Royal conditioning
Apparently, it was not such a horrible experience this time, not horrible enough for him to just be glad to be home again and forget about all the other mistreatments done to him.
We came home and he was obviously very upset with my transport box action. Well, I am not very proud either; he hates this transport box and first, I tricked him into it, second, I chased him for about 5 minutes in the vet office, held him by his feet while he flapped his wings and tried to fly a way (very dishonoring, indeed - It should not happen to an African Grey), until I and the vet finally managed with united forces to stuff him into the thing of a horror (another unforgivable attack on his self-respect). So I offered him a piece of cucumber for the sake of bribe acknowledgment of his hardships, very well aware of my guilts, and he fluffed his feathers (in Greys, a sign of disapproval, to say the least) and gave me the evil eye, clearly stating that in the context of the happenings of the past hours, he would not be surprised if I sprinkled some gross poison of one or another kind on it. I took a bite so that he would see it is one perfectly innocent delicious piece of cucumber and offered him the remaining. He took it, and threw it at me. His majesty commented 'yuck' in an arrogant tone of voice, gave me another dirty look, and walked away on high steps of lawful offense.
Sigh. I know, I know ! A Grey's owner always knows his/her place. I will ask him forgiveness on my knees, perhaps he will be merciful.
After all, one does not find a chief scratcher growing on a tree just like that.
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We came home and he was obviously very upset with my transport box action. Well, I am not very proud either; he hates this transport box and first, I tricked him into it, second, I chased him for about 5 minutes in the vet office, held him by his feet while he flapped his wings and tried to fly a way (very dishonoring, indeed - It should not happen to an African Grey), until I and the vet finally managed with united forces to stuff him into the thing of a horror (another unforgivable attack on his self-respect). So I offered him a piece of cucumber for the sake of bribe acknowledgment of his hardships, very well aware of my guilts, and he fluffed his feathers (in Greys, a sign of disapproval, to say the least) and gave me the evil eye, clearly stating that in the context of the happenings of the past hours, he would not be surprised if I sprinkled some gross poison of one or another kind on it. I took a bite so that he would see it is one perfectly innocent delicious piece of cucumber and offered him the remaining. He took it, and threw it at me. His majesty commented 'yuck' in an arrogant tone of voice, gave me another dirty look, and walked away on high steps of lawful offense.
Sigh. I know, I know ! A Grey's owner always knows his/her place. I will ask him forgiveness on my knees, perhaps he will be merciful.
After all, one does not find a chief scratcher growing on a tree just like that.
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