Back to normal..maybe

Nemo went back to my parents this morning, which means things might get back to "normal".

Not that he was trouble, far from it (well at least the way I see it, the Boy might have a different opinion since he's the one who might get bit...but I really think he was the best behaved bird in this house these past two weeks) but it's nice to come back to a more "regular" schedule, which means that everyone is back in bed an hour earlier.

Now I did say maybe - putting Nemo aside, the others have been behaving a little wonky lately. I'm guessing it's partially hormones and partially feeding off our anxiety (because it seems I'm not the only one who's been feeling a little stretched thin lately). In a few weeks I'll have a few days off which, I hope, will provide much beneficial rest for everyone.

Petey and the blanket

No, I'm NOT sharing it, it's MINE!

Petey loves blankets and anything that is soft in which he can bury himself and he'll get quite obsessed about reaching it if he spots one in the room.

Last night he was allowed on the blanket..and was he ever happy!



Part of me wants to give him a cardboard box, since I'm sure he would be thrilled with one and, if the DNA test is right, I don't need to fear him getting egg-bound. On the other hand, he can already be quite a handful and I don't need to give him more reasons to be hormonal and territorial.

I guess we'll stick to letting him have occasional access to nest-like areas under strict supervision.

And maybe one day I'll just go ahead and give him a box and see what happens.

Weird birds

This afternoon has been a weird one.

I had Léa out and she was being a bit more bratty than her usual self. She's really full on in her testing phase and I'm afraid that due to a lot of things that have been happening lately, that my patience is limited and I'm exhausted and I think she's feeding into that. She's trying to push the boundaries with biting - mind you, nothing to break the skin and it's got me wondering if she's not trying to play a bit harder than she used to. In any case, she tried one time too many this afternoon and when she got my sternest "NO", she walked away and then came back and sweet and cuddly requesting head. 

As for the Littles, the Boy sent me this message while he was with them earlier - "They are very odd today."

There might be something in the air driving them that way, and, as I said, I'm feeling it as well.

The time I've booked off in December can't come soon enough....

Another proud moment

Again, in line with Léa's progress towards coming back to stepping up when requested by me in a more consistent fashion.

One thing that has eluded us these past few weeks has been stepping up from the floor - which generally I have found to be a situation where a bird who generally doesn't want to step up will more likely do so. In her case - no. She had a blast running and hopping away and it really very much looked like a game for her - would we follow or not? And if not, she would, after a while, do something naughty to make sure we did go after her.

Well a few minutes ago she flew to the floor. And not only did she step up on my hand without any issues, she asked to be stepped up by lifting one of her feet.

Made my day!

Someone wants to get closer

After Joey being ready to be closer to me, there's another bird who seems to want to move on that way as well.

Zuri - the bird who's always been a bit more independent than the others.

Over the last few days, he's been trying to get my attention, in good ways. Whether or not this will continue is still to be seen but it's nice to see he wants more one on one interaction than before. It might just be because his head is particularly pinny lately and Shade is doing a terrible job at grooming him (she'll do it for a few seconds and then insists that it's her turn) as most of the time when he gets close he presents his head to me as if to say "preen please?"

He's also been hanging out on the top of my head more and more as well, preening my hair in return.

All steps in the right direction.

Weird eating habits

Each member of my flock has some weird quirks when it comes to eating.

The latest one we discovered is how Léa chooses to eat her morning piece of toast. This was first noticed by the Boy, he then mentioned it and I then noticed as well...



See how thin that piece of toast is? When Léa is done with her morning toast, there are two pieces leftover of this particular width. Why? It's like she peels her toast and only eats the inside part. Which is quite weird, when you consider that all other birds in the flock, including Piper, will chose to reduce their portion to tiny crumbs.

I'm sure if the others noticed her doing this, they would think that she was one unusual bird (and would lament the waste!)

What if they are ready to move to the next step but not you?

I've been talking lately about how I've had a set back with Léa but I failed to mention another bird-human relationship in which I'm the one who's holding back a bit when it's apparent that the bird seems ready to move onto the next step.

The bird in question is Joey.

