You're So Cute! (and moderately hormonal....)

The weird, warm/sunny winter weather here in Upstate NY is causing Kai's spring hormones to come early.  I worry about birds down south taking the warmer weather as a cue to begin migrating back up to Canada prematurely, then having a sudden cold snap come through to wipe them out.  It would be horrible...!

Kai has been very talkative lately and still enjoys singing along to metal music the best!  I was stretching the other day, and he told me, "You're so cute!"  Last month, he told me, "(I) love you," also.  I hope he never stops learning words, he's such a smart little guy!  Who knows how long he was practicing before he found the courage to speak above his little Pionus mumble?

(Kai's Pionus mumblings below!)

Kai turned one this past summer, but it would appear that he's growing up and becoming an adult, which makes me a little teary-eyed.  It's not that he's changed all that much, but there have been slight differences in his behavior.  Even if he stopped wanting to be with me and decided to pick R, instead, I would still love him!  His hormones don't appear to be that dramatic, not like some of the nightmarish attack birds that some people report, at least.  He's just been mouthier, enjoys biting his shreddables more, and attacks his perches more aggressively during play.  Since he's been able to fly, he's been much more confident and happy!  There's still minor, occasional territorial aggression when it comes to his house in my craft room if R comes near, but half the time, he's content to sit still and not clamber to his drawbridge to appear all 230 grams of menacing, threatening, blue-and-green fluff.  I had been worried that since he can fly, he would be flying around assaulting everyone in sight, but that hasn't been the case, thankfully.

I've been giving him lots of foraging containers and materials to look through to keep him busy.  The only receptacle that I leave in his cage in the same place every day is his water bowl, which I've been having to clean more like three times a day.  He seems to like soaking food more this month!

Kai really enjoys the mixed nuts that I give him, too.  Almonds have fallen out of favor since I introduced him to pecans and walnuts!  I partially crack the shells for him, since Pionus beaks aren't as strong as other parrots' beaks.  He still loves "chio" (pistachio), though.  I feel it's important to give one's parrot a couple nuts each day, as the oils and fat in them are probably needed.  Kai is also going through a minor molt right now, so I have given him a bit more protein to help him through.  I seriously worried that he was going bald at one point, because a pinky-finger-tip sized bald spot turned up right above his cere!  I watched to see if his skin was irritated, and in a couple days, teeny little pinfeathers started poking through.  I felt so bad for him, he was absolutely miserable for a week while they grew in.  I just kept soaking him to soften up those itchy bits and to give him some relief.  When he's molting like this, I bathe him ever other day, at least. 

I'm not sure if it's just that he's in much better health since I've switched him mostly off of artificially colored, sugar-filled pellets and onto 20% TOP pellets, 10% Lafaeber's, and 65% veggies/fruits, and 5% nuts/other (including a scrape of coconut oil and red palm oil), but his feathers look much better!  He's also much more active and healthy since he's been able to fly around to get exercise, also.  When he was younger, he tended to just hang out in one spot, but now he climbs around much more and enjoys being able to fly from room to room following me.  I'll tell him, "I'm going kitchen," and he'll know to fly to me in the kitchen after I've gotten a head start.  He also knows, "Let's go house!" as meaning we should go to my craft room where his house is.  "Let's go perch and eat dindin," well, he knows that one really well, too!  The only thing is, since I'm so small, my shoulder makes a horrid landing pad.  Kai really really dislikes hitting me in the face, I think because I made a sound when he accidentally slapped me, so he's taken to landing on my head instead.  He's very considerate like that.

I don't really mind if he lands on my head, because he steps down onto either my hand or another spot, like the counter or the faucet, if I ask him to.  R gets annoyed if Kai lands on his hoodie, mostly because he doesn't want to get pooped on or bitten.  (Poop from any species is a huge deal to R for some reason, I forget that he didn't grow up with a lot of animals like I did much of the time.)  Since Kai has been able to fly, though, every time that he's landed on R, there has been absolutely no aggression whatsoever.  In the past, he liked to try to give R nips, and R REALLY wasn't helping as he'd do all kinds of "fun" things to encourage that behaviour in Kai.  (You bet I scolded R for it...though I'd do it where Kai couldn't see me.)  If we hear Kai flying into the kitchen, R knows to duck, because chances are, he's wanting to land on the sink faucet, which is his favourite place to hang out so he can "help" me prep to cook dinner. 

