Damsyl in distress

I bought a 6 year old female Ecelctus Parrot who loved the feathers out of me, but doesnt like my husband. She has drawn blood three times from him. I think Damsyl is part vampire. (LOL) however, I feel she has been abused.

Her previous owner died 8 months ago. Damsyl went to live with the owner's daughter, husband and children. When they became scared of Damsyl, they gave her and her lover to a pet store as a consignment.

Poor damsyl was in the pet store for 6 months living without her lover and living next to a giant Mccaw. When I came into the store, the owner told me about her. He said she was very mean. When I went up to her at her cage, I sat down on the floor and began to talk to her. She flew down to the floor of the cage and began to coo at me. I knew I needed to get my husband in there to approve me adopting her. We do not have any other birds in our home, but I have had conures in the past. My husband fell in love with her and we adopted her. We renamed her Damsyl as she was in distress.

She has been in our home for a week. She says a few words and has mocked our dog who likes to bark at the mailman. She loves me so much that she tried to violate me in a way that was very embarrassing.

But when it comes to my husband, she bites him. She does not want him near her. I tried the target training, but she is very frightend of the wooden stick.

Damsyl also screams if we leave the room. We both ignore her if she does this as we do not want to increase this bad behavior. When she makes no noise or other noises, we try to encourage her to keep doing that.

How do we get her to love and trust my husband and how to we get her to stop screaming. She is 6 years old and I hope it is not too late to change her behavior.

BTW, her original owner who died, potty trainer her and taught her nice words to say. Her original owner really loved her, too bad the daughter didnt. Damsyl's lover was adopted two months before I arrived otherwise I would have kept them together.

Any advice for an adoptive mother who loves this bird?

Its a time thing . Your Husband is going to have to go over the top to win her over[and in the end she may still prefer you and tolerate him }. Help teach her to entertain herself and keep her time out with you consistent. That gives them a sense of security they know their going to see you and not be all worried about it. . Try all different types of toys until you can find her 'Kind ' wood, plastic ,leather ,newspaper ,cardboard boxes.

wow what a sad story this bird has... I wish you would have been able to get the pair as well. I really don't know what to tell you except for him to interact with her in safe ways. He could talk to her while she is in her cage or even just sit near the cage. I wouldn't push her just let her come to terms with him in her own time. Maybe at some point she will want him to hold her. I am not experience with bringing home older birds so I really do not know much on how to deal with them. However, one of our Conures decided she was going to have nothing to do with anyone but me!! My daughter (20 yr old) was very patient and talked kindly to her often and regained her trust and now she is able to hold her as well. However, I am still the favorite and no one is able to take her off of me without getting bitten.

I'm by no means a expert but it sounds logical to me that if she's getting intimate with your hand she's probably feeling a bit broody and therefore being super protective of her "mate", which means she sees your husband as a threat to her bond.

I read somewhere, and this could be wrong, but petting a birds back stimulates them so if you are petting her back maybe you should not? The experts should be along shortly and probably blow my theory out of the water.

Welcome to the forum!

Poor Damsyl she lost her owner and her mate- that can be pretty stressful! She's lucky you adopted her!

Like Pinkbirdy said, it will take time...and a lot of patience....sometimes it can take weeks to months to longer to build a trusting relationship with a bird.

I would suggest that your husband spend some one-on-one time with her every day...even if it's just sitting next to her cage watching tv or reading a book to her, maybe have some super-special treats that she goes bonkers over that only your husband can give her during their one-on-one time. It would also help if you're out of sight and hearing range while they spend time together- if she can see or hear you it might cause her to become upset.

Also, like songlake said- avoid petting her back and wings, this can be interpreted by her as sexual behavior which can cause unwanted hormonal behaviors....limit scritches to her head and neck.

Welcome to the forum!

Poor girl. Something that may help her with the target training is to use a small stick that you can hide. Show her both hands, one hiding the target and the other with treats in it. Keep dispensing treats to her as she finishes each treat. Then slowly unhide a small portion of the target stick and pause so she can just see it. Keep dispensing those treats! In fact, if you can, get her to bring her head over to your hands so her head is near the target stick while she eats.

