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Post by siobhan on Dec 14, 2017 11:05:49 GMT -5
Benjy had a beak injury quite a while ago (thanks, Jade, harrumph!) and since then, his beak grows too long and off to one side. It doesn't hurt him, and he eats and preens normally, but periodically, I have to trim it. He's such a little thing and so is it that I just towel him and snip off the excess with nail clippers (being VERY careful!!!). He hates this process, but I think it's the toweling he hates, not the trimming. I often use the opportunity to work on his pinfeathers a little, too. He's usually mad at me for a while after, so I do it right before bedtime and by morning he's over his snit.
Well, last night was time to do the trimming, and I took him out of the birds' room and to the bathroom where the light is best and snipped off the excess and brought him back and let him go. He went straight to Jade's cage to fluff up and pout and Clyde, who had been squawking his "I'm mad as hell and I ain't gonna take it anymore" squawk (it's a particular sound he makes when he's in Full Quaker Fury Mode and only at that time) attacked me. He bit me four times in the few minutes it took to get lights off and birds tucked in, and drew blood twice. I'm not sure if it was the leaving with Benjy, the fact that he had to get off my shoulder before I took Benjy out of the room because who wants to wrestle TWO angry birds at once, or that it was band practice night and we'd been gone most of the evening. Or all of the above. Or he was just in a mood. But today I have scratches and bruises and healing wounds. When Rocky had his Mama's Lap time after that, I told him absolutely NO chomping Mama, because Clyde had chomped Mama enough for all six birds in one five-minute period already.
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Post by julianna on Dec 14, 2017 14:45:37 GMT -5
OH wow... poor you... you really took a beating didn't you. I thought you would have learned that you can't do all of this in one day. Didn't your Quaker teach you anything? lol lol
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Post by siobhan on Dec 14, 2017 15:03:41 GMT -5
I think they've both forgiven me. Benjy let me kiss him good morning and Clyde didn't make any attempt to chomp me when I turned their lights on this morning.
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Post by easttex on Dec 14, 2017 15:36:44 GMT -5
It's very good of you not to bear a grudge.  |
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Post by siobhan on Dec 14, 2017 16:19:10 GMT -5
I often tell Ringo Starling that she's my best-behaved birdie. She never chomps me (she can't really "chomp" with that beak but she can peck pretty hard). She goes to bed almost every night with no fuss, as long as I observe proper protocol (I have to play the piano, even ever so briefly, and then change into pajamas) AND (this is huge), she doesn't hurt my ears with squawking because even her loudest squawk can't get to the decibels of Benjy, much less Rocky. She entertains herself admirably, she doesn't destroy things and she likes my piano playing, which is NOT very good.
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Post by cnyguy on Dec 14, 2017 22:02:38 GMT -5
Obviously, Ringo is not a parrot, nor has she been influenced by the ones who share her household. |
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Post by siobhan on Dec 15, 2017 11:52:59 GMT -5
She's an honorary parrot but she absorbed the pleasant parts and largely ignores the unpleasant parts. LOL She's the only one who can do Johnny's signature whistle tune and it's like a bit of him is still with us, and her version of Rocky's scream is even funnier than Freddie's. This morning she ran through all her words one right after another while I was drying my hair, as if it were one long sentence: RINGOwhatchadoin'who'smybabyprettygirliloveyouareyoumybabygirlRINGOOOOO.
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Post by thorolf on Jan 4, 2018 8:06:40 GMT -5
It sounds like Ringo needs a small green cape with an embroidered Letter "R" on the back, since he is obviously a "Superbird " My quaker Beowulf is also a "Superbird," with the nom-de-guere "The Green Beaker !" Maybe we should start a Superbird fan club !! :-) But then again , I am not sure we would have room, since All quakers are Superbirds....
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Post by siobhan on Jan 4, 2018 11:51:01 GMT -5
I would be quite happy to make Ringo a superhero cape, but she would say unprintable things if I should ask her to wear it. Starlings have very strong opinions and she is not shy about expressing hers.
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Post by PaScuba on Jan 8, 2018 14:27:05 GMT -5
Siabhan - have you ever "played" with you fids with the towel? Things like tug-of-war and/or peek-a-boo, to name a couple. Having our fids not being afraid of the towel has it's positive uses. For example, going to the vet. I use the towel with my fids hanging upside down. That way their feet are occupied while I'm doing something else, like checking wings and/or tail. We "play" often enough that when they have to be "toweled" - they don't mind and are not afraid.
Another suggestion could be that Benjy could learn to file his beak. My fids like to file their beak while I'm filing my fingernails. I taught them to scrape the beak from side to side on the emery board I use. I admit it took a lot of patience to finally get them to NOT bite the file. I was able to capture their natural behavior of scraping their mouth after eating fruit or yogurt. So with the scraping behavior under command - asking them to scrape when the emery board was presented finally took shape. Today they will actually hold their head still while I work on rounding the tip. Sometimes my wife will drop an emery board on the floor (where everything belongs to the quakers) and they pick it up as a foot toy and actually scrape their beaks without being asked to. When I observe this behavior - I do reward them with attention and/or treats.
Hope this helped a little. Have a Great day today and a better one tomorrow. Remember that 10 minutes of training today will bring hours of joy later.
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Post by julianna on Jan 9, 2018 14:08:12 GMT -5
Hi PaScuba... that is lovely how you trained your Quaker to file his beak. My Quaker Oscar... has a built in file on one of his perches which he uses on a daily basis. It is actually a perch but is rough in texture like small rocks and this keeps his beak all nice a smooth and shiny.
It must be so darn cute to watch the file their own beak using the emery board. I agree with you that having them get used to a towel is important. Once Oscar played all the games with the towels (and tore most of them up... lol) I am now able to wrap him in the towel... after his bath in the sink... and dry him slightly before returning him to his cage. He looks so sweet all bundled up in the towel.
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Post by PaScuba on Jan 9, 2018 16:42:24 GMT -5
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Post by siobhan on Jan 15, 2018 11:30:41 GMT -5
He has a scratchy perch available to use to rub his beak on like the others do, but with it off-kilter, it doesn't do the trick of keeping it from getting too long.
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Post by PaScuba on Jan 16, 2018 1:32:35 GMT -5
Sure - I understand. But that's why I suggested teaching him to file his beak himself - as playing a game with you. I think that you will find it very amusing - because of how he will modify his behavior of scratching the file depending on your reactions to his behavior. Another reason why I said it's like a fun game.
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