Something is in the air.
The birds have been a tad weird this week. I do fear that heightened hormones season might be upon us...
For one, birds who normally were rather independent have all of a sudden become very needy - last night alone I had to share myself between 5 of them (which doesn't happen on a "regular" day as they all wanted their head scratched). But with this surge in attention demand also came some more aggression. Pixel and Zuri have been particularly bad with each other, alternating between who goes after who and this demands extra attention on my part. As well, Joey has been a bit more unpredictable and an unpredictable Joey is never a good thing.
Shade on the other hand is struggling between wanting to be around me and not - typically when hormones kick in for her, she becomes a bit more distant, but it seems that with all birds but Petey coming to me for extra attention, she has to continue to demand her share even if it doesn't look like she entirely wants to. It's a bit weird.
As for Piper, he's more needy than he usually is and he'll try to find ways to force me to scratch his head. While I don't mind doing it for a bit, I don't want to spend all my waking hours with the birds out doing this and it's a bit annoying.
Petey on the other hand is basically the same around me, which is that I constantly have to watch him while he's out, but he's been a bit more "difficult" with the Boy, specially when it comes time to go in his cage and not wanting to step up. A procedure that used to take a few minutes is now taking much longer.
Combine this with the fact that I am quite tired and looking forward to finally having some time off soon, I don't quite have patience right now to put up with the changes as I've done in the past. Luckily, vacation will come around the same time Léa is due home and that will help.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Monday, August 15, 2011
Two orders in one!
I received two orders today!
First, some goodies from Things for Wings.
I finally got some Cherries foot toys - ever since I saw these were available I wanted to get some but kept postponing my next order. These might have been bought more for me than the birds...
Slim Stacks in ocotillo and elm.
Super Slim Stack in willow as well as a Slim Stack in cottonwood.
Some pecan "swings" - gifted by Danita. Thinking of using skewers and create a swing that way with them.
These are new beads Danita received and I think the birds will really enjoy them. They are rather thick so any of the birds can easily snap then, they have ridges which they seem to love on the beehive beads I already have..they are also available uncoloured, but I couldn't resist the coloured ones!
The "Cantaloupe" - got this one to hang from one of the Wingdows.
Danita had shipped my order a few days later after I made it. She said there had been some "complications" - well below are pictures of the "complications". Léa received once more a few gifts, this time from a friend named Kacy and her Cape Mali. Mali and Léa, whilst from two different clutches, were born around the same time (Mali being 9 days older than Léa) and therefore Kacy and I did share quite a bit during these last three months, waiting on our little girls to wean.
The title does refer to two orders so on top of receiving that T4W order today, I also got some Avian Organics mini Truffles that I ordered. Doris also included some free broken up Cupid Cookies. Eh, I don't mind them not being whole as I do break them up when I give them out. The Cupid Cookies bag was all shiny plastic so here is a picture of the Truffles.
Finally, the picture of Joey on his orange Oliver's Garden swing that I posted a few days ago made it to the Oliver's Garden website. He does look pretty good on the swing!
First, some goodies from Things for Wings.
I finally got some Cherries foot toys - ever since I saw these were available I wanted to get some but kept postponing my next order. These might have been bought more for me than the birds...
Slim Stacks in ocotillo and elm.
Super Slim Stack in willow as well as a Slim Stack in cottonwood.
Some pecan "swings" - gifted by Danita. Thinking of using skewers and create a swing that way with them.
These are new beads Danita received and I think the birds will really enjoy them. They are rather thick so any of the birds can easily snap then, they have ridges which they seem to love on the beehive beads I already have..they are also available uncoloured, but I couldn't resist the coloured ones!
The "Cantaloupe" - got this one to hang from one of the Wingdows.
Danita had shipped my order a few days later after I made it. She said there had been some "complications" - well below are pictures of the "complications". Léa received once more a few gifts, this time from a friend named Kacy and her Cape Mali. Mali and Léa, whilst from two different clutches, were born around the same time (Mali being 9 days older than Léa) and therefore Kacy and I did share quite a bit during these last three months, waiting on our little girls to wean.
The title does refer to two orders so on top of receiving that T4W order today, I also got some Avian Organics mini Truffles that I ordered. Doris also included some free broken up Cupid Cookies. Eh, I don't mind them not being whole as I do break them up when I give them out. The Cupid Cookies bag was all shiny plastic so here is a picture of the Truffles.
