Some may read the title and say "so what?"
I know, it's not necessarily a big deal, and for the most part, it wasn't. Sure, I knew I had to adapt the out of cage time schedule, given that I wouldn't have enough time in the mornings to let them all out, so we had to rely heavily on the evenings for that. Also, while having Petey out with Pixel and Joey when the Boy is there to keep an eye exclusively on him is not a problem, I wasn't comfortable doing so alone, especially given Pixel's new tendency to fly down to where Petey is, which could end badly quickly, so I knew Petey was going to get his own out time. None of this really bothered me.
The one element I was unsure of was Léa.
The last time we were "alone" for more than a few hours was a couple of years ago. She had just started a phase where she was rebelling and wanted nothing to do with stepping up for me, which makes the whole process of taking her out of her cage and putting her back rather difficult. At one point, very late at night, she flew down from the second floor to the main floor and crashed into a wall, ending up with the very end of her beak breaking off and bleeding a little. I can't say I enjoyed that time we had just her and I.
So how would it be this time around? I was a little hopeful that it would be better, as she has calmed down a lot over the last few months. She also now seems to prefer stepping on/off from me rather than the Boy if she has the option. Mind you, reaching out in her cage to offer her my arm to step out was making me a little nervous, as she can be cage territorial, but I'd have to give it a go.
In the end, it went really well. Really really well.
Gave the birds plenty of out time Saturday and Sunday, and while I was unsure of how my planned schedule for our time during work days was going to go down with the birds, Monday proved that it was ok with them and it just got easier as the week went by, even though I was battling a cold and had less and less energy as the week progressed.
The Boy normally gives them dinner, as when we eat at home, I'll be preparing our dinner at the same time. He warned me that some birds were trickier to give their bowl to, namely Joey, Petey and Léa. Joey can be easily tricked to get off his bowl holder to slide something in I found; if Petey was on his, then I needed to take him out with a perch. As for Léa, as the week progressed, it became easier and easier to put her food bowl in as she didn't attempt to stop me or interfere. She just sat on a perch, either waiting patiently or bashing a toy around, waiting for me to finish, which I can't complain about. She also stepped up nicely from her cage and was always very cooperative (as I've seen her behaved for the last few months) when it came time to go back in.
All in all, everything went nicely. However, I have to say that Petey was very happy to see the Boy return; while he did not try to attack me once during the week (it always feels like there is a truce when it is just him and I), there is no denying that the Boy is his person!
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