Should I?

[GinaF]

Ok. He's all set up.

You can read the adventure if you want in the macaw section since it partially applies to Blue.

Now that there's 2, I'm struggling with where to post my updates.

In any event, I've attached pictures of his new casa. It took me all day and a pound of flesh but we all survived (barely)

So.... what happened to my quiet house?

 

[Gizmomania]

OMG, look at your amazing cages! Lucky birds!

 

[JerseyWendy]

How is "Z" this morning, Gina? I hope a little less evil. :54:

 

[SandyBee]

Quiet might be a little too boring for you Gina!!
Looks amazing and yes how is your new little feathered terror this morning?

 

[Poppetsmum]

They look fab Gina. What very lucky birds they are.

 

[GinaF]

How is "Z" this morning, Gina? I hope a little less evil. :54:

He only tried to attack me every single time I walked by his cage. Apparently I'm evil for giving him a nice home. He hasn't made much noise. Just sitting on his perch clutching his voodoo doll and staring suspiciously at me.

He'll come around... maybe.

 

[SandyBee]

Last year when I got Bosley it took 4 days. He would lunge when I changed his food etc...
First time I went to work and left him, he decided I wasn't as bad when I got home. Sealed with a warm meal!!
Have dinner with him and all will be well I bet, Amazon's love their food!!!

 

[getwozzy]

The first few days Jackie came home I felt like all he wanted to do was pluck my eyeballs out lol he lunged any time I changed his dishes or came near the cage. He was quite the mess. It took a while for him to show any sort of niceness to me...he was a sucker for food though!!
Hopefully after Z settles down from the move he'll realize his new home is paradise compared to his last!

Thank you for taking in a crazy zon

 

[JerseyWendy]

Gina, how's it going with the "Z" boy???

 

[GinaF]

Shocking Discoveries

After years in rescue, I’d thought that I’d seen and heard it all. From the various behavioral problems to the sweetest gestures. One thing I learned is that every bird is different and every circumstance has a completely unique story.

There’s little known about “Mr I Gotta Take a Shot at Everyone,” Zonzilla here. Very little information was passed on about him when he came in. It’s not uncommon. Typically, when people surrender their once beloved pet, they’re too embarrassed or ashamed to tell us a bit about their likes and dislikes. The real excitement lies in figuring all this stuff out.

So far I’ve figured out a few things. Zonzilla here apparently doesn’t dig chicks. Not a good position to take when you live in a house full of estrogen and your primary caregiver has permanent menstrual syndrome to the 4th power. Still yet, he’s insistent on taking a shot at me from within the cage every chance he gets.

I get a brilliant idea…
Let’s see how brave his 12” butt is without the protection of the cage!

Actually, he’s still pretty brave! Of all the things I’ve done lately, that probably wasn’t my smartest move. In fact, it was pretty dumb. All of a sudden I was dealing with Edward Scissorbeak who was now loose in my house like a kamikaze pilot on sake with absolutely no apprehensions about being on the floor and charging your feet.

I can’t be sure, but I think he was still clutching his voodoo doll as he took off for full flight straight through my living room. Ok. So….uh… I guess he can fly after all.

Essentially, I’m screwed. Umm.. yeah I’m actually real screwed.

It took 2 hours to get him back in his cage. 2 long, terrifying hours as he flew from one room to the other. At certain intervals, I’d leave him alone just to see what he would do. Ok, the truth is, he’s got more energy than me. I needed to stop and rest, catch my breath, get a bigger towel, eat something, take a nap…. You get the idea. His spirit animal is a bobcat. Blue’s spirit animal is a guinea pig, apparently. Here’s the part where I hope she’s too ADHD to realize what an advantage the green thing has over me.

In the meantime, I decide to build a playgym just for him. Now real estate at my house is currently at a premium since half of my house is still under renovation. Of course, it’s been under renovation for 3 years now and instead of working on my master bathroom, which is currently at the city dump, I decide to be nice, take the day and build something fun for this guy in the hopes that he realizes I’m not a bad person and stops trying to eat me. I know. I know. Good luck with that!

2 trips to Home Depot and one to Hobby Lobby and we’re set. I spent the day measuring, cleaning, cutting, cursing under my breath, measuring again and eventually assembling what I figured was an awesome PVC playgym that was designed to hang above the cage and save space. Some of us aren’t lucky enough to have a bird room…yet. Some of us only have 1.5 birds, so technically I don’t NEED one. Technically.

I let him back out, rearrange his cage, add a forked Manzanita branch, which, I personally cleaned and drilled holes to hang it, added in some interesting toys that the kids and I made this afternoon and installed a sleeping perch high in the cage.

He steps out on the door, takes another shot at biting me. He lunges at me. I lunged back at him. The whole process really threw him off balance emotionally and he decides it’s in his best interest to make his way up to the new playgym. After a few minutes he starts checking it out, beaking on every toy I have hanging off it, checking out every step up to the top and then back down again. After a few minutes he finds his way back to the open door, looks dead at me and says “F**k yeah! Rock n roll!” and starts bobbing his head, eyes flashing.

Well… ok! I guess that answers a few questions. If nothing else, that should tell me what kind of home he came out of. I’m waiting for him to ask me for a beer and/or if I want to smoke a bowl or something. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised. However, this isn't Colorado!

 

[GinaF]

I forgot to add the pictures!

 

[getwozzy]

***k yeah! Rock n roll! LOLOLOL omg. I would've died laughing. I'm sorry you went through 2 hours of zonzilla on the loose though :/ hopefully his charming side will emerge after a bit of adjustment time!

