Making HUGE progress with Tiki

[Lori L]

Hi all, just thought I'd let you know that I am making HUGE progress with Tiki. I have posted before that she doesn't come out from her cage even though I leave it open everyday all day. Well little by little she's been following me around from within her cage. I've been tickling her stomach, touching her beak etc though the bars. Then I've been asking her to come down to a particular perch by tapping it with my finger and say, "come on, come here". At first she wouldn't and now she does right away. But then when I'd ask her to step up she'd climb away. Then today and tonight she was practically begging for me. I could tell and she'd lift one leg as though she wanted to step up. And so she did. She's also been beaking me alot. No pressure just very interested in my fingers. I let her experiment and say no bite, good girl. Even though she is putting no pressure I hope I'm not teaching her it's ok to bite me. I'm hoping that by letting her do this she will learn that she can beak me but not bite me. And then the most wonderful thing happened. As I stood talking to her as she was on her playstand, cocking her head with every word I spoke, reacting and truly being interested in me, I felt the beginnings of falling in love with her. Anyone who has a child knows what I'm talking about. You have a baby and you go into automatic mommy mode. Cleaning, feeding, etc, with an infant. You love them but you are not "in love" with this child. After all the child (infant) has no personality, is non-responsive etc. And then one day it all clicks, you feel this overwhelming love for this being. Some people it takes longer, some within a few hours of giving birth. For me with my son it was the next day...I remember the moment, in the middle of the night in the hospital when he woke crying and the nurse hadn't swaddled him enough and his little hat was not on. I swooped down like a big mama bird and picked up my frozen child and held him. It was at that moment I felt the bond. Well this feeling that I have now (as you can probably tell) is something like that. Sorry for getting all sappy on you but I'm thrilled. I know you all know what I mean.

[Monica]

What a wonderful story! It's great to hear that things are going so well!!! Oh and to see that you've already come a far ways!

[Irish]

Yep, I know what you mean, having 3 kiddos of my own. I also remember the postpartum depression I had with one of them--it took me about a YEAR to bond with that child--but I remember the exact moment when it finally happened, and it was such a joyous moment that I actually cried tears of joy, and said a little prayer....

Ahh... maternal instincts. Gotta love 'em :-)

[cbalvino]

Isn't it nice to talk to people who know "exactly" what you mean,such a warm and fuzzy feeling! great progress,such patience!

[Glenn]

I had a moment like that with my IRN last night. He gets a goodnight kiss from everyone each night when he goes into his cge for bed, and last night he got his kisses as usual but when I reached in to hang up his Fruit kebab he hopped off my arm & straight onto the perch, I put the GCC into th cage & closed the door without thinking (forgetting that the IRN hadn't had kiss from ME yet).
Anyway as I walked back past the side of the cage he said "Hello" and I found him stretching through the bars with his beak open for a kiss. When I realised that he hadn't had his kiss I leant in and I got the biggest kissy noise you've ever heard (3 times in a row).... I cried, it was just soo beautiful to feel that he really WANTED those bedtime kisses, and his reaction when he missed out on his kiss was just amazing....