2 years!

We've had Zuri for two years now.
The shy and nervous little bird that first came here has gained some self confidence...maybe a bit too much at times.

He's the most independent of my birds, relishing being in our company (by that I mean the humans and the rest of the bird flock), yet will happily play with toys instead of wanting to snuggle most of the time - and that ok.

Here he is in his "natural element" - playing.





He can be quite mischievous at times as well - enjoying chasing the other birds, not to harm them but just for the thrill to have them fly away. If one of them happens to stand their ground when he flies next to them, he looks puzzled for a second and then just goes away to find something else to do.



He's the youngest of my flock and will be turning 3 in May.

Peek-a-boo!

The boy wanted to play with a piece of video software and did this with a recent video I took...

Zou

An overlooked picture from a while ago..

Bird in a bowl

The Jolly Ball Guardian

Once upon a time

..this swing looked like this.



Sadly it doesn't anymore. The beads are long gone and the blocks have been chewed at here and there.

Destruction - A Piper post

I think this blog has been lacking posts about Piper recently.
So here is one full with pictures to make up for it.
These were taken nearly a year ago - I remember wanting to post them but I think the shear number of them made me push it aside then I forgot.

Oh and hot messy his beak (and chest) got just kills me.

















Then when all is done, one must clean himself.

An oldie of Zuri and I

Going through old pictures, I found the ones we took last year to commemorate Zuri living with us for a year. Since that anniversary is coming up very soon, I thought I'd share another picture from last year.

She heard me sneeze...

...and replied with "peek-a-boo".

And then started to make a whole lot of cute noises.

I just got up and haven't yet let the birds out. I guess I won't delay it anymore, they know I'm up, specially miss Pixel.

Oh and there we go, another "peek-a-boo"!

I think I would try to teach her "bless you". Could be cute. :)

I got my Shade back!

Shade had been still a little distant, even after Nemo and Itsy went back home which lead me to believe it was just this time of the year.

However, things have been coming around this week - she's much more like her old cuddly self once again. As of now, she's cuddled as close as she can to my head (sitting on my shoulder).

It's nice to have her back :)

More "Hi!"s

She said it again! Twice!

I just put them in and once Pixel's cage is covered and I move to the other side of the room (where Piper, Shade and Zuri are), her and I have started doing the "Peek-a-boo" game. She'll only start once her cage is covered. Well...she peppered the peek-a-boos with two "Hi!"s and two squeals that seemed to be of delight (they were definitively happy squeals).

A first "Hi!"

I meant to name this post only "Hi!" - but them I realized I already had such a post this month.

But since this a case of a first, why not bring that into play?

I was doing the birds water dishes tonight. Pixel's cage happens to be the closest to the door and as I am trying to get to her bowl from the outside (side door), she jumps on my shoulder. Fine, why not bring her into the bathroom (closest sink) as I empty, clean and fill the bowls with new water? She was all excited to be in a new room, so much so that for the first time, she utters a nice clear "Hi!".

Of course, being all happy about it, I try to get her to repeat it, saying a few "Hi!" myself. But no such luck. It was once and that is it.

Hopefully she'll keep saying it occasionally.

Kitchen = Woooo!

I might have mentioned in the past about how Pixel will fly to me if I happen to be in the kitchen (why that is, I don't know) and when she lands she goes "Wooooo!".

Cute thing.

Turns out it's not a victory cry for properly landing on me in the kitchen. I've done an experiment lately..I would go in the kitchen with her already on me. And, invariably from one time to the next, she would go "Woooo" even if no flight/landing was involved.

I guess being in the kitchen regardless of how she got there merits the "Woooo".

Oh and if anyone request a video of this, I doubt it will happen. She normally will always come to me if I happen to be in the kitchen and she's not. The other day I wanted to video her flight to me / "Woooo" by going in the kitchen and seeing what would happen. There's not getting any performance from her in front of a camera. She wouldn't budge.

The Cube

I've previously posted about the Cube.

