Willis has a companion parrot, Suzie—our 12 week old Congo African Grey. Suzie’s personality is becoming more defined each day. She is not as loveable as Willis but has just recently reached out to be picked up. They have separate cages to sleep in but they usually share a cage top or the roll around stand when out of their own cage. That goes pretty good, until one of them starts pestering the other and pushes the other off of the perch! Suzie holds her own against Willis and is at times the aggressor.
Suzie is still being handfed one to two times a day, along with being given fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, and pellets. We allow Willis to be treated to a hand feeding of formula every now and then. Last night, they had baked sweet potatoes and grilled top sirloin steak. They tore into that as if they had been starved to death for days. We have been giving them ZuPreem pellets (fruit and regular) but have decided to try Harrison’s organic food. I ordered that today and should start them on it next week; of course they will continue to get fresh food.
We handmade our rolling stand out of PVC pipe and rope. It is shaped like the tree stands and they both love to play on it. We have also make a few toys for them, using straws, rope, and other fun things. We have used children’s blocks to help them learn their colors and we turn the television on to Disney Channel when we are gone.
Neither Willis nor Suzie are talking at this point but are trying to imitate some noises that they are hearing. We would like to think that what they are saying [or mumbling] repeats some of the words that they hear most often (such as hello and come ‘er). One thing for sure, they LOVE to have their picture taken and will start posing as soon as we say ‘cheese.’
