We got Odie, the African Senegal parrot, on December 27, 2009. I thought I had done my homework quite well. The breed is supposed to be easy-going, quiet (as parrots go), fun-loving and friendly. I talked to our avian vet about Senegals and I talked to people who had parrots. I wanted an interactive parrot, one I could work with, maybe train to do a few tricks and, yes, I wanted a parrot I could handle. Having willingly moved from cats to birds because of my husband's allergy, I still want a pet I can ... pet. I have great memories of my Quaker parrot, Koko sitting with me for long periods of time while I preened her head. She would shut her eyes and move her head around until I got exactly the right spot.
Ever since Koko died I've been watching the Kijiji ads for birds, just to see what's out there. The ad for Odie would appear and then would disappear for a few months and then appear again. I watched this with increasing interest. Odie was young but not a baby. He liked head-scratches from anyone and, clearly, the owner wanted the right home for him and was willing to wait until the right people came along. After talking it over with Richard, I called the number in the ad. We arranged to go over and meet Odie. I felt a bit like I was going on a blind date. His owners were very nice and they let him out of his cage and showed us how he played and how he liked to have his head scratched. Odie stepped up on my finger when I asked him to and when I went to put him back into his cage he set his beak on my finger. He didn't bite. He was just letting me know that maybe I had moved a bit fast for him.
We went home and thought about it some more. These parrots can live for 40 years so we'd have to make provision for him in our will. I emailed the owner and asked if he would allow us to take Odie to our vet and get a health check done on him. The owner agreed and met us at the vet's. He then took off for coffee and Odie got his first look at the vet's office. The vet was quite impressed with him. He seemed gentle enough. She said he had a number of chances to bite her but didn't. We also had him DNA sexed. Living with a broody female cockatiel convinced us that a male was what we wanted. Odie's test results came back saying that he was a fairly healthy male. We agreed to take Odie after Christmas. His wings weren't clipped and his owner said he could have the wings clipped before we picked Odie up.
With one thing and another the owner wasn't able to get Odie clipped by the time we were to go and get him. We waited and eventually said that we would take him to our vet to get his wings done. Because of the delay the owners delivered Odie to us at around 9:00 on December 27. We didn't have a chance to do much more than put him to bed that night. Over the next few days he amused us by lying on his back in our hands, speaking in long sentences, none of which we understood and generally checking out the house. He was a bit nippy but we figured he'd settle in. We specifically asked the owners if there had been any problems with biting and they said there hadn't.
About the third night Odie was with us the phone rang. He was out on the top of his cage where he had been when the phone had rung before. For some reason this time it spooked him and he took off. The appointment to get his wings clipped was the next day. He flew into the dining room and landed on the top of a halogen light. He didn't stay there long. I offered him my hand to step onto but he took off and flew right into the transom window between the dining room and the shop. I heard the thump and went rushing down the stairs to where Odie sat hunched up on the floor. I scooped him up and put him back into his cage while my husband called the vet. I unceremoniously dumped the person whose call caused the flight. The vet's office had just closed although they still answered the phone. They told us to take Odie to the animal emergency clinic. I got Odie to step up onto my hand from his cage and was able to put him into his carrier. He did clamp down on my hand but let go when I put him in the carrier.
Odie had a bump on his head and probably a headache. We came home with pain medication for him and life resumed. I noticed that Odie wouldn't always step up on my hand when it came time for me to put him back into his cage. When I tried to get him to step up he sometimes bit me. I've done a lot of reading on training parrots and all of it emphasizes how important it is to have a well-socialized bird i.e. one that doesn't bite. Most of the literature says that it's important to teach your parrot to step up reliably so that you can use that request to calm him down or to get him out of danger if need be. Most of the training info I read used food rewards along with a signal to make the wanted behaviour so that the bird would learn that if he repeated the behaviour he'd get a treat.
Sometimes when I offered Odie food he would take it gently. Sometimes he would bite me and when he bit he meant business. I cleaned blood of the kitchen floor on a number of occasions and found myself wishing I owned shares in a band-aid company. I read more books; we filled out a behavioural questionnaire for the vet and had a couple of consultations. She said I really needed to get Odie stepping up. She suggested that I use wooden perches so that he wouldn't bite my hands. On the few occasions I had tried a wooden perch Odie stepped on it and rushed down toward my hand. I asked her if I could wear gloves while holding the perches. She said I could wear oven mitts if I wanted.
