My lovely baby will grow up..

[Trent84]

I'm here again to bother you with all of my sorta beginner annoying questions
First of all, my Micky is a wonderful little being. From what I read, he's the perfect caique ambassador!
He loves me and my bf, he's very gentle with us even when he's super excited and wants to play hard, and he has the quality I love the most about him.. he loves people, as long as they give him the right attentions (I'm always supervising every interaction). He's an extremely entertaining "pet", even if I don't like this word as it's quite an understatement when it comes to parrots in general.
I can invite whoever and he's happy because he's engaged and he gets to play and have some yummy food.
However, I'm always scared about his maturing phase which will come in an year or so.
From your experience, did your birbz changed so drastically when they grew up? Or will I recognize him when he'll be an adult with his needs? What's your take on this?
I don't know if this makes sense?

 

[TikiMyn]

Baby to adult. Will they still love me?

I've been pondering this for some time now. What will my hand reared babies think of me as they mature? Will I always own their hearts? What if not...:( Now as my parrots are entering fully mature status I'm learning the answers to my questions. My Too is 17, my Zon is 13, and my GW is 12...

forums.avianavenue.com

An interesting thread. I feel unless you have an extreme case, you can achieve a lot with training for good behavior now. Their personality seems like it might change, or it may not. @Laurie is great with caiques. @Shezbug comes to mind when I think about this topic.

 

[Trent84]

I'm already borderline paranoid with our interactions with him. I say him "slow" when he pinch a little harder (which is far from painful) and when he goes over excited and I see pinning eyes . I'm target/ recall training him and socializing with people I'm confident with, and so far so good!
I know he understands everything I say, even if sometimes he doesn't care
I love that I can now have him play with friends, parents and kids with no issues, and not because they wants it, but he would just fly over to snoop who's around! Also, he's super cuddly and very, very careful with his beak. He NEVER bit us once, not even slightly even if provoked with rough playing-but I know what he's capable of-.
I know this is very random tho!

 

[TikiMyn]

I think you are setting him up for a great life Caiques seem to be awesome birds, I have never even held one but researched because I considered adding two to the flock, but from what I saw the people that treat their caiques with respect, positive reinforcement etc, seem to have a whole lot less problems. I totally get where you are coming from, with my baby mini macaw I am also paranoid over everything, worrying that I am doing things that will affact him negatively late in life etc. But I think we will be okay, although doesn't help my other mini macaw is a complete wacko It does add to the worry of messing raising Jona up.

Also sounds you are doing amazing with the being gentle when playing! That is a great start and also amazing he can interact freely with so many people. I wish I had more people that I could let safely interact with my young one. I think that is really benificial to them especially at a young age.

 

[Trent84]

I think you are setting him up for a great life Caiques seem to be awesome birds, I have never even held one but researched because I considered adding two to the flock, but from what I saw the people that treat their caiques with respect, positive reinforcement etc, seem to have a whole lot less problems. I totally get where you are coming from, with my baby mini macaw I am also paranoid over everything, worrying that I am doing things that will affact him negatively late in life etc. But I think we will be okay, although doesn't help my other mini macaw is a complete wacko It does add to the worry of messing raising Jona up.

Also sounds you are doing amazing with the being gentle when playing! That is a great start and also amazing he can interact freely with so many people. I wish I had more people that I could let safely interact with my young one. I think that is really benificial to them especially at a young age.

You got my point exactly.
I don't want to waste this precious moments where he's happy and I can do him everything because he's a baby and will adjust.
I don't know if I'm doing a good job, but I'm spending most of my time observing and adjusting to his and my own needs. I'm trying to find a balance and everything is going super smoothly -I went to my parent's place for the weekend and this is something I need to do at least once a month, for example.. I was soooo worried, but eventually he was super happy to have all these welcoming people around!! And when we got back home he was just a little tired, but fine.
Mine is a complete mess too but in the best way possible! He's the most social animal I've ever seen.love the topic you posted, thanks a lot!!!

 

[TikiMyn]

Oh think it is perfect you take him to your parents!! If you were flooding him it could be bad but it sounds like you are doing everything with him in mind, respecting his wishes. Does not mean you can't make a mistake of course, but I think you are doing everything to raise a stable well rounded bird. Socializing him with so many people, is really great to teach him all sorts of people are okay and mean good things, as you now but still wanted to say that's something a lot of birds don't have, including mine still no guarantee he will continue to accept many people but a good bet towards it, especially in combination with the target training etc you are doing.
From what I see, not here of course, but I see loads of people flooding and forcing their young birds. Then when they mature and will not accept that, they have trouble. That type of trouble is surprisingly enough fairly easily correctable when you start respecting them, in a lot of cases it seems.
To me an important point is preventing a pair bond with a human, my illigers was extremely pair bonded to someone before I got him and transfers that to anyone fitting that description, and discouraging hormonal behaviour as much as possible.

I think you may be already doing this but you could also look into training medical behaviors like extending wings and taking something from a syringe. Although I wonder how useful the latter will be, some medicine tastes really bad. I have to medicate my little one sadly and he hates the taste no matter how I mix it. But he accepts temporary restraint, something that is also really useful to train.

 

[Trent84]

Exactly!
I've read a lot and experienced a lot with other parrots, and I've learned that forcing them is absolutely wrong. With mine is fairly easy because he flies to people in a matter of minutes, even less if there's food involved
The fact I spend some weekends in a different house is one of the reasons why I chose a caique. They seem more adaptable and less scared of new things and I see the same thing with mine. I also don't want to stay on the edge when people come over or let him in the cage-and this is something I know it needs to be trained and I'm lucky enough that my parents and friends have at least a little experience with parrots.
Exactly as you said, I'm quite happy to hand over the parrot to my boyfriend and other people so it won't obsess with me! I want his affection but I'm super ok seeing him flying to somebody's shoulder and snoop around from time to time -so I can have a few seconds to mind my own business ahah
Thanks for the kind words, it makes me feel less anxious already!