Post by beccilouise on Aug 8, 2018 11:28:01 GMT -5
Hello everyone! Sorry I've been off the grid for like, ever. It's been quite a busy (and not always great) year for me. Luckily, I still have my Maya, who is now three years old! While she is still the light of my life, this Summer has been really hard. We've had a mad heat wave in the UK that has been going on for about eight weeks, and for the last six or so, Maya has been CUH-RAZY. The biggest issues are:
- she is hugely offended by most objects and has taken to throwing things off the table and biting really hard whenever either David or I tries to pick up the milk bottle. Thus, she has been banned from the kitchen. I never have her out when I'm cooking anyway, but now I can't even walk into the kitchen with her if I want to retrieve something.
- hugely territorial of my face. I read a theory somewhere that parrots may only see our heads as the real 'us' and that the rest of us is just some sort of glorified transportation platform, thus when they bite our hands it is often in defence of what they perceive to be 'us'. I've no idea if that's true, but if I let Maya sit on my shoulder at the moment, she bites my hands really hard if I try to put them near her to get her to step up. It isn't a fear of hands because if she's sat on anything other than my shoulder, she will step up onto my hand without a problem. Thus, she has not only been banned from the kitchen, but also my shoulder.
At the moment, I'm not finding the problem unmanageable and am doing my best to stay calm and remember it's nothing personal. I haven't done any training sessions with Maya for a while and I'm worried my busyness means she's also a little stroppy that I haven't been spending as much time with her. I was wondering what you would advise in terms of:
- new things to train her (for example, do you think simple trick training might help to calm her, or should I be training something more specific, like stepping up onto a platform?)
- other techniques I might use to help calm her down (She is on a pelleted diet, I feed her as many fresh raw vegetables as I can and cover her at night to make sure she gets as close to twelve hours of darkness as possible.)
- some reassurance that this isn't going to last for the rest of my life! I have so many quaker-beak-shaped cuts and bruises on my hands!
Thanks and all the best.
- she is hugely offended by most objects and has taken to throwing things off the table and biting really hard whenever either David or I tries to pick up the milk bottle. Thus, she has been banned from the kitchen. I never have her out when I'm cooking anyway, but now I can't even walk into the kitchen with her if I want to retrieve something.
- hugely territorial of my face. I read a theory somewhere that parrots may only see our heads as the real 'us' and that the rest of us is just some sort of glorified transportation platform, thus when they bite our hands it is often in defence of what they perceive to be 'us'. I've no idea if that's true, but if I let Maya sit on my shoulder at the moment, she bites my hands really hard if I try to put them near her to get her to step up. It isn't a fear of hands because if she's sat on anything other than my shoulder, she will step up onto my hand without a problem. Thus, she has not only been banned from the kitchen, but also my shoulder.
At the moment, I'm not finding the problem unmanageable and am doing my best to stay calm and remember it's nothing personal. I haven't done any training sessions with Maya for a while and I'm worried my busyness means she's also a little stroppy that I haven't been spending as much time with her. I was wondering what you would advise in terms of:
- new things to train her (for example, do you think simple trick training might help to calm her, or should I be training something more specific, like stepping up onto a platform?)
- other techniques I might use to help calm her down (She is on a pelleted diet, I feed her as many fresh raw vegetables as I can and cover her at night to make sure she gets as close to twelve hours of darkness as possible.)
- some reassurance that this isn't going to last for the rest of my life! I have so many quaker-beak-shaped cuts and bruises on my hands!
Thanks and all the best.
