I am SO excited! (progress!)

[MissV]

Okay, so you guys may know by now that my Dusky headed conure, Karis, was "rescued" from a petco where she was being sorely neglected.....for the not familiar, here's a quite rundown:

I intially went in to petco to look at their rats. At the time, I had Luca (Sun) who is almost 4 years old. I handfed her since 6 weeks, but, you know, it seems like one pet is never enough...so I was aiming for a small furry thing to play with when Luca didn't want attention.

As usual, we (my mom was with me...she's my roomie but not a co-owner for the fids) wandered over to the bird section to give them some attention and such, and that's when I saw Karis. Just a little Dusky in a decently sized cage. I looked into those little light gray eyes and was fixated immediately.

I leaned over to the cage, my face near it, and started talking to her/imitating her little sounds and she showed immediate excitement and interest. And then I put up one hand to the cage...and she ran to the back of her cage. I did this a few more times to make sure this was the case--and it was. I knew at that moment I needed to take this little bird home and save it from never being socialized and possibly being tossed around from home to home.

This idea was confirmed when I was given incorrect information from their bird care-taker, who quite mercilessly grabbed Karis from her cage..who reacted by freaking out, pinning, scrambling for whatever cage she could get her feet around....and generally not wanting to be touched or held.



That was about 4 months ago. When I managed to get Karis out of the cage (usually by getting her to the edge then gently scooping her onto my chest or shoulder), she wasn't too bad. She was definitely scared, pinning a lot and never staying still. For awhile she would cling to my hair and refuse to move. She bit a lot, which I had to work on with her. It didn't take too long to get her to step up from the floor/my hand/etc. But the cage was a no go.

Until last night!

Recently Karis has been unhapy for me leaving the room. I'm carefuly to ignore screaming, but her tiny baby whispery hoarse cries tend to bring me back. She just wants me in the room, paying attention to her...but she doesn't want to be picked up.

So last night, I gave her the opportunity a few times. she refused, but cried that hoarse sound when I tried to leave. So instead I waited until she climbed onto the top of her door (it's a swing out one) and put both my hands on either side of her, keeping my face close by. She preened my cheek and loved on me a bit and made kissy noises (she started imitating that a while ago) and saying "baby" and seemed very hapy.

And then she went for my finger.

Slow at first...tentative...and then harder. I closed my eyes in concentration and refused to move my hands. If it got so hard I couldn't bear it, I made a sharp "Tss!" noise and she immediately stopped.

The did this for awhile (maybe 10 minutes?) and I just forced myself to stay there and wait...and wait....and when she finally stopped, I moved one finger closer to her with the usual "step up" command. This caused the biting to start all over and I did the same as before, very gently pressing my finger against her with the command during intervals of biting.



And guess what! Of course...she looked at me, and then eeever so tentatively put one foot on my finger. I stayed perfectly still, repeating the command, keeping her gaze as she turned to look up at me again....and then she stepped up!


This is THE FIRST time Karis has every stepped up of her own volition. Once she was up, I praised her and took her down stares and gave her scratches until she was tired and wanted back up.



So...if you guys are still having issues, just remember..it CAN be done! Sometimes it just takes a lot of patience, a gentle voice, some trust that your bird doesn't actually want to grievously harm you....and a high pain tolerance!



Okay, I know that was long...so if you read that, thank you! I owe you a cookie.

[Emmilyy]

Thats great progress! I'm happy for you guys! :)

btw, i'm now fullt expecting a cookie, so i hope you weren't joking.


:)