Anyone ever get Overwhelmed by their baby

Its been a little while since I've been on here posting got a new job and have been busy. As some of you may know I have a mini Cockatoo dressed as a Timneh. Who is a Velcro bird from the minute she wakes up to the minute she goes to bed. I think puberty has hit and she has been stand offish lately. She knows how to make me just about ready to burst from anxiety; if she isn't getting all of my attention. I need to be more strict in my ways with her and am unsure how to discipline some of her actions. She sometimes will want my drink and while I'm drinking slam into the glass spilling it and scaring me in the process. She scrabbles up one side and down the other like a bug which doesn't bother me. Except when she is trying to get something she wants and its non stop. Either my food, drink, phone, any bottle my fault. I figured the tops of milk jugs and other random bottles washed of course would be a cheap toy that she really loves. But she attacks most bottles now, sometimes viciously. I love Timneh but I need to find a little balance. She has learned to fly down the stairs now also so the whole house is a free flight zone for her. Just wondered if anyone else on occasion gets frustrated and overwhelmed with their baby? Timneh knows me well and sometimes uses it to mischief I have know doubt. She is quick to forgive any of my outbursts of "ENOUGH" or "STOP" sometimes I think she just wants to see the show. Then after sit on the door mockingly saying stop, stop, stop, as I just walk away shaking my head, well played Timneh well played. Timneh is a fantastic parrot in every way and I feel bad I have failed to train her properly so far. Bite pressure stepping up and little things like that she does great. I work at 5 am and so I wake her up before work so she can potty cause she doesn't like going in her house. I reach in no worries and she steps right of her sleeping spot onto my finger no questions asked. Sometimes in the morning she goes potty in the sink with the water running to help her go if I'm in a hurry. Guess the water running trick works for parrots too. LOL. She loves me tons and I love her tons so I know we will figure it out just needed to do a little venting. I think she knew it cause she hasn't moved from on top of my head the whole time I've been typing. Thanks g\for listening gang hope all is well with everybody.

Often lol- They are like toddlers that don't age, so it's understandable Sounds like you are doing a good job.

Target training sounds like a very good next-step because it sounds like she needs to learn how to stay put at times--even if out (e.g.,on her cage top etc). That would make your life much easier too.

If she tries stealing what you have, have you considered putting her down somewhere and walking into another room with it (after saying something like "mine")?---I know she can fly, but it might help her make the connection if you leave with the desired food every time she does tries to steal (go somewhere she cant- wait a minute or so-- then come back with your food/drink and if she does it again, repeat?)--Just make sure you don't accidentally open a door into her if she waits outside....or shut her in one if she tries to follow...That is why target training sounds important.

Have you tried handing her something to put in her mouth that is acceptable during those times...

I feel overwhelmed all the time-- I am pretty sure you are normal haha!

Billdore, you have just about perfectly described my daily life with little Lilly the lorikeet! She has to be THE centre of my attention virtually every waking moment if I’m not at work. Lorikeets are excellent climbers so she climbs all over me and gets into everything. I’m lucky I’ve got my hubby home over the 4 day Easter weekend so he’s able to divert some of her attention for a bit!

I know it’s entirely my fault because I’ve never even attempted to train her. It’s pretty hard to train a tiny wee girlie like Lilly who has the attention span of a split pea, but seriously when I can’t leave the room for 30 seconds to pop out to the loo for a quick pee, Lilly you gotta give me a break occasionally!!

Thank you very much, Lamanuka and Noodles. She will accept nutri berries and avi cakes, also grapes in place of my stuff. not much else interests her that will last a minute. Timneh is so fast it’s hard to clear a door enough to shut it but I usually will put her on top of the door or her perch. Her big tree stand doesn’t really impress her and neither do parrot toys in general. they either scare her or she’s too lazy to chew the wood. She has a couple of awesome toys from a christmas that she will hopefully accept pretty soon but right now too scary.

Billdore said:

Thank you very much, Lamanuka and Noodles. She will accept nutri berries and avi cakes, also grapes in place of my stuff. not much else interests her that will last a minute. Timneh is so fast it’s hard to clear a door enough to shut it but I usually will put her on top of the door or her perch. Her big tree stand doesn’t really impress her and neither do parrot toys in general. they either scare her or she’s too lazy to chew the wood. She has a couple of awesome toys from a christmas that she will hopefully accept pretty soon but right now too scary.

