Are you talking to me?

It's the end of the week so it's time for Fab Friday. Too keep it light and fun I have a video of my own to share.



For what ever reason Duke seems to think what he has to say is much more important than what John does. Sorry about the quality of this video, I am still learning the ins and outs of the camera.

Love at first kiss

My first bird was not a large parrot. In fact, she was a small, brightly colored beautiful Sun Conure named Romeo. (We found out later that “he” was a “she”) Romeo was a beautiful bird. Not just her brilliant coloring but her personality was the sweetest of any bird I have ever had.

"Whose a pretty bird?"

She was a kisser. The first time I met her she jumped off her stand climbed up my shirt and kissed me, over and over and over. It was an instant love between us. Every time I went to the store she wanted to be on me and I, of course, wanted to hold her. We were fast friends. A bond between human and bird that I have not had since. She was very special to me.

In some ways Romeo was a typical Sun Conure. She could be very loud. This usually happened when I was on the phone or doing something that did not include her when she wanted to be included.

"OMG! You're on the phone!!"

Romeo was full of personality, more then some of the larger birds that I have now. In the short time we have had together, she has made a lasting impression on me. I will always remember the small yellow bird that stole my heart.

RIP Romeo 200?-2007

Amazon Rivalry

As I said yesterday, Duke was moved inside last weekend as was doing great. So last night we brought Echo inside. We figured he would have been the easier of the two but Duke and Echo have this rivalry thing that we thought might cause an issue.

Well maybe Rivalry isn't the right word. Duke is -very- interested in Echo. Obsessed actually. Echo on the other hand feels threatened by Duke, and there for gets rather grumpy and nippy if he thinks Duke is too close. (“Too close” being anywhere Echo can see him.)

Mr. Grumpypants

All things considered, the night went pretty well. This morning as I went to take Duke out of his cage He ran up to me and said “Here we go!” This is a new phrase for me, he has never said it to me before. It was too clear for it to be just learned so he must have picked it up in the ten years of life before he got here.

Echo has also picked up a new phrase. “Oh, come on!” Which he just screamed from the other room. I will have to thank my husband for that one. He yells it the same way when things are not going the way he wants them to. Seems Echo has grasped onto the meaning behind the phrase as well.

Moving In

Our big birds spend the summers outside on our back porch. The Florida heat and humidity is perfect for them. Their feathers never look as good as they do in the summer, I swear. But it is almost October and we have been getting a lot of rain and slowly but surely the tempreture is starting to drop. So it's time to start prepping the house for them to come back inside. They don't have to be back in til the end of next month, then they will be inside until March or April, depending on how quickly our spring warms up.

There is an adjustment period when they come inside, because of that I prefer to do it one bird at a time. When that bird is aclamated then I move in the next one, and so on. So Duke, my Orange-wing Amazon, was the first one in this weekend, and he is loving it.

"Up! Up! Up!"

He has been exploring the house and eating up all the one on one attention he is getting. He is also an alarm clock every single morning. Though this morning he didn't go off for very long, so I was able to sleep in a little.

"This -is- my happy face!"

DIY Toy basics

Lets face it, bird toys are expensive, yet we must keep our birds entertained, so that leaves us with two choices. 1. Break the bank and buy these uber expensive toys, or 2. Make our own.

The first rule of toy making is,
Save everything. Every chewed block from the toys they already have, every chain, rope, and d-ring should be horded for future toys. You never know what will come in handy later. We have a large box filled with trashed toy scraps that we go through when we build new toys, it saves us a bundle.

Materials:
Wood is an important aspect of bird toys, birds love to chew on wood so make sure you use untreated pine for your toys. Other woods and treated woods can harm your bird.

Rope or chain are good ways to work your wood blocks together. If you use chain make sure the links are not so small that your bird can get his toe stuck inside a link, also if you have a smaller bird make sure the links are not to big where the bird might get his head stuck. If you opt for rope, untreated cotton or sisal ropes are a good choice, both can be found at the local hardware stores. (Some Sisal rope is treated with oil, read the package and when all else fails smell it, if you smell anything put it back and find something else.)

Beads can be fun for birds as well, but watch that you use a bead that is appropriate for your bird. You would not want to use small plastic beads for a Macaw or Amazon toy, the bird can/will break them and could swallow them.

If you want to dye your blocks of wood an efficient and inexpensive way is to use equal parts food coloring and rubbing alcohol. Just one dunk in the mixture will give your wood a rich color and the rubbing alcohol lends to quick drying.

