My office neighbors are a small law firm and are really nice folks, and they just adopted an Amazon parrot. She's 14 years old and had previously belonged to the children of a local doctor, but they have gone off to college and the doctor and his wife didn't have time to give her the care she deserved.
She was friendly with her previous family, but has gotten quite nippy during the transition. She has taken to the paralegal in the office (the only woman who works there) but has nipped both of the attorneys. I went to visit her today. She has a charming personality, is very talkative, and minded my instructions when I asked her to come in and out of the cage and move to various perches, but threatened to nip me when I asked her to step up onto my hand and wasn't willing to step up onto a wooden perch I offered her. She was very happy to receive my attention when talking to her, though.
Any advice on making friends with her and helping her new owners train her to step up? I know that not all parrots like to be petted and loved on by all people, but I'm hoping to at least help them get her to a point where they can do things like clean her cage or move her from one spot to another safely.
I have worked with cockateils and parakeets and once upon a time I worked with some larger parrots--macaws and eclectus--that were education animals for a zoo where I volunteered, but it has been a long time and the birds I worked with then were more used to being handled by new people.
She was friendly with her previous family, but has gotten quite nippy during the transition. She has taken to the paralegal in the office (the only woman who works there) but has nipped both of the attorneys. I went to visit her today. She has a charming personality, is very talkative, and minded my instructions when I asked her to come in and out of the cage and move to various perches, but threatened to nip me when I asked her to step up onto my hand and wasn't willing to step up onto a wooden perch I offered her. She was very happy to receive my attention when talking to her, though.
Any advice on making friends with her and helping her new owners train her to step up? I know that not all parrots like to be petted and loved on by all people, but I'm hoping to at least help them get her to a point where they can do things like clean her cage or move her from one spot to another safely.
I have worked with cockateils and parakeets and once upon a time I worked with some larger parrots--macaws and eclectus--that were education animals for a zoo where I volunteered, but it has been a long time and the birds I worked with then were more used to being handled by new people.