Finally, the picture of Joey on his orange Oliver's Garden swing that I posted a few days ago made it to the Oliver's Garden website. He does look pretty good on the swing!
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Léa is 3 months old today!
I can't believe it - 3 months old already!
I remember visiting her when she was pulled out of the nest box as if it happened yesterday, but that was two months ago in June..
Léa's weight seems to have stabilized at 312g. She's still on two feedings a day, although this is more because her African Grey friends are still really eating twice a day - she gets offered food because she wants to partake in the activity but ends up not really eating the formula.
Here are a few pictures taken today that the breeder sent me.
I remember visiting her when she was pulled out of the nest box as if it happened yesterday, but that was two months ago in June..
Léa's weight seems to have stabilized at 312g. She's still on two feedings a day, although this is more because her African Grey friends are still really eating twice a day - she gets offered food because she wants to partake in the activity but ends up not really eating the formula.
Here are a few pictures taken today that the breeder sent me.
A Saturday evening
It was a surprise that I manged to get the two pictures above of Petey, since most of the time, as I was ready to take a picture, he would turn around and this would be what was caught..
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Oliver's Garden: A Review of sorts
Two days ago, I posted about an Oliver's Garden order I just received.
One of the pictures shared was this one.
The toys in the bottom left corner, the small pieces of branch that have been hollowed out and a bead inserted from both ends, well I gave one to Shade that same evening, when I was replenishing her foot toy bowl for the next day. And less than 24 hours later, when I came back from work yesterday, this is what I found at the bottom of her cage.
I think it's safe to say that she enjoyed the toy and it didn't take her long to figure it out. Still, it looked like it would be possible to put it back together and that's what I did. But the challenge was definitively lessened by the her previous work on the branch.
I offered the toy to her out of cage last evening so I could take pictures. She immediately took it from my hands and started working on it, taking mere seconds to remove the beads with the end result that I often put it back together..
Successful extraction of the bead
Of course, each time a bird shows as much interest in a toy as Shade did with this one, Zuri will also want to play with it. So when it became apparent that Shade had lost interest, I then gave the foot toy to Zuri who seemed to enjoy it quite a bit.
But lets get back to that first picture, the one from two days ago. When I looked at the bottom of Shade's cage yesterday, I also found a pile of very shredded natural wood. I couldn't quite figure out on the spot what the wood had been from, so I assumed it was from one of the toys in her cage. In her foot toy bowl, she also had some strings of beads and some natural wood coins (willow, cottonwood) which normally don't stay intact for a whole day but these were..so something else had obviously got her attention yesterday. It did hit me later on, what that pile of shredded wood was from. In the picture from two days ago, there are natural wood pieces in the upper left corner. These were given to me by Susan so I could try them out, as these are what go on the medium Chunky Monkey and this way I could see if my birds would like to upgrade from the small to medium. Well I gave one piece to Shade at the same time I gave her the other foot toy and that is what she destroyed very thoroughly. The Oliver's Garden pine won over her treasured natural wood coins. As well, I had given her the Chipping 101 toy and she's been working on that quite a bit!
So while all my birds do like their Oliver's Garden toys, Shade, as always, seems to LOVE them, that wood is really one of her favorite things!
One of the pictures shared was this one.
The toys in the bottom left corner, the small pieces of branch that have been hollowed out and a bead inserted from both ends, well I gave one to Shade that same evening, when I was replenishing her foot toy bowl for the next day. And less than 24 hours later, when I came back from work yesterday, this is what I found at the bottom of her cage.
I think it's safe to say that she enjoyed the toy and it didn't take her long to figure it out. Still, it looked like it would be possible to put it back together and that's what I did. But the challenge was definitively lessened by the her previous work on the branch.
I offered the toy to her out of cage last evening so I could take pictures. She immediately took it from my hands and started working on it, taking mere seconds to remove the beads with the end result that I often put it back together..
Successful extraction of the bead
Of course, each time a bird shows as much interest in a toy as Shade did with this one, Zuri will also want to play with it. So when it became apparent that Shade had lost interest, I then gave the foot toy to Zuri who seemed to enjoy it quite a bit.
