Itsy pictures

Pictures of Itsy from yesterday.

Nemo pictures

Yesterday while I had Nemo and Itsy out I took a few pictures. Here are some of Nemo, I'll post some of Itsy later on.

From 6 to 8 - Days 15 & 16

Yesterday was pretty uneventful.

Today, to put things in my boyfriend's words, "they've been a little more trying". Well the most rambunctious was Joey - not that he went after any of the other birds, but he could hardly sit still and was getting into trouble.

When they first came out in the morning, I decided to bring Nemo out with the others and leave Itsy in the room. Nemo is easier to handle with the other birds compared to Itsy since Nemo will willingly stay on my shoulder most of the time giving kisses to me and ignoring the others whilst Itsy wants to go everywhere and Zuri is VERY interested in Itsy and I doubt the outcome of that meeting would be good - it's happened in the past where I had to separate them quickly.

In the afternoon, before letting my flock out, I decided to take both Itsy and Nemo out on their own for a bit. Nemo spent his time with my boyfriend and Itsy with me. Eventually, I felt the need to lie down a bit so I put Itsy on the atom since she seems to enjoy it there. About 15 minutes later Nemo flew to the atom to attack Itsy so in he went. Itsy went in when I got my guys out.

Then in the evening, I decided to once again have Nemo out with the others while Itsy had the birdroom to herself.

Nemo was on one of my shoulders and Piper on the other. It quickly became a competition between the two of them about which one could get most of my attention and they delivered kiss after kiss..a few times I had to move them a bit further away from each other as they were starting to show aggression towards each other and since neither will back down..at one point Nemo got a bit too restless so he ended up in the spare cage in my bedroom.

The other thing that is going on..as much as Shade had became extra "needy" when both Itsy and Nemo showed up and was claiming one of my shoulders, this last week she's been particularly distant with me. She'll step up with no trouble and still gives kisses when asked, but she will not stay on me. I continue to offer her a spot first, but she just flies away. Again, I've seen her do this to me before, but I could do without a sulky Senegal right now. She'll most likely be herself again once the visitors leave. Mind you, Pixel seems to relish in the fact that Shade is not spending so much time with me and gladly takes her spot..

It's all about yellow

Morning light

When I took my pictures yesterday morning, I used the flash. However, since the batteries in my flash were slowly dying, they took forever to recycle, I sometimes took pictures without the flash going off.

Here are a few of these pictures, and I have to say I kind of like them.

Christmas morning pictures

Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays everyone, from the birds and myself.

I took a few pictures of them this morning...

Piper


Shade


Joey


Zuri


Pixel


..and even Petey who was feeling a bit antisocial this morning.

Morning Peak-a-boos

On the week-ends, the birds get to sleep in a little. Although I'm not entirely sure they relish in it, I do enjoy not having to get up at 6am.

This morning I entered the birdroom around 8:30. I do cover my cages at night so the first thing we need to do in the morning is uncover them. As I'm working my way around the room, I hear a couple of "peak-a-boos" coming from Pixel's cage.

So adorable.

From 6 to 8 - Days 11, 12, 13 & 14

I'm getting worse at these updates!

Nothing really to report. I wasn't feeling really good this week so we didn't take too many extra chances with incorporating Itsy and Nemo with my flock.

Yesterday, we did have both out in the living room after the others went in. Nemo was on me and Itsy chose to go on one of the atoms. Then, quite suddenly, Nemo flew to the atom and I ran behind him to intervene in the impending attack - because it was clearly his intention. I managed to separate them before they got at each other. The moment Nemo had landed Itsy had gotten herself in fighting mode as well - trust me, a puffed up Meyer's who is ready to lunge is not a pretty sight. Anyways, after this they went in their cages as well and were covered for the night.

I will be off work for the few days, in fact, my parents should be coming back on my last day off and therefore I'll probably be able to bring Itsy and Nemo back home on that day - as long as my parents are able to leave when they should.

Last T4W order of the year

Yesterday I received my last order from Things for Wings. Last week Danita started a 15% sale off all wood. So I couldn't resist and ordered quite a bit of it.