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Okay- this is going to be an odd thought, but could you install a curtain or even hide under a blanket lol!!!? Or...and this one might be controversial...have you considered putting her in a cage if she tries to steal, then allowing her back out after a few seconds later, but then putting her back in each time she attempts to steal (for a very brief period and with plenty of opportunities to try again). Just thinking out-loud...I mean, you could even get a small time-out sort of cage for this very purpose (so that she isn't associating her cage with punishment)...Obviously not too small and not to be used for extended periods of time, but a cage that she could stay in for very short periods when she exhibits unsafe behaviors like stealing food (it really is not safe--- my uncles' grey would steal coffee and chocolate when he had the chance and it was very scary!)..His jardines parrot also tries to drink my coffee and A) coffee is terrible for birds + B) it is hot. So, it really is a good idea to try to break this habit...alcohol is another risky drink for a bird-thief.

Timneh in slo mo going for her toy a empty water bottle.
[ame="https://youtu.be/cFAWRbR9qYg"]April 18, 2019 - YouTube[/ame]

Great idea but i think she might go into time out once but she will just fly away if she isn’t in the mood. the curtain though could be a safe and fast exit so I could just leave when she is stealing. then come back and try again till she was well behaved and I would stay.

Speaking of zero training...

We are supposed to be popping out to the shop at some point this morning but we have to wait for Valentino the budgie to hop back into his cage first. He is not hand tame and I don’t like chasing him around the house. So we wait. He’s been sitting on the door of his cage for about an hour so far and now he’s preening. Hopefully he’ll want a snack fairly soon then I will pounce! Good thing we’re in no hurry!

Overwhelmed?


All the time
it is *so* frustrating when you get some type of behaviour and for the love of everything in existence there seems to be no way to find out just what is setting the bird of and how to stop it!

Greys love to mess with empty water bottles. They love the sound and its motion after hitting it.

All sounds totally normal life with a grey

As for taking your food or drink, just share. With drinks I'll take a sip and enzo will then take a sip.. after a few sips she has had enough and I can continue to enjoy my drink. I don't share alcohol of course but enzo doesn't try to drink it any way.

What I'm suggesting is, allow your bird to learn that she won't be left out of flock activities. As for attacking bottles hell yes, full on aggression battles are the norm when she is in one of them moods lol

People are often surprised with the level of patience I have with her, if I get stressed or worked up, she will definitely pick up on it and she will get stressed too... keep calm and carry on

One further thing.. mischief. Enzo has use of the whole house and she therefore wants me to be where ever she goes apart from when she want to hang out alone. If I ignore her for too long she will get mischievous, chewing things etc. When she does she even says 'no'. She is therefore after attention negative or not. So if om busy and cant spend the time when wants I now put her back in her cage until i can give her the attention again

My friend you are not alone. Parker’s been overwhelming me lately, and some of which is piddly little crap like refusing to step up (ok, that issue goes deeper and is connect with a larger more difficult issue, but not stepping up shouldn’t land me in tears like it has once or twice, I’m ashamed to admit). He’s made some dramatic improvements in a short time, thank god, but there at one point was talk of possible rehoming if our issue didn’t improve.

You are far from alone!

Between my own grey and a zon, when aren't they overwhelming? My human daughter calls them the sour patch kids. Want to strangle them one minute, snuggle and love on them the next.

As far as Timneh's thievery, it might benefit you if April chimes in or if you PM her (Kiwibird) about how she taught her blue front the concept of "yours" and "mine".

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

bigfellasdad said:

All sounds totally normal life with a grey

As for taking your food or drink, just share. With drinks I'll take a sip and enzo will then take a sip.. after a few sips she has had enough and I can continue to enjoy my drink. I don't share alcohol of course but enzo doesn't try to drink it any way.

What I'm suggesting is, allow your bird to learn that she won't be left out of flock activities. As for attacking bottles hell yes, full on aggression battles are the norm when she is in one of them moods lol

People are often surprised with the level of patience I have with her, if I get stressed or worked up, she will definitely pick up on it and she will get stressed too... keep calm and carry on

Click to expand...

