Up-close and personal

With Shade and Joey.

Shade


Joey

Petey pictures

Because it seems like I haven't posted any of these in a while...

A danglin' Senegal

Birdroom - The pictures

My dad came and helped me put hooks in the ceiling so I finally got some things up and my the birds' room is actually starting to look like a "birdroom".

It's not quite completed I think..for now it's more than ok, but I might want some more hooks in the future to put another dimension to things..right now, the gyms are mostly going around the room, maybe I'll be able to use the space in the middle better later on.

In any case, the birds seem to be enjoying it.

Pictures of course!

South and East walls (the curtain side is South - wall to wall windows!)


East wall - a bit depleted but I will probably hang more toys later on (Piper, Shade and Zuri's cage, as well as an empty cage are against this wall)


South and West walls


West wall (Petey, Joey and another empty cage against this wall)


North side (closet) - a bit depleted but I might add a chair or something on that side so I wouldn't want too many things overhead

Wide angle fun!

I took my wide angle lens (Sigma 10-20) in the bird room yesterday to take pictures of the stuff hanging from the ceiling. Unfortunately, 10mm is a tad too wide and I wasn't a fan of the distortion so I will have to take more pictures, probably tonight.

I also did try taking some wide angle pictures of the birds and although it wasn't an overwhelming success, some of them came out rather nicely and gave me a nice laugh.

Joey stretching


Zuri hanging out (which is my favorite picture out of the two)

Get-a-grip net

I wanted one of those nets for so long.
Then, when Birdbrains.com went out of business last spring and has incredible savings on whatever merchandise was left, I took the plunge and ordered a net.

Unfortunately, it was sitting in my storage closet neatly folded in the box it came in as I didn't have space to hang it.

However, my new bird room has more space and today my dad came to help me put hooks in the (concrete) ceilings and I finally was able to hang my net.

I love it and so do the birds. I was sure it would take them a bit of getting use to before they would actually go on it but to my surprise, all but one of them went on it almost right away.

Here are some pictures.

Joey was first and he seemed to enjoy it the most.







Piper didn't seem to mind it at all either.







Shade wasn't entirely impressed with it in the beginning but started moving around soon enough.



Finally, Zuri acted as if it was always there.

Time for a Petey update

She's been really good lately.
She is willing to share a play area with the other birds. Of course, they can't be too close, but it's the closest it's ever been without her chasing them.

Plus, tonight I got to scratch her head through the bars of her cage for a long time and she actually seem to enjoy it.

Crossing my fingers things continue this way with her. I'm so proud of her progress :)

Eggs!

It's no real secret that I would love to add a female Red-bellied parrot and a female Cape parrot to my flock. I've come to terms with the fact that I will have to wait for the female Cape parrot since the price tag is quite high ($2800 CAD) and I just can't justify that type of spending on a bird alone (plus the added cost of a cage, some more toys, vet check-up, extra food, etc, etc) while we are saving to buy a house in the next few years. Also, although we just moved to a bigger space, the bird room has the space for an extra cage like the ones I have my other Pois in (in fact, there is an empty cage like that sitting in there now), but that size is too small for a Cape and I don't have the space for the proper size cage. So yes, the Cape parrot will remain a "dream bird" for now.

But this is not the case for the female Red-bellied. I already have a cage for it. I have a lot of toys suited for that size bird so I wouldn't have to buy as many to begin with. The food would be the same as what I'm already buying. The initial cost of just the bird is considerably less than the Cape parrot ($500-$600 CAD from a breeder) and I can justify spending that much even though we are saving for a house. The only issue I had was finding a breeder. There use to be one in the area, in fact Joey originally came from that person, but for health reason, she stopped breeding. So I had to look elsewhere. Luckily, a friend of mine in Guelph told me about a women from her parrot club who does have a breeder pair. I contacted her this past summer and I have met her at the last Canadian Parrot Conference and have kept contact with her. Well, yesterday I got news that the pair is sitting on eggs! She doesn't know how many since she hasn't been able to take a peak yet, but I'm hoping for fertile eggs and crossing my fingers that if they are fertile, there is at least a female in the clutch.

This is all rather exciting :)

Toys!

I had made an order at "Les Jouets Rosie" (Rosie's toys) sometime last week but had to wait to have it shipped because of the change in address (because of the move). I got the box yesterday and I'm sure I was more excited about it than the birds were...

All the following items were on sale at the time.

First of all, an overview look. The basket toy below the Nutriberries packages is the same as the three further up still in some plastic. I took one out to show what they were really like.



The basket toy, sideview



The basket toy, inside view (yes I know I should have taken the label off)



The "Pirate"; I still have to figure out which bird will get it.



Bag of chewables..I didn't think it would be that big.



The size of the bag is partially due to the "big" much balls. I must admit, I thought they would be smaller. It was a nice surprise.



This is what is considered a small munch ball.



