Max's One-Track Mind

Max is a bit obsessed right now. She is very nesty, and wants to hang out in the bathroom, preferably in the drawers.

She was going all night, and I managed to catch it on video:

If she were male, as long as her behavior didn't change, I'd allow this.  However, since she is female, the concern of egg-binding arises.  Therefore, after getting it on video, I removed her and then closed the bathroom door.

Her hopes were up, but I took her away and distracted her, eventually.

Luckily, she has not become more aggressive during her nesty time.  She's almost 11 years old, and this is the first time I can remember that she's been so nesty.  Poor girl.

Stella's drive to nest

Stella has a very strong drive to nest in dark places.  Because we don't want to encourage egg production, we do not allow this.  However, every time we open a cabinet, she flies down and tries to go inside.

Yesterday morning, she tried to get into the space above our stove and microwave by knocking over a decorative panel designed to look like a cabinet.

I removed her right after taking this picture, otherwise who knows how far inside she would have gotten!  She might still be lost in the bowels of our house as I have no idea where this false cabinet leads.

More Rocky nesting

This is one of my favorite things that Rocky does, but I have a hard time getting a good picture of it!  My camera is not powerful enough to take a good picture from far away (hence the evil glint in Rocky's eye), and if I get too close, he just comes out to threaten me.  He only does this for a portion of the year, so I have to enjoy it while I can.

At night, Thomas sweeps the floor really well.  As soon as Rocky sees the broom, he runs down and hides under his cage.  He then sings and laughs during the sweeping.  As soon as the sweeping is done, he climbs into his cage and starts saying "Bye Bye!"

This next picture I took this morning.  Rocky's been screaming pretty much non-stop, unless he has a box to chew.  I gave him a new box this morning so I could get ready for work in peace.  As you can see, he chewed an entrance hole in the bottom left of the box.

When I found him, he was inside the box and stuck his head out to look at me; however, when he saw me, he had to run over to threaten me, which is what he's doing here.  Once I left him alone, he went back to his box.

By the time I left for work, he'd chewed through the entire front of the box.  I'm sure it will be gone when I get home from work.

He's such a good nest-builder and very conscientious of Thomas and of his eggs.  I bet he would have been a great macaw parent.  It just breaks my heart that he's in my living room instead of the wild.

Rocky nests

Rocky has been very nesty again.  We've been giving him boxes to keep him busy.  I must warn that not all parrots take well to boxes.  We don't let our females have boxes as we don't want to stimulate egg-laying behavior and risk any health problems.  We don't let Beeps have boxes as it makes him extremely aggressive.  But for Rocky, it calms him down, keeps him busy and not screaming, and doesn't increase his aggression.

His favorite is shoe boxes, as he fits in them after chewing an entrance hole.  If you look to the right, you will see one of his "eggs" (really, a ball) that he treasures.  He likes to put his eggs in his nest, then he goes in and sings to them, moves them around, clucks at them, etc.  He never sits on them.  Sometimes he bangs them around, which would probably be bad news if he were in the wild with a real egg!

I spoke to my friend who is the manager of a running store, and she has promised to supply Rocky with a steady stream of shoe boxes; he is very excited about that!

Later, he sat on Thomas's lap and read the paper.  He is also very excited that housecoat weather has returned.

Another nesting update

I didn't think I'd have another update since this one, with the possible exception of some fledgling activity in my yard (which I've seen but not captured on camera yet).  But the robins surprised me!

Earlier this week, we noticed that there was a robin in the nest again, sitting on eggs!  I'm guessing it's the same pair, raising another brood, though of course I have no way to know for sure.  It's nice to know we were welcoming enough that she wanted to try again!

In other nesting news, while Thomas was mowing the lawn last week, he noticed that there is another nest on our drain spout -- this one's in the back. The base looks similar to the robin's nest in front, but there is an elaborate topping to it.  We have not yet been able to figure out who's nesting there.  Fancier robins?  Maybe mourning doves as we've seen them flying in that area?  Something else entirely?

