PB Update and her lilac chew toy

[Dustbunny]

PB has made such huge progress in the last week. During clicker training she will now step on to my bare fingers. She is still hesitant, but I can see her fear decreasing daily. I suspect we are really close to getting her over her fear of hands. She's doing MUCH better with fabric. I have her stepping up on all different types and she only slightly hesitates now.

I can handle her with less worry of aggressive bites. Her and I are really bonding. In fact, I don't think she's given me a hard bite in a week. She's not as friendly with everyone else yet, but I see improvement with her socialization as well. I'm not working too hard on this yet though. I want her to get over her fears of hands and fabric fully first. My husband tried to give her a kiss on top of the head like I do and that didn't work out so well for him. She just pitbulled onto his lip and hung on until he managed to nicely, but as quickly as possible, distract her off it. LOL. (Shhh. Don't tell I told, but that's actually the second time this has happened to him. )

PB seems to enjoy being with me. When I leave the room she wants to come. Sometimes she doesn't want to step up, but then I leave the room for a few seconds and come back in to find her bouncing up and down to step up and join me. She also loves to snuggle with me before I put her in her cage for the night. I think this is in part to delay me from putting her in the cage as long as possible. I don't mind in the slightest. :09:

I was getting frustrated trying to get her to chew on anything other than paper. Other than a very brief interest in popsicle sticks, she didn't want to. Then I brought in a fresh branch from my lilac bush and put that in her play stand. Oooh boy. Fresh wood. That's the secret! She loves it. She loves chewing the leaves off. (There are dozens all over the place at the moment.) She loves stripping the bark off it. Then she loves gnawing the branches in half. She LOVES it! It's a good thing my lilac bush is more of a tree in need of desperate pruning. Here's a pic of the branch this morning before she had a chance to destroy it. I put this on the stand last night, but notice how perky the leaves still are. I put the branch in a jar of water at the bottom - where she never goes. It's not the most secure yet, but I was just curious to see if it would work. It does!

Let's see, what else...

Ohhh. This one is funny. A couple times PB managed to hop on top of my monitor from a hanging branch on her play stand. She seemed to really enjoy hanging out on top of it so I crocheted a rope walkway. I taped chopsticks to either side of the monitor and hook the rope over them. One end dangles so she can climb onto the monitor stand or bed below and the other is attached to a shower curtain ring that clips onto her play stand. Oh and to keep poop from landing inside the back of the monitor via the cooling slats, I crocheted a thin cotton rope which sits behind the monitor. I hang newspaper off of this and it allows air flow but prevents poop disasters. I also put a couple birdie bagels and toys up there for her to play with. She loves it. She's figured out exactly how best to get my attention when I'm working on the computer...

LOL. I'm learning to play games and read between bobbing birdy heads and tail feathers.

And the last thing I can think of at the moment is she'll now eat her Roudybush pellets without tricks. I don't have to grind them up and mix them with seeds or her other foods now. She's now eating a perfectly healthy diet without complaint. Woohoo!

So for anyone wondering if an older bird with a questionable background can make a good pet, the answer is yes. It is possible with a lot of work and attention to their needs.

Thanks again to everyone here who has so generously shared their stories and advice. It's made all the difference in helping PB.

 

[labell]

How adorable! Wonderful progress with PB and a testament to what love and patience can accomplish!

I love the lilac on the stand, I have one pitiful bush in too much shade I am hoping to buy a rather large bush this year and plant it in a better spot.

 

[Dustbunny]

I love the lilac on the stand, I have one pitiful bush in too much shade I am hoping to buy a rather large bush this year and plant it in a better spot.

Me too. The flowers smell so heavenly. I just wish their scent traveled farther. It's so delicate.

I wouldn't worry too much about getting a really large bush. When they're in a good spot they just grow like mad. At least mine does and it doesn't get any special treatment from me. As necessary I hack 'em down and away from the fence. That's it.

 

[labell]

LOL The reason I am hoping to find a large bush is that all the eclectus would love it including the flowers so I'd like it to able to take some heavy cuttings before too long without killing it.

 

[Dustbunny]

Ahhh. Good thinking! I have an idea for when I do eventually run out of lilac branches. Kudzu! It's not too hard to find here. I think PB would like it and from what I've found it should be safe. I'm wondering if I could grow it indoors as a winter plant for her... There is only one way to find out.

 

[hacatta]

i had to laugh hard at this.
I also am a gamer and i need to work with 4 gccs.
1 will attack my mouse,2 will attack the fingers on the keyboard and the other will fan his wings and tail on my computer screen.
Yeah my skill went backwards....

 

[Dustbunny]

i had to laugh hard at this.
I also am a gamer and i need to work with 4 gccs.
1 will attack my mouse,2 will attack the fingers on the keyboard and the other will fan his wings and tail on my computer screen.
Yeah my skill went backwards....

ROFL! I feel your pain. I have one cat that ALWAYS has to curl up in the crook of my left arm. Only the left. And another cat who will drape herself anywhere she pleases. (It never looks comfortable.) And now PB gets so jealous when I'm using the keyboard she climbs down and tries to chew the keys off. Just yesterday I tried to get a picture of PB on my monitor, the dog on my legs, one cat in the crook of my left arm, and another draped half on me and half on top of my mouse pad. I couldn't reach far enough to get the pic.

Anymore, if I get 30 minutes of only moderately-interrupted game time, I think that's amazing. How I'm ever going to do a group run now is beyond me. I can't imagine many groups being receptive to: "Pardon me. AFK a tic while I turn Blues Clues on for my bird." or "...while I tuck my bird in and read her a bedtime story." LOL

 

[hacatta]

i had to laugh hard at this.
I also am a gamer and i need to work with 4 gccs.
1 will attack my mouse,2 will attack the fingers on the keyboard and the other will fan his wings and tail on my computer screen.
Yeah my skill went backwards....

ROFL! I feel your pain. I have one cat that ALWAYS has to curl up in the crook of my left arm. Only the left. And another cat who will drape herself anywhere she pleases. (It never looks comfortable.) And now PB gets so jealous when I'm using the keyboard she climbs down and tries to chew the keys off. Just yesterday I tried to get a picture of PB on my monitor, the dog on my legs, one cat in the crook of my left arm, and another draped half on me and half on top of my mouse pad. I couldn't reach far enough to get the pic.

Anymore, if I get 30 minutes of only moderately-interrupted game time, I think that's amazing. How I'm ever going to do a group run now is beyond me. I can't imagine many groups being receptive to: "Pardon me. AFK a tic while I turn Blues Clues on for my bird." or "...while I tuck my bird in and read her a bedtime story." LOL

Lol,i make sure to use a dungeon finder that pairs me up without having team-speak.
But raids and so ,yup that's going to be hard,i am pretty much just joining groups randomly.
They never remember you,and your weird excuses.

 

[Dustbunny]

I gotta be honest. I hate vocal chatting with strangers. It really tries my patience. Some people are great. Far too many of them I don't know how they manage to cross the road safely each day. The light is on, but no one is home. With text chat, if they're not smart enough to put their words on screen, then it's not my problem. :54:

I need a pet guild to group with where all the members are nutty animal lovers. Then no one will blow a gasket at having to pause before the final boss so PB can go "bombs away" in the toilet. (Actually, she only does this reliably in the morning. It's a work in progress.) Or be REALLY understanding when a fuzzy runs across the keyboard typing ";lkjhgfds" into chat while also being solely responsible for causing a group wipe. LOL