Bird won't enter new cage

[Scott]

Yes, I have been reading the forum and also "bird body language" articles, and it seems as if it is tough being a bird. I think this is a good bird, but I know for sure that he nipped my brother, someone who was totally his friend and very devoted. Well, at least he never took a finger off or anything. But, I can't tell you how many times I asked about a scratch on his arm or hand, and he'd tell me it was Dennis. They'd had an argument. Now, could have been say, his toenails, but I don't really believe that. This stuff never seemed to bother my brother much, but he was a bird man, and I am not. I asked him several times to leave me care instructions for his beloved, but he did not.

So, my progress in becoming a bird parent is sort of slow. The new cage bumped it up a notch. I really think the boy likes the new cage! He had to learn a lot of new stuff. For instance, he had never had the situation where he could hop from one perch to another, because he only had one perch. This was very interesting, watching him learn to hop. One day, he was on his platform perch at the far side, and I had a treat on the other side of the cage, and he suddenly hopped onto the main dowel perch and ran over to me. That was cool! Well, I guess it sounds silly, but you had to be there, watching this bird hike his way over. He got a lot of praise for that.

Well, the main thing today is, I sort of did something I wish I could take back. I had noticed that he takes his apple slice and tries to scratch himself with it. He had a nifty system where he took one of his large feathers that were molted off or something, and used that to scratch himself. So, I bought him some popsickle sticks to play with and perhaps replace the feather system. He promptly threw them down, all but one. I took the last one and tried to scratch him with it through the bars. Oh, heck no! He looked at me like, what the h are you DOING?? Moved away to another perch with a look of hurt...I stood there saying, I'm sorry! Look! And there I was, scratching my head with a popsickle stick. He watched that for as long as I did it. I left it for him, but we won't be doing that again. Look, some people on this forum are apparently eating bird food, so it seemed fairly reasonable. There is no Instagram available, however.

Great post! They do use tools and are creative, from scratching with feathers to creating wood "toothpicks" to wedge between cage bars. Don't give up on the popsicle stick yet; it may spark interest having watched you demo the idea, despite his initial reaction.

He knows you aren't your brother, and on some level understands you are his human servant! I think you are going to deeply bond!