Right now Salty is.....

[BIRDIGIRL]

Sleeping, after a great training session. But before that we played rough for awhile and some peek a boo. Then he got an impromptu shower and foot bath, cuz my son was playing with the dog who just had her flea medicine applied. Then he played with Salty., so I washed him down and gave him a foot bath (Salty). Dumb. Dinner was pepper chop and yams, so that was a big mess. Training to nite included his xylophone training. He is at the point where he picks the beater up and will drop it onto the xylophone a few times, hitting the keys but not really 'playing' it yet. He knows what I want him to do, it's just taking a little time for him to get it right. Like most tricks, he is eager to please and get it right. We even progressed a bit on the harness training, with Salty obeying an UP request while the harness was on him. Then some more rough play and it was bed time. Nice new light weight black sheet to cover him, and off he went. He zonks out pretty quickly.

You are making great progress with the harness then it seems ...it wont be long either until Salty figures out how to hit a note on that xylophone and after that first note rings out then you and Geri can dance to the beat because life will never be the same again Great job with the training

 

[Blancaej]

Love the thread and keeping up with the amazing life of Salty!

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[wrench13]

Wow, long day with Salty this Saturday. I don't usually get to spend that much time with him, working all week. Today I was out early before he woke up, with my son brett, on the motorcycles. Back at the barn by 9 and pulling them in woke the bird up. I gave him breakfast of blueberries and pellets. Then i went on a video taking spree, the result is the video of him laughing, posted elsewhere. My wife and I were laughing our fool heads off at seeing him laughing at the video of himself laughing. Crazy stuff. Then we took a shower together and he loved it. Lunch was apple slices, and then off to petsmart with Salty in his pack o bird. I took him out of it in the store, and he picked out his birthday present. Everyone there thought he was so cute, peeking out of the POB. Once home he got a big walnut for being so good in the car, and we wrestled and played the afternoon away. Lots of scratches too. Geri made pizza on the barby, and we all ate dinner on the deck. Tinker and Salty got pizza crusts and later I made him a sweet tater, which he loves. We watched some tv, and then time for training and then bedtime. Geri was kidding me that I fell in love all over again with him, and he with me. You know, maybe she is right.

 

[GaleriaGila]

Sounds like a magical time. A little gem of a day.

We had a couple over for dinner. They were fascinated by the parrot, who was calling "GAIL! GAIL!" from upstairs in his palatial suite. I finally gave in and brought him out, at which time he flew around like a bat out of hell, screaming unintelligible things, refusing to let me grab him. I did finally succeed, managed to entice him to dive head first down into my t-shirt, as is his habit (he's a burrowing parrot, ya know)... while I rushed back upstairs to wrestle him back into his cage.

Fortunately, his curiosity/territoriality/agitation was resolved, and he was pretty quiet after that. Dinner was pleasant.

Salty is such an angel. I would love it if the Rbird was more social, but... hey, I have to love my little demon.

 

[wrench13]

Gail re the burrowing, the one patty conure I met immediately stuck his head in my shirt and accepted head scratches. Patagonians are officially my son Brett's favorite parrot now. He was a real mush ball.

Yes, yesterday was a real gem to be remembered when they don't go so well. Today Sunday, I won't be able to spend much time with him, cleaning stuff mostly, and them a jam session this afternoon. We will still have dinner and of course training later on. Need to see more Ricky updates!

 

[GaleriaGila]

Indeedy, ya gotta hold on to the good stuff. My Grandmother used to say that happy memories were the best umbrella when it rained. Sweet.

I sometimes walk around the house with him in my shirt, head peeking out upside down from the bottom as he clings to my waistband or belt I have tried to get a picture, but no luck so far.

The RB seemed to be in a terrible mood today... would NOT come out of the cage, which is weird. Even when he's in a bad mood, he likes to come out and make everybody miserable. I gave up for the time being, but a stray thought crossed my mind... I was wearing a new t-shirt. It had a small but colorful logo on the sleeve. Changed the shirt, out he came! He's half mushball and half Charlie Sheen. But you know I love him. I have an ache in my heart when I'm too long without him.

Even when he's being a Charlie, I can go read about Salty and hit my re-set button!

 

[BIRDIGIRL]

ha ha Im really enjoying hearing about Salty and he picking out his Birthday toy...Happy Birthday Salty...hope you chose a Great toy Loved hearing about the Ricky bird too and all his escapades and I really enjoyed hearing about the objection to the logo on the tshirt that reminds me of a certain Mr Biggles LoL
Keep the Salty Adventures coming Al its Great hearing all about the things he does...I have to go search for the video...I bet he enjoyed his pizza crust too

 

[wrench13]

Well not right NOW, but last night, in our training session, Salty had the harness partially on, well all on except for tucking the back straps under his wings ( due to extreme wing-a-phobia). I asked him to step up, he tripped a bit and flapped his way across the table and in doing so, he got the straps under his wings! I was so pleased, I fed the little monster pine nut piece after piece. After 2 min or so he started to pick and bite on the straps so it was time to give him the "Off" command, which he did pretty OK, except I didnt loosed the harness before giving the command - my fault, have to remember that in the future. Once I loosened them up a lot, Salty bowed his head , as he is supposed to do for the "Off" command, and off it came. Lots n lots of praise and pine nuts again. I hope in tonights session I can get him to remember that he had the straps under his wings and it was no big deal.

