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.

bentley dancing...

BREAKTHROUGH

i was FINALLY given the honor to scratch sir bentley on the head! and under the most interesting circumstances...

i just finished cleaning his cage and i put him in. i was talking and singing to him as usual, and i started to play peek-a-boo with him. he really liked that! i think he also likes the word "peek-a-boo" he tried to say different parts of the word while i said it. anyways, i started making kissing noises - the pecking kind - and he starts to act very differently...he started to push himself against the cage where i was closest to, he would start to try and make the pecking noises himself over and over again with me, but he would also back himself up away from me and then come slowly back toward me, again pushing himself up against the cage bars closest to me. it was really strange. i then put my finger up close to his head (while i continued to make the kissing noises) and he just bowed down, wanting a head scritch! bentley knows EXACTLY what kisses are and he definitely sees them as something wonderful! he allowed me to scratch his head and i stopped after a while (i didnt want to accidentally rub over a new feather and irritate him) so i stay on his good side. i didnt want to push it! :-)

it was just awesome! for the past week, i have been spending more time with bentley just singing and talking to him. i was also giving him small pieces of almond or peanut every once in a while to make him look forward to seeing me. what i also started with bentley is target training. he loves to chew so it wasn't too hard to get him to touch the target. once he did, i praised him with verbal praises and a small piece of nut. he has been doing so well with it. i think all of this has paid off to this very night when i got to scratch his head! (not to mention that he likes the kissing noises...that helped tons!)

he still needs a ways to go to learn to trust me and i am only taking it at his pace. you can't change behaviors overnight. thats why it is so motivating and rewarding when a positive step forward is made. its just so amazing how quickly bentley has gone through so many wonderful improvements!