Stella vs. Beeps

Thomas was home alone with the parrots yesterday. He doesn't read this blog, but he made a comment about his day that had perfect timing given one of my posts yesterday.

He made a comment about how Stella would not make a good street fighter. She doesn't understand Beeps's dirty tactics. I asked him what he meant as I'd never seen the two of them interact before.
He said that Stella had been on the grate of the stand, playing with a toy, when Beeps went into his power position (hanging upside down from the grate) and started attacking her toes. Thomas said that Stella just looked at him in a quizzical manner, not really understanding what was going on. Thomas rescued her and placed her on a stand.

In other news, the baby bunnies in my yard are growing up! Yesterday, I saw three of them in different parts of the yard. I don't have to plant anything special for them -- apparently they like the weeds just fine.
I could watch wildlife for hours. They are so interesting!

Wedge

Thomas had yesterday off of work. This was very nice, as we had lunch and then he went back home and I went to work.

When I got home, the first thing he said to me was, "I think Rocky is driving a wedge between us." Apparently, Rocky had not screamed the entire day when Thomas was home with the parrots. In fact, he spent the day playing in the living room and didn't even bother Thomas at all. He could hear him singing, talking, and laughing, and when he'd go and check on him, he was playing with his toys. The instant I walked in the door -- before I had greeted anyone or taken off my shoes -- Rocky started screaming.

Yesterday wasn't as bad as some of the other days have been, but I'm dreading the next time I'm alone with the parrots for a significant amount of time.

I think he wants to take my place. Every time I left the living room yesterday, he ran over to the couch and took over my spot. He didn't even want to be on Thomas. He wanted to be where I usually am!
Beloved Parrot left me a comment on a previous entry that I wanted to address here instead of in the comments.

Do you give Rocky lots of extra foraging things to do during these periods?

Also, wet birds who are preening don't scream.

There was an article in Bird Talk a few years ago that discussed things things that replace screaming -- like a bath or foraging.

These are great suggestions. However, if I could have a hidden camera set up (since the only time he reliably stops is when I have a camera pointed at him, trying to capture the screaming on video), I could show you a bird that does, in fact, scream while he is foraging and preening. I still do these things (extra foraging and baths) in the hopes that it's diminishing the screaming somewhat (though I can barely imagine him screaming more than he is now). I'm also exercising him a lot more than usual, in the hopes that tiring him out will reduce his screaming. I've rearranged his cage, taken out any nesty-type toys, and have been rotating and adding new toys like crazy in hopes of keeping him occupied.

Maybe I'll set up a tripod with the camera pointed at his cage and trick him into thinking I'm taping him.

This morning I was watching him eat his pellets while screaming. I don't know how he didn't choke on his food.

The tricky thing about this screaming is that I really don't think it's because he wants something I can give him. I think his hormones are going crazy and all he wants is for me to not be there. He's also become extremely cage aggressive which points to hormones as well. So I'm just hoping this passes soon! I was thinking about boarding him for a week to see if he'd snap out of it, but that's not fair to him or to the place where he'd board if the screaming did not abate.

Anyway, Thomas later reassured me that he was joking about Rocky creating a wedge between us. However, it made me think of all of the birds that are surrendered to the rescue where I volunteer who are given up due to divorce. In our case, we'd be fighting over the birds, at least Max and Beeps. I'd let him take Rocky without a fight and I'm pretty sure he feels the same way about letting me take Daphne, Calypso, Stella, and the lizards. It doesn't really matter since it's not going to happen, despite Rocky's best efforts!

Money

Rocky was pretty happy that Thomas was able to breakfast with the parrots this morning. His screaming was about half of what it is when I've been alone with the parrots lately, so only about ten times more screaming than usual.

I figured after all of my complaining about him in my last post, I should post something to prove that we haven't locked him in the basement or anything!



And that's part of the trouble with him -- he can be so adorable. Sometimes I look at how cute he is and think I'm exaggerating the trouble he causes me. Then he screams again and I realize it is impossible to exaggerate.

Here he was taking coins out of our change stash and throwing them around. Coins are not really a good parrot toy, due to the fact that they are metal and dirty, but a little bit won't hurt him. Also, he's not chewing on them or trying to eat them. Plus, he needs a little happiness in his life right now -- dealing with his hormones is probably as unpleasant for him as it is for us.

Rocky is driving me crazy

Rocky is driving me crazy. He's lucky I'm a nonviolent person. I have threatened to call in a bird hit man on him. I am only half joking.

OK, I am completely joking, as obviously I would never hurt him. Or even pay anyone else to do so. But he certainly has been testing that resolution of late.

He's extremely hormonal right now. His screaming has increased about twenty-fold. We'd had it pretty much licked. He still makes his vomit sound when he wants something. The problem is that he's currently screaming for no reason that we can fix. He wants to be on or near Thomas all of the time. He wants Thomas to hang out in their nest. Maybe he wants to drive me crazy so I'll leave and he can finally realize his dream of having Thomas to himself. I'm not sure he has that much foresight, but if he does, he's a genius.

Unfortunately, his timing for wanting to be velcroed to my husband could not be worse, as Thomas is currently on a very demanding rotation at work which requires him to be at the hospital what seems like all of the time. Rocky goes days without seeing him. I am an unacceptable substitute, so he screams his displeasure. Sometimes he even screams when he's on Thomas.

The one consolation is that if he thinks I've left the house, he won't scream. I've had to be sneaky, as once he realizes I'm still there, the screaming begins again. He also doesn't scream after bedtime, which means the parrots have been going to bed a little earlier than usual. We can all use the respite from the screaming.

