Early Behavior & Enrichment.

cneuhauser

New member
Jul 9, 2020
91
19
Cary NC (hate it), LF Job in Moab UT or elsewhere
Parrots
Dusky Conure, Male Ekkie
Afternoon everyone!

After watching the recent video of Jasper (Katie), I wanted to find out what a timeline would be for starting more formal training and enrichment.

To give some background, Comet lives in a 'Double Macaw' cage by Kings cages. He's got twisty ropes going in different directions, and a globe swing, as well as a good amount of toys either hanging down or attached to the side of his cage (all on the interior... its huge). He also has a hanging play gym (attached to ceiling outside his cage), and two play stands; one in the dining area, and one in my master bedroom, all with toys attached (boings etc.)

Right now Comet seems to be stuck in 'Baby' mode, he's only 9 months old, and I'm hand feeding warm mashed sweet potato both in the morning before I go to work and in the evening when I get home. He chows down on pellet and chop during the day time, and on weekends etc.

My Saturdays usually involve waking up late (930AM), I hand feed him then I sit down at my office desk and chair with him in tow. I'll place him on his play stand to look out the window, and spend the first few minutes just talking him up, then put some toys out and introduce them to him etc. but he's completely disinterested. After about 15min of that, I'll turn slightly to face my computer and then he casually walks down this huge ladder I got for him, onto the desk, then over to me and sits on my arm. This is all fine and dandy, he's usually very quiet, seems content, and I welcome the interaction. However, I'll sit there for an hour or so and I'll try to introduce toys etc. and he's completely not interested. I've even tried foraging toys with pine-nuts. Also... *What crazy parrot wouldn't like to pull the glowing keycaps off my computer keyboard?*

I'm wondering if I'm expecting too much by trying to get him to play with toys this early, or explore all of the gyms and cage 'stuff'. My fear is that he becomes a bump on a log... which I don't want for both mental and physical health reasons. Should his daily routine just be eating and sleeping, with some stumbling around?

Furthermore, I swear I must have the strangest Ekkie boy because I've tried tempting him with junk food (walnuts & pine-nuts) and he wants nothing to do with them... however he's always into his "chop" and pellets; bird doesn't even like bread, or fruit...what crazy parrot doesn't like either of those???

He did recently get over some "screaming fits", Dr. Chris pointed me in the direction of a hand feeding routine. He's a good bird, just don't want him to be a lazy bum... can't wait for new flights to grow in; they clipped him at the breeder before he came home...*sad*, but I guess he's a "flyer".
 

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