Making amazing progress

I had a nice wonderful surprise this morning from Snowball. Yesterday too, actually. Yesterday morning he was chirping like crazy to a bird outside. It's the first active chirping I've heard from him (minus his 3 quiet ones on Monday) since I got him on Sunday. That was a great sign. Today however, I was given a pleasant surprise. I was doing my usual whistle sounds to him, and he finally chirped back to me! It wasn't as vocal as how he was doing yesterday, but it was active enough where I could tell that it was in response to me whistling. So he's definitely getting a little more comfortable with the idea of chirping around me. But that wasn't all. He did his usual skittish behavior when I was opening up the cage parts for the food and water dishes. However, when I went to put the water back in, he got super excited about it and rushed towards where I was, chirping up a storm, then after the water was put in, he jumped on the dish to take a few swigs, look at me, then hop back onto the nearest perch. I was shocked (in a good way)! It's like it came from nowhere. There was none of that yesterday. And then I was even more shocked when he proceeded to do the same with his food dish! He ate completely with me nearby for the first time with no fear at all (he used to grab a seed at a time then quick stare at me wherever I was in the room, to make sure I wasn't going to pull anything on him. There was none of that today. He just ate calmly without really caring about where I was or what I was doing). And as if that wasn't enough to ask for from him. I have a chair near his cage so I can sit and talk calmly to him (I started this after the vet visit on Tuesday, because we had an almost-bonding moment when I was trying to coax him back into his normal cage. If it weren't for that stupid car alarm that startled him...). Today he finally preened himself without fear in front of me (usually he just completely stopped and stared at me with full alertness if I was so much as 10ft away from the cage). He even went as far as to turn his head away from me, minutes at a time, to get at his back/wing/tail feathers. There was the occasional arm movement I made to itch myself that caused him to stop a moment and stare, but it wasn't out of fear. He was completely comfortable, it was more of an insurance just to make sure I wasn't unexpectedly pulling something on him, but he was more than confident that I wasn't. He eventually stopped caring completely, and any movement I made, he didn't bother looking at. There was also a few times I had to get in/out of the chair to get myself food or bathroom break. I was worried I was going to startle him doing this (he did get startled yesterday with any movement I would have to make, especially in/out of chair). Nope. Completely relaxed. Didn't even stop preening himself, that's how at ease he was.

I must say I'm shocked by this. I thought it was going to be at LEAST another week, likely more, after what he's been through before he even felt comfortable around me. It's only been 5 days (including Sunday) and he's already starting to open up to me. It was a drastic change from yesterday to today in his behavior. By no means am I upset by this (who would be?!), it just seems so crazy that he's opening up so quickly after all he's experienced. I'm so proud of him. ^^

Your miracle has begun... enjoy... AND please keep sharing!

Wonderful news after the horrid treatment this little one suffered.

You are going to get on very well! Have you tried whistling the same tune over and then just one part of it? They learn it and will whistle the missing part back to you. My little one used to love music and favourites were Falla, Love the Magician and Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade.

haha sounds like the beginning of trust! Mine was like that, terrified and always watching then one day, he decided I was a friend and began flying to me for a scritch

Sweet success and wonderful progress, thank you for sharing Snowball's story.

Ahahah! I got him to eat millet out of my hand today! I honestly didn't think he would do it! Out of all the birds I've owned in my life, he's certainly the fastest bonder out of all of them. I thought he was going to be the slowest. This is surprising indeed!

Can someone tell me how to post pictures without having to make a new thread? I wanted to post a few I got of him today in here. It was before and after shots of the millet feed (I didn't get during, as I was worried that the phone was going to spook him). He was just so cute and fluffed up that I can't resist sharing him with all of you.

Here you go

http://www.parrotforums.com/technical-support/6287-how-post-pictures.html

Be nice to see Snowball.

Two of my 3 pictures ended up sideways ;-; not sure how to change that. I'll have to sift through the thread you sent to try and find out.

http://www.parrotforums.com/members...-picture18607-before-he-finally-came-out.html

http://www.parrotforums.com/members...c-taken-my-muscles-cramped-up-not-moving.html

http://www.parrotforums.com/members...fluffed-up-after-having-eaten-his-millet.html