You'd think I didn't have kids or something, I'm so obsessed with my new pet! But I'm proud of the progress we are making. The kids have been great with him, too. Very gentle and patient. He seems to like them, especially because they feed him!
Louie did great yesterday! I managed to slowly coax him out of his cage with an orange and then he started exploring the outside of his cage. He actually wound up falling off the cage while he was trying to stand on his water bottle and landed on the floor. I had the sinking feeling that I was going to have to betray the little bit of trust he has in me by catching him with a towel. But with a little persistance and a lot of patience, Andy and I managedto coax him into climbing a ladder back up to his cage. He was been incredibly brave yesterday and had no signs of aggression even when he was scared. He even went back inside his cage on his own! Oh! and while he was hanging out on his cage I managed to get him to step onto a dowel! I had to hold it really still and coax him onto it rather than take it to him but it's a start! I'm amazed at how quickly he gets over his fears!
Today was another really good day. Louie is amazing. I really don't think he is scared, just cautious. Today when I got home from work (about 2pm. I have yucky hours but it gives me more time with the kids) I opened Louie's cage and he didn't need much coaxing to come out. He really likes the freedom. Today we worked more with the wooden dowel and he did so well. We hit a point where I could actually approach him instead of waiting for him to step up to it. I never actually touched his belly, we worked together and both came half way, but I let it be his decision to make contact. It was amazing to watch him when it clicked that "step up" would get him a bit of his yummy orange. He's so smart. After working with that a bit and getting him comfortable with being moved around on the dowel I was actually able to get him to willingly step up to my hand three times! By the third time he actually stayed a few seconds to eat a bit of his orange and explore my fingernail. A bit of biting but he was fairly gentle so I just ignored it. After all the progress I was giving him a break and sitting ten or so feet away at the dining table talking to my mom and he actually came as close to me as possible and was quietly squacking and bouncing up and down and leaning way out. He obviously wanted my attention. Cute! So I got him to step up on his stick and then, I rushed him a little without realizing it, I took a few slow steps away from his cage and he got nervous and tried to fly back. Poor little guy, I'm still learning. Anyway he landed on the ground but this time it was easy because I just offered him his dowel and said "step up"! I can't believe how fast he is progressing. He has his first vet visit next wednesday and I might actually be able to get him in his travel carrier without scaring him to death!
Wanted to share. I've been in contact with an online conures group and asking questions and keeping them updated so I pretty much just cut and pasted here. They've been really helpful and encouraging. It's nice to have so many people with tons of experience at my fingertips! And they are super nice.
Maybe my next blog will be about my kids. I do remember I have them =)
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Monday, June 09, 2008
Watermelon!
So we've discovered some of his favorite foods are watermelon and omg! oranges! This could possibly be because is still too scared to go down to his water dish. I'm considering getting a water bottle so I can put it up a little higher for a while. Today I got some big leaf lettuce and drenched one in water and offered it to him hoping he would drink the water, which he did, but then he decided he'd rather have a bath instead and went pretty crazy. He LOVES to bathe. Now I know that won't be a problem. I was a little concerned he hadn't been bathing while he was at the pet store. I'll try to get some video next time. He is so cute. All excited, jumping at the lettuce and rolling around. He kept losing his balance and practically falling off his perch. Too cute. Anyway, in the mean time, here's a video of Andy feeding him watermelon. Not quite as exciting...
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Meet our newest addition!
This is Louie. He's our new Jenday Conure. Isn't he cute? We've been on a waiting list for a while now for a baby Sun Conure. In our excitement we've been visiting any pet store we can to see the birds. We met Louie (then Juno) about 4 months ago. He seemed sweet but we had our hearts set on a sun and when we questioned the pet store people about Louie they said he wasn't very nice and was starting to bite. So that solidified our decision.
However, over the past months we've been to our local pet store where Louie was just about every weekend. We have watched him go downhill. Every time we saw him he looked more and more unhappy and depressed. Over the last few weeks Phil and I have thought seriously about making him part of our family. It didn't seem right that we had this nice big clean cage and all kinds of toys just sitting around waiting on a baby to hatch when this sad little bird really needed a loving home. So, we took the risk, even though the pet store personel tried to talk us out of it. He is not allowing anyone to hold him right now and seems really fearful of human hands.
I am pleased to tell you he had a VERY good first day with us. He relaxed in his new cage pretty quickly and immediately showed signs of social behavior. He comes over to you as close as he can get when you come up to the cage. We started hand feeding him some oranges and watermelon through the cage bars and by the end of tonight he hurries over whenever we walk up to his cage and looks for food. We were even able to open the cage to move perches around and clean up a little and he did pretty well with it. I think we may be able to brave handling him in a few weeks. (Although, we have to take him to the vet within 14 day in case he has any health issue that would give us reason to return him. And for that we have to somehow get him into his travel carrier without scaring him to death!)
Wish us luck and we'll keep you posted. I'm going to try to post some videos I took soon.
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