It is definitively Zuri's gym. It's not that the others won't go on it - some have tried - but the moment Zuri sees them on it, he goes and chases them off. He also spends quite a bit of time each day on it as well.

I don't think I have any other gym structure which is claimed in this fashion.

Those little angels can be little devils too...

There's no hiding it. Parrots can be little devils too. After all, parrot ownership is often compared to being parents of very small children - 3 to 5 year old children.

Today, I can't say my guys have been particularly well behaved.

I started a cold, which means I feel less than up to dealing with their occasional shenanigans. And of course this happens to be a week when the Boy is away to some warmer location for work.

Since I'm alone, I feel bad about leaving them in their cages all day so I let them out. While this morning wasn't too bad and they behaved reasonably well (this could do with the fact that they were up a bit before their normal week wake-up time and were still a bit groggy), I can't say I had angels when I let them out once I was back home from work. Being sick I'd rather let them do their own things than having them crawl on me but Joey would have none of it..he actually got a bit mean so in his cage he went (after I repetitively put him somewhere else). This meant Petey went in his cage as well as he was in the birdroom and I will not have one bird in it's cage while another is out and I didn't feel like dealing with him in the living room (aka being on constant guard for his aerial attacks). Then Zuri kept on chasing Pixel who ended up close to Shade repetitively and then they both wanted to attack each other and while I kept separating them, they kept trying to get at each other, so in they all went - as I was tired of running around. Poor Piper didn't do anything but at that point I just felt like resting.

When I went in to bring their supper, I was met with silence - Joey particularly looked apologetic if such a thing exists within parrots. They calmly sat there waiting for their food and then ate it silently.

So far, the evening time out is going relatively well.

Diabolical

Just look at her face...

Millet is good!

Still going through old pictures and found this one of Pixel.
This was taken on her second day here, while I was trying to coax her to eat more with millet.

I had posted other pictures taken during that same "shoot", but never did this one.

It might have some not ideal lighting but I like it all the same.

Through the archives

As pointed out in previous posts, I've been going through my pictures archives.

I also happened to find these two pictures, which were taken by the Boy.

As some might remember, last Spring I almost came by a baby Red-bellied. Unfortunately, the whole clutch were of males. When we went to visit the Boy's parents in May, we also went and spent a few hours with the breeder who had those babies.

Here is a picture of the baby I hoped would be a female. He was named Sheldon.



And here is a picture of me holding one of the Brown head babies that were there at the time. Was I not set on getting a female Red-bellied, there was a good chance I would have put a deposit on the little thing.

The Green bowl

Petey has a green plastic bowl for his pellets. Did I say he loves pellets?

The Green bowl has also been the place where he moves his favorite foods.

Offered a Nutriberry in his breakfast bowl? Moved to the Green bowl for safekeeping until he decides to eat it.
Offered some dried papaya in his seed mix? To the Green bowl they are moved.

This morning, he was offered a piece of toast, a piece of apple and a Nutriberry. Of course the Nutriberry was moved. However...the piece of apple was also granted this special move. In fact, when I checked in later all that was left of the apple in the Green bowl was the skin.

More wet Joey

You have been warned!







These pictures were taken back in September of last year. I should get around to those recent (as in taken last week-end) wet bird pictures soon...

Peek-a-boo!

Pixel is a chatty one this morning!

Normally, she let's out her "peek-a-boo"s when she's in need of attention - as being in her cage or being in the birdroom while everyone else is in the living room. She also, as she did this morning, uses it with me (who starts varies from day to day) while her cage is still covered in the morning on the week-ends, and will keep saying it until she's uncovered (but normally waits for me to reply with a peek-a-boo before she lets out another). It's a fun game and I absolutely find her endearing during these moments and don't think I'll ever get tired of hearing her say peek-a-boo (it's too cute!)

Well, this morning she kept on saying it every so often even once she was out of her cage and in the living room with me and the other birds.

I really wouldn't mind if the others picked it up :)

Step up!

