Sticky beak

Queen palm nuts are very sticky.

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!

Hand kisses

Nemo loves to give kisses.

I'm currently sitting at the computer, doing some reading on some forums and Nemo is on my shoulder. I was leaning on elbow and my hand is about the height of Nemo and he starts kissing it, leaning in and making the noise. Every so often he would laugh a bit.

Funny bird.

Birds on the Rock order

For a while now I've heard a lot of good things from people who have bought flagstone perches from Birds on the Rock. I nearly bought some perches back when Avian Avenue had a Sidewalk Sale earlier this year (I believe it was in February) but I didn't because I had other purchases I wanted to make and tried to stay on a budget.

While Birds on the Rock didn't offer a discount on the flagstone perches at the last Sidewalk Sale, they did have a sale on these items during a Black Friday sale.

So I finally took the leap and purchased one perch per bird - I looked at the recommended sizes on the website and followed the advice and took 5 medium ones for the Pois and 1 small one for Piper.

After waiting a bit longer than I thought I would have, I finally received my package (this wait has nothing to do with the vendor - all post service and possibly the Holiday rush and extra load of mail..)

Here are my perches.



My opinion? Right now..I'm disappointed.

My biggest issue - perch #1. The biggest perch of them all. While I love the size and the shape is also rather nice, I do not like the fact that there is only one bolt and that it allows me to attach the perch to the cage by the thinnest end (as in point - the rock itself is pretty evenly thick) of the point of the triangle it's shaped in. While maybe there is other things I don't understand when it comes to drilling rock, I would have been much happier with two bolts on the side of the perch that is closer to perch #3 - or even any where else on the perch but at the thin point. While I did try it in one of the empty cages I have and it seemed solid, I am still reluctant to put it in a cage because I'm a bit concerned that over time, it might slide down. I now need to evaluate who will get this perch because if I do put it in a cage, I'll have to put it low (to clear my conscience) and not have to worry about a bird possibly getting hurt.

My second issue - the sizes. I do regret not going with a size up, specially for the Pois (the small one does seem quite fine for Piper). I understand that these are a natural product and that the only shaping done is done by Mother Nature, but I do find it disconcerting that there is so much size difference between between the perches of one size category. I believe perch #4 is the small one and to me, perch #3 is hardly any larger and perch #1 is almost twice the size...a bit more consistency, at least in my order, would have been nice.

Ultimately, what will really forge my opinion of the product will be what the birds will think and the usage they will make of the perches. If they end up loving them, then great. If not...well I'll put it in lessons learned. I don't know if it's because I came into this with high hopes based on what I've heard, but I don't feel like this has been the best purchase I've made. But again - we'll see how the birds take to them.

Post #200 for 2010!

2010 was definitively a prolific year for me posting on this blog. 2008 doesn't really count since I only started in November, but compared to the puny 59 posts in 2009, I did quite well this year!

Really, I started this blog and maintain it mostly to record anything special the birds are doing / any different behaviours, so I can come back and compare if I ever see those things happen again. It's also nice to record what I bought, favorite food/toys of theirs...

This year I've also gained quite a few extra followers. While I didn't intend to really write this for anyone else than myself, it's always a nice feeling to see that other people might find what I'm writing interesting. So thanks for anyone who decided to follow, whether it would be openly or not.

The year is not over, not sure how many more posts there will be until 2011 shows up and hopefully this will give me a challenge for next year - possibly try to blog more "daily" - there were definitively some months where I didn't post as much as I could!

Things for Wings Order

The Boy decided to put in an order earlier this month.

It arrived today.

He got toy parts - the balsa (balsa bibs), the yucca (Flakey Pastry Hunklettes), some leather lace and some Paulie rope. The pieces of pine were a freebie.



When I said "oh you chose red" when I saw the Paulie rope, his answer was "oh..I had a choice?". It now becomes apparent that he doesn't notice drop down menus as he got the balsa all in natural as well (which happens to be the first colour option on the balsa bibs page). In any case, I doubt it'll make a difference to the birds, whether it's coloured or not..

Oh..and Danita has put the customs toys I've ordered from her before on her website! You can now order your own Poi Garden or Petey Pants!

While we are on the topic of orders of things for the birds...back in November I ordered some Flagstone perches for my birds from Birds on the Rocks. The order apparently was shipped from the States on December 5th - which is perfectly fine given I ordered the perches during a sale and I know a number of people did so I can understand it having taken a few extra days to mail out. However...my order apparently made it to Mississauga on the 10th. It's now the 15th and guess where my package is? Still in Mississauga! Apparently today it's finally been released by Customs to be processed by Canada Post and I do hope it leaves Mississauga tomorrow and gets on it's way here. But my favorite part in all of this?? Apparently on the 7th it left the origin country (US) and it only arrived in Canada on the 10th - where was it for 3 days?? (assuming of course that when they mean "left" it doesn't mean "leaving"...)

