Personal trainer

Thomas has a painful condition that necessitates that he workout every day to help ease the pain. When he's able to rise early, he does this in the morning when the parrots are sleeping. However, he's been pushing the snooze button on his alarm clock, which means the workouts are moved to after work.

This makes the parrots (well, Rocky and Max) happy as they love the basement. I don't know why they like it down there so much. They're not allowed to eat and nothing particularly special happens. However, if Max sees me heading towards the basement stairs, she immediately flies over, and has managed to squeeze her body through the closing door.

Rocky has a perch right next to the elliptical machine.

Max doesn't have a perch and she's only allowed down there when I'm visiting him because we don't want her flying off and getting into trouble (our basement is not parrot-proofed!) She loves hanging out on our equipment, whether it's in use or not. When she flies here, we joke that she's his personal trainer.

I have mentioned in previous posts that I will launch my flying parrots and tell them to go somewhere, but I've never shown what I meant. "Launch" can be a word with somewhat negative connotations, and that's not the case here. Plus, if I try to make them go somewhere they don't want to go, they just do a U-turn and return to me.

This is a short video of me launching Max to one of her favorite places -- my treadmill.

Back upstairs, Rocky is back in nesting mode. The entire living room had been swept and new newspaper set out the night before. All of this destruction happened in about two hours (and was cleaned up again shortly after this video was taken). We're fine with it since he just destroys toys, wood pieces, and newspaper, but I've had to drastically increase my sweeping duties!

Our first harvest of the year!

Excitement ran through our house as we had our first harvest of the year! We have many tomatoes and peppers growing on our plants, so this is just the first of what we hope will be many more to come.

With one pepper, we really couldn't do much cooking. As Max loves jalapenos, I decided to offer the pepper to her. Denied! She just kept turning her head so she wouldn't even have to look at the offending vegetable. The pepper remains uneaten but I will try again tonight.
I think this is the first time she's seen a bowl of cabbage, and she ran over to investigate. She didn't throw it out of the bowl like she does with greens, but she was licking it.
This picture doesn't go along with any theme I may have going today, but he's just so adorable, especially when he's trying to show me how big and scary he is. This was taken while he spent some time in the bathroom as I changed their food and water in the morning. He has been covering his head with his wing and chewing on one of his toes, which I'm trying to capture with the camera since that's such strange behavior!

But when he sees me come in with the camera, he starts posing before I can get a shot.
He just looks so cuddly and it's all I can do to not grab him up and hug him, like Thomas does. Luckily my brain has been able to restrain this impulse as I would surely be bloody if I ever tried such a stunt with him!

Parrot disagreements

I've mentioned that Beeps and Max sometimes get into little fights. In the past few months, there has been no aggression between any of the other parrots. I'm not sure why, but Max has been pursuing Beeps a bit more aggressively (with Beeps also joining in and antagonizing Max), so we've been much more careful about policing their interactions and keeping them separate.


Max will stalk Beeps until he flies into the plant stand, and then she sits there, watching him.Beeps seems to enjoy playing on the plant stand, but this is not acceptable behavior from Max. Also, we're not sure what the plant stand is made of and don't want him ingesting any metals that could affect his health.He also has taken to hanging out on Stella's kitchen stand. She doesn't seem to mind, but the other day, Max decided to intimidate her nemesis a bit:Thomas was brushing his teeth the other day when Beeps flew in and landed on his towel. He was having a good time, swinging around and beeping.


Over the weekend, Thomas made some bread. Rocky climbed up on the counter and started eating the raw dough. After I took this picture, I removed him from this apparently tempting scene.
One of Rocky's favorite toys is the Wheel Tweet Foot Toy from TNT Bird Toys, located towards the bottom of the page I linked to. He loves playing with these, either by himself or with us. Sometimes he'll drop a ball off at our feet, asking us to play fetch with him, like a dog. Other times he throws it up in the air as high as he can, shrieks as it comes back down, and then rushes over to attack it.


I've had a hard time capturing these games on video, but I think this one does an adequate job of illustrating the main idea. He was on our kitchen table playing when I decided to join him a bit. I just love how fast he goes to attack his toy!

At least she'll have good eyesight...

