Ray had been a 'regular" birdy boarder with us.
Caiques are quite engaging and can be very entertaining.
They are small parrots with big personalities AND loud voices.
As a baby he was very sweet and delightful but not unlike a teenager he started to rebel, act up and test you. Some of the "unwanted behaviours" such as biting and screaming was becoming a problem for his owners . I wanted Ray to maintain a good relationship with his owners so Ray would stay with us for periods of a week or longer. I would observe Ray and work with him to curtail some of the unwanted behaviours.
One of the main things I would do with Ray is put him on a strict predictable routine. He was up at 7:30am and at night, in his cage to relax by 5:00pm, and covered by 7:00pm. When I fed him (healthy nutritious food)I left him to enjoy his food without fussing around his cage. He only got treats (nuts) when he was quiet as a reward and when I wanted him to go in his cage. I also did not let him climb on my shoulder. When he was on your shoulder he would start to assert dominance so this was something I would not let him do. So with these simple things he stopped biting.
Screaming was much more trickier. I would do things to keep him preoccupied and entertained. I would give him lots of attention. I would give him a morning shower. All these things helped curtailed the screaming but sometimes he just liked to scream for the shear fun of doing it and there was nothing you could do to stop it. caiques are parrots and parrots love to scream.
Sometimes it was challenging when I had a migraine run that lasted for two weeks. Thankfully my husband would take over and take care and play with Ray. Ray really liked him too.
Ray was happy just sitting on his lap while he worked on the computer.Ray pretty much demanded all your attention which would be fine if he was your only bird. Again, thankfully my husband helped out with all the birds as well because they needed our attention too.
Ray was also very much in tune with my emotions and when I was upset about something Ray would react. Ray stayed with us this time for well over a month -almost two months. (Ray's family was in the process of moving cross country).During this time we had a flood as a result of both the dishwasher, the garbage disposal and water line kaboomed. Needless to say my husband and I did our best as "Mack and Myer" to replace the dish washer and disposal ourselves.
All I can say is that Ray learned a few 'new words". I had to "retrain" Ray into saying "fire truck" and "night shift" rather saying fuck and shit. Yikes! I also learned when I screamed about something Ray screamed also so I had to keep my emotions in check. No more meltdowns!
We also had an attempted break in during Ray's stay.
Thank God the bad guys didn't get in. My birds freaked out and there was feathers everywhere due to their "night terrors". My major concern is always about my birds so this was a wake up call to "secure" our home better and to reach out to our neighbours.
When Ray's stay finally ended I will be honest I was relieved. He was kind of like having a hyperactive toddler stay with you but after a few days of no Ray I was starting to miss him. I do miss him now.
Ray was then going to embark on a road trip to his new home to Washington state.
I wonder how that will be.
My husband was almost going to volunteer to drive cross country with Ray. That would be one long road trip-especially with a rambunctious parrot!
I'm sure that "adventure' would make for many chapters for the blog!
Ray sounded like a real handful, V. You did him a favor with the training and conditioning. I think it helped his owners too.
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