If we figure it out, of course I'll post.

Rocky builds another nest

Thomas recently purchased supplies to make another beer, which meant that Rocky got to enjoy one of his favorite boxes:

Though I ddin't get any pictures of it, he does frequently go entirely inside, and he will also bring some "eggs" (plastic balls) in there with him.

Thomas was taking these pictures, and after a bit, Rocky decided to come over and attack the camera instead of working on his nest:

I think he was just looking for some company, but Thomas wasn't interested.

Nesting in the open

Rocky continues to be ruled by hormones.  He bit Thomas last week when Thomas asked him to step up, so he's using the stick a bit more (I always use the stick.)  So that he could spend more time with the family instead of hanging out underneath his cage, we put a box in the kitchen.  We weren't sure he'd take to it, but he did.

As always, a disclaimer: we've made the decision to allow Rocky to nest as it has no impact on his behavior.  (As in, his behavior does not improve if we remove nesting materials.)  Also, since he is a male, we do not need to worry about egg-binding problems.  We do not allow our females to nest.  This keeps him happy, occupied, and rather quiet.  Despite the fact that Thomas has never laid an egg for the two of them to incubate, Rocky continues to hope. 

A bit of nesting

The picture's a bit dark, but Rocky was doing strange nesting behavior with Thomas's shoes last night:Of course, as soon as he perceived I was watching him, he perked up and needed attention RIGHT NOW!!!
He ran over and started jumping up and down in front of us (this would have been more effectively illustrated with a video instead of still pictures!)
Finally, Thomas put his leg on the floor, which allowed Rocky to use it as a ramp to get to his favorite person:Thomas frequently carries Rocky around like this:Personally, I'm a big fan as then I know there won't be any surprise attacks. He's the only one of our parrots who likes being carried like this! He's perfectly palm-sized.

Rocky's nest

I've been trying to get a picture of Rocky in his shoebox nest; this is as good as I've been able to get as he exits when we approach.You can see on the right that he first chews a severe macaw-sized entrance on the short end. He then spends much time enclosed in the box, continuing to chew.

Once again, if he were female, we would not allow this as we don't want to encourage egg-laying (or the potentially disastrous egg-binding.) We also would not allow this if it increased his aggression, which boxes do to some birds. For Rocky, it just keeps him busy.

Mr. Nest

Rocky is in extreme nesting mode, and we've been indulging him. As always, I feel compelled to write that whether or not to allow your bird to play with boxes depends on that bird's individual personality. I would not allow any of my females to play in boxes as I do not want to encourage egg production. I would not allow my male birds to play in boxes if it exacerbated any of their hormonal behaviors in a negative way.That being said, Rocky has been going through a box every 1-2 days. When I got home from work yesterday, he'd turned the box into a little cave, and would hang out in there with his fabric, wood to chip, and his eggs (plastic balls.) This box was entirely shredded when I got home from work today, so he'll get a new one tomorrow.

He is quite adorable in his nest. He sings little songs to his "eggs," gently moving them around, making sure they're comfortable, etc. Shoe boxes and beer kit boxes appear to be the right size. Good thing we have quite a few of both at our house!

Nesty

I had set a box near the door to the garage so that it could be recycled. Stella took this as an invitation to dig in a dark, enclosed space:I moved the box and redirected her to an activity that would not promote egg-laying. Luckily, she remains very sweet even when she is nesty, and immediately steps up without aggression.

Nesting

No surprise here, but Rocky continues his nesting behaviors. Over the weekend, I found him on the table, covered in a towel:Then, chipping wood on top of the towel:
Shredding newspaper on the towel, while attacking the towel:
He then threw his towel on the floor to continue his nesting:
Later on, he climbed up Thomas's pants:And an unrelated picture of Calypso, eating a nut:
For whatever reason, I didn't take many pictures this weekend. I seem to go in spurts. Steve hasn't made any progress from last week. I'm hoping that by staying in his cage, his mutilation will continue to heal. Now to get to the point where he wants to come out of his cage and spend time with us!