One of our weekly rituals is juicing. We usually have a base of carrots and add in various other fruits and vegetables. The parrots love fresh juice. It's a special favorite of Max and the caiques.

Here Max is investigating the bag of carrots -- she knows what's coming next!Although she prefers carrot juice to actual carrots, she couldn't wait and decided to help herself to a piece of one of her favorite vegetables. I am amazed at her skill of breaking through plastic barriers to get at the food she wants:

After the juice is done, we put it in large mason jars. Max was trying to figure out how she could get to the juice. She was licking the outside of the jar, hoping she might be able to get some.

This next string of events had me, once again, amazed at her intelligence and problem solving skills. I poured myself a small glass of juice and had not yet gotten around to offering some to the parrots. Max would not wait. First, she perched on an empty bowl that was next to the glass.

The next time I looked over, she was perched on the glass itself, slurping down the juice as fast as she could:

Here she is, satisfied, and with a major juicebeak.

Hot Times

It has been so hot around here I feel like I am going to melt. The parrots are happy to be in air conditioning.

I was at the farmers' market on Wednesday. I felt bad for the farmers that had to stay out in the heat all day. Everyone was very sweaty! I stocked up on greens (for us and the lizards), leeks, carrots, honey, peas, and other vegetables. My favorite farmer threw in some jalapeno peppers, so the parrots got a little treat last night:

Yesterday, I mentioned our new morning routine where Rocky spends time in the bathroom instead of his cage. This morning, Max decided to join him. They were in there, singing and dancing along with the music I had playing in the living room.

Here's a closeup of Stella. I'm still working on getting photos of her that aren't blurry or washed out. She's been talking more, but has only picked up phrases from Max. In fact, I think I've heard her say everything that Max knows how to say. She also mimics my sneeze a lot (although I think she's actually mimicking Max mimicking my sneeze). I always reply "A tes souhaits!" in an effort to make her a bit bilingual. So far, it's not working!
Here are two more pictures of events that happen in our house pretty much every morning. Max has a plastic teaspoon that is her spoon. When she was a baby, we were careful not to have her eat off of our dishes because we worried about her catching something from us (we no longer worry about this!)

In any case, we would hold this spoon for her and offer her food. After a couple of times, when she was only about 5 months old, she grabbed the spoon from us to hold it herself. Since then, it saves us time as we can just give her food on a spoon and don't have to hold it for her. We've tried unsuccessfully to get any of our other parrots to do this, although my parents' quaker will also hold a spoon. As you can see from the glob of food in her mouth, she is an expert at eating from the spoon! After she's done, there's barely a trace of food left. Whenever she sees me with the spoon in hand, she gets excited and flies immediately to her stand to await a treat.
Have a great weekend!

New Rocky Routine

We've switched up Rocky's morning routine a bit, and we're all happier for it! I think I've mentioned it here in the past, but I used to let all of the parrots out except Rocky during the 15 minutes or so it takes me to feed and water everyone. Rocky didn't like this, and I can understand his gripe! However, since he tried to attack me when I let him out, he needed to stay locked up.

During the past few weeks, I've been letting him out when I let out everyone else, but bringing him into the bathroom where he hangs out on the shower curtain. He is so happy up there! Every few minutes I check in on him and we dance a little. I wish I would have thought of this sooner. There is something about the bathroom that calms him down and makes him happy.

In this video, he's a little wet as all of the parrots were sprayed down this morning. If you listen closely, starting around the halfway mark, he's making quiet hissing and clicking sounds. We've been working on whispering lately!


Max was in an inquisitive mood last night, and she flew over to the place on the counter where I put the mail and got to work shredding the junk mail.
Then she came over to investigate my camera bag. The main reason I'm posting this picture is because her tongue is so visible. I guess I never realized how much pink it had before!
Also, I forgot to mention a fun wildlife sighting I had yesterday. I was running in the state park with a friend of mine before work. As we made a left turn on the course, we came almost face to face with a deer! She stared at us for a few seconds -- we had to have been at most 6 feet away -- and then ran off away from the trail. I wish I would have had my camera! But running those hills just about kills me so I couldn't add any extra weight. Plus, my sweat would probably ruin the camera. In any case, it made my day!

Help yourself, Rock!