He's even bothering the other parrots with his excessive noise. I do not understand how one little macaw can possibly scream so loudly, so often. Doesn't it hurt? I have been to baseball games and returned hoarse after screaming less than he does. He sometimes screams when he's eating. The worst kind of scream is when he makes eye contact with me, and then lets out an extra-loud scream. He actually lifts off of his perch during this scream, it requires so much force. I think he's taunting me.

The past few years when he's been hormonal, he's been very pleasant. He'd basically camp out underneath his cage. We wouldn't really see him for weeks. He was quiet, except for the occasional (pleasant) laugh. I am not sure what's changed this time around.

We can't have the windows open in our house due to the screaming. I can hear him from blocks away and don't want to have the neighbors call the police on us. And I couldn't blame them -- it's a very loud and irritating noise. It's gotten to the point where I dread going home if Thomas isn't going to be there.

At the same time, I feel bad for the guy. He should be in the wild, not in my living room. Intellectually, I know he's not trying to irritate me. But it's hard to think rationally with the onslaught of constant screaming.

In the past six months, I've talked with six people who have given up their severe macaws due to screaming. Rocky spent at least six years locked in a back bedroom, in large part due to his screaming. If you're thinking about getting a severe macaw, the screaming is an important consideration.

Please, let these hormones settle down soon!

Video

I'm not sure why it wouldn't work on this post, but here is the video of Max and Beeps fighting. Note Rocky screaming in the background. I am writing about that in my next post.

Max vs. Beeps

One of Beeps's favorite things to do involves hanging out on the tray under the stands, ripping up the newspaper lining, and throwing the paper on the floor. This can be a bit frustrating as the paper is there to catch the parrots' mess, and when he throws it around, it means more work for us. Here he is:
As I've mentioned before, Max and Beeps do not like each other. This constantly baffles me as Max and Calypso (a caique who looks exactly like Beeps) get along just fine, and Beeps and Stella (a grey, similar to Max) have no interaction. Beeps and Max both go out of their way to find and irritate each other.

Max usually "wins" these interactions when they take place on cages or stands -- she simply buzzes him or chases him around, as she is the superior flyer. They are on more equal footing when Beeps is in what we call his power position -- attacking from below. He's a scrappy little guy. As an aside, Thomas loves this about Beeps, possibly because it reminds him of himself. Thomas wrestled in high school and could have wrestled collegiately.

At this point, they are thinking of attacking each other, but neither one has truly made the commitment yet:
Notice how Max is standing on the ladder instead of the grate. She's learned that if she does this, she can still attack Beeps while protecting her feet from his attacks.

In mid-attack. She's constantly hopping around so that he can't get her feet:
Back up on the ladder and attacking:
I have a video of them attacking each other. I have been trying to post it for over three hours. It seems there is a problem with blogger, so I will post it in another entry when it's working again.

Rest assured this is not something we encourage. Although they are of similar size, so it's unlikely either one could remove a toe or a beak on the other one, they could still do some damage.

Usually, I'll break things up and separate them. However, sometimes I'd rather let them work things out themselves, in hopes they may be able to find a better solution for their problem than I could.

Waiting

Usually the greys follow me around from room to room. Last week I went into the bathroom to wash my face and was left undisturbed for probably three minutes! I was starting to worry that perhaps something had happened, but they'd flown to the table and waited for me to emerge. I guess they were just being lazy.

Parrot freestyle?

On Monday night, the minute Thomas walked in the door from work, Stella flew over and landed on his foot.The parrots and I had been in the middle of yet another Michael Jackson dance party, so he joined in, and for a few moments, they appeared to be dancing together.

Thomas and I have seen demonstrations of canine freestyle dancing at pet expos when we've been representing the rescue where we volunteer. I told him he needs to see if there's something similar with parrots; if not maybe he could start one. He just laughed at me and said I was crazy.



I think it's kind of hard to see from this angle, but she was lifting up her feet at the same time he was. I'm not sure if she thought she was going to step up, or if this was some kind of dance on her part?

Greys, again, again

Yet another post about my greys and their interactions with each other (and to a lesser extent, with Thomas).

I took this picture on Monday night because it was one of the first times I'd seen Stella on the upper level of the stand, where Max usually perches. Sorry for the backlighting! As you can see, Max did not appear particularly upset with this arrangement.
According to the time stamp on the pictures, I took this one about 25 minutes after the first. I'm not sure how it happened, but they had switched places:
Then, they started chasing each other around. Often, Max will hang upside down and attack from below:
Thomas, who'd arrived home in the meantime, was getting a bit frustrated with them chasing each other around, so he grabbed Max and sat down to read a magazine. It's a bit hard to see in this picture, but his elbow is resting on the table and Max is perching on his hand. Almost immediately, Stella flew over to the back of the chair and would periodically bonk him on the back with her beak.
Finally deciding that wasn't achieving the desired results, Stella flew over to the table, displacing Max in the process, and started demanding head pets from Thomas:Good news about my car -- the battery had died and it was still under warranty. Thomas jumped it last night and we brought it to the shop, where they replaced the battery free of charge (even labor!) I ran up there this morning and picked it up, saving me the hassle of having to ferry Thomas around in order to have a car to get to work.

No pictures today

My car wouldn't start this morning! So frustrating! In any case, I had to walk to work and didn't feel like carrying my camera with me, so the entries I had planned for today will have to take place tomorrow instead.

A story from yesterday:

Beeps and the greys were hanging out on a stand in the kitchen. Somehow, Beeps managed to get pooped on! I didn't want to send him to bed with a wet head, so I had to get him cleaned up this morning instead.

I brought him into the shower with me, but the water itself wasn't doing the job -- his head needed to be rubbed a bit. He wasn't pleased about my attempts at this, but we found a solution. I'd put my hand very close to his head, and then he'd shake his head, rubbing it against my hand.

He's poop-free once again.