Comforting

Over the weekend, we found out that Rocky isn't picky when it comes to a shoe nest:
Stella is doing a lot better accepting Steve's presence in our house, but she still requires a bit more reassurance than she did before he arrived. Here she's soliciting head pets and kisses from Thomas, who was only too happy to oblige her:

Max wants in on that

I mentioned in my previous post that Thomas was able to quickly distract Rocky from his displeasure that Steve was on Thomas's hand. How? By diverting his attention to a nest, of course! There were a couple of towels placed on the table, Rocky burrowed under and, lacking wood slices, started ripping up a magazine (which Thomas hadn't yet read) and some newspaper.

As Thomas put it, "Max wants in on that!" and she came over to nest with Rocky. As usual, he gave a half-hearted attempt to drive her off, but when it became apparent she was there to stay, they nested side by side for a while.
Later, he found a new place to nest. This chair is pushed in under the table, and with Thomas's flannel hanging off of the back, it provides a nice, dark spot for him.
As always, I feel the need for a disclaimer. In some birds, nesting opportunities must be eliminated, as they could have a negative behavioral or physical impact on the parrot. We are lucky in that it is just something to occupy our parrots' time. If they became more aggressive or we noticed any other signs that things were amiss, we wouldn't allow this. The key is knowing your bird(s) and making appropriate choices for each individual.

More nesting

I know, this is probably getting old. Enough with the nesting pictures! But this is what they've been doing every single day. Rocky, who'd partially hidden himself for more secluded chipping:Stella is also chipping like mad. This was all done in one day when I was at work. Her drawers had been filled with wood slices; I returned to find several inches of wood chips at the bottom of her cage.
But that's Rocky! Oh, yes. He climbed in her cage to finish up some of the chipping she'd overlooked. He actually had his entire body crammed into her drawer, but by the time I'd gotten the camera ready, he was in this position.

Joint nesting

Thomas had placed a towel on the kitchen table. Never one to resist temptation, Rocky climbed up immediately to nest. Max also flew over to do some nesting of her own. She never initiates this -- she only comes over when Rocky's already nesting. You kind of have to look closely to see Rocky:As long as she stays a few inches from him, Rocky seems fine to have them both lifting the towel up and then slam it on the ground.
Some newspaper was destroyed during nesting:
I don't think that Max realizes any nesting urges from this -- it appears to just be a game.

Rocky nesting

Rocky continues to nest in our hallway. It doesn't make his behavior any more aggressive, and it keeps him busy.By giving him acceptable wood to chew, it also is helping to keep the bottom of our doors safe!
He can spend hours like this.

More nesting

This guys spends more time with Thomas's shoes than Thomas does!Action shot:
I cannot even begin to understand why shoes would trigger such a reaction!

Rocky's unusual nesting

Rocky has been nesting in unusual ways lately. Thomas has a pair of sandals that he wears inside (so as not to step on the wood chips that tend to be all over the house, no matter how frequently we sweep). Rocky loves these sandals, and will bring them all over the house, arranging them in different formations. He'll frequently bring some wood over to chip on the shoes.

If we need to keep him occupied, we place the shoes on the floor with some wood slices, put him there, and then cover him with a blanket or one of Thomas's house coats. This is Rocky heaven.

Last night, he brought the sandals over in the hall, arranged them in a "V" formation, and then nestled inside. By the time I got the camera, he'd slightly exited from his nestled position, but you can get the general idea (his tail had been wedged in between the shoes):***********************
This morning, we were eating breakfast. The greys were in the kitchen, the caiques in the living room, and Rocky was amusing himself by nesting in Thomas's house coat in the hall. All of a sudden we hear weird noises, as though Rocky is quickly eating something. And he was!Notice how his body is still half covered by the coat (he did this himself)! This is not the first time he has done such a thing, either.


I hid several leaves of lettuce and some baby bok choy in his cage before I left for work this morning.