Siobhan
New member
Rocky's cage and play stand are in our living room, while the small parrots have their own room at the back of the house. It's been bird-proofed (as much as you can try to foresee what parrots will get into!) so they can be out of their cages all day long. Rocky has to be locked up when we're not home and overnight.
As is typical of 'toos, he wants all the attention, all the time, which has made it difficult to give the little parrots their fair share. He screams like a banshee when I go out of his sight. I finally decided the only way to keep everyone happy was to take him into the little parrots' room. The first time, he was terrified and my Chief Bird in Charge Clyde immediately challenged him, scaring me to pieces that Clyde would get hurt, so I hustled Rocky back out of the room within seconds. However, that was with Rocky sitting on my arm. Hubby made Rocky a rolling T-stand so we could take him wherever we go in the house, and when he's on that, he doesn't seem as scared and Clyde doesn't challenge him since he's not on my arm, which belongs to Clyde.
The first few times I took him in their room on that stand, he'd had enough pretty quickly and started screaming, so I took him out, but little by little, we're lengthening the time he spends in that room, which makes the little birds happy because I'm in there with them, and sort of makes Rocky happy because he can see me. Yesterday, he even talked and laughed and danced a bit. I'm hoping that eventually he learns to hang out in there with them and with me -- never alone with them, of course, the size difference is too great. We were in there about an hour yesterday, which is the record so far, and while he got impatient a couple of times, he didn't have such a fit that I had to take him out for quite a while, and that's a big step forward.
As is typical of 'toos, he wants all the attention, all the time, which has made it difficult to give the little parrots their fair share. He screams like a banshee when I go out of his sight. I finally decided the only way to keep everyone happy was to take him into the little parrots' room. The first time, he was terrified and my Chief Bird in Charge Clyde immediately challenged him, scaring me to pieces that Clyde would get hurt, so I hustled Rocky back out of the room within seconds. However, that was with Rocky sitting on my arm. Hubby made Rocky a rolling T-stand so we could take him wherever we go in the house, and when he's on that, he doesn't seem as scared and Clyde doesn't challenge him since he's not on my arm, which belongs to Clyde.
The first few times I took him in their room on that stand, he'd had enough pretty quickly and started screaming, so I took him out, but little by little, we're lengthening the time he spends in that room, which makes the little birds happy because I'm in there with them, and sort of makes Rocky happy because he can see me. Yesterday, he even talked and laughed and danced a bit. I'm hoping that eventually he learns to hang out in there with them and with me -- never alone with them, of course, the size difference is too great. We were in there about an hour yesterday, which is the record so far, and while he got impatient a couple of times, he didn't have such a fit that I had to take him out for quite a while, and that's a big step forward.