The Wiffle Ball

Materials:
1 Wiffle ball (You can get these for a buck at any dollar store.)
Rope
chain
Wooden blocks
Plastic beads if you have them
D-ring
2 O-rings


For this toy I used a large Wiffle ball for my Cockatoo. First I took a section of chain and 2 O-rings and set them through the center.

Now, take the wiffle ball and thread different lengths of rope through the holes. I used sisal, which can be scratchy so you may want to wear gloves when you work with it. Slide blocks and beads onto each end knotting the rope beneath them. If you have the issue I have with knots being too loose Hold the knot firmly in your hand and pull down hard. Your loose knot should tighten nicely.

Trim any frayed edges and hook a d-ring to one of the O-rings in the center chain and you are done. If using cotton rope be sure to watch the fraying, keep it trimmed so your bird doesn't get his foot or toes tangled in it.

All the materials other then the rope were from old toys that my birds had already destroyed. You can pay upwards of $30 for a similar toy in the pet store.

Fab Fridays

So I was lurking around YouTube yesterday and found this uber cute video of a couple of Indian Ringnecks playing with a phone.



Aren't they soooooo cute! They remind me of muppets, or aliens, or Muppet Aliens! Like these Muppet Aliens!!



Ah the memories of my youth integrating with feathery sweetness. :D Life can not get any sweeter.

I am a Google Fu Master.

Duke Duncan is a relatively new member of the flock. He has had 4 owners including myself. At the young age of 11. that's quite a few. His first person was an older man who loved him very much. I can tell this because even when Duke is unsure about me, he is still very gentle. A nice change, considering that I have some that bite first and ask questions later.

When Duke's first person passed away, his daughter cared for him for, I think, 2 years. From what I hear, she was not so much a bird person. So, she brought him to a friend of mine. My friend, not having the time for him, then blessed me with His Highness, making me promise that she would get him back if I ever could not keep him.

Duke, giving the camera the "eye"

When we got Duke, we were told that he was a Lilac-crowned Amazon. I looked them up on the web and he looks nothing like a Lilac.

Lilac-crowned Amazon, picture from www.parrots.org

So for the last year, I have been thinking that he is some sort of cross between a Lilac and a Yellow-nape. I was so wrong, as I discovered about 5 mins ago.

While I was looking for a nice web pic of a Lilac to post here, I decided that Duke just didn't look like them even slightly. So, I did a broader search and found a picture that was really close to him. I clicked it, got the species name, and then did a search for those. Lo and behold, that was it! Duke is actually an Orange Winged Amazon. The way I determined this, other than pictures, was the description about this “tell tale ruff” of feathers around their neck that they can raise and settle at will.

Orange-winged Amazon, picture from www.ceiba.org.

Think of Jurassic Park. The little dinosaurs that had the ruff and spit poison. That is what Duke looks like when he raises his ruff. It is funny looking and gets us all giggling when he does it. I have plans to get some photos of this during the weekend, if I am successful I will post them next week.

See you next week!

Velcro Bird

Cockatoos, also referred to as Toos or Tooies, are what many bird owners refer to as Velcro birds. This is because a Too, once bonded lives for its human. It will want to be on you to snuggle, preen, play with, eat with. You get the point. These birds are lovers to the Nth degree. Because of this they don't like to be left alone and have no understanding to why you don't want to be with them 24/7.

I don't work much outside the house normally. In 2008 I had a part time job in a friends bird store, less then 12 hrs a week so I was still at home 90% of my day. So I thought a Too would be an awesome addition to my flock. And well, when she was just a baby, I fell in love with her as soon as I saw her. I really didn't think much past.. “Ohhhhhh! I wuv her, must have..Must HAVE!” These are the pitfalls of working in a bird store.

Toos are not known for their talking ability. Though, as my searches via YouTube can confirm, some actually talk quite well. Trouble, my aptly named Too, is a mumbler. She is 3 years old now, and has been with me for all but 2 months of her life. She barks at the dogs when they go out side, running along the bottom of her cage woofing at them like she is part of the pack. She makes kissy noises to get me to scratch her. She mumbles, “I love you” and “Hello, Echo.” The latter she picked up because Echo loves to talk to her and that is one of his favorite phrases.

Scratch me!

