Your thumb..

..is my chew toy!



Seriously though, Léa has made lots of progress in understanding how much pressure she can give out with that huge beak of hers. She's much gentler with our hands which makes me very happy.

As well, she's making lots of progress with tolerating being on her back in my hands. The pictures above really show her using my thumb to stabilize herself (and not really putting much pressure on the finger), given I was only holding her with one hand (the left one no less as my right one was busy holding up the camera).

I generally hold her that way with both hands as support and she sometimes will let me give some kisses on her belly.

So much progress!

One month!

It's been one month, day for day, since Léa came home.

Somehow, it went by fast yet, doesn't feel like it's been a month. It's weird.

We are progressing with her introduction to the flock, albeit it being at a slow pace. She's in the same room as the other birds but so far, time out of the cage is still done separate - either she's in a different room with the Boy or I while the other is with the rest of the flock (which is normally in the morning and the first hour after we get back from work) or she waits in her cage while the others come out and later on she comes out while the others go in (which is generally the after diner routine during the week).

She's gotten more assertive, is definitively more comfortable with her surroundings and with the Boy and I. She is starting to test boundaries but is being taught what she can and cannot do. She's picking stuff up pretty quickly.

She's started to put on weight as well, since her arrival, she's been up by about 10g. It was a slow progression but that is fine. We are now constantly slightly above the 300g mark which is good.

I think she's growing attached to us - in the morning, when she's out with the Boy and I go say hi after putting the others back in their cage she always seems happy to see me. In the afternoon, while out alone with me she often "throws" herself in my arms for cuddle sessions. She's also quite obsessed with being on the Boy when he does the dishes in the evening, that seems to be their thing. She wants to be with us, it's cute. Yet, she's still quite capable of entertaining herself with toys when she needs to.

I've also slowly been introducing her to laying on her back in my hand and we are making progress on that front. I'm also getting her used to me manipulating her all over, including lifting her wings and holding them up, something birds don't seem all that comfortable with. She's using her beak a lot to test things, but she's good about how much pressure she applies (after I did a lot of "gentle" sessions with her).

All in all, I'm quite happy with her progression!

\
Such a silly face!


Beautiful!

Petey observations

For a little over a week now I've been alone with the birds since the Boy is away on a business trip.

It has happened before and it's always interesting to see how Petey will act, since he really truly loves him and not me.

In the past, he wouldn't really act any differently towards me, still looking for opportunities to attack when he could, with the result that I would take him out of his cage but leave him most of the time in the birdroom where he could hang out. As well, he would give his usual "Hi Petey" greeting when I came home for the first two days or so and then clam up until the Boy would return.

This time, things have appeared to be different.

This time, he's much MUCH nicer towards me. No aerial dive bombs, greetings have continued uninterrupted and when left in the room alone while I carry the others out, he will flock call until I go and get him. He WANTS to be out with us - and he behaves too. The few times he has flown since the Boy left, it was either to exercise with no intent on landing on me OR he has flown from the atom I normally put him on to the couch in an attempt, I believe, to be closer. I don't like leaving him on the couch since Zuri will chase anyone who's there, but when I pick him up, I do talk to him and make him bounce on the perch (which he LOVES) and he'll bob his head and dance.

In the past, while I normally didn't have any issues with having him step up onto a perch, it was always a battle to have him step off - now, he does so without any issue. When I would put food in his cage in the past, he would immediately lunge for the feeder door so I had to be very quick. Now, he'll let me do so without any interruption and once the bowl is in, he'll go check what's in it.

Yes, I've been pleasantly surprised and yes, I really REALLY hope this continues when the Boy will be back. As I've said, he doesn't need to like me, but if he could be neutral and not attack, it would be good. And this seems like a very good step in that direction.

One year ago...

One year ago, I met Pixel for the first time with the intent of actually bringing her home. Yes, I had met her previously in that pet store, but a year ago today, I went to visit her in "first" home.

She was curious, stepped up willingly. Spent some time on me before going back on one of the perches in that room.

Part of me wanted to bring her home that day but I knew a vet visit was required first. Vet visit that wouldn't happen until a little later in June. But that went well and home she came.

Hard to believe it's already been a year!

Fussy Meyer's learning to play!!

Petey isn't much of a lover of toys.

Sure, since I got him, he started playing a bit with things offered. He's more keen on things that are somewhat mechanical, but it doesn't last long. He likes to bash toys, but again, it's a temporary thing.

He's not much of a chewer. For years, I've offered wooden toys and nothing.

