Rainbow, Myrtle & Cockatiels

[liz]

They know when it is 3 pm. My son's 2 girls come over at 3 pm. It is difficult to ignore a pack of hounds barking at you.

I was too tired to come on tonight but I have to tell you what happened. My son ordered a pizza and shared with Aunt Betty. With my pancreas I cannot eat it. When I walked in the room Aunt Betty was having a great time. All the animals were around her begging. I asked her "did you share?" She said she gave each one of the dogs a piece.

There, right in front of her face was Rambo jumping up and down and flapping his wings and making noise on the pizza box. It has been a long time since pizza was in the house and he really wanted his share. When I gave him a piece of crust he ran back to his side of the table with it and started making happy little noises. He makes really cute happy noises so I had to laugh and pick on Aunt Betty for depriving him of his pizza.

She didn't think he knew what was in the box. He can smell when I bring home Hunan Chicken when I open the door and he will start begging. I am curious about how he knows that there are crackers in a cracker box. He can't smell them or see them but will do his baby bird begging.
I guess since he has been around for 31 years that he has seen, heard and smelled a lot of things. He is such a little cutie I forget how old he is.

[liz]

It is about a year now that I moved to Florida. Rambo must have finally accepted his new home and has been up to no good.
My son has been busy putting metal trim on my cabinets and doors as well as doors and doorways to protect them from Myrtle.
It started a few days ago that Rambo was back to rounding corners on base boards. I have had to run him out of my bathroom so much that I am now keeping the door closed. He is all of a sudden back to getting into trouble except when eating or sleeping. Putting him in the little cage and hanging him on a nail when I am outside wares off some of his energy. Myrtle is still too scared to get in a cage with a door but calls to him while he is out.
I am sure my neighbors now think I have kids named Rambo and Myrtle especially since they back talk me. The windows are all open and a parrot voice, which sounds like a kid, carries a good distance. They probably think my kids are retarded since their contact call is hello and they yell it back and forth.

I counted my cockatiels and there were only 13. I counted and counted then looked under a cabinet. Tweet was sitting quietly while his mother, Jackie, stood guard. None of the eggs have been fertile so I did not bother to check. I really hope I don't get a surprise.
As far as I know Tammy, Jackie and breeder bird Maggie are the only ones who know anything about eggs and babies. If they are fertile it will be interesting to see how the flock reacts. When I only had 4 cockatiels the babies were fed and cared for and belonged to all of them.

[liz]

My son is stressing. He is trying to get metal trim on all the cabinets and doors that Myrtle has chewed on.
The two kittens, Sherbert and Lucky have been trying to break into the cockatiel room. Chuck put hardware cloth on the screen door to keep them out. He did a good job and it looks like a door made with hardware cloth.
He will be back at it today. With such nice weather I have been leaving windows open. He has to put hardware cloth on all the windows to keep birds in and raptors from breaking in.

I raised my kids without a father. Chuck was never taught manly chores so he is using the internet to teach him how to do things. I am so pleased and proud of him. He has a mobile home on the other side of my property but has taken on the responsibility of the man of the house for my house too. He is getting a little help. He tries to do something like repair the AC by learning on the internet. When we do have to call for help he has enough knowledge to ask questions and understand what the repair guy is saying. All of them so far have taught Chuck how to fix things if it ever happens again. Even the roofer I finally got told Chuck what and how he was doing the repairs.

Chuck knows I like gardening but have not had a garden for a few years. He is in the process of setting up my garden space and plans to do the maintenance so all I have to do is pick. He has never had a garden so he is using the internet to teach him how to ready the soil.

Okay the post started with my birdies but has changed to bragging on my son. Sorry about that.

[Wolf]

Brag away

[liz]

Yesterday while feeding the evening meal to the cockatiels I was blessed and have been happy about it ever since. I feed them on a big tray on the floor. Bending over is difficult for me so I just get on my knees to do it. While stretching out to fill the tray Jackie walked up to me from the other side of the room. She walked under my arms and went between my legs. The sight was amasing that she went between my knees and then looked up at me instead of going to the food. It seemed that she was wanting another kiss. When I was done with their food tray I just sat on the floor with my legs stretched out. Without hesitation Jackie climbed on my lap. If that was not enough to make me melt Lola followed her.
So there I sat with two of my beautiful girls actually wanting attention from me. Happy ness overload. I still did not try to touch them. The only physical contact we had before this was when Jackie walked across the top of the cage and leaned out to give me a kiss.
Even this morning I have to smile when I think of my little refugees showing such love.
I feed them at 9 am and am looking forward to it. One time Tweet who has always run from me followed Jackie and sang to me. I wonder which of my babies will follow the two girls to touch me.

[beakycheekie]

That is awesome! How rewarding it is when time and patience pay off!

[liz]

I don't know what Jackie wants from me. She runs up to me as soon as I go in the room. When I get on the floor she preens any part of me she can reach but still does not want touched.

I have been in bed most of the day. Rambo climbs the bed spread and keeps me company to the point of being a pest. He just climbed up again. I guess staying in bed makes him remember his "Grandmom".

[liz]

5 am someone in the Cockatiels room started singing then another and another joined in the singing.

I know this also happens with the wild birds outside. Why would a prey animal who cannot see in the dark make noise that could attract a preditor?

The Cockatiels know time. They know they are going to be fed at 9 am and all make noise about 8:30 am and again 5 pm. Why would they get active in a dark room?

[Wolf]

Although I am not positive about this, I will still share it and hopefully some more experienced cockatiels people will come to the rescue and correct it if wrong.

I believe that cockatiels make their nest in hollows in trees, which provides for enough darkness to protect their babies eyes when they are born. It appear that many parrots also prefer to do their mating in the dark and that is what I think is happening with yours, Liz, they are singing to initiate sexual activity just before dawn when many predators have quit hunting and are returning to their lairs.

[Pajarita]

Well, here in the Northeast, there is already a bit of light in the sky at 5 am, Liz. I am getting up at 5:45 am and there is already so much light by then that I can see perfectly without turning on a single light. And they can see too because I am opening their cages at 6 am and they take off flying (I am feeding them breakfast at 7 am and dinner at 7 pm).