This scene presented itself to me yesterday, and I had to smile because it represents what we're trying to achieve with our parrots.

Thomas set his dessert of peaches and nuts on the kitchen table while he quickly ran downstairs. Instead of screaming because he wanted some, Rocky climbed onto the table and helped himself.

I've briefly mentioned our parrot philosophy of personal responsibility before, but will go into a bit more detail here.

In the wild, all of our parrots (with the possible exception of Stella who, at 5, is a bit young) would be raising families on their own. They would have responsibilities to their flock, to their mates, and to their offspring. If something was amiss (hunger, nesting site dispute, etc.) they would need to fix it themselves instead of screaming and hoping another parrot would.

While we realize that living in the artificial environment of our home is very different from the wild, these wild animals still retain enough of their instincts to act in ways that impact their own lives.

Our thinking has really been evolving since the addition of Rocky to our house two years ago. Prior to him, we just had Max, Calypso, and budgies, all of whom were quite easy going and content with life as we provided it to them.

And then our screamy macaw entered our lives. Screaming had been his main way of communicating, and he did that often. He'd scream when he was bored, hungry, thirsty, tired, angry, etc. Not acceptable!

In addition to working with him on learning a more appropriate way to communicate, we wanted him to learn that he could improve his circumstances without ever having to involve us.

For example, if we were in the kitchen and he was in the living room, we didn't want him screaming or calling to us to bring him in -- we wanted him to climb down from his cage and find us. If he was lonely and wanted attention, he needed to come and find one of us.

It's hard for me to succinctly explain how we accomplished this -- and it's something that we're constantly working on. Basically, we had talks with him (he understands so much more than you'd imagine!), called him to us when he'd make noises like he was lonely, offered him choices as often as possible, and praised him like crazy when he took the initiative.

After seeing how successful this was with Rocky, we've implemented it with the rest of the parrots. We try to offer them as many choices as possible so that they learn they CAN impact their lives.

I truly believe that it's made a more harmonious home for us, and more fulfilling lives for them. And that's why it brings a smile to my face when he climbs up to eat our food, or approaches one of us and drops a ball at our feet, asking for a game of fetch (trying to get this on video!)

Clown loaches

I narrowly avoided either old-fashioned hilarity or a potentially injurious fall upon exiting Thomas's car to go to lunch yesterday.
Seriously? Who leaves a banana peel in the parking lot? I thought that was the myth of cartoons and old British comedy.

The most exciting news in parrotland, although I don't have any pictures, is that Stella is flying well. She still doesn't voluntarily take flight, but she must have flown in a previous home, or at least fledged, as she knows how to navigate and land. This makes my life easier, as I can launch her from the kitchen and tell her "go to your cage" and she does, saving me a trip.

If you were in our living room right around dinner time, you'd think I had some sort of parrot cannon as I launch Beeps, Max, and Stella into the living room, keeping my hands free for bringing in dinner or the non-flying parrots.

I've read about the supposed stress-relieving benefits of aquariums, but mine can be stress-inducing. I worry all the time about providing the best possible home for all of the animals in my care, including the finned ones.

Last August and September, we decided to add some clown loaches to our tank. We purchased three from the most expensive fish store in town, but two died soon thereafter. These guys need to be in groups of at least three, so we went to another store and bought two more. They've all survived, but the two from the chain store pal around and often leave the one from the fancy store alone. Additionally, although they were all about the same size when we got them, the two from the chain store have grown considerably and are now more than twice the size of the little guy.

Yesterday was a rare sighting of all three out at the same time. The little guy is on the bottom of this picture, just to the left of center. The larger, silver fish are some of our Australian Rainbowfish -- the ones who had babies. The three babies are still doing well!

Here is a little video of them swimming around. It really can be nice to sit and watch, but I have to be careful to not stress out about their interpersonal relationships!

Max and food

Most of the Max stories I post seem to involve food in some way, and today was no exception. You would think we starve her for the foraging she does around our kitchen!

