Peaches Comes to Play!

Kai's Fairy Birdmother, Peaches, came over to play last night :)  She had a few cute little felt scenes for me to photograph, but for the most part, we just hung out and talked, and played with Kai :)  Kai was very surprised by how tall a girl could be, because I'm only about 4'10 - my chin comes up to right about where Kai is sitting in the photograph below.

"Err, hello.  You sure are taller than mom..."

I've been socializing him with other people where I can, though I'm a bit nervous about bringing him out due to the cold weather right now.  Kai did very well with Peaches playing with him, though he was just a little wary of a new person.  Poor Peaches nearly (or partially!) dislocated her arm falling down the stairs the previous day, so she couldn't hold him for very long, but he was content to sit on his house's drawbridge.  He always gets plenty of attention there, and he's very happy about that.  I also put some of his favourite toys on the drawbridge, and I think he has a great time picking them up just to throw it over so I have to retrieve it for him.

"I'm trying to decide if I like this person..."

We went to visit Lauren and her family a few days before, and I brought Kai with me in his carrier, covered in towels to keep the chill out.  He sat a little pensively on his perch, then did extremely well being passed around stepping up between my hand and Lauren, Fran, or Mimi's hand.  Lauren's kitty and puppy scurrying about startled him a bit, because he's used to my docile, slow-moving cats, and my dog being bigger and very curious, but he's also also absolutely silent unless I prompt him.  I should add that Kai also barks at me now, though it sounds more like, "Park!  Park!" 

Me: "She's petting you, you should like her!"

I've been reading parrot magazines and I find training your parrot isn't unlike training your dog - it's a lot of positive reinforcement.  Like training your parrot to enjoy being on top of his cage and teaching your dog to heel or stay by your side - you give them treats and teach them that's where they really want to be, and that they'll be rewarded for hanging out there.  Being that I do plan on letting Kai's flight feathers grow in, I'll be teaching him very early on that his various perches are very fun places to be - rather than on a boring old table, or a curtain rod, which has nothing fun to play with on it.  One of my fun projects that I plan on working with is a natural sisal rope cargo net for various places throughout my room.  I've got a lot of really great information from here!

"Yes, okay.  I've decided I like this person."

Me: "See, that didn't take much convincing, huh?"

The doors to my room are always closed and he'll be able to fly freely in here.  I'll also be parrot-proofing this room carefully, and everything will be safely enclosed in cabinets or bins.  We've been working on "come", and he responds quite well, because he gets his beloved papaya ("aya") or a pistachio ("chio") or a piece of almond ("almond").  We have curtains on all of our windows, and there are stickers that I'm going to put up on the window panes come spring to prevent him (and other birdies at my feeders) from flying into glass. I think I may turn the sun room into Kai's parrot paradise :)  It's a really long, slightly narrow room, which I think would be PERFECT for an aviary/flight room.  There are windows at each end and along the side, so I could get new windows installed and set up bird-friendly trees for him to fly to and land in, and it would be perfectly safe.  I could even have Dutch Doors installed so I only have to open the top half, then call him to me if I want to bring him back into my room.  This room will probably also double as my kitty sun room.  Kai has learned quickly that the cats and dog are nothing to be scared of, mostly because they're content to loaf around on the furniture or my husband and I.  The cats learned that Kai isn't very interesting, either.  I always supervise them together, however, and I would never force them to inhabit the same area if Kai shows signs of distress.

"Mom, she's playing with my toes...What should I do?"

Me: "She's just playing with your toes...You'd better be a good boy, don't bite her!"

"Okay, okay."

Oh....I dream of walkways for my cats and an aviary for my bird, plus an agility course for my dog once we get our yard fenced in, and...I don't really know where my hubby is in all of this, but he's probably the one manufacturing all the devices I use.  Hubby is a tinkerer, and I'd really love for him to be involved with this sort of stuff :)