Life with Odie: Part 1

(This looks like the day to clean house in the blog.  Here's another entry that apparently didn't get posted until now.  Knowing how life has progressed for Odie and the humans in his flock, you might be interested in the beginning of the relationship.)

I've always liked birds. I like them but they, at least the ones we have in our flock at the moment, seem to much prefer Richard. We got Odie, the Senegal parrot, just over a year ago. He was mainly my idea. I wanted a parrot that had the potential for training and was a bit more acrobatic than Bailey the cockatiel or Angie the budgie.

A friend told me that she thought a Senegal would be perfect. I did my research and talked to our avian vet who agreed that this particular species would likely be a good fit. We were set on having a male because they have more potential for talking and because we've had so much trouble with Bailey being broody and wanting to lay eggs. I've been checking out the bird ads on Kijiji for a couple of years now, just to see what's out there. I don't remember exactly when Odie came to my attention. An ad for him would appear and then it would be gone for a month or two. Then it would appear again. In the meantime Richard and I talked about whether or not we should get another bird. He wasn't too keen. I guess I was looking for a replacement for Koko the Quaker who was with us for 7 years and died very suddenly in 2007. In reality, I knew that it wasn't possible to replace a Koko. No two pets are alike.

Just before we went to Italy in the fall of 2009 I saw Odie advertised again. Of course, we couldn't do anything at that point because we were going to be away for three weeks but I decided that I would call about Odie if he was advertised again after we got back. In December of 2009 Odie's ad showed up again. He seemed to be well-socialized and, according to the owners, interacted with both of them. We arranged to meet Odie. He let me pick him up and return him to his cage although he did set his beak on my hand when I put him down on one of his perches. We went home and did some more soul searching. A parrot that can live 40 years is a big commitment. We wanted to travel and as my mother was fond of saying, "Pets are a tie." Pets also enrich day-to-day life. We next arranged for Odie to have a health check with our vet.

We met the owner outside the vet clinic one cold winter day before Christmas. He handed us Odie in a box wrapped in a blanket and then went to get a coffee. The vet checked Odie over and took blood for the DNA testing. We returned Odie to his owner and waited for the results. By this time we'd pretty well decided we'd take Odie even if he turned out to be a she. The results came back: Odie was a relatively healthy male.

On December 27, 2009 Odie joined our flock. His former owner brought him and his small cage over to the house. I gave her a cheque and we proceeded to get Odie settled in. In the first days he seemed to accept me all right although I would get the occasional nip. I'm not sure at what point things went sideways for me and Odie. The nips became serious bites which often left a trail of blood on the kitchen floor.

I read many training manuals, watched DVD's on parrot behaviour. We had two consultations with our vet about how to stop the biting. Birds don't usually bite in the wild so somehow I had taught Odie to bite. All three of us were unhappy. Richard was unhappy because he didn't like to see me getting hurt and because Odie had chosen Richard when our plan was that Odie would interact with both of us. I was upset because I very much wanted to be able to handle Odie. I knew he was a smart bird and I had hopes of training him to do some tricks which, some of the literature said, would help a bird bond with its owner. Clearly something was off with Odie because he kept biting.

There were days when Richard wanted to find a new home for Odie right away. Parrots are intelligent and require a lot of daily interaction. Because, I didn't want to be bitten I stopped trying to handle Odie. That meant that it fell to Richard to attend to this energetic and demanding creature. There were days when I was ready to give up on Odie and give Odie up but I've never been one to give away pets once they are in my home and it wouldn't be fair to Odie to simply shuffle the problem off onto someone else. As the vet pointed out, "He's just being a bird."

(And five years later he is still 'being a bird.' I haven't been bitten for quite a while but then I haven't tried to scratch his head when he is outside the cage or pick him up either.)