by Wolf » Fri Aug 07, 2015 1:15 pm
Well it has only been a couple of days since Rajah's arrival and he is eating well and is very focused on winning Paquitas heart. Their cages are only separated by about an inch between the bars of the cages, just enough that they can't touch each other.
Rajahs movements about his cage mirror Paquita's movements in her cage. If Paquita moves towards the top of her cage Rajah is only a fraction of a second behind her as he moves to remain at the same level in his cage as she is in hers. If his back is turned towards her due to him watching other things such as people movement she will come closer to him and starts talking to him until he turns around, then she stops and moves away a shots distance while he talks and talks to her.
Paquita love to come out of her cage in the mornings to socialize with me and to get a little almond. She lands on me and moves down to my hand and chitters away very excitedly and then she gets her almond after she calms down, then comes playing with a little ball and some head scratches which she seems to enjoy immensely, turning her head so that her whole head is scratches especially along her lower jaw bones. Then it is off to her cage so that I can repeat this with another bird. On the way back, we stop at Rajah's cage and she lunges at him with beak open to bite and he just rushes over, ignoring me to talk to her. Today I held her up close enough for her to reach the bars of Rajah's cage. She, of course, lunges at him threatening to bite him and he just ducks to one side or the other so that she couldn't bite him if she really wanted to. He ducks and bobs from one side to the other and talks and talks, never once showing any aggressiveness whatsoever. He is very sweet and patient with her. As soon as she is in her cage and the door is closed, she goes over to the side of her cage that is closest to him and they continue to talk for a couple of minutes.
There has been one very interesting side effect to all of this. Since Rajah has been here Kookooloo, my Grey has been in a snit and is acting very angry with me. She asks to have her cage opened so that she can come out and then pulls the door closed and refuses to come out until I go get her reluctantly out of her cage. Now Kiki, my Senegal, almost always flies over to me while Kookooloo is out and on me and all is good with both of them getting a little almond and juice, and head scratches. But since Rajah's arrival she, Kookooloo, will not tolerate Kiki any where near me while she is out with me and goes after her with a vengeance to chase her away.
It is so interesting to see how the simple act of adding one bird to the flock can change the dynamics of the flock even when there is very little change in the rest of the routine.