Actually, I ordered:
-30 pieces of balsa, in three different colours;
-9 packs of 24 pieces of Yucca hunkelettes (the smallest size);
-9 packs of 12 pieces of Willow hunks;
-9 packs of 12 pieces of Cottonwood.

This should replenish my stock.

I also got a few freebies - notice the little snowflakes next to the balsa.



Will definitively be making more orders in 2011!

Wet and dignified

How many birds do you know that can look dignified when wet?

From 6 to 8 - Days 8, 9 & 10

I have to say, I'm finding it hard to do daily updates when things are going relatively well.

Won't complain though, I rather it be quiet because I have nothing to say than having birds continuously attack each other.

So I have found myself, even during the week now, of alternating between leaving one of my mom's birds in the room and one in the extra cage to having one out with us and one in the room, to having both out with us just before they go in for the night (my guys having been put "to bed" previously. It's not a perfectly set in stone routine but it is working.

I do believe it'll be even easier to give them more one on one next week, as I'll be off from work for 10 consecutive days and then they'll be going back to my parents' house.

I have also started weighing my mom's birds with mine.
I have found with my guys that some of them tend to loose a bit of weight when they are being watched over by other people. I wanted to see if this would happen with my mom's guys. Unfortunately, I didn't think of taking a measure on day 1 of them being here, but I'm pretty sure Nemo hasn't lost anything, and I'll be watching Itsy a bit more. Mind you, I had weighed her in the past and she's around what she weighed back then and from the few measures I have collected recently, her weight seems rather stable (fluctuates by a gram or two, but as it comes down, it comes back up after).

Squeals of delight!

The birds are out with us.
Everyone is mostly quiet except for one.

Pixel is on one of the trees, making little noises. She seems quite delighted in something, but what it is, I have no idea....

Those noises are really cute!

From 6 to 8 - Days 5, 6 & 7

I didn't do daily updates for most of this past week - I do apologize.
I was rather tired and didn't think I could be as vigilant when watching them so for most of those days, I did have Itsy and Nemo alternate, as planned originally, between the birdroom and the extra cage in my bedroom. On Friday evening (day 7) I did start taking one out with us in the living room and having one in the birdroom again though.

Things have been going well that way.

Sticky beak

Queen palm nuts are very sticky.

Sweet Pixel

I think it's time for another Pixel update.

We just passed the 6 months mark of her being here.

I think I last reported that we needed to work on her "step-up". This is no longer really a problem, she now does it very well, even when just offered the finger without the verbal cue.

As well, her trust in me has really flourished. A few moments ago I had her lying in my hand on her back - she had kinda flopped there on her own. I was able to touch her all over, on the wings, the head, the stomach and the feet without her budging. She just let me do whatever I wanted. I would stop and she would continue to lie there, looking like she was ready to fall asleep.

I was able to kiss her belly without her trying to grab my face with her feet - something she used to do.

I'm not at that level yet with Joey (when I first got him I was kinda like his chew toy at time and although he's much MUCH better than he used to be and seems to want to get much closer to me, I'm still careful because I still occasionally end up on the end of a bite of his), let alone Zuri (he likes to do his thing and just with the head scratches, he can very suddenly decide he doesn't want it anymore, bite and fly away)...and wouldn't dare try it with Petey.

Pixel has definitively made lots of progress!

Hand kisses

Nemo loves to give kisses.

I'm currently sitting at the computer, doing some reading on some forums and Nemo is on my shoulder. I was leaning on elbow and my hand is about the height of Nemo and he starts kissing it, leaning in and making the noise. Every so often he would laugh a bit.

Funny bird.

Birds on the Rock order

For a while now I've heard a lot of good things from people who have bought flagstone perches from Birds on the Rock. I nearly bought some perches back when Avian Avenue had a Sidewalk Sale earlier this year (I believe it was in February) but I didn't because I had other purchases I wanted to make and tried to stay on a budget.

While Birds on the Rock didn't offer a discount on the flagstone perches at the last Sidewalk Sale, they did have a sale on these items during a Black Friday sale.

