Bman is looking for his feathever home..
Bman aka Batman is a quirky goffin who has been with us almost 2 years now. His first year has been learning how to trust and more specifically, trust hands. We do not have any background information on him but we do know he had some negative experiences with hands which caused him to bite (he has NOT bitten anyone here – gentle nibbles only).
After his first few weeks of settling in, we began working on “touch” which he was a bit shy of – once he felt safe he began coming closer and closer and his reward was always verbal as he has not been a very treat motivated bird – praise and head scritches is what he likes most 🙂
Over many months I began touching his toes one at a time – when he was uncomfortable he would push my hand away – I honored that by stopping – this process went on for a few weeks and if I pushed to hard with my touch he would gently grab my finger and put his down – his signals of discomfort have always been very obvious. As I built trust with him I was able to touch his feet more and more – he will step up onto your hand from the floor but not from his cage yet – he would rather jump onto your arm/shoulder – if you grab his feet to force him to step up – that’s when you will get bit – this is still fearful to him.
Part of working with rescue birds is allowing them choices and helping them decide to pick the best one (hope that makes sense)and never forcing them to do things because we think they should just KNOW what to do – most of them don’t – their reactions of biting/fleeing/hiding are based on past experiences and what works best for them in that moment aka: grabbing Bmans toes to get him off something – he bites – what do you do? you let go – his reward, he doesn’t know its not acceptable to bite. And I can’t stress enough – do not EVER retaliate in anger and hit or punish a bird that bites – that’s why many of the birds in rescues have issues to begin with.
He seems to prefer me at the moment but has gone onto others shoulders/arms – still working on appropriate touch to remove him from said shoulder 🙂 This will be ongoing learning for him.
At this moment, he is showing some hormonal tendencies – no aggression is being shown but he will try to form your hand into a fist for him to “sit” on, this is rather uncomfortable and inappropriate so he’s distracted with toys and other play.
He loves chewing rope of any kind and seems to prefer his rope perches to chew – you know the ones – the 30.00 ones hahaha ensuring he has bird safe toys/rope to keep him occupied is important – he’s a cockatoo – they LOVE to chew 🙂
His diet is fresh vege/fruit, our seed blend and his zupreem pellets – still working on getting him onto something healthier (pellet)but he’s still picking them out and tossing them away.
His sleep pattern is pretty good now with being covered at night from about 7:30 pm till 7 AM – sometimes a bit more in the winter.
He is truly a sweet bird and needs his own family with no other birds – he wants to be the center of your world – other birds on or near his cage WILL be attacked which is why he needs to be the flock master of his home 🙂
His biggest personal issue is his tail feathers – he has had baths in his bowls and would break a feather – he will than pull it out leaving a huge blood bath. This will be discussed in further detail with potential adopters. No – water bottles do not work – he refuses to drink from one.
You can see that most of his tail feathers are absent 🙁 which does affect his ability to fly properly.
Bman will need multiple visits with a potential adopter and cannot live in a shared dwelling ie:duplex/condo/apt etc as he can be very loud at times. He will do best with NO small children under 12 and some large parrot experience would be beneficial.
Please fill out an application form if you think you are the perfect family for this lovable Goffin.
