I would like for her to be able to fly around freely, but not while my face is her intended target. So, that is why I am getting her wings clipped this weekend. It is temporary, so I will feel more comfortable working with her.
Whether Sucre is clipped or flighted, I still recommend starting from inside the cage working on target training through the cages bars. Deliver a treat via a spoon or a "treat cup" that you can drop her reward in. That way, if it looks like she's about to bite, you can back off and avoid getting bitten.
If Sucre is caged, she can't chase you!
And if you can work with her while your husband is not around, you can build up a relationship. Please do read about Rocky, Lara and his ball! Rocky was a cockatoo that was no neurotic that he was going to be put to sleep. Lara saved his life and although he's been a *LONG* work in progress, it's still amazing to see the progress that has been made over the years!
And Lara Joseph was an impulse buyer. She walked into a pet store to buy a pooper scooper for her dog and walked out with a "white cockatiel", Rico! Well, Rico turned out to be an umbrella cockatoo! If you need any additional help, please reach out to Lara, too!
You may also find this link of help. Well, it would be your husband doing the training!
https://larajoseph.wordpress.com/2011/03/12/training-a-bird-to-station-its-importance/
Or Barbara Heidenreich who started her career training birds in zoos! She was so perplexed by the issues with pet parrots that she went from training zoo animals to training *all* animals, including pets! She's extremely in tune with their behavior!
Training Parrots | Parrot Training DVDS & Books
She acts out (screams) if not let out, and we have found NOTHING that will stop her.
Can you time exactly when she starts to scream?
If yes, you could try bathing her until she's soaking wet *before* she starts screaming and hopefully she'll be busy preening and drying off instead of screaming.
Or maybe try giving her some safe, natural perches with as much bark and leaves still left on them for her to strip down? (if she's not afraid of them!)
Bird; Birds: Safe, Toxic Trees, Woods. Safe Tree Wood. Parrots. Parrot cages.
Or........ you can find or buy some pine cones, put some dried fruits, pellets and seeds between the various petals of the pine cones and give that to her to forage in? One person even took dandelions (flowers, stems and leaves) and wrapped those around a pine cone!
Feather Plucking, Feather Plucking Remedies, Feather Destructive Behavior, Pine Cones, Exotic Bird Food, Pinecones, Bird Toys, Feather Picking Solutions and Refeathering
Get some untreated 2x2's or 2x4's, lengths of 4" to 10" (hang it as a toy or make into a perch!), drill holes into the wood, and stuff the holes with Nutriberries, wooden beads, seeds, pellets, toys, etc! Instead of drilling holes, you could also make slots within the wood to stuff food into.
Or a fun activity for some birds! Give them a dish of water fulled with small pieces of fruits and veggies! Basically, bobbing for apples! Except it's various foods! Peas in the pod, carrots, zucchini, etc!
Got any extra phone books lying around? Tear off the outside covers and either weave the pages through the cage bars or drill a hole in the spine and bolt it to the cage!
Or to revisit the foraging idea... make sure you remove all food at night and first thing in the morning, give her a variety of ways to eat her breakfast! Please 5+ *small* cups around her cage and fill the cups with a *small* amount of food. Wrap food up in mini paper cupcake holders! Place her food in foraging toys. Using safe string, tie her food up to her perches so she has to pull the string up to get to her food. Place her food in containers with easy to remove lids.
Start simple, but make her work for her food. The more time she has to physically work to eat, the less time she has to do some other less than desirable things!
Would all of this make more sense if "she" were a "he"??? The people I rescued her from weren't overly trustworthy. Should I have the test again? Would that help what we're trying to do here?... I don't guess the sex matters. It's not like I plan to breed (can't imagine more than one of her / him) and from what I've read, it isn't like knowing would give me some sort of epiphany as to how to fix this.
You're right, it doesn't matter the sex of Sucre in regards to training.... however, it could potentially be a life or death situation knowing the sex. Male birds can't lay eggs, therefore they can't get egg-bound. I can't imagine there's much worse than rushing your male bird to the vet because he's not acting right, only to find out that "he" is really a female that's egg-bound, and if you had read up on all the egg related health issues in female birds, you might have been more prepared for this incident or might have been able to prevent it by knowing the triggers to egg laying.
At least, that's one possible scenario.
So in that sense, it kind of is important.
She was allowed to drink her own cup of coffee every morning with her previous owner, so she would also like to drink ours, and we don't want her to have the caffeine, so a coffee cup can cause a real battle of wills.
Besides offering her fruit juice, as another member mentioned, you could also offer her warm green tea or chamomile tea, or other caffeine-free teas.
Maybe you could use her love of warm drinks to your advantage? If she's good, she gets to have a sip out of her own cup?
We are going to the vet to get her wings clipped to slow down her attacks (and give me time to get out of the way when she comes running), do I just need to get a piece of feather? Do I have to request a kit for DNA? Who is best to deal with?
As previously mentioned, if using feathers, you need to pluck a few. It's mostly recommended to pluck feathers from the breast area. You want plucked feathers though as they contain the most DNA on them. (typically some skin around the base of the quill from being plucked) If you use clipped feathers or molted feathers, these have less DNA.
Otherwise, it's clipping a toenail too short, or taking blood from the jugular, nail bed, or wing to do a blood sample. If you need to do any blood tests, such as a CBC, this would be a great time to get a little extra blood taken for the DNA test!
Or....... if she happens to break a blood feather.... you could always use that.
Hopefully you are able to find a way to work with her and create a positive relationship with Sucre!
