Update on Benito and Ducky.
So I brought Benny the Dusky home Friday. It has been an adventure already! He's incredibly sweet, but now that he's "home" he's so much more active! I'm in love with him even more than I was. He climbs all over me and preens my hair. He loves my husband as much as he does me, alternating between flying to him and flying to me. Being a baby bird, he still wants to beak everything under the sun, and to chew on my fingernails. I've been redirecting that to popsicle sticks and foot toys, and it always works as long as he has the toy and hasn't dropped it on the floor... ::facepalm:: :D
We left him alone for the first time yesterday, and when I got home, the [i]shrieks[/i] were incredible. OMG, you're home! Then after a little while (after I fed all the mammals) he was quieter, and I got him out and played with him and loved him up and then put him back in the cage when I was ready to start cooking. He fussed a little, as he usually does when put in the cage, then chilled out. Then when my husband came home, the [i]shrieks[/i] of OMG, you're home started again!
But what's funny is that, since we go in and out the kitchen door to the garage, when my husband opened the door to leave this morning, Benny started shrieking again, from his cage! OMG, you're leaving again--don't leave! And when I went out the door, same thing, except he didn't do it when I came back in to get something I forgot, and left again.
Benny doesn't seem to even realize or care that Ducky the parrotlet exists, but BOY, does Ducky love Benny! Ducky still thinks hands are evil and scary, but I sit beside his cage with Benny and a bowl of seed, and Benny chows down, and so does Ducky! Any time Benny eats, Ducky eats. It's really cute. And now Ducky has taken to sitting on the side of his cage closest to Benny's cage. (Their cages were side by side at the breeder.) I'm hoping Ducky will begin to learn from Benny that humans aren't bad, and hands aren't evil.
Benny had his first real bath the other day. I took him into the shower and he hated it. But I got him good and wet, which is what I wanted, without any real trauma. He wouldn't have gotten nearly so wet if he hadn't flown off the shower perch and landed in the bottom of the tub!
He loves to chew on ears, preen hair and mustaches and land/climb on glasses. And here he is with my husband.
Here's Ducky, sitting on top of his snuggley.
We left him alone for the first time yesterday, and when I got home, the [i]shrieks[/i] were incredible. OMG, you're home! Then after a little while (after I fed all the mammals) he was quieter, and I got him out and played with him and loved him up and then put him back in the cage when I was ready to start cooking. He fussed a little, as he usually does when put in the cage, then chilled out. Then when my husband came home, the [i]shrieks[/i] of OMG, you're home started again!
But what's funny is that, since we go in and out the kitchen door to the garage, when my husband opened the door to leave this morning, Benny started shrieking again, from his cage! OMG, you're leaving again--don't leave! And when I went out the door, same thing, except he didn't do it when I came back in to get something I forgot, and left again.
Benny doesn't seem to even realize or care that Ducky the parrotlet exists, but BOY, does Ducky love Benny! Ducky still thinks hands are evil and scary, but I sit beside his cage with Benny and a bowl of seed, and Benny chows down, and so does Ducky! Any time Benny eats, Ducky eats. It's really cute. And now Ducky has taken to sitting on the side of his cage closest to Benny's cage. (Their cages were side by side at the breeder.) I'm hoping Ducky will begin to learn from Benny that humans aren't bad, and hands aren't evil.
Benny had his first real bath the other day. I took him into the shower and he hated it. But I got him good and wet, which is what I wanted, without any real trauma. He wouldn't have gotten nearly so wet if he hadn't flown off the shower perch and landed in the bottom of the tub!
He loves to chew on ears, preen hair and mustaches and land/climb on glasses. And here he is with my husband.
Here's Ducky, sitting on top of his snuggley.