Léa and her *new* foot toys

So Léa is a bit of a picky eater and I'm always worried she doesn't eat enough. Mind you, the way she acts/plays, it doesn't look like she's missing out on food, but I guess that it's just that I don't quite know her weight fluctuation enough to be entirely happy, on top of the fact that she should be gaining a bit of weight if I go from what I've heard of other Cape owners.

In any case, today I was talking about this with Doris of Avian Organics. A few years ago, she had hand raised three Greenwing Macaws and she passed on some advice that she had got from a vet back then. First, she confirmed that baby birds will not allow themselves to starve, which is something that I had in the back of my head but being a worrywart, apparently I kept pushing it back behind all the issues I had. She also mentioned that it was recommended to offer food instead of foot toys to get them used to what you are trying to offer them to eat. So I tried this in the afternoon - I took away her regular out-of-cage foot toys and offered some carrot sticks and broccoli instead.

At first, Léa just passed by the veggies and gave me a look as if to say "what gives?". Yes, unimpressed is what she was. But eventually she started to handle one of the carrot sticks. While she mostly just destroyed it to pieces (which is all I hoped for today), I do think she ingested some of it. She also proceeded to destroy the broccoli. The Boy had also held the broccoli in front of her, taking a bite to show what she was to do with it..but she had none of it. She took it from him and then just let it drop, looking straight into his face.

While I might not be able to fully take away all of her wooden foot toys, I might reduce the number I give her so that she will play and hopefully someday eat the veggies.

Here are some pictures from this afternoon.

Léa update

Léa has been here for 3 days now.

One thing is clear, she loves to play. I mean LOVES to play - she's destroyed quite a few toys. She also loves the Wingdow, it's one of her favorite hang out spots.

One thing she doesn't like is being in her cage away from us. Yesterday we were forced to start ignoring her calling for us, it's seeped into today as well and I expect it to last for a bit. I can understand, she's used to at least having other birds around and she has no direct bird company at the moment since she's in a different room and pretty much confined to that room. I've tried staying in the room with her in her cage, so she gets used to being in her cage but still sees me but all she does at that time is call to come out. So in her cage alone it is. I only go see her when it's been a lengthy period without a call out to us and have rewarded her with a few almonds. This ultimately is so that I'm not stuck with a bird who will scream when it comes out of it's cage and I don't want to spoil her now with more time out than she'll be able to have once I go back to work.

I think when she'll get to move to the birdroom things will be easier on her as she'll have the others to chat too - while the others aren't necessarily best friends with each other, I do think they appreciate the "company".

Other than that, things are still going pretty well. She's getting more confident and it's becoming clear that she will be a stubborn little thing - it's ok, I've dealt with that before. Weighing her is a challenge because she does NOT want to stay on the perch long enough for me to get a decent reading, but each time she flies away, I get her back until I'm happy.

Anyways, as I've said she likes to play and here are a few pictures, as well as a video, from yesterday.























The video is worth watching until the end - to see what Léa does when there are obstacles in her way..

Léa's car ride home

Léa in her travel cage on the way home Saturday.
I've cut down the video quite a bit - I had a few minutes worth of her playing with those foot toys.

Léa and her wood beads

Today I decided to take a few pictures of what Léa has been doing a lot over the last 24 hours, destroying wood beads!















And finally, my favorite of the bunch as she just seems to exude joy here..

Léa's first bath

I did start taking a video of her a little late in the game - but she truly did try to dunk her body in that water bowl at one point.

The first day with Léa

Today was the big day, finally got to get my Cape girl.

We left home around 9:30 and got to the breeder's shortly before noon. When we arrived, Léa was out in the play gyms and wasn't too thrilled about being plucked down from her spot. I did hold her for a bit but since we wanted to get home earlier rather than later, she quickly was put in the Kings Cage travel cage. I had put a few foot toys in one of the bowl, however I didn't expect her to really play with them. Turns out they were a success and they kept her busy for most of the car ride back home.

The car ride itself went well. Other than the occasional bump in the road which troubled Léa's stability a bit, all went smoothly. The breeder had given a few sprouts for the way home and Léa did eat some of them. But she spent most of the time either playing with the foot toys, which were mostly strung up beads, or requesting her head/cheeks rubbed. In fact, during the last half hour it's all she wanted.

Once home, I had her out of cage for a bit, offered a bit of formula, although she mostly made a mess than really eat it. I did put her in her cage early on, but I stayed in the room (my bedroom) to check out how she was in the cage before leaving her on her own. She ended up exploring, playing with a toy and drank quite a bit of water (which made me happy). Eventually, she decided that trying to take a bath in the small water bowl would be fun and managed to get the bottom of the cage more wet than she was.

