What do I do, with a bird like you?

As I have mentioned before, not all the birds in my house like me. Of the five large birds, I have one that is indifferent (Duke), one that likes me fine as long as I stay away from her cage (Kenya) and one that's out to get me (Lou).

To tell you the truth, I will take indifference over dislike and hate any day of the week. Duke prefers my husband. Not that he has anything against me per say but he was hand raised by his first owner, who was an elderly man and Duke has not had good luck with women. So his trust factor is just more in tune to my husband. He has nibbled me twice, never broken the skin and both times were when I was putting him into his cage when John was home. But even though he doesn't really trust me, he lets me pick him up and scratch his head. He also talks to me all day long, so we really do fine for the most part. It also helps that I am the “Goddess of Goodies” so that wins me major points with him.

Lou hates me, and I have given up trying for anything more then a long distance relationship with him. I like my fingers attached to my body, thank-you-very-much, and I plan on keeping them that way.

Kenya is another one that prefers my husband, but unlike Duke, she bites me and draws blood anytime she gets a clean shot at me. Unfortunately Kenya is a special needs bird. She is supposed to have physical therapy on her foot 3x a day. My husband works all day long, so it's on me to do this. I hate to say it's been over a year since I have.

I can't get her out of her cage. She throws herself around and ends up hurting herself. I have tried letting her come out on her own and she throws herself to the floor and attacks if I get to close. We won't even get to the part where if you actually touch her feet she throws a hissy fit.

So I have been looking up training tips on how to try and get her to accept me. I am the one that hand fed her gosh darn it, she should at least tolerate me somewhat. So I am on a mission, and my google-fu is ready, and I find this little snippet.

African Greys can be more challenging to befriend than other parrot species, because they're smarter and very cautious by nature.

I foresee a whole lot of fun in my near future. Yey. I can't wait. rolls eyes