He even got his own custom T4W toy, which was mostly paper cups (he likes to shred paper) and leather and plastics and a tiny bit of wood. Not too long ago, I noticed he started chewing on the wood - not that I saw him do so, but there were little chunks missing.

But now, just now, he was on one of the atoms and we saw him chewing on a MPBT Avian Mini Maze Muncher toy! The same toy that he's been close to for a few months now and never even acknowledged it, now he was actually CHEWING!

So proud of him!

Waiting on the eggs to hatch

The Cape eggs should start hatching any day now.

The first one could be later today, could be tomorrow, could be Friday. It all depends on when the hen started brooding. The breeder did say that she normally waits on the second egg to be laid, and this happened on April 16th (first egg was April 13th, the third April 19th or 20th). The incubation period is 28 days so if we consider that she started brooding on the 16th, that brings the hatching date to May 12th-13th. Given that the first egg hatches normally two days before the second, then May 11th-12th seems to be it.

And although they won't look anything like this for a little while, here's a picture the breeder sent me of a baby from a former clutch. I find it adorable and love the wee little tail!

Sweet Pixel

I think it's time for another Pixel update.

We just passed the 6 months mark of her being here.

I think I last reported that we needed to work on her "step-up". This is no longer really a problem, she now does it very well, even when just offered the finger without the verbal cue.

As well, her trust in me has really flourished. A few moments ago I had her lying in my hand on her back - she had kinda flopped there on her own. I was able to touch her all over, on the wings, the head, the stomach and the feet without her budging. She just let me do whatever I wanted. I would stop and she would continue to lie there, looking like she was ready to fall asleep.

I was able to kiss her belly without her trying to grab my face with her feet - something she used to do.

I'm not at that level yet with Joey (when I first got him I was kinda like his chew toy at time and although he's much MUCH better than he used to be and seems to want to get much closer to me, I'm still careful because I still occasionally end up on the end of a bite of his), let alone Zuri (he likes to do his thing and just with the head scratches, he can very suddenly decide he doesn't want it anymore, bite and fly away)...and wouldn't dare try it with Petey.

Pixel has definitively made lots of progress!

Zoom zoom zoom!

Today I get to spend my day with the birds, since it's a government holiday.

So, unlike most other week days, they are out of the cages and hanging out with us in the middle of the afternoon.

How are they choosing to spend their time right now? Zooming around the apartment, flying from one play gym to another (and occasionally landing some places they shouldn't (on curtains or on top of the fridge or even on top of the cupboard in the kitchen - which in itself is quite a feat since there's barely no landing space..)).

It's amusing seeing them fly, even little Pixel who doesn't quite have all her flight feathers in but who is still making some progress.

A wood chipper's got to chip...

...what a wood chipper's got to chip!

It's quite nice to see her play so much - when I first got her she wouldn't really touch any toys.

There is still hope

When Pixel first arrived here, she seemed ok with all the birds but one.

Shade.

Shade didn't do anything to her. In fact, Shade is pretty easy going with all the birds here.

So where could this come from?

Of course, like with humans, not all birds will necessarily get along and this might just stem from a personality difference.

However, I do believe there might have been other reason(s), the biggest being competition in Pixel's eye for my attention. Shade is undeniably more my bird than she is my boyfriend's bird. Pixel, as of now, is still weary of my boyfriend (it's getting better). Pixel was particularly "aggressive" towards Shade when Shade would be on me or around me and she wanted the attention as well. But some of these display of aggression also occurred on play stands. When she acted out towards Shade, she got some time out in the bird room (as these always happened when everyone was out in the living room area) for a few minutes and then I would bring her back and put her on a stand further away from me and I would spend more time with Shade (as she has shown to be a bit jealous I believe).

This was definitively more pronounced earlier on. Although I don't believe these two will never be the best of friends, they do seem to have made some progress. Here's a picture of them hanging out in close proximity on the same stand. They were like this for quite some time and it only ended when Shade moved on to get some food elsewhere. There is definitively hope that they will at least learn to stand each other.

The importance of getting your bird well socialized and used to different settings

My boyfriend and I were gone for a week to visit some parts of British Columbia and of course, the birds had to be watched over. This trip also happened to be the longest time I was going to be away from them, if you don't consider my parents watching over Piper while I was off to University.

This also happened to be the first time I brought Pixel to be birdsat somewhere else. Up to this point, her only "outings" were the visit to the vet the day we got her (which was probably one of the worst days in her life) and a recent stint out at one of the local Parrot Club meetings. While I was worried I would have a terrified and nervous bird at the meeting, she proved she had some Red-bellied blood in her and was a total clown and showed off quite some bit. But...I was there with her the whole time. Had I not been there, I'm sure it would have been different, as we are still working on getting her properly socialized...