One afternoon I decided it was time to try out the new procedure. I got a couple of pieces of dowel and put on the oven mitts. I let Odie out of his cage, approached him with one of the dowels and asked him to step up. He stepped on the dowel and immediately stepped down. I asked him to step up again and he ran around the side of it. I tried a third time and he flapped off the top of his cage and landed on the floor. I followed him from the dining room to the kitchen and into the living room offering the dowel for him to step on. He went around the side. He hopped over it. He hopped on it and flapped off. Then he turned around and headed back into the kitchen and into a corner. I wasn't going to crowd him in the corner so I stood back and glanced up at the clock wondering what to do next. When I looked back, he was gone. I knew he couldn't have gotten past me. I went over to the corner where a built in cabinet met the wall and discovered that there was a space between the side of the cabinet and the wall. This space was covered with a false front and there was an opening at the bottom that Odie had gotten into.
I got down on the floor and talked to Odie. He growled. I called the vet. She told me at our previous consultation if there was anything I needed I should call. I needed to get this bird out of the space between the cabinet and the wall! The vet suggested that I try to get a perch in there so he could step on that and I could take him out. She also suggested that I try to entice him out with his favourite treats. I hung up and put some grapes at the opening. More growling.
I waited for an hour and a half hoping the bird would come out. I had visions of him dying of starvation in there. About this time Richard came home and I greeted him with, "Your bird is in there!" We were supposed to go to my father-in-law's for dinner. It was his birthday. We called to say we would be late for supper and Richard tried to coax Odie out. No dice. Finally we decided to take the cabinet apart. We took the doors off, removed some of the contents and then went to work with a small pry bar. When we got the strip off Richard looked down at a very dusty, growling bird. I stayed out of the way while Richard talked softly to Odie and eventually got him to step up onto one of his rope perches. Once back in his cage Odie was somewhat subdued for a couple of days.
Even though it probably wasn't the right thing to do, I stopped trying to handle Odie. If I don't get my fingers anywhere near him he can't bite me. Richard is the one who picks Odie up and moves him from his cage to his gym. Over time Odie has come to make some friendly gestures toward me. In the morning when I take his cover off he offers and enthusiastic, "Ooooo," followed by a number of slow wing stretches. We are at the point now where he will dip his head against the bars of his cage so I can scratch his head. He moves his head around and closes his eyes and sometimes he makes a purring sound.
A few times when he's been on his gym he's dipped his head and I've put my hand out to give him a scratch. I've been rewards with more bleeding digits. I've tried a number of the techniques suggested by various trainers including distracting him. The problem is that he's much faster than I am. By the time I realize he's going to bite it's way, way too late.
So I suppose after a year Odie and I have a kind of truce. I enjoy stroking his head, through the bars so we both feel safe and he makes me laugh when he swings on his toys or calls out, "Richard, come get your birdie!" He plays a game of blink with me and will sometimes initiate it. He seems calmer now than when we got him and I hope that someday we'll both be able to interact without the cage bars between us. I know that I'm the human and it's my job to figure out as much as I can about what makes this little green dragon behave in the way he does.
I'm grateful that Odie protests when he thinks I'm going to leave the house. On some level he recognizes that we are members of the same flock. I enjoy his physical antics and the contented noises he makes when I stroke his head. I laugh when he demands, " Where's Richard?" This certainly isn't what I envisioned when we agreed to add Odie into our flock but I'm fond of him. This isn't what Richard expected either. He has taken on much more of Odie's care than either of us thought he would, and even though Odie was my idea, Richard doesn't complain. I don't know what year two with Odie will bring but I'm pretty confident in predicting it will continue to be an adventure.
I didn't want to use anything that would be harmful to Odie. I called the vet and asked what kind of wire would be safe around birds. Answer: stainless steel. We didn't happen to have any of that in our possession so I decided that I could do a temporary patch. I talked very sweetly to Odie who was still on top of the cage. I asked his permission to put up the wooden perch we sometimes use as a bridge so he can go from his cage to the back of one of the dining room chairs to his bird gym. I moved slowly and he behaved himself and just watched instead of rushing and lunging for my hand.
