The Saga of Romeo

[JBassset]

So, to borrow Kentuckienne's playbook, I'm going to just create one thread for the ongoing's of Romeo, the new B&G I rescued.

For the important questions I'll still create a thread (after searching the forums of course) but the normal updates and photos will happen here. That's the plan.

To get it started, Romeo came home late Saturday. I was planning on leaving him in his cage for a few days and only talking to him. Mostly letting him have his space while he settles into an entirely new home.

But as with all plans it was quickly laid to waste when Romeo decided that nope, he was having exactly NONE of this "being left alone" crap. He's a social bird used to being with his people and this fool notion that he's going to stay by himself needed some addressing.

The parrot store here in town is about 45 minutes away so I can't get to it till I have a day off so for now he's borrowing Stephen's play stand. Stephen isn't 100% on board with this but as long as he can play on me he's decided it's OK.

Things Romeo knows:

He didn't know what tomatoes are. But he sure does like them now!

Nuts like pecans and walnuts are HAPPY TIMES!

He will spend a few minutes calling loudly and then quiet himself with a nice well enunciated "SHUT THE F*&^ UP!"

He has a vet appointment on Friday afternoon. After which we'll head down to the Parrot store and find him a more appropriate playstand.

 

[Loko]

Hes beautiful! That "leave them alone for 3 days" thing is b.s., it depends on the bird and what it wants. If it wants a few days to be left alone, then yeah, but if not, theres no point and it just prolongs things getting started!
Be careful with tomatoes, they are safe but very acidic, so they shouldnt have them regularly. Hopefully the vet visit goes well, seems like he is adjusting well. I think it is so funny when birds make noise seemingly just to tell themselves to shut up. I know the intention of the person who taught him this may not have been the best, but the bird doesnt know any better.

 

[JBassset]

Hes beautiful! That "leave them alone for 3 days" thing is b.s., it depends on the bird and what it wants. If it wants a few days to be left alone, then yeah, but if not, theres no point and it just prolongs things getting started!
Be careful with tomatoes, they are safe but very acidic, so they shouldnt have them regularly. Hopefully the vet visit goes well, seems like he is adjusting well. I think it is so funny when birds make noise seemingly just to tell themselves to shut up. I know the intention of the person who taught him this may not have been the best, but the bird doesnt know any better.

Yeah, I had to laugh at him telling himself to shutup. He's a good bird and really wants to be loved/part of the family. His language isn't an issue for me but not something I'll actively encourage.

I hate tomatoes myself. Sometimes they come in the salads I buy at the store (little grape tomatoes usually) so I pick them out. It's never a regular thing because of the acidity.

The fruit I wish I could feed the fids is bananas. But I'm incredibly allergic to them and don't allow them in my house. It's over kill as I have to actually ingest them, but even a knife that's been used to cut one and then cut something I eat is enough to put me in the hospital.

So NO NANNERS!

 

[Loko]

Have you tried pomegranites? Loco LOVES pomegranite and so do I. Its his favorite fruit plus it has a sweet juicy outside and then a little seed in the middle, so its like a double prize. They make a bit of a mess but its well worth the taste imo.

 

[Kentuckienne]

He's beautiful! And as long as you don't respond to the f-bomb, it might self extinguish. You might be able to repeat "shut the beak up" or something similar and maybe he'll replace the phrase. Lucky you, a friendly bird that talks and tells itself to shut up!

 

[LeaKP]

And passion fruit, my grey goes nuts for passion fruit! He's passionate about it...ha...

 

[Loko]

And passion fruit, my grey goes nuts for passion fruit! He's passionate about it...ha...

Oh man, I LOVE passion fruit, or maracuyá as I know it as. Unfortunately I am completely unable to find it in Miami.. I guess its not popular in Cuban culture? In Colombia all I drink is granizados de maracuya.

 

[SilleIN]

The cue to get him to stop unwanted behaviour is to not react at all. That or replace the unwanted word with something else.

My B&G's word for "my human" was "Daddy". Since I am female, that seemed stupid to me. When he would call "Daddy" at me, I would respond with "Mommy". After a short while, he would say both and now he only says "Mommy"

On the other hand my B&G would scream his head off for hours a day, when I got him. After ignoring him for about a week he stopped the screaming

 

[GaleriaGila]

Congratulations!

I wish you both the very best!

#MANWHATABEAUTIFULBIRD

 

[happy410]

I'm so glad he found you.
Have you looked into building a playstand yourself out of pvc? This route will be alot less expensive and you can add to it or change things easily. Our Macaw prefers his pvc one over his manzanita one. Just a thought for you to consider.

 

[JBassset]

The cue to get him to stop unwanted behaviour is to not react at all. That or replace the unwanted word with something else.

My B&G's word for "my human" was "Daddy". Since I am female, that seemed stupid to me. When he would call "Daddy" at me, I would respond with "Mommy". After a short while, he would say both and now he only says "Mommy"

On the other hand my B&G would scream his head off for hours a day, when I got him. After ignoring him for about a week he stopped the screaming

Yeah, he does love to scream. I just ignore it. Usually it's when he wants out of his cage. So I refuse to even go in the room to get him. Once he's quiet or calls out nicely I'll get him.

But being that he's been through so much (and has so much more to come at the vet) I'm expecting some pretty obnoxious behavior. Like yesterday when he was on my arm and climbed up to my shoulder and wouldn't get down. Finally I got him off. He hasn't earned the shoulder yet. It's nice that he was comfy enough to go there, but that's not a place for him until he's settled in more.