So I was still a bit worried when it came time for her to be left into my mom's care. I was worried about how she would react, a bit concerned as she might see this as some form of abandonment. I was taking a bit of comfort that maybe being with the other members of the Poi flock would help, but since she didn't seem to have quite a strong a bond with them here as she did with me, I wasn't entirely sure how that would go over.

Well...according to what my mom said, Pixel was true to her nervous self in a new setting, something I was expecting. After all, most of the other birds went through the same thing the first few times they went there when we were away (even Petey who won the title of "best bird" this time around, used to have my mom all concerned because he would barely eat at first). I'm assuming it'll take a few times for her as well to understand that going there is only temporary and that in the end, we'll come back for her.

I was also worried about her reaction when we would come and get her. Either she would be upset with us or she would be happy to see us. Luckily, the moment she saw me she reacted the same exact way as she does when I go to let her out of her cage here and made a few of her happy sounds.

It is obvious we still need to work on her getting used to new settings and new people but I do have hope that she'll get more comfortable as time goes by.

And to the Parrot Club we go..

Tonight was Parrot Club meeting night.

I didn't really want to bring a parrot along given it was a trivia night and I might have been busy otherwise. However, part of me thought would be a good idea to bring Pixel along since she hasn't got into a carrier since we went to get her at her previous home and went straight to the vet with her. Not necessarily the best experience to associate "good" with "carrier". But part of me also thought that she might be quite stressed in the new environment and I wasn't sure what she might do once there.

Nevertheless, I did end up deciding on bringer her along. I did not have any trouble putting her in the carrier although once in, she didn't seem very pleased. She seemed a bit nervous during the 20 minute car rid to the meeting room.

Once there and once out of her carrier, she was very cuddly at first, wanting to be on me and nowhere else. However...she did end up getting comfortable and wanting to explore the place. She was also very chatty. She did the Red-bellied species proud in her ability to "show-off" and be a clown with strangers watching her (something Joey, her brother, is also very capable of).

All and all, it was a great experience for her I'm sure and she was very happy to come back home and happily went in her cage for the night.

It's already been two years..

..since we got Petey.

Yup, two years with the women-hating, noodle lovin' little Meyer's known as Petey.

Still, in those two years he's made a lot of progress and I'm pretty sure the hate for the women genre has been replace with the much less violent dislike. Or maybe that is just him with me, although I do hope it's a more general feeling.

There is still a long way to go though, I guess I'll just have to continue to bribe him with those noodles he loves so much!



Also, Petey is the only bird who's hatch date I don't know exactly. His band would lead us to believe he was hatched in 1995 and since there is no specific date, I did choose to celebrate his hatch date simultaneously with the day we got him so happy 15th hatch day Petey!

Pixel update

I guess it's time to provide a little update on Pixel.

She's been with us for a little over a month now, close to two (on August 11th).

She's settling in fine. If anyone remembers, she was in a room with other birds, but had no specific cage. So whether or not she would adapt to being caged was somewhat of a concern and, from what I've seen, she's taken to her cage very well. I have no problem putting her back in when it's time to go in and she's finally started to really use all the different perches instead of clinging to the side of her cage (where she was before, there was a grate-type thing that acted as the door to the living room and when we went to see her, we did notice that she clung to those bars of metal like she did to the side of her cage when we first got her.

Her adaption with other birds.
She stays clear of Petey, moves when Zuri comes by and seems intrigued by Joey and wants to do like he does. The only thing I really have to watch is how she is with Shade. Shade is her direct "competition" for me and..well it has created some tiffs. While Shade no longer wants to attack like she did when Pixel first got here (and she has never done this before with any of the new additions), Pixel seems to want to try and get to her sometimes. But since this normally happens in the very close proximity of myself, I normally put a stop before she pushes Shade too far. It might also be some type of competition between the only two hens, I'm not sure.

As for her flight situation. Like I mentioned before, she had a few flight feathers on each side, not next to each other, most were clipped so when she went to the vet, she did get the strays clipped as well, to bring them back to the same level as the others (which were by no means clipped all that much) to balance things out. Now that the feathers are molting out, she's gaining more confidence in flying further and further and has made it a few times from the atom at one side of the living room all the way to myself sitting at the computer all the way to the other side of the room. Our living room is roughly 20' wide or so.

Learning by example

I did mean to provide more frequent updates.
But things being what they were of late, I didn't find myself with the time to do so.

