Okay help.... please.....
We cannot leave Ralphie alone. Ever. At all.
For example :
Over the weekend we were working outside on building a pipe fence corral to replace the old one that a maverick steer showed us was merely a suggestion to stay put.
So, we were outside all day, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Ralph was in his room with the (smaller) TV watching Einstein and others.
We stopped to interact with him every time we came inside for anything (I have the bladder of a squirrel) and spent our regular couple of hours in the evening with him.
Monday, yesterday, I had to take my dad to the ER. (Not a broken hip, but herniated disk)
And Ralph was alone with the same set up all day by himself. Cage open, he could move from tree stand to play stand on top of his cage, and we've got a nanny cam where I can see and hear him. (Going to get a pet cam that let's me talk to him too)
The result of having to do this with him even one day is squawking, biting, lunging, cage aggression, throwing toys, and if you're lucky, only the amazon dance of death.
We took him on a short ride last night after I finally got home, he had been squawking (not screaming) for a long time and had threatened to bite dh. So, he'd moved him, on his tree(wheels) to the living room.
This trip seemed to improve his mood greatly, as well as a short training session(pecans man.) Until we got back home.
I have two bites to prove it.
We don't have to be gone or outside very often at all. That was one of the points we discussed before looking to adopt a parrot.
He comes outside with us whenever the weather permits, which right now isn't consistent.
But I feel like Ralph has no confidence, I'm not sure how to teach him to be okay on his own. And this applies to being on the other side of a wall or door for 30 seconds, as well.
I've tried playing peekaboo. I've tried the old trick to get horses to stop being buddy sour; separate but seen, together, separate not seen, together..... and we've been doing this from pretty much day one.
This morning, he's refused to come out to me, climbed on top of the cage, lunging, even offers of shower, not even music has enticed him to step up.
(I do not force him. We've discovered that he will always step up to a stick, because he's been forced. It's not a fear of hands as we were told, but bad training. Bad handling. And he'd begun to bite after stepping up onto the stick. People are horrible. and I feel horrible for not having seen it before I did.)
Advice? I haven't found anything through a search of threads.
ETA: patience won out. Got his weight(he likes that for some reason) then he was happy to have a shower. We'll see if his mood improves more than that. But I have a Dr appointment this afternoon. Sigh.
Wonder if they'll let me bring him.
Wonder if he's just being sensitive to my mood, again. You guys won't believe this, but, about a month after we brought Ralphie home, a friend of mine was murdered by her husband. That was one of the first questions I had for you all.
Yesterday, I found out that 2 of my good friends, a mother/ daughter truck driving team, were killed in a crash on Sunday.
The worst part is that we had dinner at our favorite restaurant and I'dbeen laughing and talking about how I missed them and couldn't wait to get together for margaritas when they're back home again, which was about every 6-8 months.
I'm OK. But I've learned that Ralphie is not fooled by fake smiles and happy voices.
Plus I know he's hormonal, and he's agitated because he's covered in pin feathers, still not sure if he's plucking, hardly ever a feather in his cage now after that one week.