Our beginning was rather rough; in Joey's previous home, his previous owner, a man, gave him a lot of attention and I think at some point, that man's then wife might have resented Joey for it (going from what I've heard from some people). That tense relationship has played a role in why Joey was in need of a new home. While Joey didn't flat out hate women the way Petey does, he was always more comfortable with the Boy and other men when we first got him, while I got my fair share of bites and nips.

It seems that I got some emotional scarring from those bites and nips - I didn't resent Joey for them, after all he's a bird and those come with the territory - but as a result, I would handle him around with a perch and wouldn't allow him access to my shoulder, a thing that I only really allow with birds who I trust won't try to go after my earlobes or my face (which really means Piper, Shade, Pixel and occasionally Zuri depending on what mood he is).

While I had to restart gaining some of Léa's trust around stepping up, it dawned on me how ready Joey was to move on. He's much more predictable around my hands, when he asks for head scratches he no longer flips out like he used to when he started to abandon himself to it and he just enjoys the scratch for however longer I decide to give it to him. He also looks ready to do a perfect "step up" onto my finger but that is where I freeze - instead of focusing on the progress he's made and that things will go well, I remember the bites that led me to handle him with a perch instead.

This is something I will have to get over, and honestly, a bite is just a bite and if it comes down to him biting, so what? In fact, if I show any hesitation because all I can focus on is the bite that didn't yet happen, he'll most likely sense it and bite away. I need to get to the point of being confident, of not caring about the outcome and it'll probably go well.

I need to think about how wonderful it'll be to finally be able to hold him on my hand and have him happily perch there - and that should be plenty of motivation for me.

Some mornings, they are just crazy

It should really read "week-end mornings" as during the week they are brought out ridiculously early and all seem to be slowly waking up during that time - as a result, they are calm and quite pleasant to be around; they don't get into each other's space and they do their own thing.

Then there are mornings like today where they are totally the opposite.

I don't know if it's the combination of us changing the time and actually taking advantage of the "extra" hour to sleep, which means they got some extra sleeping time as well, the uncertain weather outside which generally means somewhat more crazy birds...but there was something this morning that made the Littles extra nuts.

They are generally let out of their cages in the following order - Shade, Zuri and Piper, followed by Joey and Pixel and finally Petey. This morning was no different except that the Red bellies didn't wait to be brought into the orange room as much as they just flew to it, forcing the Boy to run behind them while I was already in the room with the first trio. The Red bellied sudden appearance (they have a certain frantic aspect to their flight) got the others a little on edge and while Joey just flopped himself on the back of my chair (it didn't feel like a controlled and intended landing), Pixel aimed for Shade's spot (and probably Shade as well). Shade, always very smart and quick, got out of the way, and landed on the back of my chair, next to Joey. Generally Joey wouldn't mind, but this morning decided to do a warning snap in Shade's direction. Joey got moved to the computer desk and Shade to my shoulder.

Things were alright for about five minutes, but then Piper decided to get under my hand again which meant getting close to crazy Joey and that was far from being a great idea. Joey has been known to very suddenly jump on things when provoked and I felt that this morning he was in a mood to do just that. So I kept Piper away from him, which made Piper more antsy because he wasn't getting what he wanted and he just kept trying and trying.

Shade kept flying between me and the playstand on which Zuri was hanging out on. Generally this is not a problem, but Zuri was in a cranky mood so every time she landed remotely close to him, he would snap at her. Oddly enough, Shade didn't get the message and kept going back and forth.

According to the Boy, Petey was also quite antsy and hard to keep under control - which means it was just a matter of time before he launched into an aerial attack on me.

40 minutes of this brought the Boy and I on edge - and given that the risk of an accident seemed quite high, they all went back in their cages a little earlier than intended.

But it seems the crazy attitude wasn't only meant for them - since Léa came out all she has been doing is getting into trouble as well.

It's going to be a fun day...

Things are looking up

Back in October I posted about having a minor set back with Léa and her not wanting to step up anymore.

I've tried a few things to try and get her to start again, but knew that time would probably be the biggest factor..and it seems like patience was indeed the way to go.

Yesterday, she started stepping up my wrist when asked AND she even, for the first time in a long time, lifted her foot in front of me, her way of asking to be allowed to step up. She did follow the request by a nice uneventful "step up".