We had a "visitor" in early February, also!  My friend's daughter, Cailey, had an (awesome!!) school project where they mailed the "flat" versions of themselves to family/friends!  It's based on a book called Flat Stanley, where a little boy is flattened and is able to go on adventures, because he can slip under doors or be mailed in envelopes.  I took Flat Cailey all over the city one weekend.  We visited the adoption clinic at PetsMart, had lunch at our favorite Korean BBQ restaurant, went to a bunch of other shops, had dinner at our favourite Thai restaurant, and she got to meet all our animals.  The next day, we took her to Lollypop Farm, and she got to meet a MASSIVE 180 lb Great Pyrenees dog!  I had never seen one before in real life, and flashbacks of Mr. Tadakichi (of Azumanga Daioh fame) instantly sprung to mind!  I was also fortunate enough to get Cailey in time for one of the few winter craft shows going on.  We got to see Kira, Casey and Amanda, as well as Robert at the show, so we got pictures with them, and I was able to give Cailey samples of their crafts!

R was a bit exasperated with me by the time I finally sent Flat Cailey back home, but I told him that if we ever had kids, he would understand.  I printed out about seventy-five photographs and wrote descriptions for Cailey's mom to read to her on the back.  My hand was just about dead by the time I packed her away into a box with goodies in it.  I also packed some cute paintable ceramic stuff in for Cailey and her brother to play with.  It's really cute, because apparently I "already live at Cailey's house", and Cailey "has me over to play in her room" often.  Does this make me an imaginary friend?  I wonder what Cailey imagines me as being?  (I'm kind of scared to ask!)  Either way, it's sheer adorableness.  I wish kids didn't grow out of stuff like that so fast...

I'm starting to do things early so I'll have stuff to sell at this year's Mayday Underground, also.  More samples of what I'm making will come later.  Nanaa's begun planning to make things for our shop, too, so I'm excited to see what she comes up with.  I'm a little worried that my portion of stuff will have mostly to do with birds and not kitties at all, but they're just so much fun to draw cutely.  I really need to remember to have my banner printed out, too, urghh...

Well, I should get back to the drawing board now.  I'm also due to go to my doctor's appointment in two and a half hours - joy of joys.  I guess I figured out (half a year ago!) that I would still be awake at 8am.  At least I'll be avoiding traffic, too, because the city traffic trying to get home is insane and I can never get back home, because I'm (terrified!!) not an aggressive driver at all.

Coming in for a Landing! One Week of Flying with Kai and Lots of Poop.

Kai is progressing very nicely on learning to fly!  He's become more confident, but he's also become a little more territorial where his cage is concerned.  It troubles me a little that people say that you should clip their wings so "they have to depend on you".  They already depend on you for food, water, and companionship, that shouldn't necessitate mutillating their wings.

I had listened in on a presentation that a man was giving when he spoke of his raptor.  He mentioned that if he could never show fear, anger, or upset, or his raptor might lose confidence in him and possibly hurt him very badly.  He said that he would have to starve his raptor for a few days, because he was the one who controlled the food source, and then work on building his raptor's trust all over again.

That does make sense to me, in a way, though it isn't very kind.  Before anyone becomes upset at such treatment, I can't recall how many times I've heard of children being sent to bed without supper as a manner of discipline.  It's basically the same concept.  No one is going to die from not eating for a 12 hour period.  I don't recall being sent to bed hungry, though there were plenty of other times that I was starving, but had no access to food.  (Besides, if the kids are smart, they'll already have foxholed caches of food in their rooms, anyway, like I usually did!)

I would prefer to reward good behaviour rather than resort to punishment.  That being said, there is also a big difference between parrots and raptors.  Raptors are not affectionate; they learn that life with their master is a sure way to survive and depend upon them for food, shelter, and care.  In return, the falconer must trust that their raptor will return to them.  Parrots, on the other hand, are social birds, who are affectionate, and form strong bonds with their families. 

Would someone ever clip a raptor's wings?  No, of course not.  Raptors need to be able to fly to be physically and mentally healthy, and also to hunt.  Flying is what makes a bird so special and set apart from other species - there is no other animal (with feathers) which is capable of flight.  There is nothing as beautiful as a bird in flight, a butterfly fluttering from one flower to another, or a horse galloping across an open stretch of field (even if it's gleefully bucking and farting, ahem).  Flying promotes the best health they can be in by providing exercise as nature intended.  So why should anyone clip a parrot's wings and rob them of their flight?

I also feel strongly about other similar, related controversial issues, such as genital mutilation (circumcision), declawing, debarking, pinfiring, racing horses without closed knees,  ear and tail cropping, etcetera.  Why, for the love of children, would you do something like that to your helpless, vulnerable baby?  Why risk the slip of a scalpel, which accidentally severs the nerves which will later bring them pleasure and condemn them to a sexual life lacking sensitivity.  Why risk the doctor royally screwing up and severing the glans off completely?  Or how about a botched job and infection causing your son's penis to become necrotic and fall off, completely?   (It's happened....and it has been estimated that as many as 209 babies die every year from circumcision and related complications.)  I don't think I need to bring up MRSA.  Why risk mutilating and deforming a limb of his body, which will affect a large portion of his adult life later on?  I've seen some tragic examples due to botched jobs.  It isn't just their love life that's affected, it's their self-confidence, self-worth, and self-esteem.