From 6 to 8 - Day 4

Things were once again pretty uneventful today, due to the birds being under strict supervision.

I know if I let Zuri loose with Nemo or Itsy on one of the gyms, there would be trouble, so I'm not tempting fate.

Petey and Joey definitively act as if nothing has changed, Shade is getting nonchalant as well, so it Pixel. Piper is still trying to make sure he gets the most attention (being on me and getting his head scratched first isn't enough...on top of his own period of head scratches he needs to have it done as well if I dare scratch another bird's head.

I guess a routine is starting to settle.

On another note, it took me about three times as long to get home from work due to the snowstorm outside. 45 minutes instead of the usual 15....

From 6 to 8 - Day 3

Things went relatively well today.

Monday equals back to work and although their time out is more limited during the week-days, it still seemed to work out.

Putting them in the extra cage while the others are out makes me feel bad so I did take Nemo out with us in the living room in the morning, Itsy when we came back for work and Nemo once again in the evening after dinner. Of course, while one is out with the rest of the flock, the other is in the birdroom.

So far, the problematic one is Zuri. I have to keep either of the visiting birds on me (not on the Boy when Petey is out) since I can stop them from trying to lunch at any birds (which they haven't been trying) or to shield them, specially from Zuri. He's a bit too curious at times.

From 6 to 8 - Day 2

Today we proceeded with some introductions.

In the morning, I kept it to my usual flock, Nemo got the room and Itsy was in the bigger cage. However, to make up for her time in the cage, I took Itsy out for about an hour after breakfast (which apparently was the right call because she dove in her breakfast bowl when it was offered to her).

In the afternoon I took everyone out at once..well after getting my own flock settled. Itsy was in my lap and Nemo was with the Boy. Things were ok for the most part, but I did have to bring Itsy in once she started getting a bit antsy.

Later in the evening I proceeded to having my flock out with Itsy, Itsy being on me so I could keep her under close supervision. At one point I had her and Zuri in close proximity and were scratching both their heads...and eventually got a pretty sharp bite from Zuri on the tip of a finger. I think he wasn't too happy with having to stay where he was, forced there by the head scratch, because he was very very interested in Itsy once again.

Itsy later became a tad too restless so in her cage she went and out came Nemo (he was in his cage since Zuri had landed in his cage for the bite and insisting to go where he shouldn't). Nemo was very well behaved and so was Shade. In fact, I had both on me once again without any trouble..from them at least. Piper kept trying to scoot on one shoulder, having been on me for most of the day at this point, and was getting dangerously close to one of the Sennies beaks. I passed him on to the Boy and from there Piper went to eat more pellets.

Ironically, the two Red-bellieds who usually like to create a little mayhem were the most well behaved, Petey having tried to dive-bomb me on a few occasions during the day.

An early birdy Christmas present

The birds got an early Christmas gift!
It came from my parents who brought it over yesterday with Itsy and Nemo.
It's a climbing net which has four sides - 2 panels crossing in the middle.
It's from the same company that made my cube which Zuri is so found of.



I just hung it temporarily for the sake of taking the picture. The cube goes there. I'm not sure where I'll hang the net yet - probably will try to devise something in the bird room for it.

So what do I do will all those beads?..

...and other toy parts??

Foot toys of course!

Shade's behaviour

Although I don't want to set human sentiments on birds, it really seems like there is some jealousy going on. Most certainly with Shade. Why would I say that? Normally twice per year she gets a bit distant. I think this is normally when hormone kicks in and this generally always happen in late fall/early winter and in the spring. Instead of getting mean, she just gets a bit more independent and a bit more grouchy with the other birds. I've noticed over the last week or two that she's been getting in that "mood" - she doesn't want to cuddle as much and just does her thing. Having "competition" around has made things interesting. Just like yesterday, although she was perfectly content being on on her own, the moment Nemo showed up she had to show that she was #1 bird. She's been doing the same with Pixel lately as well - I normally take Shade first then move onto Pixel and when offering to Shade to spend time with me, she either doesn't come over or steps up, stays on my shoulder for 2 minutes and then flies off, at which point I go and get Pixel. But the moment I have Pixel on me, she wants to be there. I've had Pixel since June and while it was bit of an adjustment for Shade for the first week or so, that routine (Shade first, Pixel second) worked fine.

While a lot of birds get aggressive when hormones kick in, I just never saw this with Shade. Even now, it's not outright aggression anyways. At this point, it just seems like she's more insistent on letting all the other birds know she's "head bird" when it comes to me and she does this by insisting to be on me when others are and being rather possessive of my shoulder - not by showing any aggression to myself, quite the contrary, she cuddles as close to my head as she can and will.not.budge.

From 6 to 8 - Day 1...Part 2

Apparently I'm a liar.
I did say I wouldn't do any introductions yesterday, but I did, with Nemo.
My regular flock was behaving nicely, none of them, but Piper, wanted to be on me at the time, all busy playing with other things so I figured it was time to go check on Nemo who was in the big cage. And I felt bad for the little guy so I brought him with me thinking it would be ok, since I could manage him and Piper on me at once.

