Birdie Friendship

[Hezz]

You are more than welcome, Ira. It is a really good feeling to have the success that you and Munchy finally have. Get in as much practising between now and when you go, as you can, and remember you will have to train the boyfriend as well! ;D Let us know how you get on before you go and will be intresting to find out his behaviour when you get back to him.

[Deleted]

As soon as he's back on the perch from being on the floor we shall have lots of practice at outside step ups. I'm not so concerned about the down thing, as that will come with time and we can practice that a little later as I can keep him on my finger whilst moving around if I hold him close to my body, as long as he'll step up when asked it's all good for now. With his cage being in the other room I can just place him on top of it and leave the room and he'll eventually go inside himself. If I need him to go back in quickly I just persevere until he does.

I'll definitely let you know how things have gone and I'll update you when I get back too

[Deleted]

I've discovered what it means when Munchy keeps flying over to me It means 'Take me to bed, please!' If I don't take him then he eventually looks out into the hall and flies out, turns the wrong way, turns back and flies back into the living room and lands on the windowsill. Then when I take him into the room with his cage he goes straight in. Normally he's hungry by that point because he doesn't go out to eat during the evening. Definitely going to have to keep a little food in the living room, I think, once I get the gym set up.

Last night he flew over onto my arm and sat there as I talked to him with his feathers all fluffed up and his eyes half shut, and then he yawned really widely twice in a row. It was so cute ;D

[Hezz]

That sounds lovely. You two are getting to be in a good place with each other. Good news all round.

[Deleted]

He's amazing! He sat on my shoulder for around 20 minutes whilst I was playing the piano, despite being in the same room as his cage. It was funny though, because I got to the part of the book where I'm only just starting to practice the songs and I said "I'm afraid I'm not so good at these ones, Munchkin." And he flew off and went back into his cage as if he wasn't interested in listening to the ones I couldn't play properly ;D He did keep saying 'Good boy' and 'Good boy, Munchy' when I came to the end of a piece though XD

Currently he's more interested in being inside his cage than being with me, so I'm just sitting next to the cage whilst he chitters away to him.


Edit: After a few days of landing on my arm when he wants to go to bed and then flying into the hall and turning the wrong way, he finally went the right way.

He never flies out of the room unless he's on my arm and can see the hall, so hopefully when he fully learns to go the right way without trying the wrong way first he will still fly to me before bed.

I'm not sure if he goes back for bed or just food, but he doesn't come out again either way.

Hopefully in time he'll spend more time near me if I can position perching areas in places where I spend my time and our friendship grows. I've found that I can play with him in a limited way with his ball, but he often waits for me to move my hand away before playing with other toys. I'll see if we can work on that.

The cheeky monkey will step onto my hand very regularly now, with few exceptions such as when he's lying down and a bit sleepy, but when I try to practice lengthening the time he's on my hand he'll stay for two seconds and then jump onto my head. And sometimes when I say up he'll bypass my hand and arm and go to my head. He's so cheeky! Standing closer doesn't help.

Here's hoping he likes me more as we go along, but I'm happy with how far he's come in such a short time since I tried to work with him again, even if he was trying to bite the back of my hand earlier

[Hezz]

It is a very good thing to hear how you two interacting. Well done!

[Deleted]

I've volunteered to do some ironing over the summer so that I can kidnap Munchy for chattering bonding time. I'm terrible at finding things to talk about, so hopefully I can improvise. Only downside is that ironing board is in the conservatory, but luckily we have blinds. It's attached to my room so I'll leave the door open and the net curtains drawn so that he can see something is there on that side too.

Currently he's on my shoulder in my room as I 'kidnapped' him from the living room. Having no perch in here means that he stays on me, which is nice. I'm just reading out things that I'm typing and reading off the screen for something to say.

He's preening, as usual. Or pruning, as my granddad said by accident today. It's not surprising, really, that he made that mistake, as my nan always refers to Munchy's feathers as leaves.

[Hezz]

The "Grands" into gardening, by any chance?? ;D And Munchy won't mind what you talk about, you don't even have to talk all the time. I found if I stopped, they would start, or if they were chattering away and I spoke, they shut up!

[Deleted]

Well, my granddad is ^^ My nan's just a bit silly sometimes

Yeah, going to have to do that as much as possible and lots and lots and lots of up training. Haven't had much time the last couple of days and he's really trying to avoid my hand when he's outside of the cage. He keeps trying to jump onto my head and if he gets on my hand he's trying to go for my head again. It's surprisingly annoying. I don't mind him on my head but I'd prefer him on my shoulder because he always wants to sit on my hair when I've just washed it >< Going to have to find someway to discourage him, perhaps if I give him millet when he gets on my arm but if he tries to go for my head just duck so he can't land on it? I don't mind him doing it occasionally, it's just the first place he goes ><

*Sigh*

Right, lots of work needs doing these next few days. I might revise in the bathroom whilst he's on the windowsill on his perch and then bring in my clock and do a few minutes at set intervals or something.