Ijistcantsayno
Member
Oh my love! This little guy has been with us for just over 6 months already! He’s such a love and has come so far in the past 6 months.
He has learned how to fly and perch in certain places on request. This was for safety purposes because cats and kids and doors...accidents can happen, but this way we are prepared. Yes, we tested it. We also had to teach the cats that the birds should be ignored. Would I trust the cats? NO, NEVER! THEY ARE PREDATORS! But that being said, I needed to know Precious and the cats would follow prompts to avoid disaster in a cat meets bird emergency. It was a very controlled environment, and every precaution was taken. The cats were wearing harnesses and leashes, and it was done in as safe a manner as possible. There were extra adults and everyone knew what animal to watch. It was also as stress free for Precious and the cats as possible. I’m thorough, not inhumane. You can agree or disagree with me here, and I’m happy to hear positive and negative comments, but at the end of the day we are all human and back up plans needed to be in place. When the birds are out the cats are in the basement. But kids and cats and doors...I have no way to 100% eliminate the risk. I can train them separately until the cows (that we do not have) come home, it will do me no good if I can’t get the cats and Precious to pay attention at the most critical moment. I needed a safe way to do that, and I found one. I was able to train each cat to go to a specific spot on command. I can say one request, one time and all 3 cats will go to their designated spot. 4 words to avoid a potential disaster. “No birds” for the cats. They go to their specific spots, separated, in different areas of the house. That way I know what cat to watch in the worst case scenario. 2 words for Precious “Go” and the location I want him to land. The second word for Precious could be shoulder, curtain (for curtain rod, that does NOT have a curtain and was installed specifically for this purpose), fridge, light or cage(we have a light that does not work, but is hanging in a hallway, I would not use cage if it was a cat emergency, that is for when the doors to outside are being opened).
For the budgies this is less of an issue as they are usually contained to the room their cages are in. When they are out and about in the house they tend to stay up high where the cats couldn’t reach them if they tried. Precious however spends significantly more time on my shoulder in 1 day than all of the budgies do in a month.
He can speak! We didn’t know that when we brought him home, but he learned it somewhere, and I doubt it was from us. He says not a parrot, I love you, pretty bird, peekaboo, yeah I will, mimics laughter, and that’s just what we can understand. He has a few more but I can’t figure them out to save my life. The only thing he says in context is peekaboo. He LOVES to play peekaboo. He also loves to play what we call the repeat game. He whistles to us the same thing several times until we whistle back something close to what he did. That’s his second favorite game. He’s learned to fly to his cage and put himself “away”. This only happens when the cats are in the basement, bit it’s still a good skill for him to have when the kids are going out to play or we have company coming. He’s not fearful of baths anymore, as long as it’s the shower. He’s still not happy to see a spray bottle close to him. He’s okay with it, and will accept a quick mist, but he will probably never get past tolerating a spray bottle. He hates the sink, and loves to drink water out of a specific coffee cup. He HATES having his nails clipped, but was an absolute angel at the vet. He’s also learned to get on the scale. He loves to look out the windows (don’t worry, he knows they are there thanks to dry erase markers) and loves to be outside even more. He’s going to be bummed when fall arrives.
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He has learned how to fly and perch in certain places on request. This was for safety purposes because cats and kids and doors...accidents can happen, but this way we are prepared. Yes, we tested it. We also had to teach the cats that the birds should be ignored. Would I trust the cats? NO, NEVER! THEY ARE PREDATORS! But that being said, I needed to know Precious and the cats would follow prompts to avoid disaster in a cat meets bird emergency. It was a very controlled environment, and every precaution was taken. The cats were wearing harnesses and leashes, and it was done in as safe a manner as possible. There were extra adults and everyone knew what animal to watch. It was also as stress free for Precious and the cats as possible. I’m thorough, not inhumane. You can agree or disagree with me here, and I’m happy to hear positive and negative comments, but at the end of the day we are all human and back up plans needed to be in place. When the birds are out the cats are in the basement. But kids and cats and doors...I have no way to 100% eliminate the risk. I can train them separately until the cows (that we do not have) come home, it will do me no good if I can’t get the cats and Precious to pay attention at the most critical moment. I needed a safe way to do that, and I found one. I was able to train each cat to go to a specific spot on command. I can say one request, one time and all 3 cats will go to their designated spot. 4 words to avoid a potential disaster. “No birds” for the cats. They go to their specific spots, separated, in different areas of the house. That way I know what cat to watch in the worst case scenario. 2 words for Precious “Go” and the location I want him to land. The second word for Precious could be shoulder, curtain (for curtain rod, that does NOT have a curtain and was installed specifically for this purpose), fridge, light or cage(we have a light that does not work, but is hanging in a hallway, I would not use cage if it was a cat emergency, that is for when the doors to outside are being opened).
For the budgies this is less of an issue as they are usually contained to the room their cages are in. When they are out and about in the house they tend to stay up high where the cats couldn’t reach them if they tried. Precious however spends significantly more time on my shoulder in 1 day than all of the budgies do in a month.
He can speak! We didn’t know that when we brought him home, but he learned it somewhere, and I doubt it was from us. He says not a parrot, I love you, pretty bird, peekaboo, yeah I will, mimics laughter, and that’s just what we can understand. He has a few more but I can’t figure them out to save my life. The only thing he says in context is peekaboo. He LOVES to play peekaboo. He also loves to play what we call the repeat game. He whistles to us the same thing several times until we whistle back something close to what he did. That’s his second favorite game. He’s learned to fly to his cage and put himself “away”. This only happens when the cats are in the basement, bit it’s still a good skill for him to have when the kids are going out to play or we have company coming. He’s not fearful of baths anymore, as long as it’s the shower. He’s still not happy to see a spray bottle close to him. He’s okay with it, and will accept a quick mist, but he will probably never get past tolerating a spray bottle. He hates the sink, and loves to drink water out of a specific coffee cup. He HATES having his nails clipped, but was an absolute angel at the vet. He’s also learned to get on the scale. He loves to look out the windows (don’t worry, he knows they are there thanks to dry erase markers) and loves to be outside even more. He’s going to be bummed when fall arrives.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
What a cutie!
