First Things First
You just think you want to build trust with your parrot. I did that. Eight times I’ve done that. But honest to milk toast you do not want to build trust with your parrot before you build a level playing field. You go about chasing this trust business and you are going to walk face first into a wall of judgement and attitude. And mark my words, you will like it.
You won’t know how you got there the day you laugh while your bird looks at you in a clear statement of disgust. You know you are lacking. And they are adorable and right, and judgey. You spend hours chopping, warming tea, baking bread, shopping organics, ordering toys and foraging things online. You kiss their heads. Tickle their toes. Answer requests and offer solutions. All for nought because you put yellow pellets in a bowl. Or put a new toy in the cage without the mandatory 17 month introduction phase. Walk out of the room without saying hello and goodbye. Go ahead. See what happens to your self confidence. A cockatiel glare will peel paint off the wall and bend your soul sideways. Scritch or pass away shriveled on the floor dying with the knowledge of your lacking.
The entire time you are building trust they are building an empire served by you. It’s time for all companion parrot people to admit we got in too deep. We undervalued the brains in the heads of these magnificent flying tyrants.
On the days we look in the mirror and see the truth we may hiss threats of macaw stew, or conure quiche. For that minute you convince your image you’re the one in charge. All that stuff that doesn’t look like you being in charge is “trust building”.
I asked Felix this morning if he wanted warm tea. His response, “Why?”
“Because it’s cold. Don’t you want some warm tea?”
*fartsound*
He perches looking up into the ceiling waiting for me to accept his no, and the fact I am annoying. Butters calls from the other side of the room, “Wanna drink INK INK INK!”
I rush to the kitchen to make raspberry tea. Quick to respond to harden off that mortar of trust. I walk in with hot tea, with 4 ice cubes melting to make it warm tea that Butters likes. She chugs and gurgles, while grabbing at the tea cup to reposition it for the next gulp.
Felix shouts, “HEY! Here!”
No isn’t no. No is maybe yes, later, or when I have finished thinking, or when you are in the middle of something else I can interrupt. Tyranny.
I apologized to Snickers while carrying him downstairs this morning. I hadn’t been carrying him high enough, his tail bumped the railing. He hates all things bumping his tail. I groveled and apologized and promised to work on my hand carrying skills for the future.
“DoodleyDOO!” That’s Snickers for ‘whatever’.
It’s too late for me. Save yourself.
The Art of the FlockCall — Creating Your Successful Companion Parrot Lifestyle
