From: au500@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Linda Zinn)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.birds
Subject: Ouch! (Was Re: What Do Your Birdies Give to You)
Date: 28 Jan 1993 21:40:49 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: au500@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Linda Zinn)
NNTP-Posting-Host: slc4.ins.cwru.edu


Today: another *hard* bite on the finger. I'm typing gingerly to keep
from bleeding all over my keyboard.

Besides bites (more about that later), Zack gives me endless laughter
over his successful and failed attempts at acrobatics, countless
smiles over the things he says and the many different inflections
with which he says them, and many many funny stories to amuse (well, I
always think they're amusing) my friends and family with. In short,
he's beautiful and extremely entertaining.

I must say, though, that I get a little envious when I read stories 
about people's birds cuddling with them, because Zack would much
sooner lob off my earlobe, nose, finger, toe, whatever than to
do anything resembling a cuddle. Please don't misunderstand. I'm
immensely fond of my little green beastie, and he'll have a home
with me as long as he lives regardless of his complete disregard
for my desire to have a cuddly, or at least remotely civil, bird. 
I'm just wondering if he'll ever change.

First a little history: Zack came to live with me 1.5 years ago when
my son moved out of state and couldn't take him along. He's about
2.5 years old and was supposedly a hand-fed baby. (Oh, by the way,
he's a yellow-naped Amazon parrot.) He used to bite, or at least try
to, much more often when I first got him. In fact, he hadn't bitten me
lately for a few months until today. 

I reached in to change his food dish, just as I do twice every day, and
he very aggressively latched on. Afterwards he was very upset (yes, I
yelled "Ouch, you little #%$^&," which I seldom do, but he really caught
me off-guard with this one!), climbing all around his cage with his
tail feathers spread out and his yellow nape sticking way up, scolding me
in a sharp, loud voice. 

I've posted about Zack's biting before and I got many helpful suggestions
on how to help train him to stop. I'm just wondering if he ever really
will. I hear yn Amazons are quite aggressive. Has anyone ever
gotten a yn Amazon to stop attacking, and if so, how long did it take?
I've heard it may take literally years, and that's fine if it does...I'll
just have to get better at taking evasive action :-), but I'm just
curious about what to expect.

BTW, Zack was equally (perhaps even more) aggressive toward my son
but seems a bit calmer around certain of my friends. He adores
my fiance (thank goodness) and a couple of my female friends. Everyone
else he eyes with a great deal of suspicion and sometimes open
hostility. Now I'm bracing for the day when I get married. I just
*know* Zack will end up cuddling with my future hubby and not me. ;-)
-- 
________________________________________________________________________
* Linda Zinn                    When you point a finger at someone,    *
* au500@cleveland.freenet.edu   you're pointing three back at yourself *
* ******Wanted: Books by E.D.E.N. Southworth; cattail dinnerware****** *
From: billg@hpspdla.spd.HP.COM (Bill Gingras)
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 16:16:40 GMT
Subject: Re: Birdie Hazards
Organization: HP Stanford Park - Palo Alto, CA