Daughter upset over bird

[Mel]

TBird is making me number one preference. My daughter is upset because she hoped to bond with this bird. I think part of the problem is she hesitates with her hand hovering over him. When I try to help her I think TBird is then showing a preference for me. If that makes sense. I purchased some sugar cane sticks that I am only going to allow my daughter to give. I'm hoping it sends a positive message. Any other ideas are appreciated. Mel

[judygram]

Your daughter can still have a relationship with Tbird but it won't be like the one with you. Greys decide to they want as favorite and there is not much you can do about it but live with it.

 

Letting her give Tbird the treats will help but her hesitation does not help her at all but then you already know that.

[BMustee]

yes, as long as she hesitates with Tbird there will not be a very good relationship between the two. Hovering her hand over the bird is also not good. All parrots know when someone is scared or unsure and take full advantage of it. Greys and Macaws seems to be more sensitive to it than other parrots and if they know that someone will pull back their hand if nipped at then they will do it and learn to do it harder with time. If I were in your shoes I would limit contact until your daughter is ready to take a bite. Is your daughter young? I don't know many parrots (other than cockatoos) that like kids...little hands move to fast for them.

[zooman]

in my experience kids+parrots havent mixed well..the otehr comments are true greys do bond quickly but can learn to accept others as well on a lower level. but heres a tip that ive learned maybe you have tried this is that if your taller or your hand is higher than your daughters your grey instincts is to be on the highest person. And i agree the hand hovering over the grey is a definite no no that puts him on edge right away and i agree they can smell the fear almost like dogs.

[Trustdace]

I had the same ordeal here with Congo. I believe that hesitation to pet the bird especially hovering above its head and pulling away quickly adds to the mayhem. Bmustee put it in perfect words "take a bite". When I first got Congo he was very skittish and would growl when i would try petting it above the head or back. Quickly it started letting me handle it more and more. My daughter (she is 12 years old) wanted to pet the bird and handle it as much as I would but Congo wasn't as receptive to her as to me. Same thing with my wife and son. I would tell them that they were showing too much fear, when they attempted to touch Congo, it would swing the beak at them open and they quickly pulled their hand away. My wife has even said oh the bird already bonded to you and that's it! My daughter has been the only one brave enough to continue to work with Congo and has taken a few bites but has mastered handling Congo to my surprise! (maybe even better than me) She takes Congo out of the cage, it steps up on her command and she is training it to talk. I'm still not sold on that one person bird theory. Birds do not establish dominance over us, it is us who fail to dominate them. B) B) <br><br>Post edited by: Trustdace, at: 2008/08/02 17:34

[BMustee]

The one person bird isn't set in stone like most think. Elmo is my baby and I raised her sense she was 6 weeks, and you would think that she would only like me. She isn't lovie-dovie with most people but she will step up on command to 99% of people. She does however LOVE my b/f almost as much as me. She yells at him and then gives him kisses. It's all in how much other people handle them. Elmo used to come to work with me every day at my old job and has come into the pet store where I work on "field trips" and enjoys going into 7-11 to pick out her own fruit cup...and the staff there always gets a kick out of it too.:laugh:

[Mel]

Yeah for Tiffany!!!

 

Brandi is almost 8 yrs old. She is a calm, gentle child when handling all of our pets. She is aware of how to hold and release our dogs and other concerns unlike I have seen of most young children. However this technique is no good for a bird when she uses this caution and fear. I know this is true. She definitely can't take a bite. :woohoo: The sugar cane treats are in a container with her name on it. She will be the only one allowed to give it. There are some other great points her too. I am taller than Brandi in our approach. We may need to watck that also. I think I will let my husband be the on to work with them. We'll see how that works. Thanks for all the input! Mel

[Tycos_mom]

I have a 12 yr old daughter but she is afraid of the bigger birds with good reason she was attacked continuously by a cocatoo so she avoid the larger birds. I must say though it has not made her dislike birds at all in fact she goes out of her way to make sure she plays with my smaller birds everyday they just love her because she actually teaches them how to play different game and such. I know that Tyco would just love to have her play with her also because she watches her interact with the little ones and actually will talk away and answer her when my daughter is talking to the other birds but My daughter won't even try with Tyco she is afraid of that big beak and doesn't want any more big bites from big birds. Mabie one day tyco will just join in and then she won't be afraid anymore I hope.

[Suzzique]

A well scocialized bird will interact with lots of people. It doesn't mean that they don't have one person that they like best. We got Alex for my son after the loss of his Maximilion Pionus. But Alex bonded with me so he is my bird. But he does stuff with my son that he wont do with me. The same goes for my daughter and husband. My husband always says that Alex doesn't like him but just about all the sounds that Alex has picked up are ones he learned from the hubby.

[SweetFX]

My daughter is 8 as well. She was raised with Great Danes and Hamsters. She was taught to be the boss with the dogs to take control. The hamster were her choice and she learned they bite hard and for no reason.

 

When we had got our grey we read the books together. That helped for tips. on biting and not showing emotion.

 

Now that Rexxy is home they do well together. She feeds him. She gives him new toys. They play on thr floor together. She picks him up like a chiken and oddly works for both of them. She got nipped once..it hurt but she walked and showed no emotion in his few ..just mine. She stays away when he is is nippy.

 

Dont get me wrong he likes us all ...me a bit more ..but he is just different with each of us...so far.

[Rue]

Birds seem to choose a favourite person, and there's not much you can do about it.

 

Our newest bird, a CAG, prefers my husband over me. If he's in the room with us, I'm persona non grata.

 

However, he's not home much (away on business) so then my CAG has no choice but to hang around with me. She's very good with me for the most part, but I'm so obviously not her favourite.

 

She dislikes 2 of our 3 children. :blink: