oh my....it has been WAY too long since my last post. my apologies to everyone interested in Ellis!
Ellis has been just a sweetheart since the day he came! he steps up VERY nicely on our fingers and hands. he had some issues with stepping up on to hands from his cage, but it seems to be solved now. (just have to keep it up!).
when he wants a scratch on his head, he will come looking for your fingers and bow his head down for you. if he doesn't put his beak to the surface he is stepping on but is keeping his head low, watch out...he may just try and bite you once you slightly touch the top of his head.
with bathing, he REALLY loves his baths when he is ready for it. i take him with me on my finger into the shower, turn on the shower (he likes his water s-l-i-g-h-t-l-y warm - to me, it feels lukewarm) and deflect the water to spray lightly all over Ellis. he'll wait a bit and sit there getting wet - doing nothing. then, when he gets going, he will fluff himself up and start getting silly - he will roll his head around on his back spread his wings around him, stand on one foot while he is scratching his neck and face, shake his whole body and end with his tail, and rub his head with his wings.
Ellis LOVES to entertain for pieces of walnuts. i need to teach him something new, but so far he will touch a target (anywhere i place it, and the target could be anything) and wave on cue. (he will lift his foot way up over his head!)
he does have his outbursts of screeching, but we usually know the causes of some - not getting his dry food as soon as he is done with his fresh food, when he hears my husband and cannot see him after coming home, etc. - and we try to avoid them.
he also does some of his talking - i think it happens when he is a little dozy and still hears the activity in the living room (or he is in the living room with us and getting a bit dozy. its cute!
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
wow! it has been a while since i last wrote something in Ellis' diary...well, here goes.
last weekend, we just hit the 6-week mark of Ellis being in my home. this means that he is officially out of quarantine. yay! we still keep his cage in our bedroom (his quarantine room) because we haven't had time to rearrange our living room yet to make room for him, but i think i kinda like it like this for now, at least until my birds who are living in the living room get to know Ellis more.
since getting out of quarantine, i have been bringing Ellis out to hang out with us and our birds and i think he is getting more and more relaxed, as well as my birds with him. my amazon seems to be a little too fixated on Ellis (in way of wanting to be closer to him) so we are keeping them out of touching distance. Ellis doesn't seem to share my amazon's enthusiasm to "get-together" so we are going to keep it like this till things calm down.
there have been some big breakthroughs over the past weeks:
1) stepping up - Ellis has been doing well in this department, even on our hands. he hasn't bitten us hard at all, but he knows how to lunge well. we are able to dodge them and we know how to read his body language. more often, though, he steps up nicely and without much coaxing. He starting stepping up nicely for my husband and then to me on my hand.
2) noises - like i mentioned before, he LOVES to play whistling games with you. my husband is the better whistler so Ellis can play for a while with him. they just keep going back and forth trying to copy eachother's whistle patterns. he even is able to pick up my husband's own made up patterns, which is SO cute and funny.
One calm evening, Ellis also showed us that he can talk as well. it started off as hearing some mumbling coming from our bedroom, and then he started saying "hello". i answered him with another "hello" and he repeated his "hello" again. it was cute! what a talented little bird.
also, out of all the birds in my home (right now, including Ellis, i have 3 amazons and 2 green cheek conures), Ellis is hands down the loudest bird. he is actually the only amazon that i have cared for that does the amazon screech. we have been either ignoring this or we close the bedroom door (we usually keep it open so that he can see us and the other birds), or we cover him up for about 10 minutes to calm him down a bit. we found that he usually screeches when he wants us to change out his breakfast/dinner bowl (which is filled with fresh food) to his pellets bowl, or when he wants attention. we are working on getting to lessen his screeching and/or change his call to something less loud. but i have to say, when he does screech, it usually isn't for very long. and he doesn't do it often either.
3) touching - after 6 weeks, i was finally offered to scratch his head. it was truely an honor! he was sitting on my leg and i had my hand near him. he walked over with his head lowered and i made a move to scratch his head and he just stayed where he was so i started to scratch his head. it was wonderful! and he has been allowing me to scratch his head every since - not for very long periods, but for a minute or so at a time. it took a while, but he is coming out of his shell.
4) training - i have been training him to touch a target and wave at me on command. so far, we are doing really well. i am thinking of teaching him to choose between colors next.