And finally, a bag of scraps of leather. All this leather for the low price of $0.99. I bought two bags.



Add two bags of Nutriberries (my guys love them), and that was the shipment.

From 5 to 7...to 9 - Day 25 (or Day 3)

Today was Nemo, Itsy, Nicky & Sydney's last day here.

25 days.

I brought them back at my parents' earlier this evening. They seemed a bit weary of going in their travel cages, as if wondering where they would be going now, but also seemed happy to see my parents.

I'm happy to be back to my normal flock.

It's 9:30 and they are out. They are usually never out this late. But I figured one exception wouldn't be too bad, specially since they had limited time out today. It's definitively different and somewhat more easy going. I know how they react with each other and there isn't as much exclusiveness with them.

This is it for now. I'm tired and I think we are all going to bed soon.

From 5 to 7...to 9 - Day 24 (or Day 2)

Yesterday.

During the week, I usually let the birds out between 30 minutes and an hour in the morning before work, then, when I come home, they come out for another hour, go in for supper, then come back in anywhere between 1 and 2 extra hours.

I'm quite thankful the for the "bird room" now that the Lovebirds are here as well. It allows me to let them out at the same time as the Pois without any risk of attacks. Piper is ok with the Pois since she generally sticks to me, but all three together..that means trouble. However, by letting them have one room to themselves, it took away the opportunity to put a Poi "away" if they got a little restless (Zuri going after Itsy or Itsy and Nemo going after each other). Thankfully, the Pois have been generally well behaved since the Lovebirds came in the portrait.

Back to yesterday, I let the Lovebirds out in the bird room alone while I was in the living room with my boyfriend and the Pois. I did the same thing when we got back home from work. Unfortunately, Piper seemed a bit attention deprived so I figured I'd take the Lovebirds with me out in the living room after supper while my boyfriend remained in the bird room with the Pois. The Lovies loved the extra attention and they were rather sweet..but I did feel slightly guilty leaving the boyfriend with more birds (Piper wanted me and the other two know me better). So I decided to put them back in after an hour.

Apparently, only Shade and Petey behaved perfectly well during that time in the bird room. My boyfriend had things to do so he put Petey in but since Shade did not give him any trouble, I took her out with me in the living room (while the others were put "to bed") to have some special one-on-one (no sharing). She seemed to enjoy it quite a bit and was terribly sweet (although she's normally very sweet). I don't tend to usually have a bird out and not the others, but I have to admit it did feel nice to have some time just with Shade.

Look up!

My own little cockatoo

My mom's cockatoos love anything with nuts and bolts; taking things apart is tremendously enjoyable for them. They have toys specifically designed for it.

The only thing my guys get that is remotely close to this is the plastic nuts and bolt foot toys. They never really seem to have shown any interest in these type of things otherwise. Well maybe not Joey who will play with anything he shouldn't..

While in the process of getting the bowls of old fresh foods out of the cages, my boyfriend noticed that Shade had a huge bolt in the bottom of her cage. We seriously wondered where it came from and then we found what it was holding up..It was part of the following foraging wheel.



I'm assuming wanting to get at her treats, instead of rotating the front portion of the wheel she somehow managed to unscrew it. Of course, the hidden almonds and Nutriberries were not to be found.

*The product is the Foraging Wheel by Creative Foraging Systems

From 5 to 7...to 9 - Day 23 (or Day 1)

Yes the numbers are up again.

My mother has spread her birds in different homes while she was away. After all, I don't know anyone who would take in 11 birds, 7 of them being relatively big. I got the Poicephalus.
She had given my contact information to the other people just in case something would happen. All thorough her time away, she would ask me if anyone had called, which they didn't.

Today I got a call.

Turns out the lady who was watching my parents' two Lovebirds had to go out of town on a family emergency. She would have to leave before my parents, who are coming back early next week, come and get the birds. Not sure of what to do she called me asking if I could take them or if she could bring them to someone else.

So for a day or two, I have 9 birds in a two bedroom apartment.

If anyone wonders how loud 3 Lovebirds can be, here is a video I took the last time I had Nicky and Sydney over.

From 5 to 7 - Days 20, 21 & 22

This is coming to an end.
My parents will be back next Monday. Not quite sure when Nemo and Itsy will leave, but it should be early next week.

Although it's been a rough beginning, things did settle.
The extra room did help as well; if one of them, most of the time either Nemo, Itsy or Zuri, would get too restless towards another bird they ended up in the bird room for a little independent play. It kept things going smoothly.

This has also showed me that my flock is somewhat receptive to new birds; Zuri was only going after Itsy, never Nemo, and she didn't chase Itsy all the time so if I am to add a Red-bellied and not another Meyer's, maybe she won't have any reaction at all. Shade stopped early on trying to get Nemo and she was always fine with any of my other birds. The others didn't really seem to have noticed that there were two new birds to deal with. Good experience overall.