Good, Better, Brooks!

My efforts have paid off! Brooks is a better behaved bird. Reading the books I brought home from the library did the trick. One I have already read from cover to cover and the second one I am progressing through every night before bed.

The biggest change we've made is restricting Brooks' access to our shoulders. Shoulder time becomes a territorial and dominance issue for her and she pecks, nips or bites us when she thinks our heads are getting in her space. There is a marked difference in her behaviour since we have tried to keep her only on our forearms. Brooks is also not allowed out of her cage when we are working with food or having our meals. She has downtime in her cage regularly and is packed off to bed at about 9pm.

She sometimes likes to bath in her water bowl over the sink and is now learning to shower. Apparently, water will calm and socialise Brooks, burn off energy and contribute to healthy feathers. This little madam is also learning to sit quietly on the towel rails in the bathroom, observing or preening, while we ready ourselves for work.

Brooks is small in size and so you would wonder what the issue is all about. But parrotlets are known to have fiery personalities and to attack birds three or four times their size. They are big birds in little bodies. The breakthrough in her behaviour came in one day; the same day I stopped her access to my shoulder and played a towel game with her. Surprisingly, Brooks is quite happy to be wrapped up in the folds of a towel and then find her way out. It calms her and builds trust.

Little by little we're letting her know the type of behaviour that is acceptable and teaching her in a way that she will understand. As one of the books I read indicated, bringing home a parrot is not the same as training a dog or a cat; it's completely different.

Now just to find out why Brooks hates the telephone so much; it's one of the things that still brings out the worst in her. Back to the books...