In the video above you can see Fish's reaction to me when ever I get close. He will hiss and puff out and often wave back and forth. According to my cockatoo guru, Karrie Noterman from Natural Inspiration Parrot Cages he is showing fear not aggression towards me. So my first goal with this guy will be to try to have him not fear me. To accomplish this we play an avian version of Red Light Green Light. I slowly walk towards him until he becomes wary and he raises his crest and hisses at me at which point I take a step back. This is giving him control over the thing causing his fear-me. Giving him the choice of when I come closer will help him see me as less of a threat.
As you can see from this video he will let me get 5-6 feet away at this point. The first day of so he would hiss if I just walked in the room so I am already seeing a bit of an improvement. The distance varies but I can usually get about that far before I get a reaction. I had a snow day today so we played this game many times!
Day 4 sees Fish starting to eat much better. He was a bit nervous the first few days and didn't eat very much but now he is finishing off everything in his bowl. I put a broccoli stem on a skewer and he is really enjoying ripping off chunks to eat.
Banana was a favorite also.
Lastly for today we saw something pretty awesome last night! Fish was starting to tentatively drum a bit. Drumming is usually a wild caught behavior as it is a learned behavior and not a instinctual one. The implication is that this guy was most likely not captured as a fledgling, but had been with a flock for at least a little while.
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