pat thinks he knows and he says he can tell the difference because Sunny is a bit bigger and has a more greenish hue on her back. For me it is going to take some time. The are both just the sweetest birds, Sunny lets me pick her up but only after Honey gets picked up, she does what Honey does but will not do it first. lol It is very strange and stressful with these 2, they are flighted and full of feathers, having a bird fully feathered is strange enough for us, but add in flying and wow have the dynamics changed. Having 9 parrots out before was okay because only 2 greys flew but now add in the 2 macaws and it is really a zoo. We tore our pool down to make more flights out back for them so they can enjoy the weather. I have also gone back to work full time now, just too many changes at once. Gotta get a new system down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywings Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 The need keeps growing I understand where you are right now. Working again does change the dynamics thank heavens these birds seem to roll with the changes in our lives. I have heard many people saying how they need to keep things the same all the time so their birds will not be freaked out but I find they accept changes quite well if we keep them in the loop and explain what to expect. sounds a little crazy when I read it back but it seems to work here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted March 31, 2015 Author Share Posted March 31, 2015 I completely agree. Luckily we have just 1 more to move in. A retired breeder, red front in his 60's best they can figure. He isn't one that will come out and play, that being said out loud now will jinx us. He will probably be very active and into everything. Lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birdhouse Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 (edited) The need keeps growing I understand where you are right now. Working again does change the dynamics thank heavens these birds seem to roll with the changes in our lives. I have heard many people saying how they need to keep things the same all the time so their birds will not be freaked out but I find they accept changes quite well if we keep them in the loop and explain what to expect. sounds a little crazy when I read it back but it seems to work here. I don't think so. You both live w/a flock, if you'll excuse me, of misfits. They're in some ways similar in mentality at least. They're living a much more natural dynamic. Daily flock life is crazy, fluid, dramatic. I think the problems come w/being an only child. They get all up in their own head because there is no one else who can actually relate, set a different example or diffuse the moments that get blown out of proportion sometimes. If there was a flock of Greys in the wild who were all like so many of ours, they wouldn't last the week. I think Chezron posted how she felt sorry about the fids not having a mate & all that implies. To me, it's the day to day stuff w/their flockmates that I would think some are missing out on much more. Edited March 31, 2015 by birdhouse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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