My Red Belly Female Gaugan

[Wolf]

While some of us seem to contribute more technical information, other contribute stories about their life with parrots and show their dedication and love for their parrots more than the technical information. Both are valid and both are needed for this forum and for each other. The wonderful stories that are shared, in many ways acts much more as the glue that helps to hold us all together as it is the love and respect for these birds that is really what all of our efforts are all about.
I love and appreciate the stories that you share with us. Thank you.

[seagoatdeb]

Liz you will never be a parasite, you always give so much. How about my eerie pic, doesnt any0one else think it came out cool looking?

[Wolf]

I don't know about eerie, but the pic is cool.

[seagoatdeb]

I don't know about eerie, but the pic is cool.

I managed to get a lot of shots of her in that light but that one was my favorite with what i call her "Eagle Pose"

[Wolf]

I was just explaining to my neighbor that not all of the colors that he sees on Kiki are the result of an actual color, but that the feather gets its color from the structure of the feather itself which causes it to refract the light in a certain way. This was in response to his commenting that everytime he looked at her, her color was somehow different, as if it changed. So I was telling him that how the light hit these feathers made a difference in how the color appeared.

[seagoatdeb]

Yes, i love color and although my red Belly Female is one of the parrots that many would call drab. Her colour to me is just so beautifull. Except for some feathers, almost all of her feathers have more than one colour on them. Grey, orange and green. The way that we see colour in light makes her body colour combinations very reflective of the surroundings.

I am sure parrots see very differently to us, not ony better but colours must all appear different too. I know when i have my parrots outside in the summer in there outside cages for some sun, they will all start to scare up at the sky. It takes me a while to see the predator bird circling us. i usually just jump to my feet and stare open eyed at the predator and that is enough for them to fly away. Then the parrots are at ease again.

[seagoatdeb]

update on Gaugan. She is a very happy parrot, even though she is hormonal right now. She is preening Sunny the Meyers and it is her first time preening another parrot in 17 years. She has always wanted her space before that. She is very mushy every day right now and loves to hang out on my shoulder and chat in human. She is more picky with her eating right now but she seems to do this every time she is hormonal.

She has decided a couple times this week that she should have more nuts to eat, and hangs upside down, with her beak pointing at the nut jar saying "hey Gaugy bird"....when i tell her you have had enough fat already today, she sometimes will go down and try to make the jar fall off the stand, and put a lot of effort into figuring out how to do it until she gets it to fall. So when she goes to that much trouble to get an extra nut she gets to have one, she must need it to work so hard like that. A little exta wont hurt sometimes.

She continues to be such an easy parrrot for me, we just "get" each other and communication is and has always been so easy between us. No matter how moody or grouchy she gets, she will never bite me. She is a character and a half though, If I have to put her in her cage for a while, she goes into the cage no probem but as soon as i shut the door, she does a litle posturing to show me she is not happy about it....lol...She does the same thing if she is out and I say, "Gaugan dont chew on that", she will stop chewing but she makes a posturing movement to let me know she is not happy about it......lol. Sometimes when i go to put her in her cage she will flip upside down and start playing with me and i have to get her upright to get her in gently so i have to play for a little while....lol

[Wolf]

It seems to me that most parrots crave more protein when they are hormonal so I would think that it is the extra protein that she is after and nuts are a good source although they also have a lot of fat. If you have a higher protein food that you know that she likes about as much as the nuts I wonder which one she would choose if she had one of each of them placed in front of her while she is hormonal. It could be the extra fat that she is after but it is hard to know as most of their foods that have a higher protein content also have a higher fat content as well.

[Pajarita]

Yes, they are hormonal right now. Thankfully, my redbelly, Isis, is also a very good girl which never bites but she has been a bit of pest asking for head scratches - not that I resent it, mind you! but it's a constant thing and I need both my hands to do my chores so I guess that, sometimes, I disappoint her I have been looking for a male redbelly for her since I got her but no luck so far...

[seagoatdeb]

It seems to me that most parrots crave more protein when they are hormonal so I would think that it is the extra protein that she is after and nuts are a good source although they also have a lot of fat. If you have a higher protein food that you know that she likes about as much as the nuts I wonder which one she would choose if she had one of each of them placed in front of her while she is hormonal. It could be the extra fat that she is after but it is hard to know as most of their foods that have a higher protein content also have a higher fat content as well.

It seems to me that most parrots crave more protein when they are hormonal so I would think that it is the extra protein that she is after and nuts are a good source although they also have a lot of fat. If you have a higher protein food that you know that she likes about as much as the nuts I wonder which one she would choose if she had one of each of them placed in front of her while she is hormonal. It could be the extra fat that she is after but it is hard to know as most of their foods that have a higher protein content also have a higher fat content as well.

Oh I do give her extra protein, but she just turns her nose up at it some days, other days she eats no problem. She has never been an overwieght parrot. Also her vet checks are good. Before i first got her they had given her antibiotics for her toe infection and another course after they amputated the toe. The vet had me feed her a certain plain yogurt, and i would sit there with this new parrot who had bonded to me immediately and wanted to be on me every minute, and coax her to eat her yougurt, which she did not like. i would say "take a taste" and coax her until the yougurt was eaten up.

It took me over a month to have her weight up to where it should be. She has always been a picky eater and stubborn about what she will eat. So when she really wants something like a walnut, that bad and will spend half an hour gettting the jar to fall, I let her have it. She gives me such a sweet look, after that I can often get her to try a new food or eat some of her other wet foods. The only one so far I have never got her to eat even a little piece of is banana, which I do try some times when I eat a banana, because Sunny loves banana. She will take a taste when i coax her...lol...but she acts like she has been poisoned trying to spit it out. She is on again off again certain other foods and always picky, but i keep serving her a wide variety and some days she eats everything. I play fight with her with raw veggies, and she has learned to eat some that way. Sunny is really easy he immediately liked to eat almost everything. i have googled walnuts, and it may be the selenium she is after, African soil is rich in Selenium, and our area is low in Selenium. I try to offer other foods that containg Selenium, but Walnuts is the one she easily eats. i am very pleased about the wide varitey of food she will eat, I worked with her very hard to get her to eat like this...