So I finally took the leap and purchased one perch per bird - I looked at the recommended sizes on the website and followed the advice and took 5 medium ones for the Pois and 1 small one for Piper.

After waiting a bit longer than I thought I would have, I finally received my package (this wait has nothing to do with the vendor - all post service and possibly the Holiday rush and extra load of mail..)

Here are my perches.



My opinion? Right now..I'm disappointed.

My biggest issue - perch #1. The biggest perch of them all. While I love the size and the shape is also rather nice, I do not like the fact that there is only one bolt and that it allows me to attach the perch to the cage by the thinnest end (as in point - the rock itself is pretty evenly thick) of the point of the triangle it's shaped in. While maybe there is other things I don't understand when it comes to drilling rock, I would have been much happier with two bolts on the side of the perch that is closer to perch #3 - or even any where else on the perch but at the thin point. While I did try it in one of the empty cages I have and it seemed solid, I am still reluctant to put it in a cage because I'm a bit concerned that over time, it might slide down. I now need to evaluate who will get this perch because if I do put it in a cage, I'll have to put it low (to clear my conscience) and not have to worry about a bird possibly getting hurt.

My second issue - the sizes. I do regret not going with a size up, specially for the Pois (the small one does seem quite fine for Piper). I understand that these are a natural product and that the only shaping done is done by Mother Nature, but I do find it disconcerting that there is so much size difference between between the perches of one size category. I believe perch #4 is the small one and to me, perch #3 is hardly any larger and perch #1 is almost twice the size...a bit more consistency, at least in my order, would have been nice.

Ultimately, what will really forge my opinion of the product will be what the birds will think and the usage they will make of the perches. If they end up loving them, then great. If not...well I'll put it in lessons learned. I don't know if it's because I came into this with high hopes based on what I've heard, but I don't feel like this has been the best purchase I've made. But again - we'll see how the birds take to them.

Post #200 for 2010!

2010 was definitively a prolific year for me posting on this blog. 2008 doesn't really count since I only started in November, but compared to the puny 59 posts in 2009, I did quite well this year!

Really, I started this blog and maintain it mostly to record anything special the birds are doing / any different behaviours, so I can come back and compare if I ever see those things happen again. It's also nice to record what I bought, favorite food/toys of theirs...

This year I've also gained quite a few extra followers. While I didn't intend to really write this for anyone else than myself, it's always a nice feeling to see that other people might find what I'm writing interesting. So thanks for anyone who decided to follow, whether it would be openly or not.

The year is not over, not sure how many more posts there will be until 2011 shows up and hopefully this will give me a challenge for next year - possibly try to blog more "daily" - there were definitively some months where I didn't post as much as I could!

Things for Wings Order

The Boy decided to put in an order earlier this month.

It arrived today.

He got toy parts - the balsa (balsa bibs), the yucca (Flakey Pastry Hunklettes), some leather lace and some Paulie rope. The pieces of pine were a freebie.



When I said "oh you chose red" when I saw the Paulie rope, his answer was "oh..I had a choice?". It now becomes apparent that he doesn't notice drop down menus as he got the balsa all in natural as well (which happens to be the first colour option on the balsa bibs page). In any case, I doubt it'll make a difference to the birds, whether it's coloured or not..

Oh..and Danita has put the customs toys I've ordered from her before on her website! You can now order your own Poi Garden or Petey Pants!

While we are on the topic of orders of things for the birds...back in November I ordered some Flagstone perches for my birds from Birds on the Rocks. The order apparently was shipped from the States on December 5th - which is perfectly fine given I ordered the perches during a sale and I know a number of people did so I can understand it having taken a few extra days to mail out. However...my order apparently made it to Mississauga on the 10th. It's now the 15th and guess where my package is? Still in Mississauga! Apparently today it's finally been released by Customs to be processed by Canada Post and I do hope it leaves Mississauga tomorrow and gets on it's way here. But my favorite part in all of this?? Apparently on the 7th it left the origin country (US) and it only arrived in Canada on the 10th - where was it for 3 days?? (assuming of course that when they mean "left" it doesn't mean "leaving"...)

