Bentley playing with a new toy with my husband...

Bentley has been doing really good - active level-wise. He is hormonal in the sense that if he is with my husband (who he adores!) and i enter the room, Bentley will try to come as close to me as possible and try and bite me. he just wants my husband to himself. But if my husband is not to be seen or heard, Bentley will easily step up onto my arm with a reward of a piece of nut.

Recently, we took Bentley in for a re-check up. When we first got Bentley, he weighed 515g. For his size, that meant he was overweight. It showed because his chest really heaved while breathing, he didn't move very much, and was very timid. now he loves to go exploring so we really have to keep a close eye on him. he likes to look out of the window and people-watch. if a car alarm goes off, he makes a game out of copying the tone and tempo with his version of the alarm. lol. if people are having fun outside and laughing or yelling, Bentley will also try to ape that.

Back to his vet visit, the vet said he is now down to 440g, but he should still lose about 20g. and that in the culture test, there were elevated levels of a bacteria in his mouth/gut. So for the next 28 days, he will be on 2x a day antibiotics to clean that out. Because the antibiotics kills all bacteria in his gut (including GOOD bacteria), we also have to give him some benebac gel. this helps to replenish the good bacteria in his system while on the antibiotics.

this is the third day of his antibiotic treatment. so far, Bentley has been a real trooper. he doesn't like to be toweled, but hardly gives a fight once wrapped in the towel and after he is done with taking the antibiotics, he calms down instantly and starts to sing and be his merry self.

i haven't had much time to do as much target training as i would like with Bentley, but i plan to pick that up. Bentley is a very smart bird, and with focused training, i think he can get past his territorial aggression around my husband.

ps: oh, i just realized its about time i took more pictures of Bentley. :-)

Bentley has definitely been bitten by the spring (hormones!) bug. now, whenever i go into his room and my husband is there, bentley feels the need to defend my husband and try to fend me off. if my husband is no where to be seen (or heard) bentley is as sweet as ever. don't take it the wrong way - i really think that after the spring fever is behind us, i think bentley will go back to liking both of us, even if we are in the same room.

as with all the birds under this roof, bentley has been going through a molt. fortunately i dont think he is plucking anything out. he still is bare on his back and chest, but i do see some new feathers coming out at different places. we have been giving him weekly baths to keep the itchiness and irritation down. so far so good.

bentley continues to eat well, sing, whistle and roam around. he is quite the active type - almost uncharacteristic of amazons. this is good since bentley had to lose some weight. i think he has done so because he hardly bobs his head when breathing. he only bobs his head when he gets really excited (head-bob meaning a breathing head-bob, not the head-bob that signifies "i want attention!").

i will be making a follow up appointment at the avian vet to have his weight and condition checked out. in two weeks. after his vet clears him and pronounces him healthy, we will finally take him out of quarantine. (it will be 2 months).

i think bentley really likes his new living area (in our 2nd bedroom) it gets lots of sunlight through the windows, he has his privacy, and he has a full desk as his play area.

bentley continues to sing and whistle for me (especially when i sing and whistle with him). i think he knows how to wolf whistle because i've heard it a couple of times, but he won't mimic it when i do the wolf whistle to him. hm...

he's getting lots of fuzzy down feathers on his lower back. looks very promising! it will take a while till he's fully feathered, but you wouldn't really realize that his back is plucked, because when he keeps his wings folded, you don't really see his back.

bentley is an amazing little blue front. he's the only amazon that i know that likes both men and women. he took to my husband alot faster than he did to me, but bentley seems to enjoy my companionship as much as my husband's and he also allows me to have him step up on to my hand.

i have been bitten by bentley, but only once really hard. even that was no where as hard as a bite from my own amazon. bentley really seems to know his beak strength and is very careful about using it. when i was bit, it was my fault. i was around his "territory" (the cage) and he was further away. he wanted to just say "hey, thats MY home". when he is on the cage, he doesn't seem to mind while i clean the cage, tho.

BREAKTHROUGH

for the past two days, Bentley has been stepping up on my hand - with a little sliver of almond for enticement. :-)

he has really blossomed and loves to wander around. this is good and bad for various reasons so we moved him into our second bedroom where he will have more area to look around and explore. plus, since the weather is becoming warmer, the room is useable again (in cold weather its like a freezer in there!

Bentley singing and whistling along with me...



Bentley thumb-wrestling with my husband...

bentley is sure coming into his own. he is becoming much more comfortable around us every day. just two days ago, bentley decided to flip right on to his back and play with my husband's hands like that. he has been continually doing this while spending time with my husband. we unfortunately don't have that yet on flim.

bentley still has some issues with me, but he now occasionally allows me to scratch his head and touch his feet. he has not bitten me tho. when he doesn't want me to touch him, he just backs off a bit.

i think deep down, bentley likes humans. he is not afraid of humans at all, when we stand near his cage or approach him. he does have reservations on who can actually touch him tho.

the cutest thing about bentley is that he loooovvveeeessss to sing - no particular song or melody, just different falsetto tones - especially when you sing to him. he has also started to whistle a lot, especially when you whistle to him. like his singing, he doesn't whistle a particular melody, he just does different tones.

bentley took a shower today. i noticed him scratching around his head a lot lately so i thought it was about time he got wet. it didn't look like he was really much into it, but he did sing and whistle with me during the entire shower, so it couldn't have been too bad for him. there was still a lot of sun outside, so i allowed him to sunbathe and dry off after his shower before taking him back to his quarantine room.