One of the things I have noticed when I first got Pixel was how she seemed to be a bit clueless as to what toys were for. She didn't really play, she just moved from perch to perch. The one on one time she spent cuddling with me.

She's definitively no Zuri.

As I've mentioned before, she was in a room with many other birds, but I don't recall many toys around the room. I think the room itself (walls included) acted as toys. Quite frankly, I'd rather keep my walls and furniture intact so I do provide plenty of other chewing opportunities.

I'll also be honest; once my vet gave me the indication that Pixel was quite healthy, I continued quarantine for a few days and then, about a week or so after she came here, I did slowly introduce her to the others. Here is my reasoning; the blood results came back clear and however I want to look at it, even if I kept Pixel in one room where the birds weren't, they do end up sharing the same air. I honestly believed she stood more to gain by coming in contact with the others and seeing how they act then there being any chance that she would make them sick.

And observing she has been doing since. She's even started to try and play with a few items. She's quite keen on imitating her smaller brother, Joey. She's taken to shelling almonds (didn't quite seem to know what to do before) after seeing him do it and she's starting to play with smaller softer foot toys (like pieces of cork) after Joey did the same. Since then, she's moved onto trying out different other things as well.

I do have a video of the two of them spending some time together doing similar things.

Pixel - Day 4 (June 14th 2010)

“Peak-a-boo”

She said peak-a-boo! I was playing with her (or mimicking her head movements) and that got her all excited and she let out that gem in the sweetest possible voice (yes, I’ll admit I’m smitten). I believe she also said “Stewie”, which I’ll try to convert to “Sweetie”.

She’s no longer hesitating to come and see me. She’ll readily come off the cage onto my finger. I also had her on my shoulder in the evening which meant I had to thoroughly clean myself before going to see the other birds.

I had also written to the breeder yesterday asking if she could give me the hatchdate based on the band information (remember, same breeder as Joey and Zuri). She got back to me this morning (definitively faster than when I tried to figure out Zuri’s hatchdate) and Pixie was hatched on September 26th, 2004, so she’s not quite 6 years old yet.

I am very happy with the way she has progressed in just three complete days (not going to count Friday here). She actually let me put her on her back in my hand, without trying to grab any fingers. I am still unable to do this with Zuri and it took me quite a bit to get to do it with Joey (and even there, I don’t try it always as he’s not always willing to cooperate).

Just keeping my fingers crossed that the blood test results come back tomorrow with no major problems.


Some pictures from day 4

Grooming - you can see that her eyes are definitively not an as vibrant orange-red as her brother (who has very striking eyes)




This will be it for the day to day updates.

Pixel - Day 3 (June 13th, 2010)

Bribery, thy name is almonds!

I was still looking for a favorite food which could act as some type of bribery item to get Pixie to come closer to us. I think I found it in the form of an almond. When presented to her, her eyes pinned in what looked like thrilled expectations, there was no question that this was indeed an edible item. She took it with no hesitation and destroyed it in mere seconds. For the second one, I tried to have her actually move towards me (whereas the first one was offered right to her) and she was a bit more reluctant to get it, but ultimately decided that it was well worth the effort.

I forgot to mention that this happened out of her cage. Another big positive which happened today was that she willingly stepped up on my finger from inside her cage without any hesitation. Up until today she wanted nothing to do with it, choosing to come out by her own means when she truly felt like it.

Also, she has a few toys to her disposition in the cage, mostly things to destroy but made of different materials. I also have a bucket of foot toys and I took one out, a shreaddable item, for her to play with. She seemed quite interested, although the actual play time was rather brief. I do have hope that she has some idea on how to play with things so getting her to actively play with more toys shouldn’t be too difficult.

Finally, once the other birds went in for the night and I devoted an hour or so to her. Since she was still somewhat shy, I went to my usual post when spending time around her which is on my bed, reading. The boy came and joined me and read as well. During that last half hour, she started making cooing noises, all rather cute. She came closer to us, as she’s been doing for a bit, but each time we move to get closer, she moves away. You see that she wants to be close but doesn’t quite know how close and how to achieve this yet. Well, during the last 15 minutes of her time out, she started turning her head and scratching it on the edge of the cage. I couldn’t help it anymore, I got up to scratch her head. She went up the ladder of the playtop portion of her cage, but still presented her head to me so for 15 minutes I stood there scratching her head and was she ever so sweet about it. Then it was time to go in and once I put her on a perch, I went to get a final almond to give her and she stepped right back up (ignored the almond) and did the head gesture wanting to feed me.

I guess she’s finally starting to settle in.

All in all, a good day of progress.

