My new vacuum

Yes I just bought a new vacuum.

I've been pondering this for a while. We, up until this point, had a shop vac as a result of having killed our two previous vacuums. However, I hate the shop vac - it's convenient for cleaning the cages, but for everyday use on my carpet floors...not cutting it. Plus it's awkward to carry around and it's just a pain to take out and put away.

While the birds are messy, I think the biggest issue and what killed our previous (cheap) vacuums was the hair left by our cat. She's been shedding lately as well and I've been finding hair everywhere and got annoyed - which prompted the purchase of the new vacuum. Actually, what really prompted it was the fact that I brushed out 13 grams of hair off the cat yesterday evening...just imagine if that had made it to my floor/furniture..

Anyways, I've been meaning to get a Miele and looking at the website over the last two days. Yesterday, I noticed that there was a offer for an extra five years of warranty on parts/labour ending today. So after work we went to the local Miele store and got our new vacuum!

Knowing we had a cat and carpet, the sales rep suggested two models - the cat & dog model or the S5 Blue Star. We went with the Cat & Dog which was slightly more expensive yet came with all the brushes & gizmos.

I just tried it out and was rather impressed with it. It's much easier to drag around that the emcumbersome shop vac and much prettier :)

It came in a very pretty red.



(the hose is obviously not plugged in - the picture of the "complete" vacuum came out a bit awkward)

And obviously this has a place here since a clean house is a good thing for the parrots as well as myself :)

Sunday is shower day!

Sunday is shower day at my house.
I find it's important to give the birds frequent shower/baths, specially in winter with the heating making the air so dry. I do use humidifiers in the living room and in the birdroom, but the shower does help as well.

Piper normally prefers baths, and I do give him the option of a small shallow plate of water some days, but I do like to give him a regular misting so that he gets all wet as he often fails to get his back and top of his wings properly wet in the bath.



Shade normally prefers baths in her cage water bowl, but again, that can only get her wet in specific places so a misting is often in order. Some days she enjoys it, some days she just stoically stands there until I'm done.



And while the Red-bellieds are always the easiest to get wet and stay that way for a while (as they don't seem to be too keen on drying by preening and will either nap or go and play with toys right after a shower)...





..the Meyer's are the hardest to get wet every. single. time! They just stand there and seem to repel water. I often have to use half a bottle of water on them to get them slightly humid. And they don't bath in their water bowls all that much either.

Avian Organics Bird Bannock - Part 2

Here are the pictures - one thing is for sure, the bannock was very well received. They even ate the crumbs they initially let fall!



Piper also got a piece but wanted to wait on the crumbs the others would let go of.


She's such a meticulous eater - she was taking it apart, small piece by small piece unlike the others that were taking chunks out (but later went back to them)




Face on - Joey style!




Caution: Bird Bannock induces sticky beak


One of my favorites - just really like how it came out!




Totally hamming it up..


My favorite picture - it looks Joey is ready to be a spokesbird ;)

Avian Organics Bird Bannock - Part 1

A while back I had purchased some Bird Bannock from Avian Organics. Why it took me so long to finally bake it, I'm not sure. I think part of it was because I had also purchased one of the Fusion Flatbreads at the same time, which I had cooked first, and didn't want to do the Bannock before all frozen portions of the flatbread were done.

I took pictures along the process of making the bread, for fun.

Here is one of the two packages used - it did say to use both packages for one recipe - and my favorite mixing bowl (it cleans really easily!)


At this point I wanted to take a picture of the 1 1/4 cup of water required but one of the two batteries in my camera died and since I wasn't able to switch from whichever one was in use to the one which wasn't (it was really dead) and that I wanted to move along with the recipe, there is no picture of the water. But I'm sure everyone can picture a measuring cup with some water in it...

The boy eventually figured out which one of the batteries worked and I got a functional camera once again. Here is the mix with the beaten egg (not sure it was organic, but it was apparently free range)


The mix set in the glass container, before going in the oven.


Baked.


It looks even better than the flatbread, which I had thought looked great and the birds were definitively fans, so I doubt this will be any less of a success.

Part 2 will be pictures of the birds enjoying the bannock, once it has cooled down a bit...

Rooms obsession?

I have posted in the past how much Pixel wants to be in the kitchen when I go in there. Every time I step foot in that room when she's out in the living room with us, she'll come and join me. Actually that is only partially true - she will NOT do so if I'm holding the video camera trying to get her flight and following "wooo".

Shade is the same to some degree with the kitchen - she might not follow me every time, but she does like to join me in the kitchen. I assume it's because she thinks she'll get part of whatever I'm getting in there (birds aren't out when I cook but can be when I do prep work).

Zuri, on the other hand, must be in the bathroom if I'm there for whatever reason. If I leave the door just open enough for him to come in while I'm brushing my teeth or drying my hair in the morning, he will find his way in...and the landing spot is always on my head.

Pixel the destructor

Title is the Boy's idea..

Morning craziness

We take the birds out in the morning before going to work for about an hour.

Normally, they are still a bit groggy and the morning time out is pretty uneventful.

Today, however, they've been quite active, flying here and there, often with no purpose other than to just take off again.

I guess they'll really enjoy their breakfast when they go back in their cage!

What is Joey thinking?

a)Nutriberry, Nutriberry, Nutriberry!!!
b)Camera, camera, camera!!!!
c)Must..fly..somewhere..where..to..go???

Preening session

I was taking a few videos today and at one point focused on Shade who had started preening in the birdroom.

Shortly after, Zuri came along and they were both preening each other.

The birdroom

I moved my large (and empty) cage from my bedroom to the birdroom to see if it fits and....it does!!

So if I do feel ready when a female Cape parrot becomes available, I'm that much closer to being able to get it (mind you, there are other factors that might impede my decision but the fact that I have the space for the cage in the birdroom is a nice beginning).

While I was at it, I also took a video of the birdroom as it stands today. It gets a bit dark at times when I'm shooting against the window but I assure you the room has much more light.

Recall flight with Piper

Working on recall flight with Piper.
The instruction given for him to come to me was said in French (viens-t-en = come).



The opening sequence was the Boy's idea..

A vet story

I love the vet I have for the birds - I've been going to her for a few years now and am so happy she's around.

We've had less chance with the vet for our cat - not that we've been unhappy with the ones we've had, but it seems that the clinic we go to with Zelly has a high rotation on staff.

Anyways, Zelly was due for her annual appointment earlier this month. The Boy brought her on his own. When he came back, he said that this vet was once again quite good and he was assured that she wouldn't be leaving anytime soon. While I will NOT change avian vets, it turns out this new one also owned birds. So they started talking about parrots. When she heard that we had 6 and were living in an apartment, she was flabbergasted that we didn't get any complaints about noise. Thing is, the flock isn't that loud, specially when they are out in the living room with us. She, on the other hand, had two Quakers and I can understand where noise concerns would come from, if that was your experience with parrots - I've met quite a few Quakers and none of them were quiet!

Sunday morning pictures

The return of Mr. Floofyhead

His return from a little over a year ago....

What is Zuri about to do?

a) about to go play with an interesting toy he just spotted?
b) found a piece of Nutriberry and is about to fly down to it before another bird swipes it?
c) about to distract Joey who is chewing on some wood?