He is also getting the idea of the xylophone better. He picks the hammer up and gently places onto the keys, really well. I just have to get him used to the idea of slamming down on the keys , to get a note. LOL, before we do the trick, I put the hammer in my mouth and hit the keys to show him what I want. Every night, just a little bit closer to what I want; he tries so hard, its great to see his enthusiasm. You should see how he RUNS to do certain tricks - putting small balls into a cup, the rings, and surprisingly the harness. He skips from foot to foot waiting for me to set these tricks up!

 

[GaleriaGila]

You two amaze me. Ever since the Rickeybird flipped the script on me with potty training, I pretty much conceded defeat, and he does whatever he wants.
So will Salty actually be able to play at a gig? Harness on? Maybe a small venue?

 

[CherylCali]

GaleriaGila I want to know if RB will wear a harness? EB has pretty well beat me at that. I dont think its going to happen in real life.

CherylCali

 

[GaleriaGila]

RB has defeated me in my attempts to get one on him. I think he was just too old (15-20) when I tried. Since he loves to burrow, I just tug the neck of a shirt (usually a t-shirt) and he dives headfirst in and perches upside down on my Victoria's Secret. I hold on to him through the shirt and we travel that way, usually with his sticking out the bottom. I can safely ride in a car like that, or walk or whatever. He is content to stay there a long time if something interesting is going on. We have a screened-in porch that gives nice outside time and sun much if the year.

So Salty and his dad are putting me and RB to shame! But at least I can enjoy training vicariously!

 

[CherylCali]

EB won't burrow. I wish she would. I think she is thinking something like I cant train mom from inside her shirt. Who's the captain of this ship anyway? Just a guess.

CherylCali

 

[GaleriaGila]

Let's send them to Wrench. He can whip them into shape!

 

[wrench13]

The harness...... well we been working on that for , oh, say 6 months, every night, so that's 180 times, and we are not there yet. I am hoping for next spring, but he could surprise me, and still be where we are at, or he could get it in the next few tries, and anywhere in between. Training is patient methodical, incremental torture. But at least he gets nutrition out of it. I get....... to amaze my wife and tell you good folks about it.

 

[CherylCali]

Honestly, your relationship with Salty is inspiring. It's a gift to watch in the short time I've been here.

CherylCali

 

[wrench13]

Oh, crap, s#*t, he definitely got freaked out by last night, and was really too scared to take the treat and put his head in the headstall. Damn. 180 days training, down the drain. Oh, well, we start from scratch, this happens sometimes. Maybe it was cuz we started really late tonite, almost 11pm, or my mood, which was hot, sweaty, tired from the day..... they say parrots tend to mirror your mood. Well I am not going anywhere, neither is he, so we try again tomorrow. Thanks for the support, everyone.

 

[CherylCali]

I hope he comes back to it really fast. I've read that they can see our capillaries, and that if we're frustrated they can see it in them. To which I thought, great, I have high blood pressure so I probably look like a bright red monster to EB. Lol.
But I hope you gain the lost ground faster than ever.

CherylCali

 

[wrench13]

I think a couple of other things influenced our session. Its been brutally hot, and my living/dinning/ kitchen room is not AC'd, so Salty had been sitting in a hot room, with a fan blowing on him, all day and most of the evening; I had to take Geri food shopping last night (she can no longer drive, and the band has an away gig in MD this weekend, so she needed some stuff) and we only got home at 9:45, none of the animals had been fed and for Salty thats 45 min past his BED time, so he was both tired and hungry. And he has been feeling his oats for the last week or two - hormones? At 1 year old? Maybe, or just the heat and humidity is getting to him, like it has all of us. SO I hope this is a temporary set back for the harness portion of our training routine.

On an up note, once I got him into an AC'd room, he wanted a scratchie really bad, and I was able to give him that, plus a long shoulder massage. I have this massage technique, which is a good one I learned, plus ( and I know this will sound crazy) I have this blue aura, penetrating force, Jedi thing that I can do very occasionally. He must have been getting it because while Salty likes his scratches, but he was positively limp when we were done. I hope that made up for the crappy training session. God, we love that bird so much. To give you an idea, Geri, who is 4'11" and now disabled, could not get Salty off his Boing ( near the ceiling). Salty can't be left alone on it, cuz he jumps/falls off onto the floor, so she sat with Salty, in the 90+ deg living room all day and evening until I got home. When an AC'd room is 10 steps away, that's a big sacrifice.

 

[CherylCali]

The heat and humidity and late bed time sound like the culprits. There is just something when a bird loves you and trusts you with their life that is almost heavenly. I live in south Texas. It is insanely hot. We have window units but they're keeping it around 80° in the house. It's pretty brutal this summer. We had the first night in our bedroom that we had to turn on a box fan and early bird complained in her sleep about the fan for about an hour. Maybe all night, idk, I fell asleep. Im glad you got some good bird loving in at the end of a rough day!

CherylCali

 

[wrench13]

Well it will remain until Mon to see if theres a difference. To night, our guitar player plays up from Key West and we will rehearse, and this weekend we have a gig down in Maryland.