But lets get back to that first picture, the one from two days ago. When I looked at the bottom of Shade's cage yesterday, I also found a pile of very shredded natural wood. I couldn't quite figure out on the spot what the wood had been from, so I assumed it was from one of the toys in her cage. In her foot toy bowl, she also had some strings of beads and some natural wood coins (willow, cottonwood) which normally don't stay intact for a whole day but these were..so something else had obviously got her attention yesterday. It did hit me later on, what that pile of shredded wood was from. In the picture from two days ago, there are natural wood pieces in the upper left corner. These were given to me by Susan so I could try them out, as these are what go on the medium Chunky Monkey and this way I could see if my birds would like to upgrade from the small to medium. Well I gave one piece to Shade at the same time I gave her the other foot toy and that is what she destroyed very thoroughly. The Oliver's Garden pine won over her treasured natural wood coins. As well, I had given her the Chipping 101 toy and she's been working on that quite a bit!
So while all my birds do like their Oliver's Garden toys, Shade, as always, seems to LOVE them, that wood is really one of her favorite things!
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
She's all beak!
..or so it's how she looks on this picture!
I had emailed the breeder about possibly getting some pictures on the day that Léa will be three months old (which is just a few days away) and she surprised me with this one as well!
I had emailed the breeder about possibly getting some pictures on the day that Léa will be three months old (which is just a few days away) and she surprised me with this one as well!
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
A few more Oliver's Garden goodies
A few weeks ago, Susan at Oliver's Garden was having a sale and since I had been eyeing a few items on the website for a bit, it was just an incentive to go on and order.
Amongst the few ordered things were two swings. Only Joey and Shade at this point didn't have their own Oliver's Garden swings. While Joey's was going to be straightforward as all the others, all I needed to do was chose a colour. I hesitated between orange (to match his belly) or green (to match the underside of his rump). Well having both an orange (Pixel's and Léa's) and green (Petey's) swing, I was able to try him out on them and the orange won. Shade's swing was going to be a bit more complicated - since she has a tendency to sometimes bring one of her back toes forward on her right foot (this stems from the leg injury she had as a baby), I wanted her 8" swing to be less wide to allow her to better perch on it with the toes in the proper alignment. I talked with Susan and she made it happen. I also wanted her swing in orange (as she looked pretty good on Pixel's).
I also got a few toys. Given Shade's love for Oliver's Garden pine in form of the Chunky Monkey toy, I wanted to try something different and see if I'd get the same result. The Chipping 101 toy seemed adequate and the pieces not too thick. I also liked the look of the Mackerel Snacker toy so I got one as well.
Because of what I've seen with the thicker Oliver's Garden toys I've got in the past and how they feel soft and probably easy to chew by all, I wanted to get some other thicker toys to put in a common area where the smaller Pois will be able to try chewing at them and where they'll also be within Léa's reach when she'll be here. I've been eyeing the shooting star toy for quite some time and I know the first thing to go will be the thinner wood pieces that are hanging and those will probably be chewed off by Shade as they remind me so much of the small Chunky Monkey blocks. The other toy is the Starfish. There is also one on the anchor swing I received for Léa in the last Oliver's Garden order I got.
Finally, I also ordered a soapbox perch for Piper (not yet on website), a few foot toys - Munchies (which I have more of (lower right corner), I just forgot to add them to the pile), some with no name (lower left corner, hollowed out branches with some beads inside, also not yet on website). I also got some coloured wood pieces, or Chippers (upper right corner) as they are known on the website and Susan included the natural medium Chunky Monkey pieces (upper left corner) so I can try them out with my birds and see how they enjoy them compared to the thinner pieces of the small Chunky Monkey.
I will add one last picture, which is of Joey on his swing. I showed it to him right as I was letting the birds out of their cages after dinner. He jumped on and was quite happy there. I took a few pictures and when we put the swing in his cage, we had to install it with Joey still on it, as he wasn't getting off. I really to think that orange was the right colour for him!
Amongst the few ordered things were two swings. Only Joey and Shade at this point didn't have their own Oliver's Garden swings. While Joey's was going to be straightforward as all the others, all I needed to do was chose a colour. I hesitated between orange (to match his belly) or green (to match the underside of his rump). Well having both an orange (Pixel's and Léa's) and green (Petey's) swing, I was able to try him out on them and the orange won. Shade's swing was going to be a bit more complicated - since she has a tendency to sometimes bring one of her back toes forward on her right foot (this stems from the leg injury she had as a baby), I wanted her 8" swing to be less wide to allow her to better perch on it with the toes in the proper alignment. I talked with Susan and she made it happen. I also wanted her swing in orange (as she looked pretty good on Pixel's).
I also got a few toys. Given Shade's love for Oliver's Garden pine in form of the Chunky Monkey toy, I wanted to try something different and see if I'd get the same result. The Chipping 101 toy seemed adequate and the pieces not too thick. I also liked the look of the Mackerel Snacker toy so I got one as well.
