I got Turk in July, very badly mistreated and very frightened.He is atleast 5 and has really had a rough life from what I gather. But I can just tell there is a sweet sweet boy in there.
He would freak out anytime I opened his cage door to feed him. I finally was able to start giving him treats through the bars, apples, brocolli and such. Well I got brave and decided to try it through the open door, he took it dropped it and when I went to give it back....holy cow he got me good. I didn't pull back, but he didn't let go either. He had such a grip on my finger and when I tell you he was just plain mad I'm not kidding. I finally had to get ahold of his beak and make him let go...he had me for atleast 60 seconds. It broke the skin on the top and bottom, bruised it and gave me a nice blister. Well now I am a bit hesitant to put my hand back in there, and he knows it because now instead of running away he attacks. Runs right for me
Now I don't back off, I let him get the scoop (well he really is so fast he just gets it).
I tried to use a traning perch the next day and if he ever knew the step-up command, you couldn't proove it to me. He grabbed ahold of that thing and although I know how strong his beak is now, I had no idea how strong his little feet were. He had ahold of the perch and the bottom of the cage and wow I had all I could do to hold on to it. I did, but I also didn't get him up either. Ok so help...How do I stop this behavior, did I do more damage? I just read in another post to put an ace bandage on my arm, and this might be a stupid worry, but what do I do if he runs up my arm to my face? I am so happy with the progress we have made so far, but now I'm worried I set things back.
Any suggestions would be so appreciated. I have never delt with this kind of aggression before, my tiel use to bite, that wasn't a problem to over come and to be frank a tiel bite is nothing compared to the damage this little guy did. He so deserves a happy life, and I'm willing to do what ever it takes to give it to him, I just don't know what to do.
