Giggleagain
New member
I'm the chosen feeder and cleaner. The mover-him-arounder-on-the-playstands. The bed-time singer and head-scratcher. Sometimes I'm the head-scratchee. I am, however, NOT the step-uppee.
Willie has fallen in love with my 10 year old grand-daughter. He calls her name, he yells for her when she leaves. He......stepped up on her today and nobody was as thrilled-shocked as she. The problem was that he stepped and kept stepping all the way to her shoulder, where he firmly insisted on remaining.
This was all done out of my sight, of course.... and I didn't hear about it until Willie refused to step off. I made sure she was alone in the room with him, without any "helpful people" causing displacement bites. Trying to figure out how to get him off that shoulder and the closeness to that pretty face and tender neck! I did some long-distance and out of sight coaching. Get some sunflower seeds, get close to his play stand. Show him seeds in your hand, stretch arm out and touch play stand with seed in view, etc. etc.
Willie was interested of course, and whispered "MMMMMM" in her ear, but wouldn't budge. We tried animal crackers (a favorite), we tried maccaroni, but what finally did the trick was a piece of Bratwurst.... Nobody can resist Beer Brats!
Whew.....and I was worried my granddaughter would think I'm horrible because I didn't come into the room to "save her". But she was so pround of herself. Her heart was beating up a storm when it was "over", but it turned out that my little girl had "read up" and knew that I was saving her by NOT coming into the room. She had found out everything about displacement biting and many other things by reading on the internet AND ON THIS FORUM and knew exactly what I was doing when sneaking all these treats into the room without letting Willie see me.
So it's all good. Willie has chosen and has proven that he won't bite his chosen one. My granddaughter got both a thrill and a lesson. Amazons don't belong on 10 year-old-shoulders. She now has a life time to teach this bird how to behave. I'm just the caretaker between weekend and weekend - until she can take over for good.
I have new respect for my granddaughter, and knowing that Willie can trust someone enough to step up without biting MADE MY DAY !
I have some neat Willie videos with tricks he has learned. I will have to edit them a bit before uploading. Sorry for the long post, but this was very exciting and I wanted to share it.
Willie has fallen in love with my 10 year old grand-daughter. He calls her name, he yells for her when she leaves. He......stepped up on her today and nobody was as thrilled-shocked as she. The problem was that he stepped and kept stepping all the way to her shoulder, where he firmly insisted on remaining.
This was all done out of my sight, of course.... and I didn't hear about it until Willie refused to step off. I made sure she was alone in the room with him, without any "helpful people" causing displacement bites. Trying to figure out how to get him off that shoulder and the closeness to that pretty face and tender neck! I did some long-distance and out of sight coaching. Get some sunflower seeds, get close to his play stand. Show him seeds in your hand, stretch arm out and touch play stand with seed in view, etc. etc.
Willie was interested of course, and whispered "MMMMMM" in her ear, but wouldn't budge. We tried animal crackers (a favorite), we tried maccaroni, but what finally did the trick was a piece of Bratwurst.... Nobody can resist Beer Brats!
Whew.....and I was worried my granddaughter would think I'm horrible because I didn't come into the room to "save her". But she was so pround of herself. Her heart was beating up a storm when it was "over", but it turned out that my little girl had "read up" and knew that I was saving her by NOT coming into the room. She had found out everything about displacement biting and many other things by reading on the internet AND ON THIS FORUM and knew exactly what I was doing when sneaking all these treats into the room without letting Willie see me.
So it's all good. Willie has chosen and has proven that he won't bite his chosen one. My granddaughter got both a thrill and a lesson. Amazons don't belong on 10 year-old-shoulders. She now has a life time to teach this bird how to behave. I'm just the caretaker between weekend and weekend - until she can take over for good.
I have new respect for my granddaughter, and knowing that Willie can trust someone enough to step up without biting MADE MY DAY !
I have some neat Willie videos with tricks he has learned. I will have to edit them a bit before uploading. Sorry for the long post, but this was very exciting and I wanted to share it.