From 6 to 8 - Day 4

Things were once again pretty uneventful today, due to the birds being under strict supervision.

I know if I let Zuri loose with Nemo or Itsy on one of the gyms, there would be trouble, so I'm not tempting fate.

Petey and Joey definitively act as if nothing has changed, Shade is getting nonchalant as well, so it Pixel. Piper is still trying to make sure he gets the most attention (being on me and getting his head scratched first isn't enough...on top of his own period of head scratches he needs to have it done as well if I dare scratch another bird's head.

I guess a routine is starting to settle.

On another note, it took me about three times as long to get home from work due to the snowstorm outside. 45 minutes instead of the usual 15....

From 6 to 8 - Day 3

Things went relatively well today.

Monday equals back to work and although their time out is more limited during the week-days, it still seemed to work out.

Putting them in the extra cage while the others are out makes me feel bad so I did take Nemo out with us in the living room in the morning, Itsy when we came back for work and Nemo once again in the evening after dinner. Of course, while one is out with the rest of the flock, the other is in the birdroom.

So far, the problematic one is Zuri. I have to keep either of the visiting birds on me (not on the Boy when Petey is out) since I can stop them from trying to lunch at any birds (which they haven't been trying) or to shield them, specially from Zuri. He's a bit too curious at times.

From 6 to 8 - Day 2

Today we proceeded with some introductions.

In the morning, I kept it to my usual flock, Nemo got the room and Itsy was in the bigger cage. However, to make up for her time in the cage, I took Itsy out for about an hour after breakfast (which apparently was the right call because she dove in her breakfast bowl when it was offered to her).

In the afternoon I took everyone out at once..well after getting my own flock settled. Itsy was in my lap and Nemo was with the Boy. Things were ok for the most part, but I did have to bring Itsy in once she started getting a bit antsy.

Later in the evening I proceeded to having my flock out with Itsy, Itsy being on me so I could keep her under close supervision. At one point I had her and Zuri in close proximity and were scratching both their heads...and eventually got a pretty sharp bite from Zuri on the tip of a finger. I think he wasn't too happy with having to stay where he was, forced there by the head scratch, because he was very very interested in Itsy once again.

Itsy later became a tad too restless so in her cage she went and out came Nemo (he was in his cage since Zuri had landed in his cage for the bite and insisting to go where he shouldn't). Nemo was very well behaved and so was Shade. In fact, I had both on me once again without any trouble..from them at least. Piper kept trying to scoot on one shoulder, having been on me for most of the day at this point, and was getting dangerously close to one of the Sennies beaks. I passed him on to the Boy and from there Piper went to eat more pellets.

Ironically, the two Red-bellieds who usually like to create a little mayhem were the most well behaved, Petey having tried to dive-bomb me on a few occasions during the day.

An early birdy Christmas present

The birds got an early Christmas gift!
It came from my parents who brought it over yesterday with Itsy and Nemo.
It's a climbing net which has four sides - 2 panels crossing in the middle.
It's from the same company that made my cube which Zuri is so found of.



I just hung it temporarily for the sake of taking the picture. The cube goes there. I'm not sure where I'll hang the net yet - probably will try to devise something in the bird room for it.

So what do I do will all those beads?..

...and other toy parts??

Foot toys of course!

Shade's behaviour

Although I don't want to set human sentiments on birds, it really seems like there is some jealousy going on. Most certainly with Shade. Why would I say that? Normally twice per year she gets a bit distant. I think this is normally when hormone kicks in and this generally always happen in late fall/early winter and in the spring. Instead of getting mean, she just gets a bit more independent and a bit more grouchy with the other birds. I've noticed over the last week or two that she's been getting in that "mood" - she doesn't want to cuddle as much and just does her thing. Having "competition" around has made things interesting. Just like yesterday, although she was perfectly content being on on her own, the moment Nemo showed up she had to show that she was #1 bird. She's been doing the same with Pixel lately as well - I normally take Shade first then move onto Pixel and when offering to Shade to spend time with me, she either doesn't come over or steps up, stays on my shoulder for 2 minutes and then flies off, at which point I go and get Pixel. But the moment I have Pixel on me, she wants to be there. I've had Pixel since June and while it was bit of an adjustment for Shade for the first week or so, that routine (Shade first, Pixel second) worked fine.

