Quickly - I need some new ideas on how to interact with my birds If you don’t feel a need for background skip down to the next bolded text.
Here’s why:
As anyone who own birds knows, they can become very attached to individuals and also love routine.
Life at my house has been anything but routine for the past six months.
I have two cockatiels and a green cheeck conure. The cockatiels seem less affected by all the uproar, although Sydney has upped his feather-picking (He’s not entirely bald, but it’s been an issue all his life) which is hardly surprising in response to stress. The cockatiels seem to be less stressed, perhaps because they’re are two of them. I’m still concerned about interacting with them, but Griffin the Conure is more of a problem.
Griffin was largely raised from baby to adult by my husband. His first word was my husband’s name (…awwwww…cute, right?). He’s been calling for Mr. B. He flies into the bedroom and paces up and down on Mr. B’s side of the bed going “Mr. B., Mr. B., Mr. B”. I come into the home and after “DidJaMissMe?” I hear “Mr. B, Mr. B, Mr. B”. Aside from reducing me to a sobbing mess a few times last week, it seems pretty clear Griffin has noticed a continuing absence of Mr. B. There’s not a goddamned thing anyone can do about that.
On top of that, Griffin has been irritable, nipping, clinging, and less than cooperative. He’s unhappy, and some of that may be him picking up on my distress.
Unfortunately, with only one human in the household and said human needing to Do Stuff outside the home they aren’t allowed out of the cage as much as they used to be. This isn’t negotiable, it’s a matter of safety. They are getting more time outside the cage since I’m not gone 12-15 hours a day between work and hospital (sorry about that, birds, I really am, but it was a bad time for all of us) though even then I was making sure they’d get some exercise time every day.
So… I need to give them more quality time.
Griffin is the most demanding of attention. Our four main forms of interaction are:
- Food (he’s a bird, what can I say?) including yummy treats like sharing bits of fruit I’m eating, or nuts I’m snacking on, and so on.
- Keys - he loves playing with keys (oo! SHINY!) and has a few on a ring on the living room perch to play with. We’ll take turns shaking them and he’ll play tug of war with them.
- Imitating games - he says a word or phrase and I’ll repeat it back to him. He’s thrilled he’s taught a human to do tricks. Sometimes we go the other way with me leading.
- Grooming - he’ll groom my hair, my braids, my clothes… he doesn’t really want me to reciprocate, he’s never been fond of petting or scratching by humans.
He’ll also “help” with dish washing and other cleaning by sitting on my shoulder, obstructing my view, or running down my arm to my hands to “assist” but while I usually let him “help” with the dishes or a few other things, quite often in order to do heavy cleaning or cooking I have to lock him up. He can usually still watch from the cage and sometimes we can play the word imitating game while I do thing.
Need new ideas for interacting with him, games, and so forth. When I go back to work full time there be less social time for them all again. He’s already stressed, showing signs of anger, nipping (as I said), making angry noises, looking for Mr. B so while at times he’s still our sweet little bird about half the time he’s a little brat or furious at seemingly everything.
I also need ideas for doing more with the cockatiels. Most evenings before bed they’ll sit on my shoulders for some together time, and they’re still hand-tame. We’re getting back to where they’ll step up on my finger and let me put them back in the cage without having to chase them down so that’s an improvement over a month ago (because with everything else I needed uncooperative birds, right?). Some of their social needs are taken care of by there being two of them, although both are still interested in interacting with people (especially people with food). Griffin and the cockatiels will interact, but Griffin seems to require more people attention. He is a bit spoiled, like most pets.
In the cage we usually have a cardboard box they spend time demolishing (replaced as needed), hide treats inside of it, and otherwise use as a toy. There is also a hanging wood toy with nooks for hiding treats in and for chewing. I try not to clutter the cage up too much.
Anyhow - I’m worried about my birds, which are upset by the household upset, displaying some behavior/stress issues, and which I am now wholly responsible for. I want calm, well-behaved, well socialized birds living happy bird lives even if one of the flock is now gone.