5) bathing - oh, when mr. Ellis wants his bath, he fully enjoys the bath. one day i saw him trying to bathe in his water bowl. so i took him with me into the shower and we had a fun, drenching shower. i displaced the water from the showerhead with my hand to spray Ellis' body and he will fluff up completely and open his wings slightly around his body - it looks like he is giving himself a hug. and he will just sit like that, occasionally shaking some of the water off. after the shower, i guess mr. Ellis thought that the shower could've gone on a bit longer (even though he was drenched!) because when i put him back into his cage, he jumped straight into his water bowl again for a little bit more. silly boy!
Ellis is a really wonderful, friendly companion. he does need a little bit more time to warm up to you (it took me 6 weeks to touch him) but there is never a rush to gain trust with a bird. even a small amazon such as Ellis can definitely live a very long time. and it was all worth the wait!
last weekend, we just hit the 6-week mark of Ellis being in my home. this means that he is officially out of quarantine. yay! we still keep his cage in our bedroom (his quarantine room) because we haven't had time to rearrange our living room yet to make room for him, but i think i kinda like it like this for now, at least until my birds who are living in the living room get to know Ellis more.
since getting out of quarantine, i have been bringing Ellis out to hang out with us and our birds and i think he is getting more and more relaxed, as well as my birds with him. my amazon seems to be a little too fixated on Ellis (in way of wanting to be closer to him) so we are keeping them out of touching distance. Ellis doesn't seem to share my amazon's enthusiasm to "get-together" so we are going to keep it like this till things calm down.
there have been some big breakthroughs over the past weeks:
1) stepping up - Ellis has been doing well in this department, even on our hands. he hasn't bitten us hard at all, but he knows how to lunge well. we are able to dodge them and we know how to read his body language. more often, though, he steps up nicely and without much coaxing. He starting stepping up nicely for my husband and then to me on my hand.
2) noises - like i mentioned before, he LOVES to play whistling games with you. my husband is the better whistler so Ellis can play for a while with him. they just keep going back and forth trying to copy eachother's whistle patterns. he even is able to pick up my husband's own made up patterns, which is SO cute and funny.
One calm evening, Ellis also showed us that he can talk as well. it started off as hearing some mumbling coming from our bedroom, and then he started saying "hello". i answered him with another "hello" and he repeated his "hello" again. it was cute! what a talented little bird.
also, out of all the birds in my home (right now, including Ellis, i have 3 amazons and 2 green cheek conures), Ellis is hands down the loudest bird. he is actually the only amazon that i have cared for that does the amazon screech. we have been either ignoring this or we close the bedroom door (we usually keep it open so that he can see us and the other birds), or we cover him up for about 10 minutes to calm him down a bit. we found that he usually screeches when he wants us to change out his breakfast/dinner bowl (which is filled with fresh food) to his pellets bowl, or when he wants attention. we are working on getting to lessen his screeching and/or change his call to something less loud. but i have to say, when he does screech, it usually isn't for very long. and he doesn't do it often either.
3) touching - after 6 weeks, i was finally offered to scratch his head. it was truely an honor! he was sitting on my leg and i had my hand near him. he walked over with his head lowered and i made a move to scratch his head and he just stayed where he was so i started to scratch his head. it was wonderful! and he has been allowing me to scratch his head every since - not for very long periods, but for a minute or so at a time. it took a while, but he is coming out of his shell.
4) training - i have been training him to touch a target and wave at me on command. so far, we are doing really well. i am thinking of teaching him to choose between colors next.
5) bathing - oh, when mr. Ellis wants his bath, he fully enjoys the bath. one day i saw him trying to bathe in his water bowl. so i took him with me into the shower and we had a fun, drenching shower. i displaced the water from the showerhead with my hand to spray Ellis' body and he will fluff up completely and open his wings slightly around his body - it looks like he is giving himself a hug. and he will just sit like that, occasionally shaking some of the water off. after the shower, i guess mr. Ellis thought that the shower could've gone on a bit longer (even though he was drenched!) because when i put him back into his cage, he jumped straight into his water bowl again for a little bit more. silly boy!
Ellis is a really wonderful, friendly companion. he does need a little bit more time to warm up to you (it took me 6 weeks to touch him) but there is never a rush to gain trust with a bird. even a small amazon such as Ellis can definitely live a very long time. and it was all worth the wait!