 

[GinaF]

Yeah I was a bit shocked to hear that. After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I walked away and quietly had a chuckle. He's got a potty beak. Just as I was typing this he started yelling "A**hole! A**hole".

I think he's either starting to settle in or testing his boundaries.

*unamused*

I'm guessing his previous people didn't own a shirt with sleeves. He probably likes nascar too. I'm scared to put WWF on tv. He might start cheering and do a hula dance.

 

[WannaBeAParrot]

Gina,

I want to thank you for 2 things.
1. Taking in this potty-mouth rock'n'roller gorgeous zon.
2. Keeping us posted with your lively and humorous descriptions of your adventures with Zonzilla. I had many LOLs reading.

Your hanging playgym is a masterpiece. Seriously.

Maybe you can wash his potty mouth out with plain, nonfat yogurt or something like that. That'll teach him what not to say. Just kidding !!!!!!!

You are awesome. I think this zon has met his match !

 

[SandyBee]

well at least he has a name now zonzilla seems very fitting.
I'm sure you'll get the better of him yet.

 

[JerseyWendy]

I'm laughing so hard here, I can't even catch my breath. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Zonzilla has a mind and mouth all on his own.

Hey, perhaps "play" some Rock n Roll for him and see how he does.

NEVER a dull moment in Gina's house, and boy do I look forward to reading about your birdy adventures!

That hanging playgym is seriously AWESOME!!!

 

[getwozzy]

Maybe if you wear your hair in a mullet he might warm up to you faster Lol

Ahhhh zonzilla....Lol

 

[Echo]

I forgot to add the pictures!

You are so crafty!! That's awesome!!! Now, why can't I make something like that!!!!

 

[GinaF]

I think I need to Google 'Bird exorcism' or something. There's got to be a way to get the demons out of this thing somehow. I've been trying to be as nice to him as possible but he's pushing my patience here a bit. It's been a week and he's no closer to settling down than when I brought him in. Still yet, I've been giving him space and respecting his boundaries by not messing with him too much. Trying to talk softly to him and not giving him the chance to bite me too much.

It's not working.

Birds aren't meant to spend their lives in a cage. It doesn't matter how mean they are, they all need a bit of freedom to spread their wings and exercise a bit. Especially perch potato amazons. I let him out for a bit. I needed to clean his cage anyway and that's always easier if it's not occupied with a little green acrobatic saws-all. I kept trying to get him to go up to his playgym but his majesty kept getting on the floor and climbing up Blue's cage. Since he's a little aggressive, I didn't think this was a brilliant idea. I didn't want Blue to get hurt and the bars of her cage are wide enough for him to get his drill press of a beak through. Besides, I didn't know what kind of tools he was packing under his wings to break her out so I decided to remove him.

He's stick trained. Kinda. I say kinda because the first thing he tries is to come down the stick and attack you. Redirecting doesn't work and your hand is much more scrumptious than a piece of walnut or dried fruit. So he's a carnivore with an afficionado for human flesh. Ok. Got it.

So since he wouldn't stay in his country and kept trying to invade Blue's metropolis, I decided to put him on the atom ball in the middle of the kitchen floor (good thing I haven't hung that up yet) and let him chill there. It wasn't hard since he flew onto it anyway. I just grab the side and pulled it along. It's a good thing I have 2 hands because I had to keep alternating between them as he ran from one to the other to attack me. Where the heck does he get all this energy to fight? I predict the next time it'll be easier to move him since once he's done gnawing through my hand, I'll get one of those cool pirate hooks installed in place. He didn't realize what was going on. The desire to get his beak into me was a little too overwhelming. But I wondered if his behavior would be any different if he were away from his cage.

No. Actually, it wasn't. Not at all, in fact. The only thing that was different was the fact that he now had more ability to attack and I didn't have the protection of bars to save my carcass from the evil that was now resident in the middle of my kitchen floor.

He took a shot at me every time I walked past him. I just made sure to stay out of striking range while I cleaned up his cage and replenished his foraging toys. After a while, he just sat and started chanting some weird, demonic sounds (see video). At first I thought it was funny. Was he nervous? Was he happy? After a while I realized he was pretty serious in conjuring up demons to help with his human sacrifice. He had a motive and a plan. I was waiting for him to draw a pentagram and pull out some candles. The only other thing missing was his red cape and hood with holes in it. I watched intently as he prayed to his God for power, strength and courage. I could see the dark cloud building overhead and I suspected I might be in a bit of trouble.

Yeah. He found it alright. I walked by and out of the blue, he flew right into me. He was after my face but my bird batting abilities are pretty slick. I've had a lot of practice over the years. He ended up with my finger planted deeply inside his beak. I'm pretty sure he was attempting to swallow me whole.

Straight to the bone! What an ass! He hit the floor and I stood there in shock, holding a green feather. I hope he could afford to lose that one. I might want another! I was waiting for him to give it another go. I mean, I have other fingers, but instead he waddled his content little demonic self back to his cage and went inside. I guess the whole thing wore him out. He's got a spot of my DNA on the side of his face. I'm just gonna let him keep that for now.

At the moment, he's sitting there drifting from some satanic growl to his original chanting. I'm pretty sure he's plotting round 2. The next time i have to handle him I'm putting on my ski gear.

Little satan here definitely prefers men.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR0ziPy4fkQ"]Demonic amazon parrot - YouTube[/ame]

 

[JerseyWendy]

:11: Ok, I now firmly believe he's watched the Exorcist one too many times. :11: Either that or he is in dire need of an exorcism. WHAT a demonic voice he's got.

Get out the holy water - QUICKLY!!!

And OUCHY, he got you pretty good there on your finger. At least he didn't swallow you whole. :54: