I must admit that the first week was a trial, we had many lessons to learn, we made mistakes with him and my husband paid the price with many bites, my ceiling fan now has tape on all of the blades, and one old wooden chair has been deemed Herc's chew toy LOL
Like so many other 'too 's Herc was kept in a small cage for all but an hour or two a day, he had 2 toys and his perches in the cage, he was fed only sunflower seeds ( apparently that was all he would eat) We were also told that Herc "freaked out" when anything was changed, so we went very slowly to make his world a little better.
On the first day, I removed the lock on his door, opened it, and promised him that he would never be locked up again, I went out and bought him toys that I could hang around his cage ( since his cage was SO small), and of course put him on a high quality pellet. We started giving him fruits, veggies, brown rice, and pasta.
Week one, we worked on introducing new foods, he LOVES to eat at the table with my husband and I, and will "share" our dinner LOL. We bought him a large Blue Macaw cage, and filled it with interesting toys, Java wood climbing toys and perches, rope toys, and I fixed up little areas where I could "hide" treats in the cage.
Week two, we worked on getting him to trust us...we talked and talked and talked to him !!! We sang to him, and let him know that we were here. He started to land on us and would watch us. He started to come to us, and would bow his head. We started to rub his head, when invited to.
Week three has been great !! He lands on us talks to us, and sits on our knee while watching tv. When I turn off the tv, I always tell him that it is night time, he goes to his cage, gets on his favorite perch, I turn out the lights and he goes to sleep
MANY thanks to Bev for your invaluable help and advice !!!
Viv
