Day 10

Today was a start of the next phase of Pico's training.

I started by reading another chapter of a parrot behavior book to him in a soft, animated tone. He calms down nicely, as i preen his head on and off as i read to him. Very important to add his name in every once in a while. I say his name every time i come across the word "bird".

After about 10-15mins of that, I took him out of his cage to his play stand (he lunged, i did rumble stick) where i played with him with his favorite ball and a rattle toy. Pico has done a good job at gnawing on these things and its cool to see all the gusto he puts into this "work".

Pico is quite an intelligent bird - as i believe are most birds. he show a lot of interest in my playtimes with him and when i speak to him. im sure its a matter of time till he starts talking back...but even if he never decides to talk, he will always be a wonderful bird to me.

Well, i tried to give him a slice of cantalope - i ate some in front of him, made "mmmm" sounds to show i enjoyed it and offered him some - but he just took it from me, bit it a couple of times and dropped it. i tried giving him more, but he promptly dropped it without a fuss. it could be because its something new - i will have try it again!

i gave him some down time to himself on the play stand where i did my own thing. he slept some and when i got out of eye-shot, he would start saying "huh" "what"...funny. we are trying to teach him to say "whats up", so to let him know where we are, we answer his huh's and what's with "whats up". so far, we've only got "huh huh" out of him. progress maybe? at least he knows its two syllables, i guess. :)

okay, then Pico pretty much "woke up" and was showing a lot of energy. so i decided to take the next step in his training. i placed a chair in an unfamiliar area of the apartment (in the hallway where he couldnt see his play stand and cage), had Pico step up on the wooden perch and brought him to the chair.

i made Pico step up from the perch to the chair for about 10 - 15 mins. i think i needed this just as much as Pico because this time, i really worked on keeping eye contact with him. this really helped (including the unfamiliar area) with him focusing on my voice and the training rather than going straight for my hand to bite. not once did he lunge for my hand. i praised him each time he stepped on and off. i stopped the training after he showed a slight aggression to the whole thing - cant quite remember what it was, but it was clear he wanted to stop. he was doing so well, so i didn't want this to become a negative experience for him.

i took him to his play stand and he didnt go to bite my hand(!). a small step, yes, but it was sooooooooooo cool to me. such a good bird and a great 1st day of training in an unfamiliar setting. i decided to give him some corn - loves this - and gobbled it up.

well, i learned to give more attention with my eyes to his eyes while having him step up. before this, i involuntarily kept my eyes on my HAND to be aware if Pico goes for my hand or not. this time i mentally thought about keeping eye contact with Pico. it worked a lot. i know i should have done this in the beginning, but i just couldn't seem to pry my eyes off my hand...i guess his bite was more sore than i thought.

Day 10 was great! i am looking forward to tomorrow's session. this time i think i will have some corn on hand during the session.