bonding with an abused amazon

[roberto]

the bird in question is a blue fronted amazon. He is very unfreindly because he was abused. Im not sure how to initiate contact because he lunges at me and shows his dislike for me. Im real calm and patient with him but nothing works. I nead some bonding ideas. please help.

 

[borjawil]

Hi i recently rescued a macaw thats a bit aggressive. If i stroke its back it will give a little cry and turn its head and its not so much lunged at me but pushed its head in my hands direction as a warning it might bite. I talk to it calmy and will give it a treat (piece of banana) afterwards for letting me pet him. He's allowed me longer petting times and will allow me to pet his head a few times as well. Try to show him a piece of banana or other treat while talking to him and offer it see if he wont take it from your fingers. If he wont try to show it to him and then set it close by and so he/she can get to it. Once they start to trust ya a bit more they'll take it from your hand and let you pet them. Patience!

 

[Spiritbird]

If you go to the home page here and look in the upper right part of the screen you will find a small search widow. Type in bonding you may find some old threads on this subject. In a nutshell it is patience, and more patience and lots of time. He may be a hard case for you to handle. Best you not try to handle him yet. Just be near, not much eye contact in the beginning, talk, sing, read and just let him know you are not going to hurt him. Birds have a long memory. Here is an excellent article for you to read.

http://www.parrothouse.com/pamelaclark/secondhand.html

 

[roberto]

thnk you for posting that link spiritbird. it was very helpfull.

 

[SharonC]

Hi....I'd recommend sitting quietly with him, no touching, sing, read, offer treats, speak soothngly. The bird need to "trust" and that will take time. Let him go at his pace. He's been abused so it's natural for him to distrust everyone at this point. Earn his trust, and then work on handling him. It's going to be fun, though, when he bonds to you! Enjoy him, and love him!

 

[woody]

i suppose if you think of him, as if he was a human in that circumstance it may help to know what boundaries you should and shouldn't cross.
for example if you knew someone had been badly abused as a child, you may think differently of lunging at them to give them a big hug, to show you love them,as they MAY take that as crossing their personal space boundary etc, and make them even more wary of you etc...so you show your affection in small ,non physical ways until they no longer feel threatened by you.
a friend of mine, grew up shuffled around btwn her drug addict mother and her grandma who looked after her but resented her.
my natural thing is to hug a firend when i see them, and i occasionally forget and give her a big hug, and i can feel her pull away, she does not like it at all, so i have to remember not to do that each time i see her, as she just doesn't cope with that sort of physical contact at the moment, and i kind of think animals are the same too...
when they have felt neglected and unloved, displays of affection can be totally overwhelming, so it is much better to just be there for them and let them approach you, and if you do that, it gives the aniaml alot more confidence to be around you and take the first step...

and good on you for letting an animal have a chance at a loving home with you, despite the hard work involved!
the first time the bird asks for affection will be such a reward for you though...!

 

[roberto]

So far wat I gather from everyones advice and all of the articles that i have read on the web, I just need to kick back and be patient, whitch I understand, thing is that that isnt making this poor bird anymore comfortable. This poor guy is scared to death of everything. He dosnt want any treats, or anthing I touch for that matter. Also ive heard people talk about needing to mist birds in the winter cuz of the dry conditions. Im not sure if i should do that cuz the kids in the home he was rescued from used to squirt him with windex. Also I think the stick training Idea is out of the question cuz they usede to hit and poke him with sticks. I just want this bird to be comfortable after being through so much.

 

[nofearengineer]

Roberto, don't even be concerned with the finer points of stick training, or misting, for that matter. At this point, the single most important thing for him to learn is that you don't represent pain or suffering.

He may get upset when you come near to give him food or clean his cage. That is understandable, but if you do it in a peaceful way, eventually, he will realize that you are not a threat. Only then can he progress to the "hmmm....maybe roberto isn't a bad guy" stage. It's all slow. Trust can't be forced.

He won't die from not getting misted. Only work on that after you have his trust. I have gone through a lesser, but similar thing lately. I even resorted to keeping my fid in her cage all the time, and no bathing, of course. Patience has paid off though, and now she has bonded to me. Now I can start training her to step up and eventually baths.

Good luck, roberto.

 

[sunnysmommy]

Roberto, I feel the same as you. I recently took in a yellow nape amazon and he was abused and its a slow road, but I think if we're patient it will be very rewarding! I've made good progress already since I took him in Dec 21. After the horrors these birds endured, it will certainly take a long time for them to trust again. I sent you a private message if you want to swap tips, stories, advice, etc. --Dawn )

 

[wildheart]

I've been walking this road since beginning March 09 and it is a very hard and painful road. There is no such thing as stroking etc. and everything happens at their pace. I am only allowed to touch her when she asks for it. There are good moments and there are real bad moments. One month it feels like we made progress and then the next month comes and she tears the flesh from my finger for no reason. It is not a fearful bite like a new fid it is an aggressive, forceful, revengeful bite with the intention to draw blood. She will hang from my or any ones finger with no desire to let go. She bit Antoinette so bad that the wound stayed there for 3 weeks, I have marks that are permanent.

A couple of days ago she bit me no less than 6 times while walking from her cage to the kitchen. She spends every morning with me in the kitchen and there was nothing different about this day either. I had to put her down as fast as I safely could to get her to stop biting me.

You have to have never ending patience because EVERYTHING happens at their pace. You have to have 100% self control because you can not get frustrated, hurt or angry about negative behaviour and there are PLENTY. You must be able to tolerate pain otherwise your parrot can get injured when they bite down and you flick your hand. You must have absolutely NO FEAR otherwise this fid will end up spending all his days locked up in a cage and to me that is just another form of abuse.

