Wednesday, August 25, 2010

When Steve goes home, what will I have to blog about?

I swear I am not neglecting my other parrots and focusing my actual attention just on Steve; it's just that he's the one making the most progress lately, so he's getting more attention here on the blog!

Yesterday, he was perched in the middle level of his cage, on one foot, indicating that he was relaxed:So I gave him a cherry, which he loved:
Then he went back up and played with his toys a bit. He destroyed one of these straw toys earlier in the week, so this was its replacement:
Rocky had to come over since I was taking pictures:
Last night, all of the parrots were in their cages, ready for bed, and I was doing my rounds saying good night to everyone. You can see that Steve's cage is already partially covered. Steve was on his high perch, and I said good night. He shocked me by climbing down to the perch on his door! I praised him and rubbed his beak a bit; he preened my fingers through the cage bars. He seemed very relaxed, so I gently opened the door for a minute or so, then closed it again. He stayed, so I opened the door again, praising him the entire time for being so brave. He delayed me going upstairs by about 10 minutes as I was so pleased with his progress!
I think my best chance of getting him to step up will be from this perch in his cage door.

This morning, I went to the farmers' market before work, and quickly stopped by my house to drop off the food. I picked up what my favorite farmer said would likely be the last strawberries of the season. I had just enough time to give one to Steve before going to work:
As I left, he yelled, "I'll be back!"