I know many birds have shared food with their owners and been okay, but it isn't a flock activity that is necessarily safe to encourage. If sharing food with mine, I often portion out a little bit for her in a separate dish so that she can try it without risking exposure to my germs.

(ctrl+f the word "saliva" on the articles below):
https://cockatielsaspets.com/what-not-to-feed-your-cockatiel
Parrot Precautions - CHICAGO EXOTICS ANIMAL HOSPITAL
https://www.omlet.co.uk/guide/budgie_guide/budgies_in_the_home/other_pets

Oh Billdore, I think I'm safe in saying that every single member of this forum knows exactly what you're saying/describing and has felt exactly what you're feeling at some point (or at many points, lol) throughout their Parronthood...People who have never owned/lived with a parrot wouldn't understand, however a lot of them would describe being a parent to a human child much the same way: they love their kids dearly and would do anything in the world for them, but they drive them absolutely insane sometimes and once in a while they just need a break! You don't often hear this coming from the owners of other "pets" like dogs, cats, reptiles, rodents, etc...But ironically I have heard it many times from the owners of pet Primates, as that is pretty much EXACTLY like having a human child or a parrot. I know one person who raised a Capuchin Monkey since he was 2 weeks old when they bottle-fed them, and another who did the same with a Galago (Bushbaby), and they both made the decision early on to introduce their babies to a close friend/relative and purposely got them to be close to each other over-time just so they could take a vacation once in a while...So human children do not own the monopoly on being needy, demanding pains in the ass...

You're describing my Green Cheek Conure, Bowie, to a T...And it's my own fault, every time I am eating something or I have a drink of something and he flies right to me and starts dragging his beak across my cheek and trying to take food right out of my mouth, I tell myself that "It's your own fault! Don't get mad at him now!"...And Bowie knows better, he knows exactly the point where I'm getting frustrated with him, because it's about that point where he leaves for a few minutes...but he always comes back and tries again, lol...So it's like I can't even eat a meal without him trying to climb inside of my mouth and taking the food right out...And none of my other 3 do this, they all love to get some people-food or a drink of juice or a sip of coffee etc., but none of them do what Bowie does because I nipped that in the butt when they were little...But with Bowie, we have an extremely close bond, and he has me wrapped around his little toe, and he gets away with murder...He just had a horrible accident 2 weeks ago where I slammed him in the bathroom door (obviously it was an accident, I thought he had already flown out the door)...But the real point to me should be that I let him follow me all over the house, everywhere I am he is, including the bathroom!!! If I'm taking a shower he is sitting on the shower rod from start to finish. If I'm on the phone he's on my shoulder, if I'm on the computer he's on my shoulder (he sells "Hello" by the way, he's of course sitting on my shoulder right now chewing on my new Misfits earrings that I just got and he'll probably rip apart/break)...I long ago started feeding all 4 of them their Veggies/Greens/Fruit along with some Nuts, Quinoa, etc. at the same time that I sit down and eat dinner, so we all eat dinner together, which I love, we do it as a family...But while Kane, Lita, and Duff (and now Dylan, the Dove) sit on their T-Stands and eat from their individual bowls, Bowie starts out there but ends-up on my shoulder eating some of my dinner after about 2-3 minutes of eating his Veggies/Greens and then coming over to steal the food out of my mouth...A few weeks ago I walked downstairs for a minute, came back upstairs to find Bowie had lowered himself into my glass, his entire body was inside of the glass and he was drinking my orange juice, and then he started screaming because he couldn't get back up out of the glass!!! That's MY FAULT, but it's just kind of how things are now...

