Not sure how to feel: relief, jealous, amused, sad

[chris-md]

It has happened. Always knew it could wind up this way, never thought it would actually be: my partner, the non-bird person who has not a whole lot to do with care, has become the favorite person.

It's so funny watching them, because while partner is wonderful with him, his body language sometimes says "I never wanted this".

The only difficulty I have with this is bonding time. Bonding time is spent on the couch watching TV all night. However I cannot keep Parker with me to save my life. The second I set down Parker runs full tilt to sit on my partner. It's kind of cute, but damn!! Come sit with me every once in a while

Perhaps this is the excuse I need to go get myself a nice red fronted or illigers macaw. MBS?

 

[OOwl]

Yep, welcome to the club. My birds, one by one, have fallen in love with my husband, who had never even thought he'd be a "bird person." Now, he's the biggest parrot fan I know, the kind who thinks going to the parrot store on a Sunday afternoon trumps football. Shocking, right? Our bonding time with the birds is also in the evenings in front of TV, so I do understand. What I do, since I work from home, is make sure I spend special one-on-one time with all my birds during the time my husband is not home (which includes making friends with HIS own parrots). I make sure I'm the only one with the uber-special treats (pine nuts for the little guys and brazil nuts or bite of what I'm cooking for our dinner for the bigger guys). It's helped a bit. And there's a certain benefit in being considered the friend of a parrot rather than the object of its pair-bonding attempts, and having your husband/wife/partner share your interest and passion in parrots is a fantastic benefit. Good luck with your new status.

 

[ToMang07]

I would say Willow is still very well bonded to us both, but she LOVES my mother. And I blame it on her hair (she thinks she's a stylist) and her knitting. (Because, who doesn't want a parrot's help with knitting/inspecting yarn?)

I'll get home from work, she'll go nuts, all excited. For a minute. I'll grab some food/drink, sit down, she'll sit with me for a minute or 2, then it's off to find mom, or harass my brother. (Who is not a parrot fan.)

She's gonna be bummed in a couple weeks, my parents are going back to Florida for a bit.

 

[SilverSage]

Story of my life! All my tame female birds want to have my husband's babies. Tucson is nasty with everyone still (but I'm the only one who handles him), and Titan just loves to fly. At least he prefers me as a perch but I think that's just because Josh ducks...

 

[chris-md]

It's great to hear these stories. They really are a fickle, unpredictable lot!

I joked with my partner last night that maybe this is an excuse to get the macaw I've eyed in the past, and told him about MBS. He was not amused...I actually asked him as a non parrot person how he feels about this increased attention. He's generally ok, but Parker does sometimes try to sit on the chest and get awfully close, and this does make him uncomfortable.

Parker can get from his cage to the floor, which makes out of cage containment difficult. Partners gone from jokingly calling Parker the prisoner ("the prisoner has escaped!") to jokingly calling him his stalker ("here comes my stalker!", or "goodnight Parker, you can stalk me tomorrow"))