While a lot of birds get aggressive when hormones kick in, I just never saw this with Shade. Even now, it's not outright aggression anyways. At this point, it just seems like she's more insistent on letting all the other birds know she's "head bird" when it comes to me and she does this by insisting to be on me when others are and being rather possessive of my shoulder - not by showing any aggression to myself, quite the contrary, she cuddles as close to my head as she can and will.not.budge.

From 6 to 8 - Day 1...Part 2

Apparently I'm a liar.
I did say I wouldn't do any introductions yesterday, but I did, with Nemo.
My regular flock was behaving nicely, none of them, but Piper, wanted to be on me at the time, all busy playing with other things so I figured it was time to go check on Nemo who was in the big cage. And I felt bad for the little guy so I brought him with me thinking it would be ok, since I could manage him and Piper on me at once.

I was somewhat wrong.

The moment I showed up in the living room with him, Shade started showing interest, but not the good kind. Pixel also flew right to me...so I ended up with Piper on my head, Pixel on one shoulder, Shade on the other and Nemo in my lap. Of course, the two Senegals wanted to get at each other so I had to keep them separate with one hand. Piper tried crawling down to a shoulder so I had to keep him out of harms way. And, to make things even more interesting, Zuri decided that this was an appropriate time to get his head scratched...And extra pair or arms and hands would have been practical at this point. Luckily, Pixel quickly decided she had enough of this and flew back to a perch to eat some pellets. Which liberated a shoulder on which I put Nemo. Apparently both Senegals having their own shoulder made them more happy and they stopped, for the most part, trying to get to each other. Zuri, having got his quota of head scratches also went somewhere else to play. All I was left to contend with was Piper who didn't want to remain on the head...and absolutely wanted a shoulder, which was out of the question.

Now they are out again - my flock in the living room, now it's Nemo's turn in the birdroom and Itsy's turn in the big cage. I haven't tried with Itsy what I did with Nemo since Shade is currently claiming my shoulder and seeing how Itsy went after Nemo yesterday, I can only imagine that she'll do the same with Shade (she hasn't differentiated in the past) so I won't tempt it. I might just take her out for half an hour once all the others go in for breakfast for some one on one time.

Is this an indication of anything?

Joey just did something interesting.

I gave him a string of five beads. I like things that match so I normally string beads in some type of repeating fashion.

On this occasion, the string of beads was made of greed coloured beads, but there were light and darker beads. It went as follow:

light bead - dark bead - light bead - dark bead - light bead

Joey meticulously destroyed all the light beads in order, from one end to the other.
Only when they were all destroyed did he go for the darker green beads.

Why not go one by one? I did, in the past, give him a string of beads that were entirely different colours and he just destroyed them one by one, from one end to the other.

So why would he now go for one kind then the other?

From 6 to 8 - Day 1

So it has begun.

My mom dropped off Nemo and Itsy in the late afternoon, around 3pm. They went straight to their temporary cages, to give them some adjustment time. Around 4pm I let my guys out in the living room (so that they wouldn't be harassing the new ones in the birdroom) and Itsy and Nemo were doing what sounded like flock calling. I don't think it was so much for the birds as it was to get my attention. However, Zuri did respond..and tried going in the birdroom so eventually, as this is all he wanted, he went in but this meant in the cage.

I put my guys in around 5:30pm and decided to let Itsy and Nemo out in the living room with us for half an hour before dinner. I took Itsy out of the cage first and then moved on to Nemo. The moment I opened Nemo's cage door, Itsy, who was on my shoulder, bee-lined for him. While I knew they didn't get along, this was more animosity that I've ever seen coming from Itsy for Nemo and I've birdsat both of these guys before on a few occasions. I restrained her, took Nemo out and went to the living room. Itsy ended up on an atom for the first 10 minutes while I had Nemo on me. When the boy showed up, I handed him Nemo, took a few pictures of Itsy on the atom, then moved Nemo to a perch and took pictures before handing him back to the boy and I then took Itsy for a bit. They were reasonably well behaved, Itsy sticking to me and Nemo staying on the Boy.

