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Apollo and the Spool
After trying to get a spool of thread from Tori’s hand-sewing kit for months, Apollo finally got one that was left on the table. I, of course, had to ruin his triumph, given how dangerous thread is for birds. This was absolutely the hardest he’s ever resisted a ‘drop it’ request, and then demand. I first try our Drop-it-Sync, as usual, which goes like this:
Me:
“Drop it.”
Apollo:
“Drop it... Drop!”
Me:
“Yeah, you drop it.”
Here I’ll start grabbing and poking at his beak/the thing in it.
Apollo:
“Drop, drop... Drop.”
He typically drops it by the end of this sequence, while I poke at the item in his beak. If he’s butthurt about it, he might give a mild-to-moderately painful bite when he drops it, but not today. This time he flew to four separate areas in the struggle, and I even had to negate his ‘fleeing to high-points’ tactic by using a broom handle to poke at the spool in his beak, but he would not give it up. He didn’t even continue saying drop after the first re-position as usual, seemingly too focused on evading. I finally got it to slip out of his beak with a broomstick poke. This played out over about 60 seconds.
Then we did the usual ‘non-hostility touch’, where one or both of us says “touch” and I touch Apollo’s beak, giving him an easy opportunity to bite. He will almost always grasp the finger with zero-to-low pressure and then we both know there’s no anger, ie. resolving context uncertainty. I was expecting a bit of seething in the form of a mild bite, but he was chill.
For some more context on what Apollo communicates physically with his beak: I’ve noticed (especially in observing numerous other people interact with Apollo) that any flinching during approach or the following grasp test results in a moderate or worse bite. He does almost the same thing when new/little known people attempt to get have him step up; if the test is failed he will be extremely resistant to step up for that individual afterword. This context makes sense as a Do you actually know how to hold a bird, and can I use my bite pressure to communicate with you? assessment. Apollo is very particular with who he steps up for, and he gives everyone the assessment in roughly the same manner.
#animals
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After trying to get a spool of thread from Tori’s hand-sewing kit for months, Apollo finally got one that was left on the table. I, of course, had to ruin his triumph, given how dangerous thread is for birds. This was absolutely the hardest he’s ever resisted a ‘drop it’ request, and then demand. I first try our Drop-it-Sync, as usual, which goes like this:
Me:
“Drop it.”
Apollo:
“Drop it... Drop!”
Me:
“Yeah, you drop it.”
Here I’ll start grabbing and poking at his beak/the thing in it.
Apollo:
“Drop, drop... Drop.”
He typically drops it by the end of this sequence, while I poke at the item in his beak. If he’s butthurt about it, he might give a mild-to-moderately painful bite when he drops it, but not today. This time he flew to four separate areas in the struggle, and I even had to negate his ‘fleeing to high-points’ tactic by using a broom handle to poke at the spool in his beak, but he would not give it up. He didn’t even continue saying drop after the first re-position as usual, seemingly too focused on evading. I finally got it to slip out of his beak with a broomstick poke. This played out over about 60 seconds.
Then we did the usual ‘non-hostility touch’, where one or both of us says “touch” and I touch Apollo’s beak, giving him an easy opportunity to bite. He will almost always grasp the finger with zero-to-low pressure and then we both know there’s no anger, ie. resolving context uncertainty. I was expecting a bit of seething in the form of a mild bite, but he was chill.
For some more context on what Apollo communicates physically with his beak: I’ve noticed (especially in observing numerous other people interact with Apollo) that any flinching during approach or the following grasp test results in a moderate or worse bite. He does almost the same thing when new/little known people attempt to get have him step up; if the test is failed he will be extremely resistant to step up for that individual afterword. This context makes sense as a Do you actually know how to hold a bird, and can I use my bite pressure to communicate with you? assessment. Apollo is very particular with who he steps up for, and he gives everyone the assessment in roughly the same manner.
#animals
source
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