126:365 - Spaz

He was a bit of a spaz today, flying around a bit hectically, taking off abruptly with no real reason, landing places with a surprised look on his face..would say acting weird but that can be typical Joey attitude at times, specially in the Spring and in the Fall.

Zelly cat

On top of my 7 parrots, I also have a cat. Seems a bit risky to keep a cat with birds, but for everyone's safety (cat included as I'm sure some of the birds would like to pick on her), I keep them all separate; the cat is in our bedroom when the birds are lose and she gets free roam of the whole apartment when they are in their cages in the birdroom behind a closed door.

This is still first and foremost a parrot blog and I don't intend to post many cat-related entries - however, here are a few pictures of her. I think she knows comfort..


Oh so tired..


This is comfortable..


What?!


Get..back..to..sleep..


*YAWN*

And my favorite..


Gotta stretch!

Hangin' Pixel

She was having some fun this morning hanging from toys and playing with them.

125:365 - Petey!

I'm surprised I got an in focus shot - he was moving quite steadily when I went to take his pictures. Either bobbing his head up and down, shaking it side to side or scratching himself in a very sudden fashion not to mention just walking up and down the atom.

Pictures from TASC

Last week-end I headed to St-Charles Illinois to attend TASC and meet up with other parrot people.

The event was held on Saturday. While it seemed pretty large to me, it appears it wasn't nearly as big as it had been in past years. In any case, the vendor area was much larger than anything I've seen at previous Canadian Parrot Conferences (CPC). One thing that did occur at TASC that didn't at the CPC is people selling birds - and to be honest, I do prefer the CPC no parrot sale approach. For one, you never know the condition of the parrots being brought there and there is a risk of contamination of products and other parrots present.

But I think some people do it out of convenience. As well, having birds displayed in cages obviously too small will pull at the heartstrings of people present. I felt pretty sad at the sight of a lot of birds there; and because of my love of Poicephalus, those got to me the most. Actually, it did seem to me that they were amongst the most represented there. I had seen a number of Senegals and Meyer's as well as one Red-bellied parrot. And the latter was the most hearbreaking to me. I stopped by to talk to him a bit and he came right at the front of his cage and looked right at me and made all kinds of cute cooing and kissing noises.



The sign on his cage said something along the lines of "13 year old Red-bellied, in need of love". It really looked to me like he just needed to find the right people. I got even sadder when I started thinking of the likeliness of him having been through this whole process a few times already. Crystal, with whom I went to TASC, had to pull me away from his cage.

On top of other birds for sale, I think some of them were there on display.







As mentioned above, I also took the opportunity to meet other parrot people, including Aleta from Wingdow. It was quite nice finally meeting her in person!

She had brought a number of her playstands which on top of looking quite nice also seemed very solid.







She also had a few Kitchen Sinks on hand.





This has been an item on my want list for quite some time, but I could never justify the price. Canadian vendors who carry them, and they are few and far between, charge a fortune and given the weight, I was hesitant to have one shipped from the States. When I saw the ones she had on hand, one immediately caught my eye and after deliberating for a few (long) minutes I did purchase one.

Aleta had shared her booth with another vendor from Avian Avenue, Jen from TNT toys and I took a few pictures of her set up as well.





I know I mentioned earlier that there is a risk of disease when birds are brought in to events like these. I didn't purchase much and what I did purchase were items I was comfortable being able to thoroughly clean (so nothing porous) and I'll have a subsequent post with the items I purchased.

Fluffy head Piper

Alternate to yesterday's daily picture.

124:365 - Little Piper bird

123:365 - Scratch me!

Zuri turns 5 today!

I'll be honest, part of me really wishes he would have been out of the collar by now but it seems that we'll be celebrating his 5th hatchday this way.

But given his "situation", he's also getting much more one-on-one time and all the head scratches he would like so I guess there's a silver lining to the whole thing.

When I brought him home he wasn't even two years old yet. Funny to think that it's been over three years ago - it doesn't feel that way. He's gone from being a very shy and nervous bird to one who's quite assertive, independent, playful and, above all, smart. He figures things out FAST.

And given that there are only so many poses he can strike on his own in his attire, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to take new pictures of him and I - because regular Zuri wouldn't calmly sit for family pictures anymore (and I might as well enjoy it while I can!)


(notice his little injured foot coming up at the rim of the collar?)

Day 16 of Zuri and his collar

I guess an update is in order since it's been a few days since the last one.

Zuri went back to the vet yesterday morning for yet another change in bandage. He also needed to have the turtleneck collar redone since he had chewed through most of it and the Boy had removed what was left. 

The vet said that the toe was healing nicely and, if all goes well, next time he goes to see her next week he should be able to have his bandage (and collar) removed. I can't say how much I'm crossing my fingers this will happen.

We've also tried moving him back to the Kings Cage travel cage today. The Boy worked from home in the afternoon to keep an eye on him and he did fairly well, just like he did in the early evening. However, while we had the other little ones out later on, he had managed to figure out how to flip his collar and was chewing on the decoy the vet had added to his bandage. Now whether or not this will means he goes back to the smaller cage tomorrow when we will be at work is still up in the air; after all, earlier this morning he managed to flip himself on his back in an attempt to get to his feet by using the top bars of the smaller cage...

He's definitively quite alert and mobile. And today, maybe because of the change of cage, he's put on a few grams. So I have some thinking ahead of me about what we will do with him tomorrow..

122:365 - Carrot beak

We are offering him quite a few items, but undoubtedly carrots are a favorite right now. Can't complain given that it's quite healthy for him!

Working on those coral ankles

Léa's ankles is where coral first appeared. However, other than a thin line of feathers around one ankle and sparse feathers on the other, the coral didn't really show. There definitively wasn't any explosion of colour like it happened on her wings, the coral on her ankles choosing to hide underneath darker feathers for the longest time.

That is until now.

It seems that a few of these darker feathers have fallen out and are being replaced by big coral pins. I'm guessing she finally decided to play catch up down there.







We'll see how they look by the time she turns one in about two weeks.

Practicing her voice

Léa is having a conversation with herself in the opposite corner of the living room from where I'm sitting. She's "talking" - not that a lot of it I can understand. It is a cute thing to witness, although her back is turned to me as she's facing the other wall, probably to have the sound bounce back to her better.

She's also doing a lot of ringing phone combined with a very low and sweet "hello?".

This type of noise I'll take any day.

Some days are harder than others

I woke up with a headache this morning, as it's often the case when the weather is being weird (as it is today).

On those days, my patience wears thinner much faster..and while the birds generally seem to get it, some days they don't and they can be much more aggravating.

Today is such a day. Petey, for the last 10 minutes or so, has been indulging in his birdy right to make obnoxious noises, a very high pitch repetitive call. Normally I wouldn't really "hear" it, as it would become background noise. This morning, however, it's just aggravating my headache and I would just like him to stop.

Fortunately I'll be out the door going to work in a few minutes. Otherwise...it would have been a long day.

Cuddle time!

As much as she was crazy yesterday afternoon, flying all over the place and running all over me, last night it was all about cuddling!

She was a bit annoyed by the camera (as it detracted from her getting 100% of my attention, so I only got a few shots.)