Trouble is a beautiful Lesser Sulfur-Crested Cockatoo. She requires A LOT of attention, because, she is a typical Too and loves me and needs me and gets very upset if she doesn't see me at all times during the day. This can be a bone of contention sometimes, because she screams really, really loudly. I mentioned before that a Cockatoo's call carries for at least two miles, well I know this from experience. It also reverberates through a house like a train whistle, if that train was parked in your living room and the conductor laid on that whistle like his life depended on it. It's a joy, I tell you.

A note to any future Too owners out there. Baby Toos don't scream. They coo and cuddle and tickle that part of your brain that goes “Awwww” when you see cute kittens on the internet. They trigger that mothering instinct. They cuddle and love and devote their little feathery lives to you faster then you can blink. They are awesome birds, beautiful and graceful. And then between 6 months to a year, when they have you wrapped around their little toe, you walk out of the room and this shriek pierces your brain like a dagger. You are left holding your now bleeding ears wondering who put the bomb siren in your head, and wondering how that sweet little bird made a noise that gosh darn loud.

My Competition..

This is Kenya. Kenya is a Congo African Grey and has made it abundantly clear that she is John's bird. Kenya was given to us by a breeder. Her parents stepped on her wrong in the nest and broke both of her legs as a chick. The vet did a good job patching her up, but her feet are a bit splayed and one foot does not grip very well. Because of this, she is not keen on being held and can not perch on our hands like a normal bird.

What she does like is John. She likes to sit with John, talk to John and just be with John. She also enjoys...biting me, yelling at me, pooping on me and just being very clear that if it were not for me, she and my husband would be very happy together.

Being an African Grey, Kenya is a talker. Her favorite voice to mimic is mine. Why me? Because John responds quicker to my voice. Her favorite phrases to date are, “John?”, “Baby?”, and “Are you eating?” Compare her top three to Echo's top three which are, “Hello.”, “I love you.” and “Whatcha doing?”

Now all six phrases are learned from me, the difference is that Echo repeats what I say to him and Kenya repeats what I say to John. We have taught Kenya words, like "Hello", and "I love you". She just seems to prefer phrases from conversations that do not include her. A reminder to always watch what you say around your parrots, because you never know what they might pick up.

DIY Mondays

Since I talked before about the expense of birds, I thought today I would talk about how to save a little money. In fact I have decided to make Monday posts, DIY Mondays.

Bird food is pricey, bird treats are even more expensive for less quantity. So how do we treat our birds with out breaking the bank? Well here are two sure fire ways to treat your parrot.

Bagel Treats

Need:
½ Bagel (stale bagels are fine as long as they have no mold on them)
Peanut Butter (creamy is the best)
Parrot Seed (approx 1/4 cup or so depending)
Plate (paper works great)

Take half a bagel (mini bagel for smaller birds) spread peanut butter over it (creamy is best) and stick some of their seed into the peanut butter. I usually use a paper plate with a cup of seed on it and press the bagel PB side down into the seed to make a few of these rather quickly. Then hang the bagel treat from the top of the cage with string or rope. Use a slip knot method for this, double strands of rope, chain, string etc. can cause a bird to strangle themselves when they twist around on the toy.

This can also be done for wild birds using wild bird seed and hung from a tree branch.

Peanut Butter Balls

Need:
½ cup Peanut Butter (creamy)
¾ cup Parrot Seed
Cookie Sheet
Wax paper

Another inexpensive treat mix about ½ a cup of peanut butter with about ¾ cup bird seed. Stir the sticky mess thoroughly adding more peanut butter if needed. Take a cookie sheet and cover it with wax paper. Roll the PB and seed mixture into small balls and place on the cookie sheet then place sheet into the freezer. Let freeze for about 30 mins to an hour, the mixture should no longer be sticky allowing you to easily remove them from the wax paper and distribute to your parrot. Store left overs in the freezer until needed.


If you have any DIY treat recipes you use for your birds, let us know!

Pictures of the day

I dared to give Lou his bath today. Not that giving him a bath is dangerous per say, But to take pictures I have to hold the hose, camera and open the cage to get some decent shots. ^^;;; So keep in mind I risked life and limb to bring you a few photos. XD

Before the door was opened...getting him nice and wet so he doesn't realize he can get me.

Ohh Ohh, a little to the left please.

Whose my baby?

The baby of my flock is Echo, a year old blue fronted amazon.

                                                                 "I'm the Baby!"

 This is Echo at 2 months old. He was a very big boy. He still is a big boy. He talks better then most of my parrots. He is quick with a “Hello” and an “I love you” every time he sees me. No matter what he is doing if I come up to his cage he rushes over and reaches out through the bars with his foot trying to catch me and bring me closer for some cuddling.