Friday, October 26, 2007
it has been a little over two weeks since Ellis came into our home. his honeymoon period is just about over. since coming into our home, he seems a bit timid when approaching me (when i am luring him with a treat) but when i approach him, he seems quite calm and confident of himself. to show this, he would start preening himself as i stand next to him on his cage - no aggressive movement whatsoever.
it is also clear that he favors my husband more. if i get to close to Ellis while my husband is in the room, he would come and try to attack me (walks over to me with an open beak; he doesn't try to fly-attack me). so i keep my distance if my husband is in the room. one reason why Ellis likes my husband so much, is because my husband is the better whistler. Ellis LOVES to play whistling games with him. Ellis would whistle a tune and my husband would whistle it back to him. this can go back and forth for a few minutes. there was one time when my husband initiated this game with a weird tune....and Ellis copied it back perfectly. that was amazing! Ellis also gets really excited and makes happy squeals when my husband enters the room.
Ellis is not much of a talker, although he does mumble a bit sometimes. He does like to mimic (smacking lips, some laughing, trying to learn kissing noises) and whistle.
He also doesn't really show much interest in being touched. Ellis has not allowed my husband or myself to touch him, but he easily steps up for us on a hand-held perch. my husband has tried to offer him his arm to step up on, but Ellis just walked away. we'll see. I will be starting Ellis on some targeting exercises and see how he does with some training.
Ellis loves corn and beans. he also has been munching on the zupreem fruit blend pellets, but still mostly eats his seed mix. the conversion to pellets will take time.
it is also clear that he favors my husband more. if i get to close to Ellis while my husband is in the room, he would come and try to attack me (walks over to me with an open beak; he doesn't try to fly-attack me). so i keep my distance if my husband is in the room. one reason why Ellis likes my husband so much, is because my husband is the better whistler. Ellis LOVES to play whistling games with him. Ellis would whistle a tune and my husband would whistle it back to him. this can go back and forth for a few minutes. there was one time when my husband initiated this game with a weird tune....and Ellis copied it back perfectly. that was amazing! Ellis also gets really excited and makes happy squeals when my husband enters the room.
Ellis is not much of a talker, although he does mumble a bit sometimes. He does like to mimic (smacking lips, some laughing, trying to learn kissing noises) and whistle.
He also doesn't really show much interest in being touched. Ellis has not allowed my husband or myself to touch him, but he easily steps up for us on a hand-held perch. my husband has tried to offer him his arm to step up on, but Ellis just walked away. we'll see. I will be starting Ellis on some targeting exercises and see how he does with some training.
Ellis loves corn and beans. he also has been munching on the zupreem fruit blend pellets, but still mostly eats his seed mix. the conversion to pellets will take time.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Ellis - a cute, little white spectacled amazon, came to our home this past thursday (October 11, 2007) with his bigger friend Herkimer. He has shown no aggression or fear towards my husband or myself. He just looks very calm and contented all the time. We will keep an eye on this - just because birds that are laid back when you would think they should be a bit fearful, it may be a sign of an underlying illness.
But so far, Ellis is great. He steps up very nicely on a handheld stick for both of us. we have not yet tried to have him step up on to our arms yet...i just want him to be more settled first. i may try during the next few days.
When he came to us, he also had full use of his wings - which means his wing feathers were not clipped. we did this today for his own protection. Ellis, however, is a very good flyer. He landed nicely on his target perch without a hitch.
Ellis was brought up on a parrot mix - seeds, nuts, dried fruit. He doesn't eat much pellets. I have been giving him his parrot mix and mixing in some zupreem fruit blend pellets, and I have actually seen him biting on the zupreem pellets. i will take the conversion slow, but that is a good sign.
below are some great pictures of Ellis that we have taken so far.
ps: don't let the last image fool you. Ellis really knows how to handle Herk, and Herk would never hurt Ellis - thus far, anyway. we do keep an eye on both when out of their cage.
But so far, Ellis is great. He steps up very nicely on a handheld stick for both of us. we have not yet tried to have him step up on to our arms yet...i just want him to be more settled first. i may try during the next few days.
When he came to us, he also had full use of his wings - which means his wing feathers were not clipped. we did this today for his own protection. Ellis, however, is a very good flyer. He landed nicely on his target perch without a hitch.
Ellis was brought up on a parrot mix - seeds, nuts, dried fruit. He doesn't eat much pellets. I have been giving him his parrot mix and mixing in some zupreem fruit blend pellets, and I have actually seen him biting on the zupreem pellets. i will take the conversion slow, but that is a good sign.
below are some great pictures of Ellis that we have taken so far.
ps: don't let the last image fool you. Ellis really knows how to handle Herk, and Herk would never hurt Ellis - thus far, anyway. we do keep an eye on both when out of their cage.
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