May 12th

I just wanted to share my day yesterday...its a story of stupid me.

after work, my hubby and i took pico, our amazon, to the vet for a follow up. apparently during the new-bird checkup, they found elevated levels of a certain type of bacteria so we had to administer antibiotics to pico for the last 10 days. so yesterday the vet took some swabs of his mouth and vent to test if everything is now in the norm.

anyways, while on the drive there, i had pico in the carrier on my lap, and the carrier is a cage that has a pretty big open slot on the bottom of all sides where pico stands...anyways i have been accidentally placing my fingers there to hold onto the cage and pico has nipped my fingers twice to say "hey, this cage isnt big enough for me and your fingers...get outta here!", but they were not hard at all. this time, i AGAIN (*DUH*) unknowingly placed my thumb in that slot area and wham! he nearly bit the top of my thumb off!

ugh, i could just kick myself....hubby, pico's favorite person, gave him a stern NO and BAD BIRD, and pico tried to look as innocent as he could as blood was running out of my injured thumb and dripping down my hand. when we got to the vet, i washed it out, put antiseptic on it and put a bandaid on and the bleeding finally stopped.

pico's following "punishment" was being handled by the vet (you can tell that you have a good avian vet when they know exactly how to handle them and without fear!), getting swabbed at both ends and getting his toenails clipped.then dropped hubby off at his next stop and i went home with pico.

i didnt have any bad feelings with pico (the hateful blood-hungry thumbbiter!!!!!!) because he has warned me on previous occasions. i put him on his playstand, spent time talking with him and he calmed down nicely. he let me scratch his head for a while as i "cooed" to him.i find that between pico and i, i first must calm him before he allows me to pet him - with hubby, pico will allow him to pick him up, scratch him, do anything at anytime. its okay. i am just happy that pico doesnt go in full aggressive display anymore when i approach him (which he did in the beginning).

well, since getting my thumb bit, i realized how much i need my right thumb...opening bottles....turning the car key in the ignition......getting the car key out of the ignition......typing.........lol, okay, so much for my rambling.

love your birds, no matter what.

k

Day 25

Looking back on all of my previous posts, I have to say that from biting the heck out of my hand at the pet store and on the 2nd day at home, Pico has become a much better companion to me. And only after less than a month of daily "training". it was amazing, and i grew a lot from this as a bird lover and owner.

i see that Pico has great potential to be a friendly bird to family, friends and strangers. the big test is still to come - and that is to have our friends come over to our place to visit; on Pico's home turf. we will be getting visitors in july and september. we'll see how that goes.

what i have learned during this journey:

1) pico is moody and you have to respect that. some times he is just a preen-junky; he would bow his head and want a good preen for a good half an hour (or longer if your legs dont ache). other times he is just not in the mood to be touched. i never push him to allow me to scratch him on his body. its up to him and i want him to feel comfortable.

2) eye contact when handling and playing with pico is VERY important. it serves to be aware of what pico is doing and what he is planning to do (like lunge for a finger) and lets him know who is top bird - namely ME. if i pick him up on to the perch and i feel he might be feeling a little feisty and may want to gnaw on my hand thats holding the perch, i give him the evil eye. he would see it, stop and his whole body language would change and relax.

3) in the beginning and on a daily basis, just talking to pico helped immensely. i talked to him softly and animatedly (not monotone, and mostly using excited, high-pitched tone) using his name often for at least 15 minutes at a time. passive interactive "games" also helped - like the blinking game, stretching when he stretches, shaking of the body when he shakes out his feathers, etc. if he sees that you feel comfortable, he will feel comfortable. its small things, but it helps build the bond.

4) playing with pico and offering him his favorite treats are also powerful bond-makers.

5) having his favorite person in the room (my hubby) praise him when he steps up nicely on the perch in my hand and when i doing things with pico that normally he only allows my hubby to do with him makes pico more accepting of me. praises from favorite person works wonders.

i dont have pico where i want him exactly yet - i still dont feel comfortable having him step up onto my hand yet - but we have many years ahead of us to get both of us there.

i am summarizing here because i think i will stop with blog-writing from now on, unless i have a "first" about pico to tell. it just seems that my posts are becoming boring and redundant.

till next time!

Day 24

I didn't come home till about 7pm...*sigh*

but once i came home, i took pico out, talked with him, gave him some apple juice and took him around the apartment. actually, i tried to place pico directly on his play stand after taking him out of his cage, but he didnt want to. it seems that i have started a routine when taking him out of his cage - walk around the apartment into the different rooms and take him upstairs to see if the big bird is set outside of his owner's apartment to say hi. then i come back down and then pico goes happily onto his play stand. very interesting.

i made some pasta for dinner, so of course all birds got some noodles - they just inhale it.

pico thought he needed a really good full body preening session, so i left him to his handiwork.

hubby came home and i talked to pico more - i think just talking to pico softly and animatedly (using his name often) has really brought him around to trusting and liking me more. he listens so intently and shakes his head occasionally. and then when he is ready, he bows his head in my direction to let me know that he wants a head scratch.

today was the last night for his meds...yay! he'll go to the vet again to check to see if everything is okay and then thats it. (hoping!)