As well, for a while she was freaking out if I got too close to her cage and she assumed I was going to ask her to step up - now, she's back at acting rather normally (I should go knock on some wood) even if she won't exactly step up from inside yet. However, I didn't ask her to step up from her cage yesterday, I figured we would get her stepping out from outside more regularly before I attempt that again.

A minor set back - progress

So over the last few days I managed to get Léa to fly to my hand while holding it flat out and having an almond nestled in my palm. She became more and more confident with every try.

Today, when she was first let out with me, I immediately took an almond out and proceeded to do the same thing as before - and once again, she flew to my hand for that almond without much thought.

I then decided to try something else. I held my right index out, arm stretched  for her to land on. I called her name softly and remained otherwise very still. You could see she was conflicted - the finger is what she's been avoiding these past few days. I think I remained that way for five minutes (arm was getting quite heavy) when she finally decided to fly to me and land on the finger (my forearm was also a possibility). She seemed surprised with herself and also a little pleased. I was also very happy and praised her abundantly and also gave her an almond once I put her down on the table. While she took it...she had little interest in it.

Taking baby steps so I might only try this again when she comes out later tonight.

She also loves it when I sing to her so I indulged her and she just stood in front of me with her happy eyes while I did so.

A minor set back

Parrot ownership has it's up and downs and last week, I hit a bit of a "down" - and given I often post about the good, here's a post about the bad, although there are worse things.

Often I might think about how good things are going, and think about specifics, only to have a wrench thrown in - this is something like that.

I was thinking about how much progress Léa had made with her "step up" compared to her first few months here; there was no longer any hesitation, didn't always actually have to say the verbal cue...things were going really well.

Then earlier sometime last week, she got spooked by something (I'm not sure what, might have been something out of the window) and she started flying around the room we were in. She did something similar a few months ago and back then, to avoid her hurting herself (she was a little frantic), I stepped in to get her to stop and calm down. This resulted in her seeing me as the "bad thing" and for two days, she was "weird" around me. I had come to the conclusion that this might have been similar to the panic attacks I read that young Red bellies were prone to (and I had witnessed Joey having a few when we first got him) and that it was just best to wait for her to calm down on her own before intervening.

Except earlier this week I didn't do what I told myself I would do - which was to do nothing. She was trashing around the room, flying from one thing to the next, while screaming and although I did my best not to get into it, after 5 minutes of this, it was getting to be a little much. The Boy and I were offering our hands for her to land on, but she ignored them and eventually misjudged where she flew and ended up crashing feet first into a wall and falling to the ground. And then I did what I shouldn't have done - to make sure she was ok, to look her over and, I won't lie, to get her to stop, I picked her up.

Thus, I became the "bad thing" - I was associated with this panic attack in her mind although I had nothing to do with whatever spooked her in the first place and since then, having her step up onto my hand has been challenging.

The weird thing is, I could understand if she was afraid of me in general for some time. But it's not the case. She will come to me over the Boy (who can still get her to step up) for head scritches, and even cuddles. She'll hang around me, she'll even go on my shoulder, head or even forearm. But the moment I offer my hand for her to step up, she won't comply most of the time.

There has been a little progress though, yesterday she kept going to a place she wasn't supposed to and she would step up on my hand when offered; she did so a little gingerly, but she did do it and would stay on until I moved her to something else. I have found out that she's more inclined to comply when I just offer the hand without the verbal cue; the moment I say those two words, she backs away. I came to this conclusion earlier when I had actually managed to move her on my hand - I don't think she had realized what had happened and I had her step off until she realized. I also reward her when she does well with a verbal "good girl" praise or an almond.

I honestly think she's trying to be a little defiant. Unfortunately for her, I can be stubborn as well and, putting hurt feeling aside, I've started to ignore her, letting her come to me. A few days ago, she decided to have what I call a "temper tantrum" - similar to the panic attack in the sense that she'll fly and scream, but in appearance, something more controlled than when she's really spooked. The perfect example is that that day, she started flying and screaming but I kept doing whatever it was I was doing. She would stop, fly and land in front of me, look at me in a "you know I'm here" way - and start again. She did this two or three times that day before she had enough and came up to me for me to scratch her head.

