So some quick, curious questions:
I know that the store I'm getting her from has used a spray bottle to 'bathe' her, and that's all fine and dandy, but in the end I'd be moving her into the bathroom to mist anyways because I don't want to get her cage wet or anything around it. And I was thinking to just get her use to the shower instead, if just to sit atop my shower door and enjoy the warm 'misting' that easily gets up there. (I don't have a fancy shower head and I feel the water comes out far too hard for her to actually bathe in it, I'd have to get a new head before trying that) but how do you guys go about introducing the shower noise to the bird?
Also, I'd like to prepare her for vet visits, is there any way to make it as stress-less as possible? I know they probably towel them up for their own protect (as well as the vet's protection) which is fine but at the same time I'd like to avoid it as much as possible @_@ Would simple things like clicker training of sorts to get her to let me say pull her wings out, lay her on her back, so on so forth be a good place to start?
Also, I know I do eventually want to let her flight feathers grow back out. However, I'm 99.99% certain that she was never fledged, being in a pet store her whole life I'm sure they've clipped them probably as soon as they could. So I'm sure her flying capabilities will be very poor. How can I work on strengthening this? I know clipped birds can still possess the ability to lift themselves up just by pure strength, but their lands are pretty much always wonky. I don't want to just let her feathers fully grow in without her having even learned 'proper flying' so to speak, that just spells trouble to me, with a capital 'T'. Should I just clip less and less as time goes on, slowly allowing more of the feather to stay intact while helping her 'practice' if I even can?
I feel like I have more thoughtful questions but they're escaping me at the moment o-o
edit: Oh and yes one more quick Q because I read about this in a different thread. So... The very first time I met her, she had plenty of opportunities to really bite me, but all she's ever done is given me pressure bites. They're uncomfortable, but never painful. The first time I knew it was just from me moving to fast. I had gotten her to step up and went to slowly and gently 'pet her' so to speak and she nommed my finger. But the other times they've just seemed random to me. Those ones were usually pretty 'gentle' in comparison to the first one. And of course there have been other times where she's opened her beak and leaned forward in an attempt to nom me (it's never fast lunging, it's always like a slow lean forward with beak open) and I just drop my hand slightly out of her reach, or i'll move my hand to the topside of her beak. I've actually 'pet' her beak a few times after her 'lazy' attempts to bite me. She doesn't snake her head around to try and bite, just kind of sits there, beak still open as if she thinks she can still bite me but doesn't actually try. I'll stroke the rim of her beak a few times then retreat and she'll go back to doing whatever it was she was doing before. Of course, the latest time was me feeding her an almond, where she took it, rotated it around a bit, dropped it, and made a 'semi-quick' nom at my finger. That one surprised me cus I wasn't expecting it at all (she had a almond in her mouth... why would i.. LOL) and when she gripped my finger i pulled back sharply -slaps self, bad. naughty me- out of shock, not pain. It was like all the others, just an uncomfortable pressure. So... is this just her being hesitant with me in a way? Is she 'testing' me? She's had PLENTY of times to really do some damage, but never seemed interested in really hurting me. Which... believe me I'm grateful for. That beak can be pretty intimidating on such a tiny bird haha. But like I told the staff there, "You shouldn't get a bird and expect never to be bit because it's going to happen at LEAST once." so I'm not afraid of being bitten. Well... not afraid, but of course, obviously I wouldn't every put her anywhere near my face, etc. during these early stages of our relationship because that DOES make me uncomfortable. As far as run-of-the-mill bites... I like to think she wouldn't be capable of say... breaking my finger/removing my finger like a macaw could if they really wanted to heh (although I know you really gotta mess up to have that done to you, that or just unlucky circumstances). Let me know you're thoughts on this please. This could jut be normal behavior too, perhaps I'm over thinking it P: