Juice monster

Shade has a sweet beak.

One of her favorite things is juice. Now most of the time we drink water here but once in a while we'll get a carton of juice.

Well this morning I felt like some orange juice and since we had some on hand, I poured myself a glass. Shade seeing this from the living room was getting a bit ansy and flew overhead before going back in the living room. The moment I stepped out of the kitchen though...she flew right at me and landed on my hand that was holding the glass of juice and started drinking out of it right away. She couldn't even wait for me to put the glass down on a more stable surface.

The others and juice? They don't care too much.

A little scare

Nothing bad, really!

Everyone, both humans and all six birds, were out in the living room.
I was sitting at the computer, quite concentrated in writing a reply on a parrot forum. Shade was quietly sitting on my shoulder, Petey was on an atom, Piper on my head..

Then I feel little feet on my own right foot. Somewhat startled I *might* have let out a small scream..I look down and poor Pixel who looks a bit puzzled (probably by the scream) is looking up at me. All she wanted to do was perch on my foot. I picked her up, scratched her head. But how she got to the ground so stealthily and managed to walk to my foot without me knowing, I'll never know...

What doesn't belong..

The Raspberry Massacre

The evidence.



The culprit - seen here eating Zuri's discarded raspberry.

Toy carnage

I've put some of the new toys in Shade, Zuri, Pixel and Joey's cages just before dinner. This is the destruction they've made within an hour - which includes time to eat!

Homemade toys!

I took a page of Coco's book (from Coco's Flock) and did some homemade toys that look a lot like some she makes for her Cape parrot Lola.

The base is in the form of a rolling pin, which I got from Things for Wings.

On the strands of poly rope, I have some pieces of cottonwood, yucca, willow and balsa, all from Things for Wings as well.

On top of the pieces of wood, I also added some wood beads, some from Les Jouets Rosie, some from California Bird Nerds.

I made 5 of them, since I had 5 rolling pin bases, and I'm quite pleased with the result.





I do have to say that playing with that poly rope isn't exactly pleasing on the hands, but it was well worth the effort.

After the full size toys, I decided to make a few foot toys, using some paper cord that I had also purchased a while ago at Things for Wings.

Meet Sam

No I did not get a new Senegal. This little big guy (he's much larger than Shade!) currently lives with my Mom who is fostering him temporarily. His previous owner had to rehome her two birds, Sam and an Alexandrine who's already found a home. As she couldn't keep them, my mom is fostering Sam until he finds a new home.

Sam is quite sweet. Although he had never met me before, when I first saw him yesterday he did step up and didn't try to bite. He was a bit nervous (wouldn't you be around strangers) but was very well behaved.

I got a few more pictures and I do hope that this little sweetie will find a great loving home.

New blog name!

I've been toying with the idea of changing the name of this blog for quite some time.
Today, I've done it!

When I started, I didn't know what to use and lacked somewhat originality so "It's a Poi World" it was.

But I find the new name a bit more fun - which is what I've always wanted.

So "Just Poifect!" it is!

Also, if anyone who links to my blog from theirs could please change the name of the link, I would greatly appreciate it.

More sprouting supplies on their way!

I just placed an order with mumm's sprouting seeds. Why? I have heard of a few people ordering there in the past and being pleased and after having once again visited the website, I figured it would be worth trying a few things, specially since there is free shipping to Canada with orders over $25 (free shipping to the States with orders over $50).

I got a few of the sprouting jars - at less than $2 per jar, they just seemed worth it and I like how they supply some netting to allow the jars to drain while upside down without emptying the content. While it is something that could be easily done by oneself, I can't be bothered to go out, find some jars, find some proper netting and the proper lid part.

I also ordered a few seeds, namely broccoli, green kale, kamut, mung beans and quinoa. While I was tempted by some of the peas and lentils, I do still have quite a bit of Avian Vitality mix from Avian Organics and will finish those packages before I order any more peas and lentils. The quantities I ordered of each varied.

I'm looking forward to receiving my order and am quite happy that the seeds are certified organic. While I don't always feed organic produce to my flock, I do try to obtain some things once in a while.

I will of course post again once the order comes in!

How to tire oneself out

For the birds that is.

You fly. Then you fly some more. And obviously that wasn't enough so you fly again. Be careful not to fly into the other 3-4 birds that are flying at the same time and keep going. Fly up, down, turn right, turn left, turn in a 180 degree angle and come back to where you started. Just keep flying.

15 to 20 minutes later, this will result in some very very tired birds who just plopped down wherever to take a nap.

Austin Air Update

I recently (as in yesterday) got a comment on a previous post of mine, about the Austin Air Purifier I purchased last month.

"Alright! So what does the poi and one lovebird flock think of the Austin Air now? Are they adapting? Do you notice less dust floating around in the environment too? You know I love my Austins!!"

They've adapted to seeing it there and don't seem to be concerned with it in their room anymore. It's now part of the decor.

Less dust floating? Well, there was never that much dust around, given that none of my guys really generate that much dust. While I didn't see that much difference in the air, I think it did take longer for a little dust to settle on the cages. According to the Boy, the air does feel cleaner.

All in all, I do feel like it was a good purchase but I'm sure it'll be even more handy when I'll have it in a bigger room. Right now, confined in the small-ish birdroom, it doesn't have to work too hard ;)

They have ants in their pants!

Figuratively of course!

They are quite an active bunch this morning. Definitively more active than they normally are early in the morning (we take them out from 6 to 7 am). On the constant move, bumping into each other, no real plan about where they are going and what they are going to do, it's....interesting. Specially since that involves oneself waking up faster to make sure nothing bad happens.

Naughty Lovebird

..going on curtains where he should not be perching.

Sunday Poi pictures!

These are from last Sunday.









And this is from today, since I was missing a picture of Joey. But Joey was hardly cooperating and sitting still long enough for a decent picture. However, this one ended up being rather funny...

Sunday Floofyhead

Let the Red-bellied shine!

The birds have been out most of the afternoon, more than they usually are, since I might be gone for a bit tomorrow.

Joey has just been relishing at this opportunity. He's having a blast without being obnoxious. He's laughing a lot, at what I don't know, but you can't help but to laugh with him. He's been "talking" a lot as well (even if it is incomprehensible babble).

He's been playing with what he's aloud to play with.

He's just been quite entertaining during this whole time! The Red-bellied clown qualities!

Something is in the air..

On top of Petey's attack, which he tried to repeat a few moments ago but was less successful, I do have the say the parrots have been acting a bit weird today.

Quite a bit more jumpy than the usual. A bit more prone to wanting to provoke one and other, which meant that supervision was even stricter than the usual.

They sometimes act this way when we have a stint of bad weather coming our way. It's suppose to rain all week-end (I heard someone mention 20mm of rain within the two days? Should check up on that..) and it'll be on the cooler side. Maybe that is why they are the way they are.

Who knows, maybe I have weather predicting birds here..

Petey attack

Today Petey took advantage of some general panic amongst the other birds (what it is was about I have no idea, they calmed down pretty early on) to launch an aerial attack on me. And because I heard a bird squeal to my right, I instinctively looked in that direction to see the cause of it, which meant I was a few seconds slow to raise up a pillow I have with me when I am at the computer to use as a shield on such occasions. And, according to the Boy, Petey was actually prepared for this reaction, slow or otherwise, as he was hovering above my head and went a bit higher as I raised the pillow as to avoid landing on it and probably to attack otherwise. All I know is that he landed on my head so down came the pillow to prevent him going to my face. I eventually got him off, without a bite I might add, and he huffed and puffed on his way to his cage.

While I do like that he has the freedom of flight and he does seem to enjoy it quite a bit, when the end result is this, I have to admit it is tempting to cut a few, at least to prevent him getting so much height at first. But, in the end, I can't bring myself to do it.

For the love of dance

You can read about quite a few parrots loving to dance.

Most of mine aren't too keen on it. Joey does enjoy it from time to time if I sing to him, but the true lover of dance in this household is Petey.

Mind you, he won't dance for just about anything and oddly enough the one song that will inevitably get him going is the theme to Inspector Gadget, specially if whistled by the Boy.

Back Play

..it's the Poi way!

Anonymous Meyer's Game - Who's Who?

Two pictures, two Meyer's. Who's who?

Shade & Piper's first play areas

I was browsing through old pictures when I spotted these.
Pictures of the first play areas, well before my birdroom, that I had for Shade and Piper. They had different play areas as they didn't live on the same floor at the time. These were at my parents' place and Shade and Piper never truly met until I moved out and these first efforts to create play structures were done with my mom.

These pictures were from 2007.

Here is Shade's play area, or rather the Senegals play area. Her cage is the one we can see a bit on the left and her brother's cage was on the right. And then there was the small connecting play area. It might not have been too big but given they both had bad handicaps and were still quite young at the time and figuring how to move about, it was pretty decent. Eventually the cages were upgraded to something bigger and toys were added to the structure above the cages.



Here is the "optional" Lovebird play area. The cages underneath belonged to my mom's two Lovebirds, Piper's cage was out of that frame. However, that was their "suggested" play area but let's be honest, the true play area extended to that whole floor and not just to what was above the cage. I think that really served more to give them different areas to look out the window than to do anything else. They roamed the kitchen when nothing was being cooked as well as the living room and sometimes even explored the upper floor where the bedrooms were.



Things have come a long way since then, but it was nice to be reminded how it started.

Mid-fluff

..and mid-grooming.

Poor Piper

Molting season is still on.
While the number of feathers that I find has diminished, Piper's head is a mess.
It doesn't look bad but it's full of pin feathers. And a lot of times with parrots you do see the pin feathers but not with him unless you move the grown feathers covering them.

He really wants people to scratch his head but, at the same time, if you accidentally hit on of those new feathers he twitches.

I find it easier to deal with the other guys' pin feathers as they are bigger and easier to handle when it comes time to taking off the dead skin without going down to the part that is still growing. With Piper, it's currently those very tiny feathers at the very top of his head that are growing in.

Can't wait for him for that growth to be over for a little while.

Tired bird

Didn't know what to post today and I didn't want to fall too behind in keeping up with having as many posts as there are days in a month.

Then I found this picture. And it's just fitting. Seeing how we once again had a sleep deprived night due to yet another false fire alarm...

Once upon a time..

..he would let me hold him.



Now he'll happily chomp down on my hand if I offer it to him to step up.
Mind you, he does allow me occasionally to scratch his head through his cage bars.

Avian Organic's 5th Anniversary Sale loot!

From March 25th to April 3rd Avian Organics held their 5th Anniversary sale. That was 10 days were you had great items on sale and shipping was a very low $5 flat rate!

Of course, I couldn't pass, specially given that incredible flat rate for shipping!
What did I get?



Mango Medley & Bolivian Bliss

Now from memory I couldn't remember ever ordering the Mango Medley so I thought why not now? The Bolivian Bliss I had ordered before and it's well liked and since I was starting to run low, it was only logical to add it to my cart.



The breads - Flatbread Fusions (Pomegranate flavoured) and Bird Bannock.
Two favorites here. Again, just plain logical to stock up!



Now part of the sale was that if you ordered 5 different items, you could get a 6th one free! Of course, it wasn't hard to select 5 items. I wanted to try this new product, Aztec Crunch, which is basically spicy almonds. Why are there two bags? Well I wanted to get it for the birds but since I knew The Boy would want to try them as well, let alone eat a whole bag if I let him, I figured I would get the extra bag as my freebie. I have opened the bag a little earlier and every bird had ate one, including Piper and barely any crumbs were left.

Finally, during the 5 first days of the sale there was a draw at the end of the day. It wasn't announced what the winner would get. When it came to putting in my order, I tried to be strategic. I didn't do it on the first day because it was the first day and a lot of people just jumped ahead and proceeded with orders (kept track of it on Avian Avenue). I didn't do it the following day, a Saturday, since a reminder about the sale was posted and there was, once again, a lot of interest and people seemingly putting orders in. The following day appeared to be quiet so that's when I placed mine. I could have done it the day after as well but I wanted to avoid the last day since I figured a lot of last minute shoppers would be putting their orders in.

And guess what? I'm usually very very unlucky at draws like these but...I won!! I was the winner of Day 3 of the draws! So happy! My prize? Well look below.

A year ago today..

I posted about a baby Red-bellied parrot.

These were the days pre-Pixel, where I was anxiously trying to find a female Red-bellied parrot. I had gone the road of trying to find adult birds in need of a new home but I was unsuccessful. Well that is not entirely true - I did find one that I got to visit, but her plumage looked really dodgy and she wasn't particularly nice and would require a lot of socialization. Out of fear that she might have some type of disease and not wanting to risk the health of my flock (I could do a partial quarantine as I did with Pixel but ultimately, flock and new bird would share the same air) I passed. On top of things, her owner was selling her because she had started to pluck and I didn't want, at that point and time, to have to deal with that level of work. After all, I did have a few birds that already required some time, extra attention and needed to have some behaviours modified, adding that little Red-bellied might have put me out of my depth at the time.

Then there was another one I heard of who's owner wanted to find a new home for but eventually decided to keep her. And there was one a few hours away that had belong to some type of zoo and I just didn't bother.

So I turned the breeder route. With the help of a friend who've I met first on a parrot forum and later in person, I did find a breeder. She was a few hours away but had a pair of Red-bellied parrots who had successfully bred in the past. So it became a waiting game. Eventually the pair had a clutch of three babies, one had gotten injured by the dad, the other two had gone to a local pet store (local to her city of course) with the promise that if a baby girl turned up, the breeder would get it back and would sell it directly to me. Alas, both turned out to be males so my hopes lay with the little injured one. But he also turned out to be a male so I resigned to wait for the next clutch.

That is, until Pixel came up. I've posted her and mine's story before. Coincidence? Faith? I don't know but in June I finally got my female Red-bellied parrot. The irony in all of this? Shortly after Pixel came home, I was offered another female Red-bellied parrot. For the longest time, nothing then two in a matter of two months or so.

Out of all of my guys, only two (Piper and Shade) I got from a breeder. Seeing how Cape parrots are rare and that I'm also set on getting a female, the likeliness of me getting one in need of a new home are rather slim. I've already got in touch with a breeder, but chances are her pair won't have any babies for a while (settling in) and that is ok. Maybe, just maybe, I'll come across one in need like I did with Pixel.

I guess only time will tell.

What happened to the EH skewers?

Back in February I bought two used stainless steel Expandable Habitat skewers and, back then, was't too sure about what to do with them.

Then I went through my stash of wood pieces and found some Mother Pluckin' blocks and slats I had purchased the first time I put an order through MPBT and which, in time, I realized where slightly large for my guys and didn't really spark their interest.

So I took them out and started stringing them on the skewers and here is the end result.



What am I doing with them now? Well...they have been put in my larger empty cage for the moment and they seem quite at home there! After all, in the eventuality that I do one day get a Cape parrot, I don't think these would be too large for it's beak...

The pixelated one