And thanks to the big beaks thread I knew what to do when he took a serious shot at me. Little bugger.

 

[JBassset]

Just remembered that last night I also noticed something that made me sad: He hides food he likes when you give it to him in the hopes he'll get more.

His previous owner only fed him twice a day and left him with nothing to snack on in between. So he's taken to stashing his "treats" hoping he'll get another one. I'd call it food anxiety if I had to name it.

He's unsure of new food but he'll usually taste it and will reply with "YUM" if he likes it. Mangoes were a HUGE hit.

It's amazing to me that he didn't completely pluck himself naked! No toys, food anxiety, poor diet...

 

[GaleriaGila]

I'm so glad you rescued him!

Food-hiding/hoarding. Man, that's a very clever guy. Mine could never muster the impulse control/planfulness to do anything that tricky!

 

[JBassset]

An update after the vet trip. He's a little bit overweight which comes as no surprise given his previous diet. Stool sample is clean so nothing to worry about there.

He greated everyone when we walked in with tons of hi and giggles. Big hit there.

The beak... Oh the beak. We had to sedate him to trim it. She felt that his upper beak was ok, just needed shaped. His previous owner just took dog nail clippers and snapped it straight. But his lower beak was a wreck. We took a bit over a quarter of an inch off! He still can't totally close his mouth but she felt anymore might be as harmful as beneficial. Nuts, foraging toys etc. Will do the rest.

Afterwards as he was still doped up he was so super cuddly. It was really sweet until he threw up all down my shirt. Bird puke is nasty! But we had some good bonding time last night.

He's also got sores on his feet from having only a 1inch pvc pipe as a perch. Now he's got sand perches, cement and his main one is a nice fat Manzanita wood perch.

Today his beak seems a bit sore so he's not eating. But I just made a bunch of juice in the juicer and offered him the pulp which he took to. (hey, easy chop... Sorta) So soft foods, real chop and the like for a bit.

Long and short, he's mostly healthy, good skin, no cough, good lungs and heart sounds and they labeled him as a very sweet bird.

Thanks for all the advice! He also rides in the car super well on e he escapes from his crate.

 

[Scott]

Romeo is a really beautiful bird with personality to match! None of my birds have language issues, but as others have posted, you may be able to "ignore" it away. Love the idea of continuous threads, looking forward to more!

 

[Kentuckienne]

Just remembered that last night I also noticed something that made me sad: He hides food he likes when you give it to him in the hopes he'll get more.

His previous owner only fed him twice a day and left him with nothing to snack on in between. So he's taken to stashing his "treats" hoping he'll get another one. I'd call it food anxiety if I had to name it.

He's unsure of new food but he'll usually taste it and will reply with "YUM" if he likes it. Mangoes were a HUGE hit.

It's amazing to me that he didn't completely pluck himself naked! No toys, food anxiety, poor diet...

That makes me want to cry, the food stashing. This bird was HUNGRY. I'm so glad you have him in your care.

 

[JBassset]

Just remembered that last night I also noticed something that made me sad: He hides food he likes when you give it to him in the hopes he'll get more.

His previous owner only fed him twice a day and left him with nothing to snack on in between. So he's taken to stashing his "treats" hoping he'll get another one. I'd call it food anxiety if I had to name it.

He's unsure of new food but he'll usually taste it and will reply with "YUM" if he likes it. Mangoes were a HUGE hit.

It's amazing to me that he didn't completely pluck himself naked! No toys, food anxiety, poor diet...

That makes me want to cry, the food stashing. This bird was HUNGRY. I'm so glad you have him in your care.

It's amazing to me how he can be almost 200 grams overweight and still be hungry enough to hide food.

Thankfully his hoarding has mostly stopped. I decided not to do anything about it... Just ignore it and make sure his stashes aren't rotting. But with food available to him he's not hiding as much. He seems confident in just eating.

 

[Kentuckienne]

Just remembered that last night I also noticed something that made me sad: He hides food he likes when you give it to him in the hopes he'll get more.

His previous owner only fed him twice a day and left him with nothing to snack on in between. So he's taken to stashing his "treats" hoping he'll get another one. I'd call it food anxiety if I had to name it.

He's unsure of new food but he'll usually taste it and will reply with "YUM" if he likes it. Mangoes were a HUGE hit.

It's amazing to me that he didn't completely pluck himself naked! No toys, food anxiety, poor diet...

That makes me want to cry, the food stashing. This bird was HUNGRY. I'm so glad you have him in your care.

It's amazing to me how he can be almost 200 grams overweight and still be hungry enough to hide food.

Thankfully his hoarding has mostly stopped. I decided not to do anything about it... Just ignore it and make sure his stashes aren't rotting. But with food available to him he's not hiding as much. He seems confident in just eating.

His being overweight makes sense. If he was hungry during the day, he might overeat in the evening because obviously food is scarce. And if he didn't have food after dinner, he was probably very hungry come morning. It sounds like he's getting over it. Lucky bird!

 

[fowlstack]

What a beautiful creature.. congratulations.

 

[JBassset]

Romeo really likes paper. REALLY!

(It's a good thing I work for a university and can snag student papers for free!)

[ame="https://youtu.be/dY1LotvLLUA"]VID 20161204 175748 - YouTube[/ame]