I was somewhat wrong.

The moment I showed up in the living room with him, Shade started showing interest, but not the good kind. Pixel also flew right to me...so I ended up with Piper on my head, Pixel on one shoulder, Shade on the other and Nemo in my lap. Of course, the two Senegals wanted to get at each other so I had to keep them separate with one hand. Piper tried crawling down to a shoulder so I had to keep him out of harms way. And, to make things even more interesting, Zuri decided that this was an appropriate time to get his head scratched...And extra pair or arms and hands would have been practical at this point. Luckily, Pixel quickly decided she had enough of this and flew back to a perch to eat some pellets. Which liberated a shoulder on which I put Nemo. Apparently both Senegals having their own shoulder made them more happy and they stopped, for the most part, trying to get to each other. Zuri, having got his quota of head scratches also went somewhere else to play. All I was left to contend with was Piper who didn't want to remain on the head...and absolutely wanted a shoulder, which was out of the question.

Now they are out again - my flock in the living room, now it's Nemo's turn in the birdroom and Itsy's turn in the big cage. I haven't tried with Itsy what I did with Nemo since Shade is currently claiming my shoulder and seeing how Itsy went after Nemo yesterday, I can only imagine that she'll do the same with Shade (she hasn't differentiated in the past) so I won't tempt it. I might just take her out for half an hour once all the others go in for breakfast for some one on one time.

Is this an indication of anything?

Joey just did something interesting.

I gave him a string of five beads. I like things that match so I normally string beads in some type of repeating fashion.

On this occasion, the string of beads was made of greed coloured beads, but there were light and darker beads. It went as follow:

light bead - dark bead - light bead - dark bead - light bead

Joey meticulously destroyed all the light beads in order, from one end to the other.
Only when they were all destroyed did he go for the darker green beads.

Why not go one by one? I did, in the past, give him a string of beads that were entirely different colours and he just destroyed them one by one, from one end to the other.

So why would he now go for one kind then the other?

From 6 to 8 - Day 1

So it has begun.

My mom dropped off Nemo and Itsy in the late afternoon, around 3pm. They went straight to their temporary cages, to give them some adjustment time. Around 4pm I let my guys out in the living room (so that they wouldn't be harassing the new ones in the birdroom) and Itsy and Nemo were doing what sounded like flock calling. I don't think it was so much for the birds as it was to get my attention. However, Zuri did respond..and tried going in the birdroom so eventually, as this is all he wanted, he went in but this meant in the cage.

I put my guys in around 5:30pm and decided to let Itsy and Nemo out in the living room with us for half an hour before dinner. I took Itsy out of the cage first and then moved on to Nemo. The moment I opened Nemo's cage door, Itsy, who was on my shoulder, bee-lined for him. While I knew they didn't get along, this was more animosity that I've ever seen coming from Itsy for Nemo and I've birdsat both of these guys before on a few occasions. I restrained her, took Nemo out and went to the living room. Itsy ended up on an atom for the first 10 minutes while I had Nemo on me. When the boy showed up, I handed him Nemo, took a few pictures of Itsy on the atom, then moved Nemo to a perch and took pictures before handing him back to the boy and I then took Itsy for a bit. They were reasonably well behaved, Itsy sticking to me and Nemo staying on the Boy.

We always prepare the cages for nightime -aka take out dinner food bowl, change the water bowls, change the papers, give some dry food if required - when the birds come out after dinner. We normally let them out progressively, as we move from cage to cage. In this instance, I wanted to keep Itsy and Nemo's cages for the end. I sent Shade and Zuri into the living room early on, as they behave well together with minimal supervision for a few minutes. This did not go well with Zuri who kept coming by the bird room, trying to approach Itsy. Based on what I have seen in the past, I was predicting it and the outcome was unsure - Zuri did at first show interest in Itsy but Itsy had wanted nothing to do with Zuri but attack and there were a few close calls in the past, which I wasn't keen on reliving. So for the moment being, I wanted to keep them separate, so back into the living room Zuri went.

At this moment, my flock in out in the living room with the Boy and I, Itsy in free in the birdroom and Nemo is in the extra large cage in my bedroom. I think I will, for the most part, be alternating between Nemo and Itsy who gets the birdroom and who gets the cage (each taking turns) and will reserve 30 minutes to an hour of one on one time with the Boy and I at one point in the day, while my guys are in. I will see how things go. I might try doing introductions, but if it's anything like in the past, Shade and Nemo will be on the outs for at least a week before settling in, Itsy will want to go after everyone and will only be happy if she's on me (not on the Boy - she does not like men), which will be problematic as Piper, Shade and Pixel do want to spend a fair amount of time on me as well and Zuri and Joey often come by for head scratches.

All in all, I don't feel like dealing with any type of fighting today so if I do do introductions, it will have to wait until tomorrow.