Updates on the rest

[Wolf]

I just gave an update on Skeeter ( Paquita ) but thought that while I was at this that I would give an update of my other three birds as they all have been changing their way of doing things recently.
Mimi, the Amazon still doesn't come out of her cage very often and it still takes a lot of coaxing to get her to go to her tree perch, which she really likes, but she does come out and sit on the perch that is on her cage door. She is also developing from a screamer into a singer. Anytime there is music being played she will start to sing. It is not in words but more like doot, doot, doot, does or ahhh, aahhhs than any other way. It kind of reminds one of opera singers more than anything else. She is no longer talking about dead birds and her fits of screaming now only last a couple of minutes, which is a major improvement. She also will actually come to the perch that is closest to the front of the cage when I sit in front of the cage talking to her with my hand resting on the bottom of the door frame just inside the cage.
Kiki, the Senegal, the bird that started all of this, birds living in the house with me, loves to perch on my shoulder more than any other place except when she is on the tree perch. She keeps going round with Kookooloo about her right to perch on my shoulder, She normally wins by moving down to my free hand to avoid a fight that she knows she can't really win, but she does make her point, that she can perch on me if she wants to. Yesterday, Kiki did something totally different than normal. She will usually sit of the tree while I am working with Mimi and then when I finally stand up she flies to me. Yesterday she flew to me while I was talking with Mimi. She landed on my shoulder and began dancing round and round with her wings held out from her body just a little and the tips pointing down. Round and round she danced while making a sound that I can only call purring. When I stood up she flew back to the tree perch. I did start to talk with Mimi a little bit longer, but Kiki apparently had other ideas as she immediately did a repeat performance of her dance, so I quit working with Mimi for a while and since as soon as I sat down on the couch Kookooloo came over and I talked to her while Kiki watched from the tree.
This brings me to my Grey parrot, Kookooloo. She was in love with me as soon as we met and this has not changed at all. She says that I am hers and will fight with anyone who tries to say otherwise, she will defend me from other birds advances and from any human who dares to try to touch me while she is on me. She is by far the hardest bird to get to eat a good diet that I have and while she does eat gloop it is only when she gets hungry enough to do so. She is almost as persistent as I am about this.
When she first came here she spoke human words just enough to let us know that she could if she wanted to and then quit talking except for saying her name once in a while. She truly loves sound effects and the sounds that the cats and dogs make, right now she mews like a kitten, due to a kitten I recently saved, for just about everything. She is actually very good at speaking human words and seems to know exactly what it is that she says, and I am not sure how extensive her volcabulary is as she says things every now and again that I know that she has never heard here. She also loves music and dancing. Well she bobs her head to the music and whistles when she hears music, she also does this spontaneously from time to time. She is learning new words and phrases all the time and almost all of her bodily feathers have grown back in.
Well that brings this all up to date and I am so happy and proud of them all.

[Lizz]

Good to hear their progress. Rambo only talks when he needs to and comes up with words and phrases I never heard before.
How is the rest of your life going?

[Harpmaker]

It sounds like Kiki was doing a poicephalus skirt dance. Does it look and sound something like this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvkFvdUaXp8 The senegal examples I found were split between good sound and dark video, or good video and no sound, so this is a Meyer's parrot.

Apparently poi's do this for mating, but also sometimes when they are just happy to see you.

I'm glad to hear Mimi is doing better after being so traumatized, and that Kookooloo has more of her feathers.

[Wolf]

Harpmaker, that is exactly the same with the only exception was that Kiki was spinning a bit more and the sounds are also the same. I pretty much figured that it was her mating dance, but didn't know that it was also a happy dance as well. Thank you.

Liz, I guess it is going as well as can be expected. Our friends husband has had to move our friend to a terminal illness hospice facility. None of us are doing very well with this development, but don't see a better way to handle this situation.

[Pajarita]

Yes, parrots change as time goes by. I think it actually takes them a couple of years to finally settle down to a steady routine after they change hands... but they also change as they get older, stronger, weaker, healthier, etc so, in truth, it's always an adventure with them!

Kiki's dance is a Senegal mating behavior but it means more "I love you" than "I am happy", in my personal opinion. I think that maybe people think it means "I am happy" because they tend to do it when they see you after an absence but I interpret that as them saying: "Oh, I love you so much and I missed you SOOOOO!"

Ah, that Mimi! Amazons are not big on dancing but they are all great singers - and they always sound like if they were singing an aria even when they are singing a little ditty Try singing along with the song on the radio with a 'Tra la la' -they all seem to love those 'singing' sounds. I do the Tra la la to the tune of the Christmas carol Fa la la and Mami sings it along with me when she is feeling good (and, when she doesn't, I know she is not feeling well and time for another aggressive liver treatment).

You are doing the right thing with Kookooloo's diet. I've also found that grays are hard to convince -must be their intelligence that makes them headstrong. I has taken me years and years to get mine to eat a diet that I consider good enough while an amazon or a conure would be eating a great diet in a matter of months.

[Wolf]

Kookooloo is very smart and she knows where I keep the bucket of seed mix that they all get in the evening, so in the mornings she first of all sings to me and this wakes the other birds and then she has company singing and then she talks for a while and gets Mimi talking. then it is a round of kissy noises from her and kisses when I go to the cage with breakfast. She dives right in for the first bite and usually says love you and turns her back on the food. Then it is kisses again and then she tries to get into the closet where the seed mix is. I put her back in the cage and she eats a little bit and then nibbles at it until dinner time.
It is really a lot like her saying " I love you so much, now let me have the good food".
That reminds me, have you ever tried to give any of your birds uncooked whole grains?

[Pajarita]

The seed mix I use has raw cereal grains in it (oats, buckwheat, millet, etc) but I've never actually given them any of the grains I buy for the gloop in their raw form. I would much rather give them the cooked grains because cooking does not only make the grains more digestible. it also infuses them with water which is healthier for them as well as more filling with less quantity.

[Wolf]

So does my seed mix, but I was thinking of trying them in other ways such as soaked and sprinkled on their gloop or just sprinkled on it dry to see if I could get Kookooloo to eat better.

[Lizz]

I use whole grains. I take my jars to the farm store and get them filled with feed quality oats, wheat and barley. Then I put them in the freezer for 24 hours just to be safe. The only foods that I actually cook for them is oatmeal, scrambled eggs and carrots for the cockatiels (their beaks are little and can't bite the raw ones).

[Pajarita]

Doesn't she eat the grains in the gloop, Wolf? Have you tried just grains barely cooked with no veggies, no beans, no nothing but grains? Because they always go for that and, once they get used to eating them, you can start adding stuff little by little... like just a bit of pumpkin puree because it sticks to the grains, it's easy (just buy the can), sweet (they all like sweet) and it's high in betacarotene, C and calcium. Sweet corn is another one they always go for (and my grays love white hominy). And baby peas. My grays eat well now but I can't think of any other species that took as long as they did so you are on the same boat as every other gray owner!