Because of what I've seen with the thicker Oliver's Garden toys I've got in the past and how they feel soft and probably easy to chew by all, I wanted to get some other thicker toys to put in a common area where the smaller Pois will be able to try chewing at them and where they'll also be within Léa's reach when she'll be here. I've been eyeing the shooting star toy for quite some time and I know the first thing to go will be the thinner wood pieces that are hanging and those will probably be chewed off by Shade as they remind me so much of the small Chunky Monkey blocks. The other toy is the Starfish. There is also one on the anchor swing I received for Léa in the last Oliver's Garden order I got.
Finally, I also ordered a soapbox perch for Piper (not yet on website), a few foot toys - Munchies (which I have more of (lower right corner), I just forgot to add them to the pile), some with no name (lower left corner, hollowed out branches with some beads inside, also not yet on website). I also got some coloured wood pieces, or Chippers (upper right corner) as they are known on the website and Susan included the natural medium Chunky Monkey pieces (upper left corner) so I can try them out with my birds and see how they enjoy them compared to the thinner pieces of the small Chunky Monkey.
I will add one last picture, which is of Joey on his swing. I showed it to him right as I was letting the birds out of their cages after dinner. He jumped on and was quite happy there. I took a few pictures and when we put the swing in his cage, we had to install it with Joey still on it, as he wasn't getting off. I really to think that orange was the right colour for him!
Monday, August 8, 2011
Quotes
This conversation happened just as I stepped into a different room for a few minutes, leaving the birds with the Boy but still within earshot.
The Boy (to Piper who was calling for me): "It's ok, she's not gone. She's in another tree"
Me: "Did you just tell him that I was in another tree?!?"
The Boy: "Well yes - that's the way Piper sees it!"
Some days I wonder who's the biggest bird-converted person in this household...
The Boy (to Piper who was calling for me): "It's ok, she's not gone. She's in another tree"
Me: "Did you just tell him that I was in another tree?!?"
The Boy: "Well yes - that's the way Piper sees it!"
Some days I wonder who's the biggest bird-converted person in this household...
The birds approve of Crystal's Bird Toys!
Back in June I received an order from Crystal's Bird Toys. I had put the toys away for a bit but decided to start giving some out yesterday.
Since the ones I purchased mostly had nuts on them, and a very generous portion of nuts, I figured taking one out at the time and putting it in a common area so it could be shared was the best course of action.
So yesterday I put on of the "Biscotti" toys on one of the Wingdows and Zuri, Pixel and Joey all gave it a try. Zuri and Pixel didn't show too much patience and would go from one nut to the other while Joey worked on one nut alone, one that hadn't previously been tried by the other two, and he actually got to eat an almond. The toy did manage to keep their attention for a long time, even Zuri and Pixel although they didn't get an immediate reward. While the almonds were the main focus, they all enjoyed playing with the seagrass (the knots were particularly enticing to Zuri and Joey), the wooden beads and even the crinkle paper that stuck out at places.
The Biscotti was hung alongside another toy, which is basically strips of leather with wooden stars, and all three birds ignored the star toy and spent their time there chewing on the Biscotti toy!
Zuri
Pixel
Attacking the toy from all angles.
Joey
At first when he noticed I wanted to take pictures, he had to turn away from the toy...
..but eventually he gave in anyways!
Since the ones I purchased mostly had nuts on them, and a very generous portion of nuts, I figured taking one out at the time and putting it in a common area so it could be shared was the best course of action.
So yesterday I put on of the "Biscotti" toys on one of the Wingdows and Zuri, Pixel and Joey all gave it a try. Zuri and Pixel didn't show too much patience and would go from one nut to the other while Joey worked on one nut alone, one that hadn't previously been tried by the other two, and he actually got to eat an almond. The toy did manage to keep their attention for a long time, even Zuri and Pixel although they didn't get an immediate reward. While the almonds were the main focus, they all enjoyed playing with the seagrass (the knots were particularly enticing to Zuri and Joey), the wooden beads and even the crinkle paper that stuck out at places.
The Biscotti was hung alongside another toy, which is basically strips of leather with wooden stars, and all three birds ignored the star toy and spent their time there chewing on the Biscotti toy!
Zuri
Pixel
Attacking the toy from all angles.
Joey
At first when he noticed I wanted to take pictures, he had to turn away from the toy...
..but eventually he gave in anyways!
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