Stella does not automatically take food offered to her in her foot so as to hold it while she eats. She is a bit lazy, apparently, and prefers that we hold the food for her, or that she eat it out of a bowl, like a dog. Since there are 6 parrots and only 2 humans, we cannot allow her to expect this kind of personal service on a regular basis, which means that after one or two bites, we'll put the food down on her perch and she'll either grab it with her foot or knock it to the floor.
Unless it's a particular favorite; then she eagerly grabs it with her foot.
Apples are a food that generally she'll eat if we hold or if they're on a plate. She has recently changed her mind, but only when it comes to apples of the Honeycrisp variety. When we offer her apple, she takes one bite. If it's a Honeycrisp, she quickly grabs the apple with her foot. If it's any other kind, she'll eat it only as long as we hold it in front of her.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
On a more healthful note...
The parrots, particularly the greys, are obsessed with butternut squash. I was alone with them Friday night as Thomas had to work, so I was eating in the kitchen. The greys were with me, everyone else was in the living room.
I went into the living room to distribute squash to the other birds. When I left, the greys were on stands. I returned to find this:
Sometimes they would nicely take turns eating:
And occasionally, they could nicely share the bowl. At one point, Max got a big chunk of squash and decided to eat it off to the side:
Even though she had the entire bowl of squash at her disposal, Stella decided to give chase to Max and that one piece of squash! However, Max was not messing around. She flew, squash in beak, to her stand to finish eating:
Stella was about to give chase even over here, but I wanted Max to be able to eat in peace, so I grabbed Stella and distracted her with a piece of squash of her own.
I went into the living room to distribute squash to the other birds. When I left, the greys were on stands. I returned to find this:
Sometimes they would nicely take turns eating:
And occasionally, they could nicely share the bowl. At one point, Max got a big chunk of squash and decided to eat it off to the side:
Even though she had the entire bowl of squash at her disposal, Stella decided to give chase to Max and that one piece of squash! However, Max was not messing around. She flew, squash in beak, to her stand to finish eating:
Stella was about to give chase even over here, but I wanted Max to be able to eat in peace, so I grabbed Stella and distracted her with a piece of squash of her own.
Cheese
Max has an amazing ability to sense any cheese removed from the fridge and to fly over to be near the cheese and try to penetrate its container within seconds of it being placed on the counter. Oh, how she loved it when we used to wrap the cheese in saran wrap instead of using parrot-proof reusable containers! It's like she was embedded with a cheese magnet.
Here's a still picture, if you can't/don't want to watch the video:
But I think the video is kind of cute. I love how she's putting so much power into trying to open up the cheese container that she slides along on the bottom of her feet:
I didn't think this next little story deserved its own post, so I'm tagging it on here. Before we left for vacation, I ordered some heat lamps for the lizards. Thomas has not yet gotten around to figuring out how to install them in their cages, so they are on our counter, as a constant reminder to him to get them installed!
Max ignored the boxes for the first two weeks or so, but late last week, she became obsessed with flying over and then perching on the boxes!
No matter how many times we removed her or how we tried to distract her, she came right back. The next day, she'd forgotten about her obsession and has left them alone for the next few days. Which is somewhat a pity; I was hoping that she'd serve as a reminder for Thomas to get them installed!
Here's a still picture, if you can't/don't want to watch the video:
But I think the video is kind of cute. I love how she's putting so much power into trying to open up the cheese container that she slides along on the bottom of her feet:I didn't think this next little story deserved its own post, so I'm tagging it on here. Before we left for vacation, I ordered some heat lamps for the lizards. Thomas has not yet gotten around to figuring out how to install them in their cages, so they are on our counter, as a constant reminder to him to get them installed!
Max ignored the boxes for the first two weeks or so, but late last week, she became obsessed with flying over and then perching on the boxes!
No matter how many times we removed her or how we tried to distract her, she came right back. The next day, she'd forgotten about her obsession and has left them alone for the next few days. Which is somewhat a pity; I was hoping that she'd serve as a reminder for Thomas to get them installed!
The Big Mess
Rocky is majorly hormonal, again. Luckily, he has not been screaming nonstop as he had earlier this year.