So we ended up taking two steps back - it's ok. Ironically, I should enjoy the little break from her climbing all over my hands. I'm sure with a little work and, most importantly, some time, things will get back to what they once were - as her trust in me was not entirely destroyed - I doubt she would voluntarily spend time with me and let me scratch or even pay peek-a-boo (which involves me covering her head with my hands and she just stands there) otherwise.

I had also spoken with a friend of mine who also has a Cape when this first happened and she said that hers also went through a weird phase, having severe temper tantrums when she tried removing him for his cage. This lasted for two weeks and then everything went back to normal. Hearing this, and seeing the way Léa behaves, just reinforces my belief that Capes love to be dramatic.

As I said, it's just a minor set back.

264:365 - You shall not pass!

Joey can be rather protective of his cage, as I was brutally reminded a few days ago.

We were about to head out and were giving the bird cages one last look to make sure everyone was locked up when I made my "mistake". We had given them breakfast a few minutes prior and Joey had thrown his piece of toast to the ground. As I opened the cage, and started to retrieve it, he came out of nowhere and jumped on my hand, very much in attack mode. I got him off pretty quickly and, other for a small bite wound on my hand, everyone was fine.

Obviously, it was my mistake - and I should have known better. It's been a while since I've tried that, since I knew Joey could be that way in his cage. I even used to move him on a perch when we lived in the apartment when I had to put his food bowl through the front door since we had no space between cages to open the side doors - if I didn't move him that way, he would lunge for his bowl (or, more accurately, the hand which was holding said bowl). At least, there's never been an issue about getting him to step up on a perch from his cage and generally I can change toys without fearing  for my hands.

So why did I do what I did that day? I wasn't thinking obviously and thought I was going to be nice.

When the Boy entered to room to see me in my predicament, he asked me what I had done..and I explained. I think his exact words were "Oh no...you don't do that in Joey's cage!".

And I won't do that again for a long time!

Not regular Shade behaviour

This is not how she behaves normally.
This is what Shade does when hormones kick in. This is her form of "looking for trouble".

Granted, there are much worse things that she could do. So all I do when she gets this way is remove her and get back to my things. She only needed to be moved once last night so I really can't complain.

This is a much more usual Joey thing to do.

It's that time of year...

After living with parrots for close to 8 years now, you pick up on some things.

Like what the change of season does to maturing birds - and one of the "ugly" sides to living with parrots. (Ugly as in it can get difficult!)

Fall and Spring are the worse here - when hormones flare up, so does their attitude. Being mentally prepared for it helps, as having gone through the ropes a few times.

But somehow, this year it seems different. They all seem more on edge, if that's possible. Piper in particular seems to have a death wish, trying to go face to face with the bigger guys multiple times a day. I have actually found myself putting him in earlier from time to time, for his own safety. And given Fall has just started to show itself, I'm dreading what the next few weeks will hold in store for him. I am definitively longing for him to return to his little lovebug self, perfectly content to perch on my shoulder/head/hand for hours on time - because even that he can't do anymore. He'll run all over me, getting into precarious situations.

With the change in season normally comes molting time and Shade has a few new wing feathers growing in which makes her cranky. She's not as bad as others, but she's definitively not herself. And while she's in that mood she tends to want to perch away from me, which can make her an easier target for Pixel (extra vigilance required!)

Pixel..well she's trying to be opportunistic during these time. She's also a bit more bold which can get her into sticky spots such as trying to get too close to Petey who isn't really any different in all of this (he is also much older) but might try a few more attacks on me if he can. What can I say, he, like others, seems to get somewhat bolder.

Joey so far this year has been pretty ok, although we need to keep a close eye on him since he can be a bit more jumpy and unpredictable.

That leaves us with Zuri - and he seems to be doing the same as Joey. I think being in a "post-collar" mind frame, he might not act as brash as he once did, but who knows how it'll be down the road. He has, however, decided to be more noisy, and that high pitch screech is definitively not the most pleasant sound he's capable of.

Luckily, Léa is still quite young and doesn't seem to react the same way to season change, at least yet. Her time will come too, though.

While in the process of writing this, Pixel went in for trying to get close to Petey one to many times (which caused a general panic), Petey went in for trying to attack me (separate incident) and Piper went in for having flown right into Petey's face (after having tried a few more confrontations prior to it) when the Boy tried to get him to step-up to bring him to his cage. Sigh.