Echo and a few others spend their summers on my back porch. Why the back porch? The heat and moisture in the air here in Florida helps with their feathers, so in the summer most of my big birds reside on the porch. Out of direct sun and the weather, but where they can enjoy the day. As a result, a lot of them have picked up the calls of our local native birds, which is always amusing.

"I'm a bird dog!"

If anyone knows anything about Florida , it's that we have a lot of summer storms here. Most are mild, but some like to make an impact. The other day we had a pretty good storm brewing so I went to check on Echo and others who reside outside, something I do automatically anytime I hear the wind kicking up. I was a bit surprised to find Echo running around loose! Apparently, the food door was not latched well and it wiggled its self open.

So there I am, on the back porch with a loose amazon, who is not happy with the on coming storm, and I know, with 100% certainty, that I am about to be on the receiving end of one heck of a bite. I have no choice in this, I have to get him off the ground and back into his cage. So I step forward, reach out, tell him to step up and get bit...hard.

I bite back the pain as Echo then guides my hand under him and steps up on me, lets go and proudly announces to the world, “Good Booooy!”

If he were not so darn cute I'd hold a grudge.

~Suzanne

Life with Lou

Lou is a Green Wing Macaw that my husband and I acquired from our handy man when we first bought our house back in 2008. He was somewhere between 3 and 5 years old and for at least a year or two was a “free range” Macaw. “Free range” meaning that his former owner decided that Lou didn't need a cage and could wander freely on his very large property.

While this sounds nice for Lou, it wasn't. His only source of water, for bathing or drinking, was a rancid algae filled plastic mold pond on the dilapidated back porch. There was no real shelter for him when the weather would turn cold or wet so when the opportunity for me to get Lou out of there came around, I snatched it.

Now let me start by saying that I absolutely love parrots, and Macaws are absolutely beautiful, with really big beaks that could snatch my finger off my hand in a second. So I have a very healthy respect for these large beautiful birds. Most of that respect manifests with me staying out of strike range anytime Lou is not in his cage.

                                                                       Hi Lou!

I know that if it were not for me that Lou would have probably died from his free roaming lifestyle. His partner cockatoo had already been run over and killed in his former owners driveway, so I had no doubt that Lou would not have lasted another year in that situation. I got him out of there, got him a huge cage and lots of toys and set him up in a place where he could be happy and healthy with the hopes to build him an outdoor enclosure as soon as we could afford it. Now if Lou would get on board with this plan we'd be set.

You see, Lou does not like me. Well not just me, he doesn't like any woman, but he seems to have a real hate on for me. And he is a plotter. For the first six months or so Lou and I had an understanding. I would sit next to him and we'd talk. I'd feed him treats through the bars of his cage and we were good. Sometimes, if he was feeling particularly chipper, we'd play peek-a-boo, which was always fun. All in all Lou and I were getting close, forming a bond of trust that had me believing that we would be the best of buddies and I would be able to handle him soon. Little did I know that Lou had an entirely different take on the situation, and that he was mainly biding his time until he could kill me.

The event happened on a slow Sunday afternoon. It was cage cleaning time and Lou was on the bird stand while his cage was being scrubbed down. I was sitting there talking to him and telling him what a good boy he was while I handed him treats. All was good for a moment, then it got ugly. As I handed him a treat he thrust that huge gaping maw of a beak at me. He grabbed my thumb by the rather long, at the time, nail and snapping it off like it was a twig. I freely admit that I screamed like I had been shot. My nail had been ripped off a bit past the quick and it hurt...a lot.

From that point on I have never been in grabbing distance of Lou again. He was loose one morning when I woke up and found him roaming in the kitchen. I hid behind a door until my husband was able to get him and put him back into the safety of his cage.

I still feed Lou treats through the bars of his cage. I still talk to him, play peek-a-boo, sing with him when it rains and have a pleasant relationship with him..as long as he is in his cage. When he is out, I find another room to be in, because it is obvious by his lunging and body language that he does not trust me and in general has absolutely no use for me what so ever. That's alright though, I still love him like I love all my parrots, I'll just refrain from giving him kisses.

~Suzanne

So you want a parrot

Parrots can be wonderful companions. Unfortunately I have seen owners that have had to give up their beloved bird for a variety of reasons. These parrots are hard to place, they need to be trained or re-trained out of bad habits, they scream, bite, eat all the wrong foods, and are over all scared to death over their new found situations.

