My adoptee comes home in 2 days. Advice?

[Amanda_Bennett]

Zilla is 28 and I've only had her 3 months. I just took things one day at a time. Kept things quiet for the first couple of weeks. Make sure she gets lots of sleep and lots of fresh foods. Just pay attention to the birds body language and go at his pace.

Did Zilla try to bite a lot at first?

Lucky for me Zilla was bite pressure trained at some point in her life before I got her. She sounds aggressive, squawks, growls and "bites" my hands all the time, it just doesn't hurt. Never left a mark or anything.

 

[Birdman666]

Very accurate description Mark! Though at this point it's my female that's the terrorist, not the male. She gave my partner a lip piercing.

You know... there was always that opinionated side to that bird, and if you triggered it, he would not hesitate to let you have it. (Or warn you...)

BUT "can I get away with it" was a big part of the puzzle. He'd still do it even if he knew he couldn't get away with it - but less often, and much less bite pressure, than when he thought he was going to get away with attitude and no repercussions.

You reduce the behaviors. You don't eliminate them entirely..

And if you ran, if he knew he could bully you, he absolutely would turn into a little holy terror! (At least until the oven mits came out. He nailed me through the towel... oven mits proved most effective!)

 

[Birdman666]

Lucky for me Zilla was bite pressure trained at some point in her life before I got her. She sounds aggressive, squawks, growls and "bites" my hands all the time, it just doesn't hurt. Never left a mark or anything.

That is the way Lila is with me. She will voice her displeasure, but never under any circumstances applies any bite pressure. (She came to me like that.)

 

[Amanda_Bennett]

Lucky for me Zilla was bite pressure trained at some point in her life before I got her. She sounds aggressive, squawks, growls and "bites" my hands all the time, it just doesn't hurt. Never left a mark or anything.

That is the way Lila is with me. She will voice her displeasure, but never under any circumstances applies any bite pressure. (She came to me like that.)

At first I was really freaking out thinking something was wrong with her beak! I had the vet check it and was really worried she wouldn't be able to eat right, and I had no idea what to do! Vet said she thought it was fine, she couldn't find anything wrong, but to watch her and make sure she was eating, and she was. Everything she could get her beak on...LOL

That's one worry you saved me from Birdman! I joined this forum and started reading and asking questions and figured out she had to have been bite pressure trained. She does a heck of a job on the wood blocks, nuts, and other toys I give her so I know she could hurt me if she wanted to! It's the only explanation as to why she doesn't hurt me...Lord knows I have PO'd her enough times!

 

[Birdman666]

I joined this forum and started reading and asking questions and figured out she had to have been bite pressure trained. She does a heck of a job on the wood blocks, nuts, and other toys I give her so I know she could hurt me if she wanted to! It's the only explanation as to why she doesn't hurt me...Lord knows I have PO'd her enough times!

That is just such an important step, and most folks skip it for fear of being bitten, and then get bitten badly later on in life.

Once they learn it, they learn it. Sounds like a zon with a great disposition.

When we were at the laundrymat the other day Maggie bit into one of the large blocks of wood on her playstand and cracked it LENGHWISE... Now, granted this was a pine block, but it's about seven inches long, and two inches thick... CRACK! SNAP!

This is the same bird that routinely licks my eyeballs!

Hurting people really isn't something that is normally in their nature to do. But I have absolutely no doubt at all that Maggie could put her beak clean through an arm bone. I've seen my "little" (Relative concept) red front put her beak clean through someone's trapezius muscle... Sweepea's bite pressure is only a fraction of Maggie's!