I like that idea. It makes it sound like the budgies and cockatiels always have some kind of calculations and plotting running through their heads, while the doves are more like "Hey! Millet!!".

Hmm...


You're right.

Wow, Beck is a lot smarter than I realized. He has a scientist-level understanding of the way that budgies can use millet seed to drive their hyperactive energy level.

I feel like this makes up Lucy and Joey's interaction.

Lucy: If I could use this idle opportunity to distract the human from her work by screaming about something that's not really there, then that should give me about 5.241 seconds to fly down to the keyboard and-
Joey: Look Lucy! Millet!
Lucy: Yay!

Due to a busy schedule, I haven't been able to have taming sessions with him for a couple days. I had a taming session yesterday. Surprisingly enough, he wasn't set back as much as I thought. Took longer to get him to step up, but he still seems ok near me, and he'll coo at me.

Either I'm getting better at cooing, or he's recognizing my attempts, for he's finally starting to reply to my cooing. We'll have a short conversation, and then he'll do that thing where he wants to fly to me, but chickens out and flies off again. He has gotten closer to landing, though. Maybe someday, it will happen.

Other than that, there isn't really much that have changed.

Curiously enough though, I have discovered that if I pinch and pick at the millet spray in a fashion that may simulate eating, he starts eating it himself. I don't know if this is making him used to my hand, or starting to give him the idea that if it gets near him, it wants to eat him. I guess I'll try it a little longer, and see.

Pretending to "eat" the food with your hand is often a good way to stimulate a bird's flock-feeding and food-competition urges. It seems to work better for other people than for me lol.

I think cockatiels might know better than doves. Lucy doesn't fall for it either. She will eat if Joey starts eating.

Joey: "I must eat all the millet before that creature does!"
Lucy: "You know that thing can't eat, right?"
Joey: "What are you talking about? It's eating right now!"