We always prepare the cages for nightime -aka take out dinner food bowl, change the water bowls, change the papers, give some dry food if required - when the birds come out after dinner. We normally let them out progressively, as we move from cage to cage. In this instance, I wanted to keep Itsy and Nemo's cages for the end. I sent Shade and Zuri into the living room early on, as they behave well together with minimal supervision for a few minutes. This did not go well with Zuri who kept coming by the bird room, trying to approach Itsy. Based on what I have seen in the past, I was predicting it and the outcome was unsure - Zuri did at first show interest in Itsy but Itsy had wanted nothing to do with Zuri but attack and there were a few close calls in the past, which I wasn't keen on reliving. So for the moment being, I wanted to keep them separate, so back into the living room Zuri went.

At this moment, my flock in out in the living room with the Boy and I, Itsy in free in the birdroom and Nemo is in the extra large cage in my bedroom. I think I will, for the most part, be alternating between Nemo and Itsy who gets the birdroom and who gets the cage (each taking turns) and will reserve 30 minutes to an hour of one on one time with the Boy and I at one point in the day, while my guys are in. I will see how things go. I might try doing introductions, but if it's anything like in the past, Shade and Nemo will be on the outs for at least a week before settling in, Itsy will want to go after everyone and will only be happy if she's on me (not on the Boy - she does not like men), which will be problematic as Piper, Shade and Pixel do want to spend a fair amount of time on me as well and Zuri and Joey often come by for head scratches.

All in all, I don't feel like dealing with any type of fighting today so if I do do introductions, it will have to wait until tomorrow.

They are here!

Posting pictures right now, will post more about the day later on.

From 6 to 8..

Starting tomorrow..

My mom will be dropping off her two pois, Nemo (Shade's brother) and Itsy (possibly Zuri's older sister...assuming the breeder only had the one pair of Meyer's) for a few weeks while my parents go away for the Holidays.

I'll try to do like last year and have a collection of daily posts about how things are going around here, with the addition of two new birds.

New challenges?

-Well Itsy and Nemo seem to have only grown to hate each other more. Keeping them separate while insuring that they both also get some quality one on one time might be tricky;

-Shade and Pixel, although seemed to have calmed down a bit (should go knock on some wood), have started being a bit more open about not entirely liking each other. Not sure what throwing "new" birds in the mix will do;

-Itsy was not fond of Shade the last few time she was here (might be her not liking Senegals as Nemo is one..). She also wasn't very fond of the Meyer's but didn't seem to care too much about Joey. However, I'm not sure how Pixel will perceive this addition of another female bird here..

-Nemo and Shade always have a rough few first days together - hopefully this time it won't last as long and they'll get over the wanting to attack the other and just start ignoring each other faster.

Here are their temporary cages away from home:





I also have another larger cage in my bedroom in case anyone should need it (if I need to separate them a bit and a bird is already occupying the bird room).

Recent Rosie Toys order

Earlier this week I ordered a few things from "Les Jouets Rosie" since there is a 20% discount on everything but the cages and shipping.

The biggest part of my order consisted of more beads.Lots and lots of beads.



I also got two small toys. The small balsa one is for Piper. Trying it out, if he doesn't take to it I know I have some birds which will reduce it to toothpicks in less than 5 minutes. The other one is for Petey. He currently has one that is in a pretty sad shape as it is the toy that takes quite the beating when he's frustrated.



And now off to make more foot toys with all those beads..

You preen me....

...and I'll preen you!




And my favorite...

The last of the Sidewalk Sale Order

My wood shipment from Pet Products by Nature (PPBN).

Truthfully, I got it yesterday at the same time as the Things for Wings order as well as my Secret Santa package. That was quite unusual for me, receiving three packages at once (which I loved!)

