Here I will give updates on Lucy's well-being and the progress I've made with her for her to trust me, as well as showing some pictures. I do a bit of amateur photography as a hobby, mainly with my pets, so I'm going to try and desensitize her to the camera. I never use the flash on my pets, as they usually don't like it. I might be able to get some good shots of her once she allows me to bring her out of the cage. I'd like her to at least be used to the camera first.

So without further ado, here's an update:

For the past few days, I've been able to get her to eat from the palm of my hand, while on the lowest perch in the cage. I use sunflower seeds, because out of every food I've let her try (blueberry, the dried peas and corn Carolyn gave me, millet spray, and rice), she seems to like them best. I've been sparing with them though, since they tend to be a little fattening. She's very funny with eating them though. She won't eat them unless if I offer one held between my thumb and index finger. Once she takes it, she'll just drop it, and then eat the rest from my palm. I have no idea why she actually does this. Maybe it's just a quirk to her behavior.

The first three days, she would step up onto my finger, and then hop back to her favorite perch once I've slowly brought her a few inches away from it. Now she just doesn't step up at all. So I've started working with her on that, with millet spray, since that's another food that she'll go towards in my hand. Even though she's most willing to eat sunflower seeds, she doesn't seem very willing to follow it to my finger as she is millet (and there's a lot more millet in her bowl than sunflower seeds). The closest I've gotten her to step up onto my finger was one toe, which was apparently enough for her to reach. I decided to stop there, since that's the closest she was willing to go for the millet spray. I hope I'm not rushing her.

She's becoming a little more frequent with the vocalizations. They're still quiet little chirps, but I think it means she's happy. I've noticed that she does it whenever she hears my voice while I'm in another room. Either she wants to see me, or she can't stand to have a human focus their attention on something else. I feel like I'm seeing a little more of her personality each day. She seems fond of the mirror toys, and when I used the hand I don't usually use for giving her sunflower seeds, she went for the ring first. She seems to like shiny things.

I found her chewing on the cuttle-bone that's in her cage. This was the first time I've seen her touch it, and not only was she chewing on it, but she had one foot on it. Maybe she is a foot user, like her mother.

Someday, I'll get an aviator harness for her. Luckily, I found a pet store that actually the one you get online (same brand and everything). It was on sale during the month of July, but unfortunately I didn't find out until yesterday (which was the last day of the sale), and so I couldn't get it while it was 20% off. Some day I will, be it full price or on sale.

Sorry this one was a little long. Future updates won't be as long as this one. Now if only I can figure how to attach pictures without uploading it to some other website...

Today was my uncles cockatiel jewels first time out of the cage and my uncle wanted me to tame her and she was begging for scratches and she learned to step up and that happened in 1 day and she was a biter and she bit me at first and I stopped her from being a biter.Also I think shes Rockos sister.

Congratulations. I wish my bird do all that in one day. She hasn't begged for scratches once, since I got her. The one time I pet her was when my mom clipped her wings, and I was trying to calm her down.

Every bird is different, so I think Lucy just needs more time.

Beautiful bird, by the way.

It took a long time to earn Rockos trust but it was worth it and Loki only took a few days.

If you remove the sunflower seeds from her food dish she'll be more motivated to take sunflower seeds from you, since you'll be her only source of them.

If you want to gently scoop her up and take her out of the cage it'll be OK. She got a lot of that with me lol, and it can greatly speed up the adjustment process. Just keep everything nonscary while she's out of the cage and give her treats to eat and shiny things to play with so she has fun while she's out and wants to do it again. While she was with me she lived in the bird room, where everybody is out of the cage anytime I'm home (and I'm home a lot). So she isn't used to spending a lot of time in a cage, and it will actually be more natural for her to be out and about.

Some of the chicks are more into the headscritches than others, and she was less into it than some. But she wasn't totally opposed to them either, and will probably want them after she's settled in more.

Thing is, I've tried that. All she was concerned about was trying to get away from me. It just seemed to scare her more. I did everything I could possibly think of to not seem scary. Slow movements, staying calm, offering food and toys... She just got more scared. I feel like I'm doing something wrong when I just take her out like that.

My mom actually suggested that as well. After doing it a couple of times, that's when she stopped stepping up altogether.

Well, my pionus isn't a very headscritchy bird either. Don't know how I end up with birds like that. Hopefully she'll at least become a little more into them after a while. It's been forever since I've had a bird that actually let me pet it.

I think all cockatiels would like head scritches at one point or another, if their circumstances meet. I had one bird that would absolutely refuse to be pet unless if I grabbed him, held him to my chest, and began petting him I would lay down holding him like that and he would enjoy it for hours. However if I lifted my hand from his body, he would immediately resort to biting again.

Your doing great work there!
Obi has been with me for a few weeks now...
I cant get him out of the cage with out towelling him..
trouble is, the cage has the door at either end of the cage...
I don't want to purchase another cage as in time he will
go in with the budgies in the large cage....I have
a selection of cages, but this one is the largest.... also
my hands are full of arthritis...so its a little awkward for me...
He will step up when out of the cage, isn't at all scared
of me, sits on my shoulder, get's spooked every easily,
eats whatever I give him... Oh and he can say
his name... so I'm getting there slowly.... but
its fun....

If taking her out gently isn't working, you could go with luring her out. Don't give her any millet spray in the cage, make it something for out of cage time only. Leave the cage door open (while you're there to supervise of course) and put some millet spray right there in the doorway. Once she starts eating it, gradually move it a little further outside the cage. Maybe slowly move it up to the top of the cage if that's feasible, a lot of nervous birds seem to be more comfortable on top of the cage then any other location outside the cage. Then gradually work on getting some step-ups on top of the cage, using the millet to help lure her onto your hand.

It'll take time Jan. That's why I'm trying to go as slow as Lucy wants me to go, because rushing things isn't going to help much (birds are one of those animals that kind of force you to be patient, or else you'll both be frustrated).

Hmm... I could try luring her out. On the top of my Pionus' cage is a little perch stand with latters, and a food and water dish. You think she'd enjoy sitting up there? It's in the middle of the house so she'd get to see what's going on about 70% of the time. Problem is though, it's directly in front of the kitchen, one of the most dangerous rooms for birds. Her wings are clipped, yes, but it's tall enough for her to get some distance. We don't have pots hanging on anything, or things like that (all of our utensils are in cabinets or drawers), but it still concerns me a bit, especially if my mom decides to cook while she's up there.

I know this is a big mess but when I was trying to earn Rockos trust I put lots of seeds on the floor and lured him to me he was a little scared but he came to me and then backed up later I had him stepping up on a perch and a few days later I was able to give him scratches and he learned to step up and I just let him out of the cage everyday and spent time with him.