OUR COCKATIEL PAL IS GETTING USED TO THE NEW HOME

The night passed really well, I heard no shrieks from our new inhabitant. The little fellow obviously slept the whole night and looked chirpy in the morning. He was definitely in the mood to chirp and communicate and he observed every single thing I was doing. I think he imitated my yawning. He repeated it too many times to be accidental.

The picture above is taken in the bigger cage while he was guarding his position right next to the bars. He doesn't hiss anymore which is a huge improvement from yesterday.

Besides talking to it I decided to do all the usual things that are necessary, change water and bring some food.
I let the bird in peace the previous day, because of the new surroundings - and all the hissing - but today should be the first day for me to take care of his needs.

I took a water to change and at first, I thought I might be wrong, a container was incredibly smelly and water was stale. A little guy is lucky not to get ill. I washed a container and attached it refilled to a cage.
I removed a food container to change the seeds, but the story repeated. I know that seeds usually don't smell like dirt so there was no confusion. I changed that too and brought a new portion.

My husband carried in our family cat for the first time in the study room for us to order the cat not to come anywhere close to the new pet.

Momentarily seeing a cat a parrot spread into a full wingspan to appear bigger and aggressively hiss and wobble against the direction of a cat.

Cat had an emotional meltdown, glued onto the furniture and hid back into my husband's lap.

I told him to take the cat out even if a kitty appeared intimidated and not interested to have anything with a chirpy fellow.

Cat was more than happy to get out and I went to tidy a big cage. All parts of the cage looked solid and there was no damage, so I cleaned and washed it, attached the climbing bars, feeders and find additional containers for the greens and fresh food.

After that, I took it to the study room and placed it next to the parrot's cage. The second cage was four times bigger in comparison and more appropriate for the bird of this size.

I was planning to put two cages one next to another and leave the doors open so that a bird can transfer on its own.

The little fellow was observing all my actions with the utmost interest.

I placed fresh food into a bigger cage in hope that a bird is hungry and will gladly hurl onto the feast.

But, at the moment I took a smaller cage to attach it door to door, the whole contraption fell apart in my hands.

I thought to myself, aw shit this will not end up well. The cage was glued together with a duck tape but I didn't expect disaster to happen right at the worst possible moment.

The fellow screamed in fear for dear life and start furiously flapping his wings and hissing. I guess I ruined his morning.

While hardly holding a cage together I reached into one drawer with another hand tossing the things out and looking for any sort of a glove.

I've found one winter glove, stuff it on and pray that a bird bites into it so I can fold him and transfer it to another cage without any damage to his wings.

Luckily parrot did exactly how I predicted, he stuck his beak deep into the glove victoriously growling at it, so it gave me time, I folded his wings and gently placed him in another cage.

At the moment I placed him on the bar and let him go, he let me go as well, then turned and tried to attack me through the cage hissing and shrieking some incomprehensible sounds.

I talked to him a few minutes hoping to calm him down but to no purpose, he was furious.

As his body parts looked ok, I moved away and sat in my chair and start working on my pc. Parrot shook his feathers, comb it and literally - turned his back at me.

Oki, I said and went on with my morning routine doing some tapping on the keyboard. I saw that an annoyed parrot is following what I am doing by how he moved his crest, but he was gravely silent.

Just before lunchtime, my husband returned with our daughter and they were so happy to see a little fellow spreading his wings in the big cage.

How's little shitter? - my husband asked gesticulating to the parrot who replied with a few whistles and monkey-like movements. Obvious the two of them talk the same language. I guess I have to take classes from a chimp or something...

Well, he has a big brass pair, he charged at me similar like a rooster, I replied. I had to use a glove, cage fell apart.

A cage was damaged in a few places, and probably, it ended up on the floor a few times or it was kicked.

I decided not to move this cage unless when cleaning, so the bird has to accept it as something normal and useful.

I don't get it, my husband said, why do you need a parrot anyways...

Well, I replied, maybe an evil spirit which plagues the building decides to move inside of a bird, so I have somebody to talk to... I replied grinning.

Poor evil spirit, my husband replied still doing gestures to the parrot who was more than interested to answer in the same manner. After he got a loud hiss, he took a hike and left a bird in my company.

Even a few hours later, the little fellow didn't touch the fresh food. He didn't appear to understand that it is for eating.

I am pretty sure I got it right, I said to my folks. Besides some special seed mix that parrot eats almost the same things like a chicken, even a meat is listed on a menu.

Hmm, I was thinking, how about I make it really obvious? I took one apple, attached it to a screwed bar and hang it inside of a cage. All accompanied by loud hissing, shrieks and territorial intimidation of course. But, a bird didn't bit me. Progress achieved. He only hoped on the lower level until I placed an apple and then immediately returned to his defense post.

He observed a new big item but showed no interest to touch it.

Hmm, ok, let's leave it at that, I thought, he probably needs some time and adjustment to decipher what all those new things are.

A bird spent most of today being quiet, shuffling feathers, looking around or doing that 'one-legged' napping.

I found out that he can easily climb even upside down all over the cage, but he is not overly interested to do so. At least not for now. I strategically placed his food on 3 levels so he has to be active in order to get it, plus once accustomed to the natural food and treats he will be easily bribed into training.

When he gets some security a cage can be replaced with the stand , as the parrots can be trained not to mess all over the house.

I mean, many birds have a 'favorite spot', or a 'favorite unlucky park bench', or even better - a 'favorite car'. Pigeons are notorious for this 'custom', and if your car is their favorite you know what it looks like.

I also found out that he is not reacting to his name or me talking my native tongue but reacts right away when I call him either Kiki or Kikich, when I play rock'n'roll or when he hears anything spoken in English.