Favorite Rocky moments

Below is a video that captures something that happens pretty much every day at our house, generally several times a night. I think it is so adorable and it's one of my favorite things he does.

We keep bins with 2X4 wood slices in several areas of our house. Rocky loves to chew wood, and he knows what is acceptable for him to chew and what isn't. However, if the urge strikes him and there's no acceptable wood around, he takes a chunk out of whatever's available. For that reason, we make sure there's plenty of acceptable wood around!

In the beginning of the video, you see him grab a piece of wood out of a bin, and then he takes it around to chip it up in his favorite place.

Also, let me reiterate that parrots are messy! Our floor had just recently been swept, so please don't think we're living in squalor. It only takes about 10 minutes for the living room to look like a disaster area once the parrots are out.

In case anyone is wondering, we were listening to Mason Jennings. It comes out much louder on the video I took than it seemed to when we were listening!

Rocky is a very hands-on bird (with Thomas, not me!) and demands head pets. We sometimes call it, "getting the business," as in Thomas will ask him, "Do you want the business?" and Rocky gets excited and runs over, often flipping on his back. He's strange.

This time, he had a nosy observer, Beeps, who had flown over to get some attention of his own.

Of course, Thomas was only too happy to oblige:When Thomas doesn't lie on the floor, offering Rocky easy access to go inside his clothes, he makes do with chipping wood near his feet:One thing we work on with our parrots, especially Rocky, is the notion of personal responsibility. We give our parrots enormous amounts of freedom, so if something is making them unhappy, they need to do something about it in order to improve their lives instead of screaming about it. I think I'll do a separate post on that concept someday; however, one of the ways we do that is by giving them as many choices as possible so that they get used to making decisions that impact their lives.

Here, Thomas is eating some dried fruit. He went around and offered the bowl to everyone so they could take their favorite piece. Rocky climbed up on the couch for seconds:

This is what I have to be alert for whenever Rocky is out:The sneak attack! He often likes to hang around corners, hoping to ensnare me in his trap. I am wise to his games, and rarely go anywhere without my stick (onto which he steps up), but he still tries.

This doesn't have anything to do with the parrots, but I saw this as I was driving to work this morning. I hope that's a sign I'll have a great weekend, and I hope everyone reading this does, too!