So I have heard these stories about people’s 'tiels loving to be scritched on the head, while I have been struggling to get my fingers near my bird without the half-assed beak strike (with decreasing frequency, mind you, but still…).
I am thrilled to announce that while Cricket was distracted by the plastic zipper on my jacket last night, I leaned down and kissed him on the back of his head- AND HE FROZE. Then it became a nuzzle fest for the next 10 minutes!! Boy this little guy loves the head kisses! Will work toward the finger scritches, but until then I’m happy to make out with the top of his head
p.s. All else is going well with Cricket. Unfortunately for the world, he is super attached to me, and the eardrum-splitting whistle-calls commence the minute I exit the room. Not sure how I’m going to break this habit…
p.p.s. He’s going through his first molt. Feathers-a-flyin’!
p.p.p.s. I’m moving to Ohio in a few weeks and will be taking Cricket in the car with me. He’s used to going inside his little wooden carrier, but the moment I close the door he freaks out- I mean like he’s-going-to-exhaust-himself freakout. I’m considering just going with a small cage with no toys—just a perch, because I think he will stress to death in that small carrier. We’ve been doing short car trips to get him used to it, but he spastically runs back and forth and climbs on the sides for the entire time. That just can’t be good for him. Am I a fool to consider a small empty cage with just a perch and food/water?
Update! I’ve attempted several times to give him a warm squirt-bottle shower, which has usually been met with mild irritation. This morning, after a few seconds of the same, he opened up his wings and started contorting in all different kinds of ways, allowing me to spray every nook & cranny! Manthous thought he wasn’t liking it, and I was like, “Dude! Those are the contortions of ecstasy!!!” I wonder if the molt has changed his mind. So, so, so sweet, this little one!
LOL, my macaw does the same when you spray him, and once when a friend of mine was here I told her “He really likes being sprayed.” So she goes, “How do you know he likes it?”
I was like
I mean, can you see a living creature abandoning itself so fully to sheer pleasure and go “um, I don’t know, maybe that’s how it complains?” This is a bird we’re talking about, not some alien life-form with no evolutionary connection to us…
Anyway, I don’t think there would be anything wrong with transporting your 'tiel in the cage, only I seem to remember reading somewhere that birds are calmer being transported in the dark, or at least if they can’t see what’s going on around them, so maybe cover the cage with a towel or something.
