Senegal stories
Cathy Quinones
She has decided that my SO is allright. She gets some of his dinner several
days/week and gets some scratchies from him too. This story is about the
scratchies.
We have a reasonably new couch and are trying to keep it that way, so, Mango
only gets to be on the couch if we are there, watching TV. Usually, my SO
takes the same side, and reclines :) Mango has decided that if he's on the
couch, he is there to give her scratchies, so she eventually goes and parks
herself in front of him and bows her head. If he doesn't get to it right
away, or stops too soon, she reaches over and gives him a pinch on the inside
of his elbow. Today this was established, I had her, then she started
wandering off, walked all over Eric, he started screaming that he wasn't going
to be bullied into giving scratchies to any stinking birds and passed her back
to me (after some debate, as she refused to step up and kept rolling on her
back as if to say, look, I am not standing up, how can I possibly step up?!).
Once she was back on me, she didn't even look at me, she just ran back to him.
Of course Eric is screaming "bully! bully! I will not negotiate with
terrorists!" and I'm going "you better scratch her or else!" He didn't, so
she just went for the elbow. She got some scratchies. Of couse, the worst
part here is that I am just giggling through the whole ordeal, and the bird is
doing her version of my giggling, so poor Eric was getting no respect
whatsoever. [I don't mediate nips, if she were to really bite him I'd scold
her head off and return her, sans head ;), to her cage. This business is
something he and the bird need to figure out!]
It's taken time but those two certainly have developed a relationship. She
treats him like an equal, so I regularly have to jump in and remind her that
only I get to be mean to him ;) but this is definitely a far cry from the
attitude she used to have (i.e., only I was allowed to touch her, etc...).
So, there's hope for all those couples out there, where the bird likes one
person and "hates" theother, as long as the people in question are willing to
put some effort into it.
===========================================================
Cathy Quinones quin...@mindspring.com
http://www.mindspring.com/~mintz/coverpg.html = bird care info
Poicephalus rule!!
David A. Rechtshaffen
>to me (after some debate, as she refused to step up and kept rolling
on her
>back as if to say, look, I am not standing up, how can I possibly step
up?!).
Did Mango always enjoy being on her back? Calvin does NOT like to be
held on his back. Sometimes, he allows it for a few moments, while I
tickle his tummy, but then he fights to turn over. Mostly, he
immediately fights to turn over. Certainly he does not do it on his
own! He was handfed, but I imagine that there are variable degrees of
tameness that can come from that. He is very calm, and tame, but
sometimes when I hold him in different ways, I can feel him shake
inside. He is nervous. Will the trust to be on his back develop with
time, or is that just something he doesn't like to do. He's 4 months
old, and I've only had him 1.5 months or so.
David