GUESS WHAT GUESS WHAT GUESS WHAT!!!!

[steptoe91(tozie)]

major breakthrough with ollie!!!!!  "metal:  i havent played with him. he's just too skittish and unpredictable. we do the scritches.  and its a real breakthrough to scritch his little cheeks without leaving digits behind! <grin> but we dont play. i play with skittles. i play with marley. and ollie is very interested and watches but he doesnt participate. so a few days ago i pick up one of marley's stuffed doggies and offer it to ollie. first he cringed from it and made his "i'm not happy" noise. then he decided its not deadly and bowed his head for me to scritch his neck with it.    so tonite i tried again to offer the doggie. its small, like ty tiny beanie sized. and he didnt flinch from it. he just bowed his head. so i used it to scritch his neck for about 5 seconds. then i held it out to his beak. he just looked at it and bowed his head. not afraid but still not getting the point. so i hold it toward his foot. he takes it in his foot and lunges to bite my hand. i let go of it and he looks at the toy and drops it. so i start clapping and yelling yay!!! like a fool.    he looks at me like i've lost my mind. so i pick it up and offer it to him. he takes it in his foot quickly this time and lunges for my hand. i let go. he drops it.     me acting like a fool. so we do this about 5 times. by the 6th time, as i offer it he immediately takes it in his foot but doesnt lunge for me!    again with the praise and excited behavior. so we do that a couple more times, he's not lunging for me anymore. he's still looking at me like i've lost my fool mind. so the next time i hand him the doggie he holds it in his foot for a few seconds and mouths it a little. then looks at me and drops it. now i'm just going insane with excitement. clapping, yelling yay!! and telling him what a wonderful bird he is. we proceed to have a 5 minute game of fetch or as i like to call the game "Drop it". he seemed to find it mildly interesting.  but i'm just so happy he and i are finally on our way to PLAYING!! i know he'll enjoy playing with toys if i can just show him its a self rewarding behavior. and we've taken the first steps finally! i'm just so excited!!  "metal:  

[Sondra]

DANG! THAT IS SOME FAST PROGRESS! (I'm sitting here beaming from ear to ear like I had something to do with it all & I wasn't even around! LOL!) I'm so happy for both of you!
  party

[Debz]

*sniffle* that is great. What a great feeling when everyone is on the same page.

[BuffaloParrot]

Awesome!   I have noticed that the more we act :ugstpd: and  the more Parrots will except us

[BPMar]

  Yay for you both!  So we have to act a little crazy at times, at least it worked!  What a great Christmas gift both the both of you!

[BrilliantFids]

I know that feeling! I went through the same thing with my amazons, its amazing when we make any progress isnt it? Congrats!

[patti3birds]

YAY!!!! Go OLLIE!!!!!!!!! party :masta:

Hold the faith child, hold that faith!!!! I knew Y'all would break through but that was quick, I mean!!!

Congratulations !!! & Merry Christmas to you both...very cool

[wishforabird]

THAT IS TOTALLY AWESOME!!!

and p.s that is why they call us CRAZY bird ladies! (and gentleman)

[Ditty]

Hey where'd my post go! :pipen:

That is awesome!  I love when they do something and you yell a big YAY good job, and the look on their face is priceless, like huh what'd I do?

Congrats!  Go Ollie, Go Ollie, Go Ollie *di does her happy dance*

[BilboMisty]

GO OLLIE!! 

Ditto to Wishy. And we wonder why we are called that? um NO!! I am PROUD when I get called Crazy Bird lady lol.
When Corby finally let me give him scritchies (he was so nervous for a few days) I just BEAMED and yelled YAYYY!!!! And he looked at me like "What's your problem woman!!" 

[plantsandbirds]

Woo Hoooooo! 

[steptoe91(tozie)]

thanks ya'll <still grinning ear to ear> i'm so happy to have people who understand how momentus it is. Drew understands. but most people are like "okaaaay. that's good?"

so anyway, we're still making forward progress with the doggie. ollie has been biting on it, playing some "drop it" and interacting with me. i see alot of pent up frustrations in him. much like skittles when i first got him. he was very frustrated and had no outlet for his aggressions. he would run back and forth across the top of his cage dragging his beak, vigirously rub his beak on his perches, bite at his own foot (tho not hard enough to hurt himself), and other explosions of aggression. well, over the last couple years i've helped him to vent his frustrations and aggression on his toys. i've seen the same behaviors in ollie over the last few months, so, i hope to do the same with ollie that i did with skittles. give him some outlet for all that natural aggression. so far, he's been doing really well. he grabs the doggie right away now, and bites it viciously. all the while i'm telling him "that's good, ollie! you get that doggie, kill that ole doggie!" its just so great to see him making progress. in time, i just know i'll be able to teach him to play. i'm thinking he definitely needs a big cage, tho. if he's to learn to play, he needs to have room to play in! <grin>
yup, i'm still as excited as i was when it first happened. <grin>