Sometimes you just have to be tricky

I've never hidden the fact that I do give my birds some seeds. However, their diet is not only comprised of seeds - there are plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits as well as sprouts and cooked grains and legumes. I always believed diversity was key.

I have had to convert a few of my birds to a better diet, some having joined the flock not knowing as much diversity or just being plain picky eater. It's always been a wonderful moment when you realize they are touching more and more of the food that is offered and it's even more elating when you realize they are barely touching the seeds anymore.

Lately, Léa has gone back to her picky ways, often only really wanting to eat the seed offered and that won't do. So we had to trick her into eating the other offered food. I'll admit that I've never really made the birds forage for their seeds - they have a small portion available at all times, just like they have TOPs pellets offered at all times. Yet, most of the flock will happily chow down the two fresh meals offered in a day (in the morning and in the evening). Léa wasn't doing this anymore so, as a fresh meal gets offered, the seeds are taken away. Since we've started doing this, she's been much better about eating the fresh food offered to her and has even started putting a little weight on! (Weight she could stand to gain.) At first she would let out a scream when we would enter the room after meal time was over for her seeds back. As time progressed, she's stopped doing that - she'll still indulge when the bowl is once again offered to her, but she doesn't seen as desperate as she once was. Funnily enough, the Boy always felt bad about taking the food away and would almost rush to give it back to her - while I kept saying she can wait. He was afraid of her starving but I doubt she would have gone down that path - and it seems I was right.

We'll keep this up as long as we have to. But I'm quite happy we found a relatively easy way to try and fix the problem.

Understanding your bird

I believe I have mentioned in the past how Shade transforms from the perfect little bird to a somewhat on edge being when new flight feathers (that are still known as blood feathers since the shafts are full of blood) grow in; they are very sensitive and she seems to feel it much more than any of my other guys. During that time, she might be prone to give a quick nip (still not a terrible bite by a long shot by comparison to the rest of the flock) and is much more moody (cuddles less, tends to want to do her own thing more). In fact, when I see the shift in behaviour, my first instinct now is to check her wings and bingo, those big blood feathers are always there. Another thing that I have noticed with her at that time is that her weight tends to dip a few grams. Not sure why, but it's been something I've observed for some time now.

Although I haven't had Léa for quite as long (it'll only have been for a year in a few short days!), I've started to notice patterns with her as well. Being still just a baby, she's hasn't yet shown me her full personality I'm sure. However, she does have her "cranky" moments and I've noticed these tend to happen with either a) like Shade, feathers grow in on her wings and make her uncomfortable, and b) when her beak is flaking and a particularly large chunk is about to fall off but is still *just* holding on.

This morning started well enough - I had a very very cuddly Cape on my hands. Eventually though, she started getting playful so I sent her on the atom in the room. All was good for some time - she even changed play stand - until she started flying back and forth between the play stand with the atom and the one on the opposite side of the room, screaming. Nothing had changed in the room that, to me, would have triggered her reaction. I looked outside and nothing there seemed different. It was nearly time to go in the cage anyway so I went to pick her up and she just kept flying back and fort, avoiding me, while screaming. I did manage to get a hold on her at one point and put her in her cage.

I gave her a few minutes to calm down but she was still angry and took it out on me with a few bites on my right index finger. Stronger bites than what she normally does when she plays (which are really more like nibbles) but still not full force (I bled a little, I'm sure she could have done MUCH more damage had she wanted to).

I was trying to figure out what would have made the switch in her head flip from playing calmly to going crazy; and what I think might have happened, she was chewing a large piece of wood (one of the branches of a Java stand) just before flipping out and I do wonder if a piece of it snagged on the piece of her beak that was chipping. In the past, touching a part of chipping beak did make her go nuts so I think it's the safest bet as to what might have occurred.

Unfortunately, as I had put myself in the middle of her flipping out session, I think somehow I got associated with the pain. I think, just like they tell you to let Red-bellied parrots have their freak out session when a panic attack takes over them and only pick them up when they have become calm so they don't associate you with whatever induced the period, I should have let her calm down before trying to intervene (to be honest, I did so because she was getting loud and it was early and I was concerned it would be heard by neighbours).