Keep everything that he is afraid of away from him and when you HAVE to use it around him then do it very slowly while talking to him. I found that my girl trusted my mouth LONG before she trusted my hands. I approached her with my hands behind my back and after some time I was able to give her a treat with my mouth through the bars. I then slowly progressed to the point where she now sits on my hand with no problem on good days.

It took my girl 9 months to tolerate a broom in my hands (nobody else's hands). I still posted a thread about it because I was over the moon about it. http://www.parrotforums.com/budgies-parakeets-cockatiels/7321-pizza-anyone-major-progress.html

Dont expect anything, take every minute as it comes and APPRECIATE and remember only the good days.

Taking on a really abused bird is not for everyone.

You can buz on me when you need specific advice or just want to scream out of frustration.

 

[sunnysmommy]

Tonight was a little setback. My husband put Murph on his table perch in the living room and I brought dinner out as usual (we eat in the living room now that the kids are grown and gone). I walked by Murphy but I was about 5 feet away and he came sailing through the air at me and landed on my back...obviously he wasn't clipped enough! Scared the bejeebers out of me. I dropped to a crouch and called out for my husband and Ed kind of swatted the bird off me. I hope this didn't ruin my progress. We panicked. We're not used to this at all, and try as I might I can't seem to not show fear when I have a huge bird flying at my head. I can only wonder...was he trying to attack me or land on me to be near me, as I'm the one who spends all the time with him and scratches his little head at night and all. After it happened my husband put him back in his cage (which we wheeled out of his room INTO the living room...maybe I was too close to his cage as I was between him and it and perhaps that's what he didn't like. ) I'm no expert. He was calm right away. I sat with him for a while and he seemed fine. We figure we'd better have a towel nearby in case of these types of instances. I hope I didn't erase my progress with this as I really reacted badly. (

 

[wildheart]

When my girl wasnt properly clipped she flew at EVERYBODY'S heads and bit us in the face, we literally had to tear her off us. Unfortunately you will have to get Murphy properly clipped by a vet and explain to him the problem.

My girl is molting now and her new flight feathers are coming in, she can lift up but can only fly about 6 feet. Even thou I've worked with her every single day for the past 11 months she is once again trying to go for my husband and daughter with the intention of biting them. I am going to take her to the vet again for clipping, unfortunately there is no other way.


I am sorry that you got such a fright Dawn and dont feel bad about it. Everybody in our household are scared of my girl and they have valid reasons. I also have to add that I think the reason why my girl is going for them is because she can see that she intimidates them and they are afraid of her. It is almost as if she enjoys it. If they stand close to her then she will run towards them, jump on them and bite. It is crazy! You really have to find it inside yourself to not show fear - it is VERY HARD. I am already immune against bites and she cant intimidate me no matter how hard she tries but that is because of my experience with my male iguana and not because of a parrot.

Why did Murphy fly for you, we can only guess. I am just glad that he settled down after the incident. You will learn with time what you are allowed to do and what is dangerous to do. You will also learn that you can never let your guard down and relax with him because one moment they are super nice and the next moment they are violent. It is as if an abused parrot are even more psychologically broken than a human or maybe it is just my girl that is a psychopath. Then again, her leg was broken in 3 places and the previous people left it to grow on bended backwards. I dont think any of us can imagine the pain and how long this pain was endured. She was also kept in a tiny cage and never exercised this leg and the muscles pulled it up. She was terrified of absolutely everything that can be picked up and she had burn marks on her tail feathers.

You should not use a towel if something happens again, it will scare the living daylights out of him and he will react even more violent. Use his table perch to pick him up. I will post a picture of the perch that we use for my girl when hands are impossible.

I can tell you that all is not lost because your hubby can already take him out of his cage that is A LOT of progress!

If all else fails and you can only carry him on his perch then so be it. Just please dont show him that you are scared, this will make life very hard for you. My husband cant even carry my girl on her perch without her climbing down and biting him.

Wow, sorry for the looooong post!

 

[nofearengineer]

Wildheart is right. Even though he's not all the way there yet, you have definitely made progress. For him to trust anyone, even a little bit, is a gift to this poor guy.

If you simply can not break him of the habit of biting, I would recommend a pair of skin-colored gloves. I have personally seen them used where the parrot gives up after biting the hand about 50 times. It realizes it's not getting anywhere, and just stops.

So maybe the next day, it only bites 40 times...30 the next, and so on. Gloves are not the perfect solution, but they can definitely boost your confidence, and parrots definitely pick up on that, providing an additional bite deterrent.

Parrot's point of view:

Man...here comes that guy to bother me again. Let's see what he does when I bite him. Wow...he really chickened out! I'm going to do my duty to keep the flock strong by picking on the weakling. We definitely don't want him running the flock. I think I'll bite him again.

Alternative:

Hmmm...he doesn't even seem to feel those bites I've been giving him. He's obviously more of an alpha bird than me. I hope he doesn't bite me back! Maybe I better be nice to him.

 

[wildheart]

Hmmm...he doesn't even seem to feel those bites I've been giving him. He's obviously more of an alpha bird than me. I hope he doesn't bite me back! Maybe I better be nice to him.

Hie-hie-hie I LOVE that one! Oh boy that would be nice! Maybe I should look for some skin coloured clothes for my hubby.

Just one point it HAS to be skin coloured because any gloves freaks them out completely. Even after years my reptiles are still afraid of my hands when I work in the garden on weekends and wear my garden gloves. When my girl sees me wearing it she starts screaming blue murder. I think, they think that the gloves ate our hands?

 

[nofearengineer]

Haha...yeah, I should have clarified, for the glove trick to do any good, they have to be skin colored......otherwise the parrot only respects (or worse, fears) the glove....not you....and then you will be wearing gloves for the rest of the parrot's life. Not a good thing.