Pixel - Day 2 (June 12th, 2010)

She seems a bit more shy today. She came out of her cage a few times but spent most of it inside (I left the door open quite a bit to let her in/out as she pleased).

However, she did eat a bit more of the pellets than she did yesterday. She also tried the piece of toast I give all my birds in the morning as well as the piece of peach which was the breakfast fruit of the day. I also saw her drink quite a bit and her droppings are a more normal colour, compared to the bright orange they were yesterday (a result of the pellets she previously ate).
I’m letting her go at her own pace though. I plan to read to her tonight once the other birds are in for the night (I spend an extra half hour – hour with her once the others are in). I want her to slowly get used to my presence and to come and see me when she feels like it. This is a lot of new stuff and there is no point to rush things.

Some pictures taken that day.

Pixel - Day 1 (June 11th, 2010)

I figured I’d go into a more expletive post about each day spent with Pixel (aka Pixie, which is the name I want to try out for now).

The first day started with my boyfriend picking her up from her previous home and then picking me up from work so we could bring her to the vet for our 4 o’clock appointment. Talk about putting all possible trauma in one day…First, having a stranger you’ve only met once come to get you while a member of the household who doesn’t normally deal with you helps him put you in a carrier. How nice, right? Apparently she was very sweet and stepped up when my boyfriend asked her too..it’s when she realized he tried putting her in a carrier that things got a bit more complicated. It didn’t help that each time another bird in the room would fly she would try to take off as well. In the end, he did manage to get her in the carrier by letting her calm down and by having his hand slightly over her back to guide her in the carrier. I find it awesome she let him put his hand there, I wouldn’t dream doing that with Zuri or Petey..On the drive to get me from work, she apparently was rather quiet, scratching the carrier door in the same fashion as Joey (might be sibling thing) but not nearly as much as Joey would and whistling softly. While they waited for me in front of my building, the boy managed to give her a head and tummy scratch.

Once at the vet, while waiting in the waiting room she started making soft sounds which kinda sounded like “Hello”. Very cute. I kept her in the carrier once we got in the examination room, wanting the vet to be the “bad guy” taking her out to be poked and prodded. Trauma #2. All and all, she did pretty well and although the vet did tell me that I was not getting a bird in pristine condition, at least I knew I was getting a sweet bird and she was worth the effort to bring her health right back up, as it’s most likely nothing we can not fix.

Trauma #3 – coming back “home” with said strangers which picked you up from your previous home, brought you to a person which examined you in every fashion and now you are ending up in a completely new environment. She’s being quarantined in our bedroom, I set up my larger cage (Hagen Manor, look it up if you want the exact dimensions) so that she would have extra space since she would most likely be spending a bit more time in her cage. The first hour or so she spent in the top right corner, hanging from the cage bars. It was a sad sight, given all the extra space she had with nice perches. My boyfriend added that this is how she was perching when he first entered the room to get her and based on our previous visit, I think I remembered something similar. However, after that first hour was up, she had moved down to food bowl (just perching on the rim) and then to the rope perch and grapevine perch I provided. She moved around the cage, exploring. At one point I spent a bit more time in the room with her (while my other birds were having dinner) and opened the door to the cage. She remained in and I didn’t force her to come out. Once my other birds went in for the night, I went back to the bedroom and opened the door once again – after about 20 minutes, she came out on her own after having a nice drink of water. Since I haven’t really seen her eat and there wasn’t much evidence of her eating at the bottom of the cage (other than the hot peppers which are part of the pellet mix I gave her) I gave her a bit of millet while she was on top of the cage and she ate a bit of it. She had seemed interested in the fresh food I provided earlier (the same stuff I give my other birds) but she didn’t seem to know what to do with it – I’m sure with time she’ll come around to eating it (it has worked with my other birds who didn’t know what to do with fresh food when I got them).

Anyways, at one point she actually gestured she wanted to come over and see me but didn’t quite know how to proceed – I went to pick her up and she stepped up right away.

There was a lot more progress than I had expected in a short amount of hours – specially if you consider how the afternoon started. However, I wanted the vet visit out of the way to begin with so now it should all be good stuff to come, once she’s truly comfortable.

A good Petey moment

As I was putting my birds to "bed" earlier this evening, I was saying good night to each one individually.

Petey was last, she is always the last one covered.
Well, she allowed me to scratch her head for a long time. To reward her, I offered her a piece of dried papaya, a favorite treat. She didn't want it. Instead, she bowed her head down as if to say "keep scratching", which I did. What a difference from having her wanting to take chunks out of my hands...it was a proud moment for me.

I'll win her over one day..slowly but surely!