Goldie + 4.5 Months

[GoldieNYC]

There's the feisty, often surprising, terribly-alert apartment mate.

It's been quite a run - a strange bird showing up at dinnertime on a late-July day and begging to stay.  The little yellow bird become Goldie and quickly started teaching me all about parrots and the fact that they kind of become your life - size notwithstanding.  She is, in short, beautiful.  She's got the glamour to exist in a fairly self-centered universe, and she gets away with it daily.

My latest concern is once again with her fairly pronounced aggression (at times).  She savagely bit at my finger last night as I placed my right hand in the cage, just allowing it to be near her.  I could tell she really was developing a phobia of fingers, and it had been going much better for weeks.  Now she was trying desperately to deliver enough pain just to get this thing out of her room!  Fortunately, she didn't break the skin, but I went to bed feeling a bit sad that I might not even be able to change her food comfortably in the morning, given her increasing indulgence in a kind of skittishness, despite her having two cages, endless food, greens, perches, toys - the works.  It's at times like this when I start thinking that this should be another male budgie's problem, not mine.

Yet Goldie knows how to charm me and prove that she's so damn cute, almost any behavior can be stolen away.  I must say it is a pleasure to see her bouncing for joy.  And I have found new little amusements like retrieving her from a picture frame with a perch and then playing Ferris wheel with the perch.  The more action, the better.  This little one is built for speed.  It just makes me wonder, daily, where she came from - how far, and how hard.

I guess if she can endure the pain, I can.

[mizloco]

I just love Goldie and your tale of meeting and how she has won your heart.

[ffiscool]

That's a shame, and I share it, as I get bitten. Mine is random though

What you have done for her is amazing and wherever she did come from, she luckily found you. She could have perished.

They are wonderful little things, and as you say, teach us lots

[GoldieNYC]

Nov 10, 2013 18:57:35 GMT ffiscool said:

That's a shame, and I share it, as I get bitten. Mine is random though

What you have done for her is amazing and wherever she did come from, she luckily found you. She could have perished.

They are wonderful little things, and as you say, teach us lots

I do my best, certainly, and thankfully there are better days and hours where I - towering above this little tropical creature - can somehow communicate and also understand.  Thanks very much.

[skysmum]

As others have said, this is such a lovely story and she certainly landed on her feet when she flew into your life. Try not to take her biting too much to heart, females are notorious for it, my old Sky (RIP) could bite like the devil and would hang on for dear life, no matter how much i persevered it was never enough. She lived to the ripe old age of 12 and was always a biter. One of her babies who is now 8 is just like her, she wont have a hand at any cost and will seek and destroy anything in her path , we call her The Terminator but her real name is Freddy.

[stace]

I have to agree with skysmum. My bird is male, and at around the 6mth mark he was a complete and utter pain with his biting. It's equivalent to teenage rebellion, and it went on for much longer than I would have liked. I can't remember now, but it may have been several months. I do remember being exasperated by it at times, though, with consistent training, he stopped. Or else, he was going to stop anyway once he got it all out of his system.

Hens bite harder, too.

[GoldieNYC]

Nov 10, 2013 20:37:11 GMT skysmum said:

As others have said, this is such a lovely story and she certainly landed on her feet when she flew into your life. Try not to take her biting too much to heart, females are notorious for it, my old Sky (RIP) could bite like the devil and would hang on for dear life, no matter how much i persevered it was never enough. She lived to the ripe old age of 12 and was always a biter. One of her babies who is now 8 is just like her, she wont have a hand at any cost and will seek and destroy anything in her path , we call her The Terminator but her real name is Freddy.

I appreciate your response, skysmum.  It puts my dreary conundrum into perspective.  I am wondering, given her intense emotions, if a male mate might be a kindly response to time I am away.  Of course I'd have to lose something in the process.  Today she almost seemed to want to countermand the impression made the day before.  Ah the young.  I've found a way to whistle on her frequency too, and she looked at me in a way which sells magazines at the bookstore.

Thanks.  I guess it wasn't necessarily the result of someone being abusive.  Some just bite.

[GoldieNYC]

Nov 11, 2013 1:43:32 GMT stace said:

I have to agree with skysmum. My bird is male, and at around the 6mth mark he was a complete and utter pain with his biting. It's equivalent to teenage rebellion, and it went on for much longer than I would have liked. I can't remember now, but it may have been several months. I do remember being exasperated by it at times, though, with consistent training, he stopped. Or else, he was going to stop anyway once he got it all out of his system.

Hens bite harder, too.

How very interesting, stace, as Goldie is about that age now (in my estimation).  She does bite as hard as one would want, when that is in her.  Any harder, and I'd need bandages.  Ordinarily, her "pecks" at the side of my finger have been somewhat benign.  There is this other bite, though, which has muscle in it, and it is no fun.  Given the marvelous affection you enjoy with Boo, it's good to know it could be bought with good training.  I'd still like to experience a nice hand-raised male bird, somewhere, just so I see the variation.  I remember this with mice - from my teens.  Some were saints;  some bit and bit.  I appreciate the perspective from 10,000 miles away.

[samwiseg]

Despite the biting she is Magic just magic! I think that she has won all of us over

[ffiscool]

yes, maybe and HOPEFULLY, some do just grow out of it

[GoldieNYC]

Nov 11, 2013 10:35:17 GMT samwiseg said:

Despite the biting she is Magic just magic! I think that she has won all of us over

Truly nice.  I'll keep the material coming.  I'll tell her, too.  :0)

[skysmum]

Ooooh a new baby boy sounds like a plan . They are like chocolate, you can rarely just have one .

[GoldieNYC]

Since there's been such an outpouring of love for the special Little Yellow Bird, here's the latest video: Just some frolicking between cages, perch, and a bit of sun. Don't know why she looks so bleached. I guess some selective colors had been set on the camera. Hate when that happens. The music was on the radio. It kind of underscores the moment.

Goldie in Early November

[skysmum]

That's just lovely. And it has reminded me about the shiny CD, must sort one out for my lot .

[ffiscool]

ah lovely... love the cd, grid etc on the wall... I might have to just try that, although not sure what to attach to yet