Right now, his hormonal urges are manifesting themselves mostly in zealously guarding Beeps's cage from any attempts made by the humans in the house to walk by said cage. Unfortunately, Beeps's cage is located to the only entrance to the living room, which results in interesting confrontations more frequently than I would like.
This is what I imagine is going through his head right now: "Are you thinking about entering your own living room? And walking by Beeps's cage? Look at how big and scary I am! And I will jump on you if you turn your back or don't have a stick with you! Watch me bang this ladder against the cage! I think I'm going to bite you!"
He's jumping Thomas and me with alarming frequency (one of us will get jumped about once a day). I'm thinking about trimming his wings again, but am hesitant to do so since I still have hope he can learn to fly, get exercise, and behave himself. Instead, I'm hoping to wait out his hormones. It might be a false hope. He may end up clipped tonight.
What's funny is when he jumps us and he misses (usually because he's aiming for our heads and we instantly squat down), he doesn't try to come back and attack, he just nonchalantly walks back to his own cage, laughing. Thomas said yesterday it's like he's saying, "You got me, bending down like that. I didn't get you this time. Well played!"
In addition to being very protective of Beeps's cage, he's been hanging out under our food cart, destroying wood, the newspaper we keep for changing cage papers, and anything else he can get his beak on. He even took another chunk out of the fish tank yesterday, before we could stop him.
The mess! It's just killing me. This picture doesn't begin to capture it. I'm hoping this ends soon because I'm not sure how much more we can take. I would not wish a severe macaw on my worst enemy.
Right now, his hormonal urges are manifesting themselves mostly in zealously guarding Beeps's cage from any attempts made by the humans in the house to walk by said cage. Unfortunately, Beeps's cage is located to the only entrance to the living room, which results in interesting confrontations more frequently than I would like.
This is what I imagine is going through his head right now: "Are you thinking about entering your own living room? And walking by Beeps's cage? Look at how big and scary I am! And I will jump on you if you turn your back or don't have a stick with you! Watch me bang this ladder against the cage! I think I'm going to bite you!"
He's jumping Thomas and me with alarming frequency (one of us will get jumped about once a day). I'm thinking about trimming his wings again, but am hesitant to do so since I still have hope he can learn to fly, get exercise, and behave himself. Instead, I'm hoping to wait out his hormones. It might be a false hope. He may end up clipped tonight.What's funny is when he jumps us and he misses (usually because he's aiming for our heads and we instantly squat down), he doesn't try to come back and attack, he just nonchalantly walks back to his own cage, laughing. Thomas said yesterday it's like he's saying, "You got me, bending down like that. I didn't get you this time. Well played!"
In addition to being very protective of Beeps's cage, he's been hanging out under our food cart, destroying wood, the newspaper we keep for changing cage papers, and anything else he can get his beak on. He even took another chunk out of the fish tank yesterday, before we could stop him.
The mess! It's just killing me. This picture doesn't begin to capture it. I'm hoping this ends soon because I'm not sure how much more we can take. I would not wish a severe macaw on my worst enemy.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Grey chase
Last night, Max was spending more time than usual on the floor. She'd wandered into the hallway and was happily hanging out alone. Then, Stella decided that she wanted to go over there as well. She had been chasing Max around in circles, but pretty much stopped that behavior when I went over to make a video. Something similar to this had been going on for over 10 minutes:
Here is a still picture of the type of stand-off that was taking place:
I didn't get Max's escape on film, as she quickly scurried in front of Stella, hugging the wall. But Stella wasn't going to let her go so easily! I decided to extinguish the hall light in order to get them back in the kitchen.
After I stopped taping, I picked up a grey on each hand and put them on stands. They flew over to the table, where the stalking continued:
As so often with them, I wish I knew what was going on in their heads! Stella obviously could have attacked Max if she'd wanted to -- she timed her movements to stay just a step or two behind. I think it may be a friendship overture, to which Max is not receptive. Or maybe it's just a game to both of them.
In any case, times like these make me so happy that we brought Stella into our home. It has been such a pleasure watching her personality evolve, and I think Max enjoys having another grey in the house, though she'd never admit it!
Here is a still picture of the type of stand-off that was taking place:
I didn't get Max's escape on film, as she quickly scurried in front of Stella, hugging the wall. But Stella wasn't going to let her go so easily! I decided to extinguish the hall light in order to get them back in the kitchen.After I stopped taping, I picked up a grey on each hand and put them on stands. They flew over to the table, where the stalking continued:
As so often with them, I wish I knew what was going on in their heads! Stella obviously could have attacked Max if she'd wanted to -- she timed her movements to stay just a step or two behind. I think it may be a friendship overture, to which Max is not receptive. Or maybe it's just a game to both of them.In any case, times like these make me so happy that we brought Stella into our home. It has been such a pleasure watching her personality evolve, and I think Max enjoys having another grey in the house, though she'd never admit it!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Missing Stella, again
This morning the greys were burning off energy by chasing each other around the kitchen. I was reading the paper and eating breakfast. Suddenly I looked around and realized that I could see Max, but not Stella. Since she can fly, I wasn't too concerned. After a few minutes, I heard some paper destruction, so decided it wouldn't be a bad idea to find her and put her on an acceptable parrot perch. 
She had somehow landed in the box of newspapers waiting to be recycled. Although she could have gotten out on her own, she must have liked it in there!
She had somehow landed in the box of newspapers waiting to be recycled. Although she could have gotten out on her own, she must have liked it in there!
Monday, November 2, 2009
Severe macaw screaming
Although Rocky's screaming is greatly diminished from what he was doing a few months ago (luckily, or I might be in a padded room somewhere...), he still occasionally will scream for no discernible reason. Actually, as far as I could tell, he no longer wanted to be on Stella's cage, and decided to let me know that before climbing down and improving his own situation. He might have been upset that he didn't find any treats in her foraging bucket, having removed them earlier in the evening. Maybe he just didn't want me to make a video of him.
The video does not capture how loud the screaming is, but it gives an idea. Why, Rock, why?
The video does not capture how loud the screaming is, but it gives an idea. Why, Rock, why?
Parrot relationships 2: Rocky & Beeps
Rocky has always been strangely attracted to Beeps's cage. It's the cage Rocky was housed in at the parrot rescue where he spent about 4 months before coming to our house. It's not nearly big enough as a permanent cage for a severe macaw, but it's fine for a caique, so about three years ago we bought Rocky a macaw-sized cage and Beeps got an upgrade as well.
We're not sure if he likes the cage because it used to be his (but for a much shorter period than he's been in his current cage), because of its placement near the door to the living room (easier to hide and plan a sneak attack on me), or possibly because the grass is greener on the other side.
Beeps has never really minded. He usually just stays out of Rocky's way, either by running around his cage or by flying to another location in the house. Sometimes he'll fly over to Rocky's cage and eat his food.
Late last week, I heard lots of wood chipping, so I wandered into the living room to see what was going on. Unfortunately, I couldn't exactly capture the scene on camera, but Beeps and Rocky were chipping wood off of the same toy that was on Beeps's cage top!
In this picture, Rocky stopped chipping to threaten me; notice Beeps in the background:
Drinking Beeps's water:
Beeps does not seem to mind:
In this video, Rocky is threatening me, while Beeps is running around. That little guy has so much energy!
There are many times when the greys and Calypso are all on one cage and Rocky and Beeps are on another. Daphne is always kept separate for safety reasons, though she shows no interest in the other birds.
I feel compelled to write that we do supervise the parrots and have made the conscious decision to let them be on other parrots' cages. Allowing unsupervised, or even lightly supervised, interaction could be a recipe for disaster as it wouldn't take long for one parrot to rip the toes or beak off of another. We closely supervise all interactions whenever we have a new bird in the house, and become more lax as flock dynamics are understood. With wild animals, it's a risk we're willing to take, mostly because the five parrots who are allowed to interact are all more or less the same size (our budgie is always kept separate and safe) and they have the ability to fly away from any perceived danger. It would break my heart if anyone stumbled on my blog and their parrot suffered an injury because the human thought it was OK to allow their parrots to interact with each other based on what we do in our house.