First, Stephanie had asked last week whether Max ever eats any of the greens or just plays with them. While I'm still not sure of the answer for raw greens, we found out that she absolutely loves cooked greens! Of course, this could have something to do with the fact that they were sauteed in olive oil and garlic! You can see her eye pinning. Not sure why it looks like we have red lights on. We do not live in a disco!
Beets, on the other hand, she wanted no part of. Thomas was rather disappointed since he loves them. I tend to side with Max on this vegetable, but am trying to get myself to like them since they are healthy!
Here she is, licking the water off of a peach, just like she's previously done with strawberries and apples. Like those other fruits, she will not eat them. But as soon as I put one on the counter to prepare, she flies over and starts licking the water.
I've mentioned before that when the rest of the family is in the living room, she'll sometimes fly into the kitchen and hang out alone. We find this rather strange, but usually allow it, listening for clues that she's left her stand and looking for trouble. Apparently we missed the sound of her flying over to the kitchen island (where she almost never goes).

I tried to get a picture of her in the middle of her crime, but she apparently wasn't proud of destroying the bananas, as she wouldn't stay by them:
As proof, though, you can see her banana beak:
Thomas was taking pictures of Daphne hanging out in the plants over the weekend, and captured some nice ones. I like the way that you can see the purple hue she has in this first one.
Another Daphne picture. She looks fat, but that's her English budgie genes! There's a little bit of red above her cere. I was wearing lightly tinted chapstick when I gave her a kiss -- oops!
I wish I knew how to edit videos, as Thomas, shirtless, encroached into my movie towards the end. Sorry about that! We're trying to keep our power bills low this year by not keeping our house too cool and instead dressing skimpily around the house.

In any case, in this video, Daphne is exploring one of our plants. She is so curious and playful!

Not parrot-related, but I ran across this really fun website via links on another blog. It's called Pandora Radio, and the tag is "Radio from the Music Genome Project (R)" It's free, although free registration is recommended.

You type in an artist, composer, or song that you like, and the website customizes a radio station for you by streaming music. Also, no commercials! Then, it plays songs that are similar to what you like. You can rate the songs it plays to customize what you want to hear even more. It gives you information about the songs, including a link so you can buy the CD if you want.

I had been getting kind of tired of listening to the songs on my itunes lately, so this has expanded my songs -- and it's all free!

My thoughts on budgies...

In my continuing series of writing about the birds sharing their lives with me (see my entries on caiques and timnehs), I move on to one of the parrot world's under appreciated jewels: budgies.

In my adult life, I've been lucky enough to share my home with 4 different budgies. Lenny and Jeff Saturday were not tame, and Ethel and Daphne were. Is there anything sweeter than a tame budgie?

Daphne (pictured at left) is the only one still around. Budgies tend to have relatively short lifespans, due in part to the fact that they are tumor-prone caused by inbreeding. Daphne is at least 4, and half-English (who tend to have shorter life-spans) so we optimistically hope to have at least 6 years left with her.

In my opinion, budgies are extremely underrated. There are many reasons for this. They are relatively inexpensive, so are easily purchased as impulse buys. They are relatively easy to breed, so there is an overabundance of them in captivity. Many people have memories of bitey, scared, cage-bound budgies from their youth, so immediately discount having one as an adult. There is a misconception that they don't have personalities, or that they are boring.

Nothing could be further from the truth! A hand-tame, friendly budgie is such a delight! And even not tame budgies can brighten up someone's home with their cheerful chattering.

Ethel (pictured below) was the first tame budgie who lived with us, and she opened our eyes to what they can be. She immediately fell in love with Thomas and followed him everywhere. She was very intelligent and could figure out rather complex problems. She had a fiery personality and made sure things were just how she wanted them. She loved playing with toys and learned to imitate Calypso's call. In the days after her death, our house was eerily silent without her chirps.

We had just over a year with Ethel, and even now, more than two years since her death, tears are rolling down my face as I think about how much I miss her.

Budgies make wonderful pets in houses with gentle children. Although they can bite, it's hard for a budgie to do serious damage. Their tiny feet can be just the right size to perch on a child's finger. They also fit more smoothly into the average family's lifestyle. They aren't as demanding, messy, loud, and destructive as the larger parrots.

As you can see, I am a huge fan of budgies! It breaks my heart that there is such an overpopulation of them in captivity and that most don't reach their potential as loving companions.

The picture of Daphne was taken by my friend J as she visited my house last week. I love it when people with large birds come to my house and handle her because they are often shocked at how tiny and tame she is.