We had to go out for a few hours so I figured this would give her time to calm down. When we got home, I armed myself with a handful foot toys made of strung wooden beads and proceeded to go and see her. She was still a little standoffish so I presented the toys to her and her face immediately lit up and she stepped up quite readily, no longer with any intentions to chomp down. I brought her over to the orange room and let her play with her toys and she even wanted to cuddle after some time, so I *think* I managed to get back into her good graces - in fact, while she acted all sulky after being put back in her cage until I got her out with the foot toys, she's now (I did return her to the cage since) whistling her happy songs!

I think there's a few things I'll take out of this episode, but at least I've confirmed that I know how to bribe a difficult Léa!

Stubborn

Parrots in general can be stubborn.
Poicephalus are stubborn - mind you, I think it's part of their charm.

I also think I can be more stubborn then them, which is probably why I can deal with them.

Léa has lately developed a fascination with my living room curtains.
The cube hangs somewhat above me when I sit at the computer (a little off to the side so I don't get pooped on). The cube happens to be very close to the curtains.

Léa has taken lately to go on the cube and try to chew my curtains from there. She generally listens when I say a stern "No"..only to go back when she thinks I'm not watching.

Unfortunately for her, she's not the first to have this obsession. Zuri, Shade and Pixel have gone through this before. I have a somewhat oddly developed sixth sense to know when a bird is about to chew on the curtains from that play gym.

Today, she wouldn't stop. She kept going and going.

So I did something I don't think she expected.

I took the cube down (with her still standing on it).

For five minutes after that she kept flying to where the cube was and turning around. She seemed a bit puzzled as to what had just happened.

Eventually she stopped and moved onto something else. She was getting into "trouble" doing things she knows she's not supposed to do (as she would move the moment I saw her and was about to go and move her myself). There was almost an air of defiance in her eyes..but I didn't let that phase me and just proceeded to ignore her.

Well that wasn't fun anymore. She then started to stay put in places I did not want her - this time waiting for me to get her. It was all a game for her I'm sure, but all the attention she got was me telling her no, moving her and going back to ignoring her - not wanting to reinforce the behaviour.

It's only normal for her to push limits. While I can get annoyed, I can take some of it before I have enough and want to put her back in her cage...and she generally is aware of when she gets close to that threshold and changes her attitude and becomes all lovey dovey.

There is no denying she is very smart and stubborn. But I'm just more stubborn and won't let her get her way if it's something I don't agree with.

56:365

Piper has a tendency to barber his feathers a bit during the winter. I do use a humidifier and I do mist him for humidity, but I guess he still finds it a bit dry. Vet did rule out any other problems and he leaves his feathers alone the rest of the year.

Léa isn't the only one with a pinny head..

..Zuri's head is filled with pin feathers too, specially on his forehead.

Which means it's itchy. Which means he's constantly asking to have his head scratched.
Even Shade has taken to moving away when he approaches her with his head down. So he's been much more needy and somewhat affectionate towards me than he's ever been.

I'm happy to scratch his head from time to time, but every single time he comes out for as long as I can, as he does not get tired of it it seems, is a bit much. If I stop he just gets closer and will nudge my hand to continue. Moving him to another gym doesn't work either as he'll come right back.

At least he's not trying to snap randomly like he's done in the past.

Understanding time

Most of the time, my birds come out in one hour spurts - one hour in the morning, one hour after we get back from work and one hour after dinner. Sometimes, it can be up to one hour and a half, but specially since we had to split time between the littles and Léa, it's how it goes during the week.

Petey seems to have understood this concept of one hour and generally, when he feels like going for an attack (on me) he chooses to do so during the last 15 minutes of time out - it's unmistakable. It's like he knows that such an offence normally gets him a time out for 10 to 15 minutes, he might as well make his move then.

Léa seems to slowly have a grasp on time as well and the whole hour-out notion. Lately, she's been quite active and generally when she breaks rules too often, she can end up in her cage a little prematurely. She seems to have figured out a way around that - make mischief all she wants in the first half hour, start to calm down in the following 15 minutes and to be completely quiet and still, engrossed in beads or the like in the last 15 minutes, often making us forget that she's been out and possibly overlooking the time and therefore managing to get an extra 10 minute or so, until one of us realizes that it's her time to go back in her cage.

Smart birds.