Why would anyone surgically remove the claw at the distal phalanx and cause them a remaining lifetime of insecurity, biting due to fear aggression and the inability to fight back, trauma, and chronic pain?  For those who don't believe declawed animals suffer, they have but to ask someone with an amputated limb if they can still feel it, or if they still feel pain, because of it.  The answer is yes, and much of the time, it's chronic and lasts for the rest of their lives.  With debarking, people remove their dog's natural ability to communicate, causing a wellspring of behavioural issues and detriment to the dog's well-being.  Why don't more people notice their animals are suffering?  They have higher pain thresholds than people, though their trauma generally manifests in unfavourable behaviour, such as bite aggression, marking, excessive licking/plucking, and other self-mutilating examples.

That being said, it stands to reason that a parrot is also affected on many levels, not just physically, but also mentally. 

I found a site that has good information on it.  Also:

http://www.parrotchronicles.com/features/freeflight/freeflight.htm

http://www.flyingparrotsinside.com

I absolutely love and stand by the article written by Pamela Clark.

On a rather unsavory note, husband made the comment that, because Kai was flying from room to room, he thought it was time to clip him again.  I reasoned, "Well, then, we should cut off your cat's legs.  He doesn't need to play, tear around the house, or exercise, either..."  He said that his cat doesn't fly around the house like Kai does, and I said, "Have you never seen the cats running around the house before...?"

I have a long list of things that the cats have eaten, spilled, broken, damaged, or otherwise ruined in our house and past living spaces.  We buy furniture with the knowledge that it will become defaced by claws, covered in a veneer of shed fur every fall and spring, shredded, possibly peed and or pooped on/in, and otherwise made holey.  His cat not only mauls the couch corners to ribbons, but he also chews and eats the foam that comes out of it.  My cats poop in the bathtub, or on the kitty bathroom floor.  The bed has been christened numerous times when Ollie experienced blockage due to his bladder crystals, and twice when B's cat peed on it for no real reason at all.

My dog's stomach is extremely sensitive to treats and weather changes.  Quite often, if I'm not around, am sleeping, or if B ignores his pleas to go outside, my dog will go as far away as he can from either of us and do his business.  Then he'll run and hide... I've never so much as raised my voice at him for doing so, but he's always so ashamed and embarrassed that he did what he did where he did.  And my husband is worried about Kai flying around the house a little, occasionally pooping on stuff?  Let's compare poop size, shall we...?  This dog's head is also so insanely hard, once, he was doing his Husky 500, took the corner too fast, and ran straight into the steel wall corner reinforcement.  He was fine, but he BUCKLED the corner, broke through the drywall, and made a dent that was over an inch thick.  Boy did I spend a lot of time trying to disguise that one with tablespoons of spackle, my airbrush, and acrylic paint diluted with rubbing alcohol.  I also had to hammer the buckled part flat again on the other side.

My life revolves around cleaning up sh*t, literally and figuratively.  I've done it for years - since I was 4 or 5, at least, and we got our first cat.  It doesn't bother me, seriously.  Some day, if I have a baby, I'll be cleaning up its poop, too.  Hell, I'll make my husband do it!  It'll be a nice dose of reality and an actualization of responsibility for him.  Maybe it will make him more sympathetic to what I deal with on a day to day basis.  Dog poops on the carpet?  I just sigh and make for the paper towels and the green machine.  Every morning, I change Kai's papers.  Every couple of hours, I scoop the litterbox and flush the kitty poop.  Every day, I clean some part of the house.  It's routine, I'm used to it, it doesn't bother me - and B comes home, none the wiser to what I've done.  He just knows that dinner is almost ready, that he can change out of his work clothes and into his freshly laundered comfy pants, and that he should feed everyone just before we eat.  And yet, when Kai poops on the floor, he freaks out a little?

Pshhh.  I told him it was training for all the poop that'd come with a child.  He said kids wore diapers and eventually potty trained.  I just gave him a look.  I told him about my friend's daughter, who has taken to removing her diaper, scooping her feces, and flinging it downstairs at her mother, followed by her poop-filled diaper.  If he thinks kids won't potty in bizarre places (like outside in the yard, like the dog, in planters, on doormats, in litterboxes like the cats, etc), he's sadly mistaken.