So before you get yourself a parrot, these are some of the things you need to know:

1. Parrots are long lived. The smaller parrots, quakers, conures, lovebirds, cockatiels can live upwards of 30 years. The larger varieties, Macaws, Cockatoos, Amazons, African Greys, etc can live anywhere from 50 to 80 years and older. Owning a bird is a long term commitment, be sure you are up to the task.

2. If you don't like loud noises it's probably best not to get a parrot. Parrots can be loud, seriously loud. A Cockatoo's scream can be heard up to 2 miles away, think of what that could be like in your house. Conures though smaller can screach with the best of them, in fact, most of my conures make alot more noise then my Cockatoo and my Macaw combined. Cockatiels are quieter but chitter all day long, same with parrakeets, so keep this in mind before getting a bird also keep in mind that baby birds, which are normally sold in pet stores, make significantly less noise then adults. For instance, I fell in love with my sweet, quiet, cooing Cockatoo when I worked in the pet store, imagine my surprise when she screamed for the first time almost 8 months later.

3. If you don't have the time, don't get the bird. Birds bond to their humans, they want to be with you, stand on you, talk to you and play with you. If you work 8 plus hours a day, leaving the bird alone with nothing to do you will have problems like plucking and self mutilation.

4. Parrots are smart. They need to be mentally and physically stimulated. Toys are important for parrots, they need to chew and play and toys provide that for them. There are toys that hide food and treats that are wonderful ways to stimulate your parrot. Remember a cage with out toys is little more then a prison for them.

5. Feng shui your bird. Because parrots are so smart and need to be stimulated. You should rearange their cage about once a month. Exchange their toys, put in something new for  them to explore. This accomplishes two things, the first it engages their brain keeping them from developing a routine with their toys that may lead to bordom and from there bad behavior like plucking. Second it can help them from becoming so accustom to their cage being a certain way that they become cage bound.

6. The beak that bites. If you own a parrot is not the case of if you get bit as when you get bit. Parrots bite, it's a fact of life. They dont have hands so they explore their world through their beak and tongue.  Sometimes they don't mean to hurt you, but parrots speak to one another differently. In the wild if there is danger they will bite the bird next to them to alert them, they will bite to establish domanance heck they will bite for just about anything. A companion parrot is not much different from it's wild cousins. You have to train your bird not to bite you and keep in mind even the best trained bird can, and possibly will, still bite under the right circumestances.

7. Feeding a parrot. Food is an important part of the life of a parrot. A wise vet told me that a proper diet for a parrot is 70% pellet, 20% fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and 10% seed. This is an over all good diet for most parrots, though some like Macaws need a different balance of pellet vs. seed. Be sure to talk to a vet, that specializes in Avians, on the proper mixture for your parrot. In general though there are a few rules that encompass all birds. Feeding only seed will shorten the lifespan of your parrot. Seed is high in fat and low on nutrients, so an all seed diet leads to some medical issues the least of being liver disease and obesity in your parrot. Even in small doses, avocado and chocolate will kill a parrot. All parrots are lactose intolerant, do not feed them any milk products like cheese or icecream.

8. A parrot is an investment. Parrots are expensive. The birds themselves can run a tidy price, then factor in the cage and toys and food and you have one hefty price tag. Be prepared to invest a lot of time and money in a bird over it's lifespan.

9. Research, Research, Research! The biggest thing about owning a parrot is research. Know what species of parrot you want to invest in before you ever step into a store. For instance, if you don't like loud noises or live in an apartment you do not want to invest in a cockatoo. Keep in mind that every bird is an individual and might not line up completely to species standards, but those standards are still a pretty good guideline to what your bird will be like.

~Suzanne

Hello Blogger-verse!

Let me start by introducing myself, my name is Suzanne and I live my life with my husband John, and a menagerie of parrots. I have wanted to start a blog for a while now and have been hesitant to really sit down and get it going, but not anymore. Now I am here, in the blogger-sphere, just like everybody else. XD

For those who have not guessed it yet, this blog will be about parrots, my life with them, and all the excitement that goes along with it. I do not know-it-all when it comes to parrots, but I have learned quite a bit in a somewhat short period of time. I also have very sweet, kind, and good friends with the patience of saints that I can go to for answers on some of the harder questions I have had.

So while I prattle on about my birds and tell you about the things I have learned about them, feel free to ask questions. I will do my best to answer everyone, and if I don't know the answer, I will do my best to find one for you.

~Suzanne