How to not "spoil" a baby Caique

[ShaunaR]

Hi everyone! Just us asking another question!
I ( Shauna) have been reading a bunch about the fact that we must be careful not to "spoil" our baby but little in terms of what NOT to do. I can only fall back on my dog training days and I know that won't apply with Parrots. I can see now that especially since she is very petite we will be tempted to have her with us (meaning out of the cage) as much as possible but is this a good thing? Should we work at giving her plenty of inside the cage time with us sitting beside it to show her what she can do in there? What examples can you creative people give us to illustrate what NOT to do when she comes home? The beauty of this forum is that Rick and I can learn from your combined experiences which is, well...priceless!
Thanks Ahead,
Shauna and Rick

 

[Jowelbg]

I'm curious what people have to say on this subject. I've always thought that consistency was the most important part of raising, well, anything.

Our little guys like to be taken out at the same time and for the same amount of time every day. Surprisingly, they recognize the altered weekend schedule as well.

The same goes for bedtime and feeding. For our guys bedtime is the biggest. Getting to bed on time covers a multitude of sins.

I guess to make a long post a little longer, you can set whatever rules you want. They just have to stay the same.

-Joel

 

[Sterling1113]

I have no experience with Caiques, but an important thing with any bird is to teach them to self-entertain. If you get a baby and she is always out of the cage, always on someone's hand/arm/shoulder/etc, then you have a risk of putting her in the cage and she has NO idea what to do, thus screams for attention. Even if she has toys.

It's a good idea that while she is out of the cage, play with her toys! Show her how much fun it is to chew and shred the things that hang in her cage. Especially foraging toys. That way when she does go into her cage it's a fun thing, because she knows what all those toys are for!

 

[dskidd]

I'm curious what people have to say on this subject. I've always thought that consistency was the most important part of raising, well, anything.

Our little guys like to be taken out at the same time and for the same amount of time every day. Surprisingly, they recognize the altered weekend schedule as well.

The same goes for bedtime and feeding. For our guys bedtime is the biggest. Getting to bed on time covers a multitude of sins.

I guess to make a long post a little longer, you can set whatever rules you want. They just have to stay the same.

-Joel

I absolutely agree with Joel regarding the consistency aspect. I try to maintain routines with E&H, and it seems to have helped tremendously. Unfortunately, they're a little behind Bunsen and Beaker when it comes to recognizing the sanctity of weekend mornings. Saturday or Sunday at 5:30am I can hear Eliza making her quiet little "where are you?" call, just like she does on the weekdays.

Derek