Unapproved fashion choice

[Printer bird]

I have joined an elite club as I appear to have wronged my parrot by making a grievous fashion faux-pas. I painted my nails pink in the summer and she had no problem with it but today I came home with nails that are a sort of grey/green and these are a deal breaker! I had her out and when I went to scratch her head, she suddenly "bit" me (she appears to be bite pressure trained or has trained herself so it didn't hurt but I knew what she meant!). I couldn't understand why she bit my finger and was all fluffed up and angry (she never acts this way on my shoulder) and then it clicked! We got her back into the cage but she will not really even take an almond from my hand. On the hilarious side, she still really really wants to come out and see me but that can't happen if she won't step up. My hands are now an entity separate from myself! I hope she'll get over this although we are leaving tomorrow morning for a 1 1/2 week trip - I was pretty bummed to not be able to have her out on my shoulder and giving lots of head scratches on our last evening together before we go. Oh well - I will change them if she won't accept them when I get back (although I hope this hasn't permanently damaged her "relationship" with my hands!!)

 

[Allee]

Oh no! I truly feel for you! What is it with the feathered fashionistas? You could try a bribe with a favorite treat, that's how I recently managed to keep a new pair of glasses.

 

[Printer bird]

I tried - she begs for me and asks to be let out, I offer her a treat in the cage (before letting her out). RAGE! She choses to bite my nail over taking the treat hopefully better tomorrow but nails are a pretty easy thing to change if she really can't take to them. Just sad to not get in some scratches and shoulder time before I go.

 

[Allee]

I can see how a new nail color could easily offend a parrot, nails are attached to the hands they know and love.

I hope you can make amends when you return.

 

[Mimsy01]

My green cheek will try and scrape off any nail polish. Luckily I'm a mostly all natural gal. Ellie, our blue crown can't stand any hats and will threaten us till it's removed. And the turkey will grab it off our heads and stomp it to death if given a chance. Birds are strange little creatures.

 

[Tsali]

Wow. I certainly hope that I don't have these quirks in store. I tend to live most of my days in random fashion - not fashionista��. The big order in our household is the care and feeding of Tsali. The what we feed IS NOT random, but I keep the scheduled a bit wonky. I do this because I don't ever want Tsali to become so dependent on a schedule that he will freak out if he is fed a bit early or late or something in his bowl looks different. Tsali is still very young, and I readily admit that I have much more to learn about being a parrot parent than Tsali does about being a parrot, but so far so good.

Our biggest issue right now is that he wants to sit on my shoulder - and I truly like him there, BUT he gets mad if I try to do any thing. It is a work in progress with lots of trial and error and even more distraction techniques and treats.

 

[LeaKP]

Haha, my daughter just painted my nails (I'm not into painting nails, just toenails I'm on computer working a lot) a sparkly purple. Nigel is not amused!

 

[Phoenixjay]

My cockatiel, Leo, HAAATTTEES anything sparkly. So no sparkly nail polish, head bands, etc. He flips out. I have one sparkly sweater I can't wear around him, so I save it for special occasions. It kinda stinks because I lurve sparkles. But my birds run the house, so I guess no sparkles. Haha.

 

[GaleriaGila]

I haven't painted my nails since 1984... the year of the Ascent of The Rickeybird.

 

[BeatriceC]

Charlotte objects to my choice of hair color. Red dyes fade fast and it was pretty faded when we got her, and it was a month and a half after that before I dyed it again. Oh, boy did she let me know there was a problem with this. I would up washing it a whole bunch of times with a fairly harsh shampoo to get it to fade faster. That seemed to work. Also, I'm not allowed to wear my hair down. It's waist length, but I keep it in a bun most of the time. The two times I've had it down around her she's flat out attacked it. There's also one particular green sweatshirt I'm not allowed to wear.

Birds; picky little buggers.

 

[Rival_of_the_Rickeybird]

Ladies, ladies. It does no good for my male ego to hear of legions of you lovelies who care more about the psittacine approval than that of the poor male homo sapiens.

 

[Lynsey]

I have a male WCP and he gets super pissed when I paint my nails. He is usually mad one day. The next morning he comes out and steps up like nothing ever happened. I can only get away with a French manicure or very light pink without Fonzie noticing.

Sent from my Galaxy Note 7.

 

[Piasa]

So funny! I am a professional artist, so my nails get too beat up to do any painting.

Jimmy pi gets upset though if our house gets too cluttered. Though, she makes up for it when I clean by fanning her tail for me and doing the happy whistle (the same whistle as the "Oh boy I get to go outside" whistle, hehe.) At least that makes cage cleaning time the happy hour for somebody.