Foraging fun and scars...

I got some great ideas to keep Kai active and foraging for food through the day from various sites!

http://foragingforparrots.com/

http://bestinflock.wordpress.com/category/parrot-enrichment/

http://www.parrotenrichment.com/

On another note, Kai bit me pretty good twice today.  My pain tolerance is pretty high due to dealing with arthritis and what I suspect is fibromyalgia, so I didn't really feel him bear down as hard as he did.  I'm so used to being bit, scratched, mauled, even flung from horses and trampled by a pissed off cow that hated me, I stuff like that doesn't really register to me anymore.

I was trying to get him to step up onto my finger so I could carry him to his play stand, but he was up high on his cage and didn't want to come down.  He sure told me...I know I'm supposed to push on him to get him off balance, but uh...the platform he was standing on was flat.  I tried turning my finger towards him, instead, and gee...I see how how they're able to "skin" things.  It was pretty impressive!  Kind of how lions being able to lick the flesh off carcasses is impressive.

At least there was a little flap of skin left for me to press back down.  Now, it didn't really "hurt", and I sure didn't scream or yell, I just told him, "That wasn't very nice..." and left the room for a few minutes while I disinfected my bites.

I like having scars from my animals, they're like little badges that help me remember them.  They last even after my beloved children have gone on.

"I got this scar from when my rat was protecting his mate when I went to change their food bowl...I couldn't get the bleeding to stop for two hours!  It was pretty cool!  He must've punctured my vein."

"This one is from where I was going to drop a mouse into my arowana's tank, and she leapt up a foot and a half, latched onto my hand, and hung there for a second..."

"This scar here is from when Spot decided to scale me like a tree to get up to the top of the recliner..."

"These are from the damn roosters on the ranch..."

"That one is from when Chuerio didn't want to stay in the shower and climbed up my arm so I would hug him, he was fine after that..."

They all have stories.

My most recent scars, Kai-bites aside, include where Sacha startled Mia when he came up behind her while she was checking out the tree stand for dropped goodies...and she leapt up onto my left arm, clawed her way up and over my shoulder, and perched there with her claws buried in me like a parrot.  I told Sacha to back up out of the door, then crouched down so she could hop off once she was calm, but then she had gotten her claw stuck in my shirt and the flesh of my back...and started flailing/twisting... That hurt pretty good.  She clawed her way back down my back, and since I couldn't reach my back, I just showered off and drizzled soapy water over my shoulder.  Later on, I asked Hubby how bad it was, and he said it was pretty bad.  It just looks awful while it's all puffy, but once the swelling is down, it's no big deal.

So now I'll have little Kai-bites :)  I'll never forget them, and it'll just be another way to remember him if I do manage to outlive him.