We're not sure if he likes the cage because it used to be his (but for a much shorter period than he's been in his current cage), because of its placement near the door to the living room (easier to hide and plan a sneak attack on me), or possibly because the grass is greener on the other side.
Beeps has never really minded. He usually just stays out of Rocky's way, either by running around his cage or by flying to another location in the house. Sometimes he'll fly over to Rocky's cage and eat his food.
Late last week, I heard lots of wood chipping, so I wandered into the living room to see what was going on. Unfortunately, I couldn't exactly capture the scene on camera, but Beeps and Rocky were chipping wood off of the same toy that was on Beeps's cage top!
In this picture, Rocky stopped chipping to threaten me; notice Beeps in the background:
Drinking Beeps's water:
Beeps does not seem to mind:
In this video, Rocky is threatening me, while Beeps is running around. That little guy has so much energy!There are many times when the greys and Calypso are all on one cage and Rocky and Beeps are on another. Daphne is always kept separate for safety reasons, though she shows no interest in the other birds.
I feel compelled to write that we do supervise the parrots and have made the conscious decision to let them be on other parrots' cages. Allowing unsupervised, or even lightly supervised, interaction could be a recipe for disaster as it wouldn't take long for one parrot to rip the toes or beak off of another. We closely supervise all interactions whenever we have a new bird in the house, and become more lax as flock dynamics are understood. With wild animals, it's a risk we're willing to take, mostly because the five parrots who are allowed to interact are all more or less the same size (our budgie is always kept separate and safe) and they have the ability to fly away from any perceived danger. It would break my heart if anyone stumbled on my blog and their parrot suffered an injury because the human thought it was OK to allow their parrots to interact with each other based on what we do in our house.
Parrot relationships 1: Calypso & the greys
In the evenings, Stella usually heads over to the Max-Calypso cage compound area and the three of them coexist, more or less harmoniously.
Max and Calypso both love looking out of the window, and since they were the first parrots in our home, they get the place of honor. Stella does not appear to even notice the window, so we're not sure why she likes to be over there so much.
None of them physically interact, and they usually stay a respectful distance away from each other.
In this video, Calypso was playing on/in his foraging bucket, when Stella came over to investigate:
Sometimes the greys will go back and forth, taking turns ringing this bell. Sometimes they do it when they want attention, sometimes when they want to threaten each other, and sometimes just for fun.
I keep hoping that they will start to bond a bit more and maybe even preen each other. Stella seems to be making overtures to Max, who is uninterested.
They have been sitting closer to each other on the shower curtain rod in the mornings, so that's nice.
I'm just happy that they've pretty much found a happy place in our flock. Even if they don't choose to physically interact, at least they're not fighting!
Max and Calypso both love looking out of the window, and since they were the first parrots in our home, they get the place of honor. Stella does not appear to even notice the window, so we're not sure why she likes to be over there so much. None of them physically interact, and they usually stay a respectful distance away from each other.
In this video, Calypso was playing on/in his foraging bucket, when Stella came over to investigate:
Sometimes the greys will go back and forth, taking turns ringing this bell. Sometimes they do it when they want attention, sometimes when they want to threaten each other, and sometimes just for fun.
I keep hoping that they will start to bond a bit more and maybe even preen each other. Stella seems to be making overtures to Max, who is uninterested.
They have been sitting closer to each other on the shower curtain rod in the mornings, so that's nice.I'm just happy that they've pretty much found a happy place in our flock. Even if they don't choose to physically interact, at least they're not fighting!
Breakfast
Yesterday as I was making toast as part of my breakfast, Max was dancing on her stand and saying "want some! want some! want some!" Apparently, tired of waiting, she flew over to the counter and took her frustration out on my plate. Note: this did not make the bread toast any more quickly.
As soon as she realized I was taping, she stopped throwing a fit and just stared at me. I don't know how to edit videos, or I would have made this one a few seconds shorter.
As soon as she realized I was taping, she stopped throwing a fit and just stared at me. I don't know how to edit videos, or I would have made this one a few seconds shorter.
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