She also tried out the large Wingdow (which was moved to give her something to do in that room) and she seemed curious about the world outside.

After having the regular flock out for a bit and when came time for diner, I did offer Léa the same as the other birds got for diner - Avian Organics Quick serve. She didn't seem too keen on it but was making hungry bird noises so I broke down and made her a bit more formula, since this was her first day away from the home she's known for the last two-three months. Again, she barely ate any but once it was offered, she stopped the hungry bird noise and just proceeded to play with some foot toys. In fact, I had brought her a small basket full of them and had them out of the cage while I was in there with her and she was happiest while sitting IN the basket, amongst the toys. She also did cuddle for a bit. I did look through some of the food offered in her cage and there was sign of some of it being eaten so that's a good sign..that and the fact that she's still pooping plenty.

We'll have to work on her "step up" command. However, she's been trying more and more to do so each time I requested it from her so I don't think it'll take much time to have done really well.

Here are some pictures of Léa taken when we got home.

On her Wingdow





On top of her temporary cage



Finally, after her "half bath"



My two favorite pictures..





I did take a few videos on the way home as well as one or two after we got here, but I'll be sharing those later on.

We're home!

All is ready..

..for Léa's arrival tomorrow.

The transport cage has been cleaned and the perches adjusted for her.
The quarantine cage has been scrubbed down and set-up as well.

Having realized I needed a sheet to cover Léa's cage at night as well as wanting something soft to put in the bottom of her carrier in case she has issues perching in there while we move, we went out and purchased the extra sheet as well as a regular towel to line the travel cage. The perches in that cage are relatively low so if she fell off, it wouldn't be from very high but I'm still happy to have something cushion her landing if she does.

Now all is left to do is wait...the car ride there will appear much longer than it actually is I'm sure.

A Petey story

Typically "Hi Petey!"s are reserved for the Boy. When he's not there and Petey's figured it out, he stops until he comes back.

Well tonight...it was a different story.

I was out with coworkers for a large portion of the evening and the Boy was home with the birds. When I came back home, they were still out of their cages. Petey flew to an atom the moment I came in and started saying "Hi Petey" and repeated this a few times. Since the Boy had been there all this time, they did seem directed at me.

It made my day!

Baby Cape Evolution

Although these pictures have all made it to the blog at one time or another, I thought it would be fun to use one of each day to show Léa's evolution from tiny naked baby to full grown three month old Cape.


May 30, 2011 - The very first picture I got (Lea's the one who's eye we see starting to open)


June 8, 2011


June 11, 2011 - My first visit with her


June 24, 2011


June 26, 2011 - with her younger Grey friends


July 3, 2011 - Second visit with her


July 14, 2011 - 2 months old and getting used to the Aviator harness.


July 23, 2011 - she flew for the first time that day! (This was her first landing spot too!)


August 5, 2011


August 14, 2011 - Officially 3 months old!

A few more days and she'll be here with us!

Video footage of Léa

This evening, the Boy was showing something on his phone to Joey and I caught him mentioning Léa. So I asked what about Léa..turns out he was showing Joey a video he took when we visited Léa back in early July.

So here are some of the videos he took that day.

Léa and I


Léa being fed by the breeder

She's ready!

I got the official word this morning that Léa is ready to come home!
Pick-up is scheduled for next week-end. In a week or so, my little Cape will be home!

On my side, things are pretty ready for her arrival, I just need to set up the quarantine cage but waiting until later this week as it takes a fair chunk of space and this way, it'll only be up for when it's actually needed.

Recent Crystal Bird Toys order and more presents for Miss Léa

Crystal recently had a sale going on. I believe it was 25% off everything.
Today, she hand delivered my order and there was a few surprises for Léa in it.

Firstly what I ordered.

The Scavenge


Beehive (minus plastic animal pieces)


Not sure of the name of this one - it's been discontinued.


Big Candy Pieces (balsa wrapped in paper)


Glo Stick


Crystal also included a free Animal Crackers foraging toy for Léa.


Now the other goodies that were sent for Léa. They were gifted by a Saroj and her flock, members of Avian Avenue.

Lullaby swing, gifted by Saroj.


Baby Bee, gifted from Jojo and Chickie (Caiques), Little Scooter and Jackson (Quakers), Big Scooter (Timneh African Grey) and Emily (Cockatiel).


Finally, the Leather Blooms, gifted by Rudy (Red-bellied parrot) who didn't want to share his toy giving credit with the other birds.


Thank you Saroj and flock! Thank you Crystal!