Day 23

today i sorta followed pico's lead.

i took him out of his cage on the perch and walked with him around the apartment. he was so into it, so i also led him out in the hallways of the apartment building. we also went upstairs to visit the big bird and his owner. pico wanted to go right up to the big bird's cage, but i pulled back and pico tried to bite me for that. a NO and a perch wobble corrected him and he behaved after that.

the other bird (big bird i will call him), was also very interested, but didnt know what to do. he got a little closer to pico in his cage, but then went to his food bowl where he was dining on fried egg. wow.

after the visit, we went back down to our apt, and i put pico on his play stand. that was good timing because holding him on that perch for that long was killing my hand and arm. once pico stepped off, i could hardly open my hand that was holding on to his perch. ack! i hope he is not gaining any more weight....vet said he was a little overweight so we have been limiting his seed/nut intake.

pico hasnt taken a mist shower in a week or so. i tried putting him on his perch in the shower, but he didnt want it. if he doesnt take a shower by the weekend, we will have to do something.

after putting pico on his playstand (and working out the kinks in my hand!) i spent some quality time with him just talking to him. when he starts shaking his head quickly at certain familiar words and closing his eyes a bit, i can tell he is mellow and calming down. he then, if he wants, will lower his head for some preening.

i do sing to him - so far its only one song - and when i do, he wakes up a little bit and listens very intently. its interesting. i guess yna's generally do love songs.

oh, and while walking up to visit the big bird, pico usually gets exciting and blurts out some english words. this time was no different. he said a phrase that ive heard before, but couldnt understand. this time, i listened carefully and found out that pico has been saying "help me up". thats so funny because it was at the exact moment that we were climbing the stairs when pico said that. it was awesome to me.

another funny story. hubby called me to pick him up from his night class and pico was still out of the cage on the play stand. (i was into my second quality time session with pico). i decided to lure him back with some dried apricot. i ate a piece in front of him and made some "mmmmmm" noises. i gave him a piece and he gobbled it up. i showed him that i placed a few more apricot pieces into his food bowl. then i picked him up on the perch, placed him into his cage with no fuss, closed his cage, and as i saw him not going for his food bowl, i took out a piece of apricot from the bowl and handed it to pico. pico took it and promptly dropped it. it was a clear sign of "just go pick up 'daddy' and get me outta here. i dont want no apricot! i just want to go on the play stand". too funny.

well, daddy came home and pico got his meds. we allowed him some time on the play stand and it was then way past his bedtime so into his cage he went.

Day 22

had my night class tonight. i didnt come home till around 9pm; hubby came home around 11pm, but he was home most of the day.

i talked to pico for about 20 minutes and i got some head scratches in. he so mellows out during our one-on-one conversations.

we heard the big bird upstairs squawking up a storm. i also unfortunately heard his "mom" yelling at him. i hope she knows that she is reinforcing the yelling behavior of her bird....

anyways, hubby came home and gave pico his meds. almost done!

Day 20 - 21

The weekend was full of firsts...i hope i dont forget anything.

SATURDAY - started off slow. Pico doesn't seem to be a morning bird. we feed him his breakfast and as soon as he is done with that, we put him on his play stand. he immediately lifted one of his legs and closed his eyes. so we let him be.

hubby went to school, and soon after Pico woke up. i played with him and talked to him. we did some step-up training. he responded quite nicely. no problems to report.

when hubby came home, we tried to give him a mist bath, but he wasnt interested at all. we took him around the apartment and went upstairs to see if we could get a look at the large bird upstairs - but he wasn't out, so we went back to his play stand.

more attention - head preening, talking (me to him), and playing.

after dinner, Pico was really active and wanted to do something. we took him to our bedroom where he walked around on our bed and found some paper towel which he ripped to shreds immediately. after that, he was still looking for something to do, so to save our sheets, covers and pillows, we took him to the dining table where he found an orange. he gently touched it with his beak and once he punctured the skin, he smelled the orangey smell and delved right in. he did such a great job at peeling back the rind! after peeling away half of the orange rind, he enjoyed the orange inside. it was so cool to watch him work so hard to get the fruit that we took a few pictures of the process.

he ate half of the orange and hubby and i enjoyed the rest. thanks Pico!

he then got his meds and went to bed.

SUNDAY - it was such a beautiful day! the sun was shining with its full warmth and with a few cool breezes. it was so perfect. we went to a friends house and took pico along. we have really wanted to start socializing pico so that he feels more at ease with strangers. it couldn't have gone any better.

we brought along his play stand for him. at the beginning, he was a little hesitant and was just looking all over the place. Pico didnt really want to go on his play stand. so we took him around our friend's apartment (with his allowance) - he seemed to love it with wings slightly open and fluttering, eyes just wide and interested, and leaning his body out in front, just trying to look around the corner. after looking around, he allowed hubby to put him on the play stand.

Pico seemed interested in our friend (male) and as soon as this friend gave him a treat, Pico was so okay with him. he would've even allowed our friend to pick him up with his hand! the friend passed near pico's play stand and pico stretched out a foot to him, as if to say "hey, you can pick me up!". so cute.

it was so great. i am so looking forward to more socializations with other friends - if they are willing. pico sure had a great time and he was just full of energy. needless to say, he sure had a great sleep.

wonderful weekend! woohoo!