It was very quiet during our car ride to Mississippi (yes, we drove all the way to Mississippi and Florida from Arizona). My mom gets some texts from my sister, and starts laughing out of nowhere. The messages said:

"Why aren't this stupid birds wings clipped? Lucy is an asshole."
"Don't share that with jas I don't want her to hate me...but seriously this bird is an asshole."

I asked what was going on, and my mom eventually told me, though she didn't read the first message yet. I knew it was Lucy though, because Alex has no problem stepping up for people. My mom's reply was: "She knows which one."

Then my sister says:

"How the hell do I get her back in the cage?"
"Lucy flies way better than the nice bird. I swear she's laughing at me."

My mom replies: "Sorry missed the first text. Why did you let them out?"

At this point we're all laughing. Then she texts:

"I felt sorry for them since jas plays with them all the time. I thought I'd be nice and let them out for a minute."
"Now I've been here 30 minutes trying to get Lucy to go back in."

I ask my mom to hand me the phone so I can text her. I said:

"It's Jasmine now. Guess I should have warned you that Lucy doesn't step up for anyone other than me. "
"And also that she's really good at flying and landing in high places, as opposed to Alex, who usually lands on the floor or your head." (Just so you all know, Alex is still an extremely clumsy flyer)

My sister sends a picture (which I'm unable to show you guys since I don't quite know how to work my mom's phone) of a picture of Lucy standing at the very end of the table. There are some treats on the table where my sister had tried to lure her in closer. Funny thing is, Lucy will sometimes run away from me if I try to get her to step up, though she doesn't always feel it necessary to fly. So I usually end up chasing her around the table sometimes.

I write to her: "Good luck with that. She likes to make me run around the table all the time."

Then she finally calls us, and explains that she can't get within several feet from Lucy without her flying away. Lucy has gone to the cage by herself before, though it's rather rare for her to ever want to go in. On top of that, my sister didn't have time to wait until she was ready to go back in the cage herself. So eventually she had to grab a blanket and scare her into the spare bedroom, corner her, and then grab her.

Finally, she texted back, saying: "I won"

Ahahaha sounds pretty funny.

Is Lucy very food driven? If so, then treats like millet spray and sunflower seed can be used to encourage her to step up and also to go in the cage.

When Lucy's mother Shodu was young, she was very resistant to going in the cage. I found two techniques that helped. The first one was giving her a food treat just before I put her in the cage, so she was busy chewing on it when she went through the door. The timing was important, because if the treat was gone too soon she'd come flying back out before I had time to close the door.

The second technique was to sometimes put her in the cage (using the treat) and then NOT close the door so she could come back out whenever she wanted to. This taught her that going in the cage didn't necessarily mean that she was going to be stuck there, so she didn't mind it as much.

Lucy isn't very resistant when it comes to going back in the cage, actually. I mean, there were a few times where she wasn't ready to go in when I needed her to, but for the most part, she's actually pretty good about it.

It was just the fact that she doesn't know my sister very well at all, mainly. Lucy's rather stand-offish compared to Alex, and doesn't even go near my parents, despite seeing them every day.

Lucy is food motivated to an extant. Certain foods she will go after, and sometimes she might be more play-motivated.

I'm actually trying to socialize her and Alex so she could at least step up for other people. Alex is already social as is and I intend to keep him that way. Lucy though, needs a lot of work, and it's definitely going to be hard since she's over a year old now, but not impossible. I have actually gotten her to step up for my boyfriend and eat/shred some vegetables she offered him (will go into more detail about how that session went in a different thread). Granted she spent a lot of time watching him from a distance, but the fact that she stepped up for someone else alone gives me hope that she'll get there eventually.

I enjoyed this story! good read! I lol'ed more than once!

The family did too while my mom was reading aloud the texts.

The funniest part is how my sister referred to Alex as the "nice bird", when in reality, Alex is actually a little terror that won't leave you alone. She is quite cuddly and everything, but don't expect to get any work done around her, because she'll do everything she can to either distract you, or destroy whatever you're working on.
Not to mention she also loves shiny things like rings, watches, glasses, etc...
She's recently taken up the habit of trying to take my pencil away when I draw.

Even if she's afraid of the object in your hands, Alex will go over to you just to hiss at it and still try to get in the way as much as possible.

Lucy's stubborn, but at least she's independent. She may try to assist Alex in trying to distract me sometimes, but she's does her own thing a lot of the time and approaches me for scritches now. Alex on the other hand is both stubborn and clingy, and does everything for attention regardless if that form of attention is positive or negative. Not to mention pushy when it comes to scritches (just literally puts her head in my hand, regardless if I'm using that hand for anything).

This what i do 4 zorro give him treat n he wants stable place to eat it. So hes willing to go in.