I often read from parrot owners that one of the first thing their bird says is "Step up". Obviously, this has a lot to do with the fact that we've been told that it's a good thing to have birds know the "Step up" command and since we repeat it quite a bit, it's only logical that if a bird decides to talk, it's one of the things it's sure to pick up.

And while none of my guys are "big" talkers (some by choice since I know Petey has quite the extended vocabulary but chooses to not use it), of the few words they do say, "Step up" doesn't seem to be in their repertoire.

Well, when I let them out of their cages this morning I am 99% certain that Pixel said "Step up" before I had a chance to as I offered her my finger to step up on. The "up" part was quite clear, the "step" part still needs a tiny bit of work to be clear to anyone overhearing but not seeing why it was said.

Hi!

Doesn't it just look like it's what he's thinking/saying?



A few posts ago, in fact on the last post featuring a wet Joey, I mentioned more wet bird pictures to come. By this I meant pictures of the other parrots, not just Joey. Got busy this week and haven't really had time to look at pictures. Then yesterday I looked through some of my older none-parrot related pictures and saw a few older pictures (including the picture of Piper in the previous post), most of these are of a wet Joey. I can't help it, he just has the funniest look when wet. So before I share recent wet parrot pictures of my other birds, I might have to put more of the ones I just found again, which means more Joey.

Abstract

Old picture. Going through my archives and finding a few gems I haven't posted yet.

Hi Petey!

Hi Petey!

HI Petey!

Hi!

Hi PETEY!

Hi PEEETY!

Hii PEETYYY!



I think someone wants out of his cage :)

Bird of prey

More wet parrot pictures coming soon, but I thought this one deserved it's own post.

When Pixel was still Stewie

These pictures were taken in November of 2006 (which means Pixel was two years old on these pictures) by a friend of mine. He frequently visited a few stores that existed back then in Ottawa, known as Super Pet (who were bought out by PetSmart a few years ago) with his camera. Pixel was sold as a baby to Super Pet and was there from 2004 to 2008. She was actually still at the store once it became a PetSmart and I did go visit her a few times in 2007-2008.




Pictures by Peter Jacques

On another note, I started 2011 thinking I would try to post one blog post a day..it didn't take long for me to fall of that wagon.

From 6 to 8 - Day 24

This should really be title "From 8 back to 6".

Earlier this evening I brought Nemo and Itsy back home.
They seemed quite happy to see my mother again. My parents do have a few birds and they were the first one back.

No more juggling for a little bit.

From 6 to 8 - Day 23

Day 23.
This should be the last night I have Itsy and Nemo, provided my parents flight leaves on time tomorrow.

I have to say, I am looking forward to downplaying the bird juggling (who goes where when) but it was interesting to have them around and it went much better than I first anticipated. Had I been able to have Zuri and Itsy out together, having gone from 6 to 8 birds wouldn't of been much of a difference, if you don't count on Shade's jealousy..

But time has flown by while they were here. Have a hard time believing it's been 23 days already.

From 6 to 8 - Days 17 to 22

6 days without any updates.

Things have continued to go reasonably well. Nemo has been coming into the living room with the rest of the flock more while Itsy had the birdroom to herself and would come out for an hour or so alone with us in the living room at some other time in the day.

Shade is occasionally giving me the stink eye though - I do believe she'll be happy when the visitors will be gone. I do keep offering her my shoulder first, but she just flies off to another place so I'll allow another bird to be on the shoulder - and that seems like it's too much for her. Tonight she looked particularly annoyed so after a little spat she had with Zuri, I just picked her up and put her down on my shoulder and she stayed. She even cuddled. Pixel kept trying to creep in but I kept her away and would scratch her head all the same.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!

I was going through old pictures this morning, trying to find one picture of Zuri's rump to show off his wonderful blue feathers and I stumbled upon this little gem.

It was taken back in 2009 by my boyfriend at a Parrot Club meeting where we discussed recipes and ways to present food to parrots. This swing was brought by another member, however Shade was the only bird present who was willing to model it. The idea for the swing came from an older issue of BirdTalk I believe.

I just love this picture!