Steve finished with a shorter second round of antibiotics and is doing well after an initial low-energy period after his ingrown feather ordeal.He’s now back to be his version of “active,” which is a very, very slow form of active for most African Greys.  He’s just a quiet and slow-moving guy.  However, once in awhile, he really gets mischievous as happened today:  he really, really, wanted a soaking bath. I usually spray him, but he continued in his water dish.  So I provided a low tub of water for him, which he splashed his head into, and then upended most of it onto his play station.  It was good to see, even if a bit messy!

Sam is being adventurous by accompanying me on my daily walks (that is, when it’s not too cold or too hot).  I recently bought a nifty (though expensive) small walking carrier made by Celltei that can be worn like a back pack or worn in front (which I prefer, so that Sam feels I am close and he can see me).  Sam LOVES the carrier!  Here he is, waiting for “walkies.”

The carrier sits on top of his cage, where he plays during the day.  I will often find him quietly sitting inside, just hanging out serenely. I love being able to include Sam in more of my activities, and this is a great boredom-buster.  It tires him out too – an added benefit.  This is the small size, though it borders on being almost too small.  But it works for a Jardine’s Parrot.  It would be too small for an African Grey.

And we did not bust at all, but had a great trip, even though I was very tired from the start, having had little sleep after a marathon packing/cleaning day before.  Steve and Sam were crammed in travel cages on the front passenger side, the two cockatiels in travel cages were in the back seat that had been flattened. Bun Rab was right next to them in her fairly spacious cage.  After an initial getting used to the positioning, everyone soon got used to their places and seemed to really enjoy the ride.

During the trip, there was some chattering, but mostly everybody understood this was a long-haul trip and just settled down.  Everybody ate well – Sam nearly ate non-stop, dunking his pellets in water and slowly eating the outsides like ice cream cones.

It was exhausting hauling everybody’s cages into motel rooms, but they were all real troopers.  I couldn’t have had better companions.  On day 2, I drove for 11 hours, getting us to Williams, AZ at dusk.  And by the afternoon of day 3, we were flagging.  Near Gallup, NM, we stopped under a shady tree and all of us napped silently, listening to the birds outside chirp in the early fall heat.

On day 3, we all rolled in around 2:30 pm.  My mother had just returned home from the hospital, having contracted West Nile Virus a couple weeks previously.  I had fast-forwarded my trip to New Mexico by an entire month so that I could be here to help Mom and my sister.  Mom nearly died, but with many prayers and a dose of very good luck, she pulled through without complications.  We are soooo very grateful she lived to tell the tale.

Meanwhile, my living quarters weren’t ready because I had arrived a month early, so I camped out in the living room of Mom’s house with my bird cages parked in various places and Bun Rab penned in beneath the dining room table to be out of the way of traffic.  Chipper and Charlie had to bunk together, to save room.  That worked, but sometimes the racket of competitive singing and one-upping was very hard to bear.  But, again, all the feathered guys were very flexible, even getting used to  my sister’s Maltese dog Maizy.

By October, we all moved into my new “cabin,” and then it was time to get used to another home – the 3rd one in 2 weeks.  Steve regressed quite a bit, but that was perfectly understandable.

Chipper and Charlie hanging out above Steve's cage

Once settled, though, things fell into place and we’ve now been here since then, enjoying family life again and being together again for the holidays – so far:  Thanksgiving, a beautiful Christmas, and a very cold January.

The three of us after a wreath-making party

Sam is the most easy-going and adaptable of the flock, and he has been happy with everything – no matter what changes I make, rearranging his cage position, changing the routine, he’s happy-go-lucky because he gets to be with me most of the day (I work at home).

Sam above his cage

And Steve has been generally pretty darn happy too.  It’s taken him all this time to progress to this miracle moment of venturing OUTSIDE of his cage without hanging onto it by one leg!

"Look, Ma, no hands!"

And now, for a little light humor, I give you Chipper!  Just click on the link following:

Salad Sharing and a bit of song here:  Chipper’s Song

And Bun Rab is ecstatic!  She gets to have the entire run of my cabin – no cage.

BunRab soaking in the sun by my desk

All is well with the flock.  It’s been awhile since I posted last, but the 4 parrots continue to be good boys.

Spring is nearly upon us, so that means hormones begin to show themselves.  With careful dietary restrictions, Sam has managed to be a very good boy and he is nearly not hormonal at all, compared to last year when I seemed to have an unending string of months in which I struggled with Sam’s hormones.  I find I have to cut out ALL fatty and sweet treats, such as seeds, nuts, apples, and other sweet fruits.  He’s safe with a daily raw Sugar Snap pea, bits of raw cauliflower, a piece of raw whole wheat pasta, and tiny bits of “Mary’s Gone Cracker’s” crackers.  Fortunately, he likes these treats.  But he always looks for nesting areas, nonetheless!

Sam in a Kleenex box

Steve, however, needs lots of small treats as he is more of a forager than a player of toys.  I try to keep the treats very small but frequent to keep him interested.  Once in a while, he gets to tackle an organic almond in the shell.  He generally takes about 3 days to break into the shell, unless he’s really intensely interested.  The first one he tried took him only a concentrated 10 minutes.  But he takes a more leisurely go at it nowadays:

Steve working on an almond in the shell

And there are days when the vet needs to be seen for various trims.  I have “Wingabagos” for 2 birds, and this time it was Sam and Chipper who had the honor during a recent visit.  Here they are sitting next to me in the front passenger seat, which Chipper strapped in and Sam tucked in front of him:

to the vet...

Sam and I were hanging out on the couch awhile ago, and the sunshine was ever so relaxing.

He fell asleep on my lap for a few minutes…

I apologize for not writing for so long.  Again, computer problems.  I seem to have a bad effect on new computers.  I finally had to dump my new HP desktop and switch to a Mac – now no problems!!  May it continue thus…

For you Steve fans, Steve is doing fine.  While there isn’t much outward progress to report, my feeling is that he’s doing well.  He continues to have a serious case of agoraphobia and hasn’t ventured outside of his cage in a long time, EXCEPT at night when the other guys have gone to bed and it’s head-rubbing time.  Then he consents willingly to stick his head – sometimes half his body – outside the food hatch near my chair.   But no more than that.  In this, he has regressed a bit, as he used to come out periodically when things were quiet.  That hasn’t happened in a long time.  But I don’t force the issue or any others.  I figure that in time – perhaps a great long time – he may finally feel he’s safe enough to come out a bit more.

Curious about my iPhone and looking very dinosaurish...

Steve is also very shy with the other birds.  Having been a single bird at the beginning of his life and gone through terrible years of neglect, he is timid of the cockatiels (they are the noisiest and most fractious) and Sam (who is definitely unpredictable).  He may never warm to any of them, but that’s OK.  And he doesn’t know how to play (having never been given destructible toys to play with).  This has been a challenge.  He also often opts not to get excited about things because it may still hurt to move his body a lot (the skin under his wings is very tender).  But at least he chews on various items I have hung and attached throughout his cage, and that’s good.

He continues to keep the feathers off his neck and upper chest – it’s a bit of a habit now, I think.  But when he began chewing the feathers on this thigh big time, I felt there was another reason at play.  I began spraying him daily with warm water, in case it was because of the increased dryness with winter heating.  That seemed to do the trick.  He has stopped chewing his thigh completely and I will continue spraying him, despite the colder weather.  He seems to really enjoy the spray, so it must be what he needed.

The one thing that pleases me most is that his relationship with me as caregiver and friend is much stronger and feels cemented somehow.  He gets very excited to see me if I’m out late, beaking my fingers happily.  And his personality is starting to manifest at odd moments.  If I turn on a light in the living room after I’ve put the birds to bed (covered), he will emit a soft heart-wrenching wail, which means he wants me to come and say hello, followed by happy finger-beaking.  Then it’s hard to cover him as he will continue with a few pips and whistles when I re-cover him.  He is the sweetest, most gentle of greys!

The other guys are doing just fine too, though I think Chipper has been missing Pippin my lovebird.  This past week, he kept referring to her in such phrases as “What, Pippin?” and “Whatcha doing, Pippin?” – which has the effect of tearing my heart!  Sam continues to make Pippin’s sweet sound and also her sounds of annoyance – sounds which Pippin made about HIM when he did things Pippin considered in poor taste or simply bad behavior.

Sam, the goofball/dog with feathers

The cockatiels Chipper and Charlie are fine too.  I had to replace Charlie’s sleep basket with a very large one, so it displaced a wooden box I had previously used to shore up his basket.  Chipper has always coveted it, so it’s now in his cage, and he is most pleased!  I call it his hobbit home, and here he is coyly peeking out of the hobbit hole:

Chipper, loving his hobbit home

(By the way, don’t ever give such a nesty box to a female bird or it will induce them to lay eggs, which can be dangerous.)

And here is Chipper again, in your facet:

That’s a summary of how things are going in my flock.  Here is hoping that your life goes well this special season – that you stay healthy and happy and warm!

Well, I’ve been remiss at reporting about Steve.  His fans have become restless and are demanding an update!

Part of my excuse is that my brand new computer (of 9 months now) has had problem after problem – which never get duplicated at the repair shop.  But things are improving and now I have no excuse whatsoever!

Steve is doing fine.  He has his good days/weeks and sometimes not so good.   I don’t have any marvelous news to report about any new breakthroughs. We are in for the long haul and whatever good happens, I can be grateful.

As an example, after several good weeks of increasing confidence, he can sometimes get spooked and lose his nerve for weeks at a time.  We’re going through one of those periods right now.  It began when he backed into his cage after a head-scritching session and he caught a wing feather in a bar of the cage.  He wasn’t hurt, but the surprise of it has now caused him to be scared of the food hatch exit, so I’m back to scritching his head inside his cage.

Steve’s feathering has mostly grown back.  Except for a few spots near his neck, he is fully feathered.  The neck thing is his nervous habit – he tends to pull out the down there when he’s feeling insecure.  I liken it to a human picking a fingernail out of nervousness.

The great new thing, though, is that he’s beginning to communicate directly with me through his whistling.  He whistles, I whistle back.  Then I vary the whistles, which he sometimes imitates – or comes up with some new configuration.  I’m very pleased by this, because he is “talking” to me in this way.  He has one very distinct whistle, which sounds rather mournful, and it’s appropriate to the occasion:  being impatient while waiting for dinner!  wishing I wasn’t going out!  or perhaps simply lamenting on the sad parts of life…

The other birds are doing good.  I finally had to clip Sam’s wings. He was getting really good at flying, but it was making him way too aggressive and hormonal.  He was starting to buzz me and actually attack me.  Now he has become “soft” and sweet like the old Sam I used to know – best of all, the hormonal behavior has lessened 95%.  I should have done this a lot sooner!  I’m sorry he can’t fly, since he enjoys it so much and it’s such good exercise.  But in the long run, he’s happier and so am I.

The cockatiels are who they are, forming a chattery solid unit of “us two and no more”– always together playing, chatting, occasionally fighting, and whistling.  Charlie’s moulting and Chipper doesn’t care.

So life is going on as usual in the avian world here!

Have a great weekend, all you Stevie fans!

Have any of you experienced anything similar with your birds?

Steve has not had a good week, no thanks to Sam and me.  Sam is going through an intense hormonal phase.  I think this is owing to extra nuts (rich=abundance=time to nest) during clicker training, and probably owing to his insecurity about our new addition of Steve to the family.  Consequently, Sam’s behavior is very erratic and unpredictable.  I’ve had to manhandle him off me when he has tried climbing my up clothes.  On one occasion, he bit my chin (fortunately, no break in skin) and several bites to hands (yes, broken).  I’ve withdrawn all rich foods and he’s basically eating only pellets and a small amount of apple and cauliflower.  He is not suffering!

However, Sam has unintentionally buzzed Steve when Steve was outside his cage, causing Steve to panic and tear his underwing sores.  This has happened twice.  I’ve taken further steps to minimize these “surprises.”  And then, because he was already getting more nervous, he panicked when I adjusted one of  his perches yesterday.  So he’s had 3 panics in the last week.   He hasn’t been outside of his cage for several days, and he’s very nervous again around my hands.  I thought that this morning we had undone everything we’d accomplished in the last two months and I was feeling quite badly about my part in this.

HOWEVER, Steve is nothing if not resilient.  He made me understand today that he wanted to do clicker training, so here we are.  You will notice Steve is chewing his nails vigorously – a signature Grey sign of nervousness.  But, dang!  Isn’t he great?  He overcame his nerves to do a great job, yet again.  I hand him a bead, he drops it into the cup, he gets a treat.  You gotta love him for his pluckiness, despite his obvious fear.  A lesson to us all!   Without further ado, heeeeer’s Steve!

PS  By the way, those dark splotches on Steve’s chest are his new feathers coming out after he plucked his chest fairly clean.  I’ve not seen him continue to pick, so I’m crossing my fingers he’ll let his feathers stay.

Here’s Steve watching and taking in all the activities of the evening.  He is SO much more relaxed about my presence, that I’m sighing with relief for him.   Steve is also much less stressed about my hands near him.  As long as I perform normal tasks, such as filling his foraging cups, placing his fresh food kabob, and regular maintenance, he’s pretty relaxed.  It’s only if I do something out of the ordinary that causes him to be worried.

Tonight, Steve didn’t climb on top of his cage, but he sat for a good 45 minutes in the position above watching me, drinking from his water bowl, fluffing up his head feathers in a relaxed way, and watching me with great interest as I scratched Sam’s head in the chair next to him.   I can tell Sam is feeling just a little off-kilter about the changes in Steve.  Steve isn’t purposely hiding himself anymore, so I think Sam is feeling slightly insecure.  So we are embarking on a new shift in the large parrot scene here.

The three smaller birds are oblivious to the large birds.  They form their own “clique” and are a self-sufficient unit, tightly bonded to one another in the little cockatiel/lovebird triangle.  So these large bird issues don’t touch their concerns!

Things are going well, all told, and I’m grateful.

This is how I looked at Steve, when he said something for the first time this evening!   Even Sam was startled and looked at Steve inquiringly, as if to chime in with me:  “What did you say?!”

After Steve’s loud burst of incomprehensibility, he looked very innocent but lively.  “Who, me?”

Since it was near bedtime and both he and Sam get a nut piece as a treat when I put them to bed, I suspect it was Steve’s way of saying, “Time for bed, er, treat!”

Seriously, this is great!  Steve has been here one month and is starting to relax enough to experiment with talking again!

Hooray!

(By the way, the photo is me.  I won’t say when, but the black and white stuff sort of gives away the decade in question…)