I find myself having to take a break from the birds on days when I'm at home, like on the weekends and days off, because they are just ALWAYS THERE, all of them are always calling me for something or crying for something, and you just need a break every now and again. So I'll take Lola, my Cattle Dog, for a really long walk/hike for a couple of hours while they go in their cages for "alone time"...And they hate it, they too have full-run of my house all day long when I'm home, and they really don't spend a lot of time in their cages now that I think about it...And it does get overwhelming, sometimes you just need a break!!! The one place they aren't allowed in the house is in my workshop out in the garage/basement of the house, because I repair/restore guitars and other musical instruments and I use a lot of cleaners, rust removers, metal polishes, and then also wood varnishes, paints, wood oils, etc. And I also do a lot of electronics work on the electric guitars/basses as well as amps/headers and pedals, usually taking out old pick-ups out of guitars and putting new ones in, adding different capacitors, switches, POTS, etc., and all of that requires a TON of soldering and the use of a lot of Flux...So they can't be anywhere near the fumes from any of that stuff, so they all know that they have to either hang-out down in the room where the Aviary is where the Budgies live, or they can go upstairs in their cages or on their stands...And BOWIE sits in the room the Aviary is in because it's on the other side of the door from my shop, and he will SCREAM and call for me, scream then call, scream then call, etc. the entire time I'm out in the shop...There is a massive PVC play-gym down there that I built, it takes up half the room and has probably $200 worth of toys, ladders, swings, etc. on it, and he sits on the bare, boring T-Stand and screams and calls to me for the entire time I'm out working in the shop. And if I put him in his cage upstairs and then go down into the shop, he does the same thing, screams and calls for me the entire time, but that gets the other 3 going too, along with a constantly "Cooing" Dove, and it's so loud that the Dogs start barking, and then I can't even hear the stereo that is right beside me inside the shop...

I love Bowie dearly and wouldn't have things any other way, not ever...I was sure I was going to lose him 2 weeks ago when that door shut on his head/neck, he had a horrible concussion and couldn't hold his head up at all, his eyes were shut for an entire day, and he just whimpered and cried the entire day and night that it happened...And I literally lost my mind over the possibility of losing him, and I stopped my entire life in every way and spent the entire week just laying with him on my chest when we weren't at the Vet's office. I heard my phone ringing and my email-alerts dinging like crazy all day, every day, but I didn't even hesitate in telling everyone that I was going to be offline and MIA until Bowie was better and I knew he was going to be okay for-sure...So yeah he drives me insane, he's needy, he's clingy, and sometimes I just need a break...But that's okay, it's okay to feel frustrated and overwhelmed by your kids, if you're not occasionally sick of your kids then you're not being a very good parent/parront to begin with, because that means you're not around much to begin with...So you take the breaks and steal the alone-time whenever you can, you ***** and complain about them to vent your frustrations, and then you go right back to catering to their every whim and putting up with their BS because you love them to death.

Thank you everyone, Chris Timneh has had me in tears before, a lot of emotions running wild. I love her so much but get so frustrated. She used to have an issue going to bed thankfully we have solved that issue. Thank you Ellen I never really thought about it but yeah parents get super frustrated with their kids all the time. I hope Bowie is 100% now I have a fear of this cause Timneh will fly through the crack of a closing door, or into the partially opened door to open it. I accidentally closed the door on her a couple of weeks ago I was out with my dog in the back yard so the main door was open and teh screen door was closed. She was sitting on the top of the door and didn't move as I was closing it. All of a sudden I hear this screaming and her toe got pinched in the door. Luckily she screamed in time and it was just a little sore for about 5 minutes and she was alright after that. Sometimes they seem so strong and fearless I forget how fragile she is.

Well Bill...I'm going to assume that Timneh made short order of those two beat-up key boards I sent her for Christmas?? LOL..
I get over-whelmed ALOT with BB...my fault for zero training when he was young and now I have kind of a mini monster on my hands. He wants to be with me constantly! If I put him on his uncle david's shoulder and go into the next room he "ree-dits" ( that's what I call his calling for me) mercessly for me,and he is LOUD Now I understand what people meant when they say their 'teil screams lol.
I guess I was lucky with Smokey. She wouldn't "steal" things from me i.e. food,but if offered she'd sample whatever I had. Drinks (coffee/tea/soda/beer) never interested her,but Jonesy the 'too liked sips of my coffee or tea.

It sounds to me that you're doing everything right Bill,it's just Timneh pushing your buttons and seeing how much she can get away with
BTW...that was an awesome vid of her flying


Jim

I SOOOOO enjoyed this thread...
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS, I get overwhelmed/exhausted/heartbroken/furious/humiliated with the Rb.
I guess we all find a thought or expression that helps... here's one of my faves.

'He didn't ask to be caged'.

That usually renews me.

Oh my gosh! My new Eclectus started making this high pitched squeak today! My right ear started to feel clogged and I felt like my head was going to explode. I went outside! Lol