I tricked my Amazon!!

[ftlaudmom]

My OWA Rico is very shy about new things. He won't play with toys except the familiar ones in his cage - he won't try new foods and is not curious about colorful things that zons usually find interesting. When he's away from his cage I've tried to entice him to play with foot toys but he just leans away from them and acts scared. Last night I cut colorful plastic straw in half and placed one on top of his cage where he hangs out and he made sure to stay as close as possible to the edges of the cage far away from his new and strange "thing"!

However, what he does like to do is destroy the barrettes and hair ties out of my hair when he's on my shoulder. So I stuck a colorful straw in my hair tonight and within seconds he pulled it out and was enjoying it! So that's how I'll introduce foot toys to him from now on. I'll just somehow clip them in my hair - HA - gotcha! :32:

 

[IcyWolf]

Good thinkin! I'm sure it's less scary when he see's it on you too. Zig and Billie refuse to eat food if they don't see me or each other eat it first, monkey...err..I mean, parrot see parrot do lol

 

[henpecked]

:xmas_lol2:xmas_lol2:xmas_lol2Boy she's training you fast!!!

 

[ftlaudmom]

LOL HP! Maybe I'll clip a carrot stick in there or a string bean next time.....ewww this could get messy but hey, anything for my little lovebug!

 

[Remy]

Lol!! How cute! Let us know how that goes...

 

[suebee]

lmao yeah anything in my hair use to make the nut clamber all over it trying to remove it, and then destroy it, the number of bands an clips i have lost count on, but i have cut my hair short now an nuts missin the play area lol

 

[roxynoodle]

Good thinking! My Blue Crown conure was always afraid of new toys, too. I would set them next to her cage, play with them myself and then hang them outside her cage at first. And always when I finally put it in, she would avoid it at first.

I did see the zon doing something interesting last night. I got him this big hanging ladder type toy. He has finally discovered it's fun. But, last night, he was trying to get to it from the bottom of the cage, and couldn't reach. He actually dragged the big water bowl I put down there trying to encourage him to bathe, over to it, stood on top of the water bowl, and tried to reach the ladder. He was still a bit short. I will put the ladder on a chain to make it easier. Still, I thought, how smart! Get a step stool. At first I couldn't figure out why he was moving the "bath tub".