Ellis taking a shower with me...
Ellis saying "hello" in the higher-pitched, softer voice. im the other voice.
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!
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