It's Been a Week So Far

With just a bit more than one week in our home, Lucy seems to have settled in to our daily routine. So far, I have had no trouble at all in getting her to "step up" directly out of her cage. It seems that she enjoys her roomy cage, which is made by A&E and purchased through Peak's Parrots in Middletown Connecticut.

I was worried that Lucy may give me a hard time leaving the security of her cage, and even though I have been handling parrots for some time now; I'd be lying if I said a Macaw's beak wasn't a little intimidating. Gracie, our African Grey will let me scratch her head and under her wings while she is in her cage, but will not "step up" until she is ready. She will put a death grip on the one inch spaced bars if I try to rush her, so we have settled on a set routine: Head scratch, open door, walk away, return in one minute to find Gracie waiting on the open door to step-up.

Lucy however, seems to like coming out anytime. She will rock back-and-forth as I approach the cage, and as the door opens lifts one foot off her perch in anticipation of "up up up". After two days, Lucy began to rest her head against my chest as soon as she stepped up and perched upon my hand an wrist. She also does this with our 10 year old son and my wife. Everyone can touch her tail feathers, but only I have been allowed to pet her head and wings on a regular basis as well.

So far, no one has received a bite. There has been some defensive posturing with our home being so new to Lucy; and she gives signals that there is no use in rushing our progress. I have found that slow and steady wins the race. Parrots need time to develop trust and security. They have to build upon [a period of] good experiences in order to have trust become a natural response to their human flock members. I do not want to give Lucy the opportunity to give a bite in response to an action of ours. If she does, she may learn to use biting as a tool to get what she desires or change an action; and I do not want to be trained by my parrot.

Next, we need to schedule a "well bird" check-up with our avian doctor, so she has a baseline on our new bird. I have also thought about whether or not to begin a regular weigh in program to monitor the health of our birds.