BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Birds Conure love?

Hi Mavis!
Just an update of my 100+ bird family. My finches now number over 100. Am getting a number of interesting variations of zebra's. One of my recent babies has a bumb leg. Don't know if it was born deformed or possibly got pulled out of socket. But he gets around ok. His leg kinda sticks out to the side and forward. My friend named him "pod". You know a tripod has 3 legs.....he only has one LOL.
My 3 cockatiels have gotten over the loss of Sammy when she died of prolapse. Her mate has chosen my other female to partner with.
My Macaw is fiesty as ever. I've been hearing a lot more new words from him I didn't know he knew. Such as one morning I heard him yell "Dogkiller!" Don't know where that came from. And he has an infectious laugh. You can't help but laugh with him when he does it. Big hearty guffaws!
Last but not least is Ethel, my patagonian conure. She likes to aggravate my macaw by flying onto his cage, and just when he gets close enough to snap at her, she flys away. Mavis this bird will not leave my shoulder. She has to be on me constantly, which hinders my housework, etc. I have taught her to whisper. We whisper back and forth to each other. She seems to like that. She enjoys chewing the buttons off my shirts. And she can be real sneaky about it. She hates for me to talk on the phone. She screeches and comes over and bites the phone cord. She wants ALL my attention. Anyway it's hard to get her off my shoulder. She bites my hand when I try that way. So usually I just have to shrug her off. Any suggestions on how I can teach her to sit by herself on a perch and let me get on with my business? I'm honored she loves me so. I'm pretty sure the family she came from didn't treat her very well. The man told me he hated her and just wanted to get rid of her NOW! He let me make payments just so I would take her right then. I know she was kept in a not so nice cage in a dark room. I took her just to get her out of there.
One last funny moment. I made a phone call to a business one time.....The man I was talking to asked if I was calling from a pet store!!! I laughed and said...No, this is my home. So funny! At times it is a bit noisy here.
Later!
Teresa

LOL - it sure sounds like you've got your hands full with all those birds. I love birdie laughs! My CAG, Jewel can sure get me laughing when she is laughing.

My B&G Macaw, Kia, will also screech whenever I'm on the phone. She hardly ever yells otherwise, but people always hear her when I'm trying to talk to them on the phone & they can't understand how I can put up with it. Since I don't talk on the phone that much, she really isn't hard to put up with <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

As far as Ethel and the problems you are having when she is on your shoulder, you might have to make it a permanant ban and just not let her on at all. She will have a hard time understanding that you don't want her there sometimes, but other times its ok.

A couple of suggestions would be to simply remove her immediately every time she lands on your shoulder. I would be worried that if she bites your hand, she will also bite your face, so be careful removing her. The other option would be to make it uncomfortable on your shoulder so that she decides not to stay. A couple of suggestions would be to wear something that is very slippery (metal?) so that she has trouble perching or something sticky (like double sided tape) that she doesn't like the feel of.

Those are just quick suggestions off the top of my head, but maybe someone else here might have another suggestion.