Where damage is concerned, I also don't think my husband realizes that Kai seldom chews.  Compared to other species, it doesn't appear that Pionus really chew much at all.  He'll snap wooden disks and take apart vine balls, maybe chew his hanging wooden feeder box, but he's never really chewed aside from that.  I've been trying to teach him to forage through cardboard, but that's not going very well.  Besides, I don't think Kai could ever cause nearly as much damage as the cats. 

SO.  I'm really not worried about Kai being flighted.  I'm working on recalling him, but so far, he's only really mastered flying from my hand to his house, his perch, or to the faucet.  He knows the difference between stepping up for me to go somewhere, and stepping up for me to practice flying.

Me: Kai, let's go!
Kai: *looks at finger.* (Na, thanks.)
Me: Come on, Kai, let's go!  Do you want to go kitchen and help make dindin?
Kai: *disinterested stare* (Ehhhhhh....)
Me:  Hnn.  Well, Kai, let's go whee!  Do you want to go whee?
Kai: *eyes sparkling* (We're going to fly?)
Me: Come on, Kai, let's go whee to perch, okay?
Kai: *steps up immediately!!* (Okay!!!)

He has found the confidence to fly from my room into the kitchen, usually up onto the top of the fridge, but he has yet to figure out how to fly to me.  I can tippie-toe to get him off of high places, but I don't know what I'd do if he got up onto something higher than I could reach.  I don't shoulder him at all, because I like my face, ears, and earrings.  I hold my arm out at a right angle to my body with my finger pointed as he flies towards me, but he winds up flying right over me.  I guess it'll just take practice!  I'm still optimistic.

Please note that if I'm cooking with the stove on, Kai is NOT in the kitchen with me and all the kitchen doors are closed.  Kai gets to eat bits of fruit and veggies on the faucet as I'm doing the prepwork, but as soon as it's time to turn the burners on, Kai has to go to his livingroom perch.  I'm not going to risk burning my bird.  It helped that my mother would totally flip out if my sister or I ever stepped within two feet of the stove or oven while it was on.  Why was she so paranoid?  Well, when I was a toddler, apparently she had the oven open and I fell against the door and burned my arm.  Lesson learned!  Years later, I still maintain that lesson with all of my animals (and my husband.).  My kids, human or furry/feathered, will always be kept safe from hot things...I'm very cautious, considerate of my animals' needs, and am a responsible individual, who has an understanding of each of their distinct personalities and temperaments.

One thing that I have been having him practice is flying from his playstand to his house.  That's been going swimmingly!  A couple times, he's flown in circles around the room, which I found delightful, only to land on something awkward for him to stand on.  Tonight, he landed on a framed picture that I have leaning against the wall waiting to be hung.  He was nearly face-flat against the wall as he clung to the frame.  I resisted the urge to go get him, because I want him to learn that mommy isn't always going to rescue him.  I told him, "Kai, if you don't like it, you should go house.  Come on, you can do it!"  After a couple minutes of looking at me pathetically, he sucked it up and managed to turn himself a little, then launched and flew right to his house!  I cheered and praised him as he crowed about what a good boy he was, then I gave him his beloved sunflower seeds and aya (papaya).  He's always so pleased with himself when he flies and lands right.

So far, so good - he hasn't tried to dive-bomb my husband yet.  We'll see how he does during mating season.  I'm going to take pains to try to keep his hormones at low levels by limiting his light exposure (our house is dark, anyway!), not feeding him large amounts of meat protein/eggs, and by not encouraging mating habits.

While on the subject of behaviours, I tried something new with his territorial cage aggression.   He struts around on his house, all puffed up like a macho bird if B walks by, or if I'm changing his papers and cleaning his tray out.  The strutting while cleaning his tray out is a new behaviour I haven't seen until recently.  T.T  My little baby is growing up... So, anyway...I don't want to encourage him to be territorial and show signs of aggression like that.  Well, while eyeballing my little puffball, I open up his treat bin and pull out a handful of pumpkin seeds and exclaim, "Seed!!"

Kai went from aggressive to perky bird in half a second flat.  I was mightily pleased and dumped the pumpkin seeds into his dish so he could eat them while I finished cleaning his tray out.  It only seems like he has aggression if he's out on top of his cage, but not if he's inside.  If I close his drawbridge up and change his tray, he shows absolutely no signs of aggression.

On another note, I also might get a little flight suit for Kai so I can take him to other people's houses or to the store, but we'll see how that goes...if I have any skin left on my fingers after trying to get it on!  Okay, I should really sleep now, it's 9:12 am as I finish this up...I need to sleep sometime today!

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 :)