As she gets comfortable with that, bring out a little more of the target stick. Repeat. Once you get to 1-3" of the target stick showing and she's comfortable with that, you can then work on her touching the target for a food reward.

Damsyl is scared to death of sticks. And she doesnt know how to play. What can I do to teach her that she doesnt need my attention 24/7?

You can use anything you want as a target! If she's afraid of something, you can take two different approaches to solve that.

Approach #1: Stand however many feet away from your bird where she doesn't freak out over an object (be it 2' away or 20' away). Have the object in one hand, behind your back, and treats in your other hand. Slowly show her the object, hide the object behind your back, walk up to her and give her a treat, then go back to starting position. Repeat several times. Then, take a step or two closer and repeat showing her the object, hiding it, then rewarding her. Keep it up until you are able to stand next to her with it. If at any time she becomes uneasy or freaked out, take a step or two back,

Approach #2: Hide the object in your hand. Walk up to your bird and unhide a little of that object. Then give her a treat. Keep giving her treats for remaining calm. Then unhide a little more of it. Give more treats. Keep this process up until you unhide the entire object.



As far as toys go, you can give her foraging toys that'll make her work for her food. It can be extremely simple, such as placing food onto a skewer, placing food into a "cage" or acrylic ball with slots, sticking food or nuts into the toys.

Likewise, you can reward her for looking at a toy, stepping closer to a toy, touching a toy, mouthing a toy, and playing with said toy! This is a form of target training, which you then can shape how she plays with toys.




A reward is anything she finds rewarding. It can be seeds, nuts, fresh/dried fruits, yogurt, a toy, attention or anything else! Food is usually a good one to start out with as a reward, and as you get to know her, you can then work on increasing the types of rewards she gets.

I would like to know the best diet for my Eclectus Parrot. They caanot eat seeds alone like McCaws or African Parrots. I am currently weaning her off of 100% seed diet that she was on when I adopted her. I am trying her on fruits and veggies, but she keeps taking a bite and throwing the rest across the room. It is kind of funny, but I have to clean up that mess. Too bad the cage cleaning company wont clean the mess that my bird throws around the room.

Her favorites right now is apples. I keep giving her cooked and raw. I have purchased the Lafeber's Nutri-Berries Tropical Fruit Parrot Food. She will eat three balls per day.

But the store does not know anything about birds. They dont realize there is a different diet for Upper tree dwelling birds (Eclectus Parrots) and bottom tree dweller birds (McCaws & African Greys) They group them together as one type of bird (Parrot)

I want her to be healthy and thirve on the fresh foods. I enjoy getting up early and cutting up her fresh fruit and veggies. but I hate having to pick up all of the peices she doesnt like.

What she likes one day, she will not like it another. I am trying to keep up with her needs and know this might just be a game she plays because she is an Eclectus.

Any advice?

Damsyl said:

I would like to know the best diet for my Eclectus Parrot. They caanot eat seeds alone like McCaws or African Parrots. I am currently weaning her off of 100% seed diet that she was on when I adopted her. I am trying her on fruits and veggies, but she keeps taking a bite and throwing the rest across the room. It is kind of funny, but I have to clean up that mess. Too bad the cage cleaning company wont clean the mess that my bird throws around the room.

Her favorites right now is apples. I keep giving her cooked and raw. I have purchased the Lafeber's Nutri-Berries Tropical Fruit Parrot Food. She will eat three balls per day.

But the store does not know anything about birds. They dont realize there is a different diet for Upper tree dwelling birds (Eclectus Parrots) and bottom tree dweller birds (McCaws & African Greys) They group them together as one type of bird (Parrot)

I want her to be healthy and thirve on the fresh foods. I enjoy getting up early and cutting up her fresh fruit and veggies. but I hate having to pick up all of the peices she doesnt like.

What she likes one day, she will not like it another. I am trying to keep up with her needs and know this might just be a game she plays because she is an Eclectus.

Any advice?

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Hello

If I were you I'd ask over @ the Eclectus thread!!
Or do a search on the Eclectus thread

Some people that know alot about Eclectus may not make it to this thread

Here is a link: Eclectus - Parrot Forum - Parrot Owner's Community

Hope this helps

Joe

Uhm..... macaws and african greys don't thrive well on seed only diets, either....