Anyways, I had ordered 400 wood coins from PPBN - 200 willow coins and 200 cottonwood coins, as they are the favorite types of wood for my birds. The birds also love yucca/kiote, but I figured I'd go with something that took them a smidgen longer to destroy, as they go through yucca like a knife through butter.

Honestly...after having people tell me how 100 coins were a lot and how much space it would take, I was expecting a slightly larger-in-size shipment than I did. But it's all good - those 400 coins should last a bit!



I've said this before, but I held off ordering straight from Pet Products by Nature because the coins are sold in larger quantities and not knowing what my birds would and wouldn't like, I didn't want to have too much of something they did not like on my hands. When Things for Wings came along and started selling the PPBN wood in smaller quantities, I was happy and tried a few kinds. Knowing the favorites, it was just logical to go through PPBN. It was a pleasant shopping experience, however, it will probably be the first and last time I order through PPBN. Unfortunately, the owner has closed down the general retail website and will only be dealing with wholesales for personal reasons. So, I do recommend that you keep an eye on her website, as there should be a list of vendors which will be carrying PPBN wood available soon.

As for myself, I'll be going back to Things for Wings as long as Danita carries the PPBN wood!

T4W Sidewalk Sale order

I received my Things for Wings order I made during Avian Avenue's Sidewalk Sale last month.

This order was all custom toys. I went with the smaller amount, $10, since I was having 5 of them made and it all adds up.

I'm quite happy with the end results - for Joey, Shade, Zuri and Pixel I have wanted the same toy, only in a different colour scheme as they all like the same things and if toys end up too different, then I don't know who to give what. This is what their toys looked like.



For Petey I wanted something different as he doesn't like wood and chewables that you can destroy as much - he's more of a leather and plastic kind of bird, although he does enjoy paper so I asked for some of that. His toy is the following and I have to say I'm quite pleased with it as well



Yes Piper didn't get a custom toy. But he doesn't really play with the toys he's got and he also has containers full of them (he was my first bird after all and got plenty more than the others did in that first year). His favorite thing is to spend plenty of time on me and he gets to do that every day - that makes him happy. So I figured that this time, we could skip getting him something.

Secret Santa gifts!

I have participated at this year's Secret Santa gift exchange on Avian Avenue. Last year I did not and it seemed like much fun so I figured why not try it?

I received my package today. And I opened it - yeah Christmas is still far away, but if I wait for Christmas to give the birds the toys, where's the harm? In any case, most people who have received their packages have opened them as well (and some of these were in November).

Everything I got fit in a shoe box. No I didn't take a picture of the box as we all know what a shoe box looks like...

The contents, however, were fantastic - I am so happy and I'm sure I'll have some very happy birdies!







The gifts came from Oliver's Garden - the boing is a dead giveaway and I also checked the information provided by Canada Post online about my mail stub - it indicated the package originated in Chester, Nova Scotia, exactly where Oliver's Garden is located.

The toys are great, love the fact that I got a yellow boing and that block with multiple "leaves" is quite fantastic (so is everything else). I'll have a hard time deciding who gets what!

An Avian Organic baked goodie - The Flatbread Fusion

Yesterday I finally made the Flatbread Fusion (pomegranate flavour) I ordered from Avian Organics a while ago.

Not sure why I waited so long.

As with most Avian Organics products, it was quite a success. Shade, Zuri and Joey ate their pieces right away. Pixel picked at it, but she's never really been the one to eat much when out of the cage and it was a much bigger success when I offered it as an in cage treat. Even Piper and Petey, who take longest to warm up to new food, looked at it and, in Piper's case, picked at it a bit.

This is what the flatbread looked like when I took it out of the stove and let it cool down a bit.



Some pictures of Shade, Zuri and Joey enjoying their portion of flatbread.













Zuri liked it so much, he went through the crumbs left by Shade and Joey after having eaten his AND Petey's share.

I will now leave you with one last picture, one of my favorites.


What?! I don't look at you when you are eating!