Chewie - Hahn's Macaw and my Oldest Child

Chewie is one of the 3 'mini-Macaws". he's a little jewel and one of the funniest to watch going a bout his day.
A little background - My bird room was my sun-room; it's 24' by 18' and windows line 3 sides. The 4th side is all open to the living room. I put up wooden blinds to filter the light, but more to keep the birds from being startled by outside critters, birds, and my neighbors. Chewie's cage doors are never shut. He has no interest in flying though he is fully feathered, his wings un-clipped. He can climb and crawl around his cage at will, though he never ventures to the floor or to any of his neighbors cages.
His favorite activity is to climb to the top of his cage (quite high up) and watch the outside world between the small gap between blinds. I've sat and watched Chewie from the living room for hours, fuss and talk at whatever happens to be in front of the window - from lizards to the neighbors cat, to the lawn man.
The funniest to watch/listen to is when the neighbors cat is walking the fence. Chewie repeats endlessly "here kitty, kitty, kitty - come here, come here, its okay, whatchadoing?" I try to stifle my laughter so he doesn't realize I'm watching him, but sometimes its just overwhelming. When he does realize I'm watching him, the content changes to "whaaaaat?" "Hi Chew Chew - Peek-a-boo." Actually "Peek-A-Boo" is the 'rooms' favorite contact call. Once Chewie starts it, the whole room will repeat it over and over, and over - in 12 different 'voices'. 9 times out of 10, their day starts with round after round of "Peek-A-Boo".
I hand raised Chewie - I'm Mom. He won't tolerate anyone else but me; he's bitten other's in my household quite badly. Amazingly in his 13 years he's never bitten me. And before you think that's normal - its not. Being bitten at some point - even by a bird that adores you, is a fact of life. At some point (usually) its because you inadvertently ignore or miss a body language signal, and you get bit. It comes with the territory. Of course how you handle it determines how frequently it happens, or even if its ever repeated. A good example is Max, one of my Yellow Streak Lories who will bite the ever-lovin crap out of me, if while I'm holding him, my attention wanders even for a second.
Even though Hahn's Macaws are not listed real high on the list for extraordinary talkers; Chewie's vocabulary is pretty impressive. He very softly says "good morning" only in the morning - he does not say this at any other time of the day. The same can't be said of "nite-nite". It seems to be a favorite phrase, and at times is repeated so much, I almost regret teaching it to him. A small list of his vocabulary includes "come here; whatcha doin?; knock it off; what's your problem?; awwww its okay; kiss-kiss (followed by the kiss-kiss noise); hi chew-chew; chew-chew-chewy; Bubba-Boy (my roommates nickname for my dog Patches); Suie quit; Suie hush; the wolf whistle; the microwave and my old phone. Chewie also barks like a dog, though it does sound more like a Chihuahua than a Mastiff. Chewie meows like the cat, coughs and sneezes like me, and thankfully has only one swear word - "shit", which he unfortunately picked up from me since its my favorite phrase when I screw up. I have to laugh though, as there have been times when I've dropped something in the bird-room and Chewie says it before I can. Chewie has been an absolutely wonderful addition to my family. Big Macaw attitude in an itty bitty bird.....


Thanks for visiting...........................
Bobbi

"Friend Good!" ~Frankenstein

BabyDoll ~ My Small Goffin Cockatoo

BabyDoll is a Goffin's Cockatoo, and one of my youngest. She is a semi-rescue. After 'rescuing' Fred (my Bare-eyed Cockatoo), I swore I would not get another 'Too. Not that they're not sweet birds, they are, UNLESS they have been badly re-homed, abused, neglected, even accidentally taught bad habits, they can be absolute monsters. OR in the case of BabyDoll - forced weaned. Force weaning is the morally reprehensible practice of unnaturally accelerating weaning to get a bird on the market faster. In general the larger the bird, the longer they take to wean. Macaws can take up to a year to properly wean, Greys and Toos anywhere from 4 to 6 months. There's really no hard and fast rule, but there are general guidelines. But you can't go from spoon feeding one day, and solid food the next, with no further spoon feedings. It amounts to the same thing as bottle feeding a human baby one day, and the next day handing the child a hamburger.
It wasn't immediately apparent, BabyDoll was forced weaned. When I first saw her, she cried whenever you got close to her cage, not uncommon with young birds in new surroundings. I thought she was cute and cuddly, but outside of that, I had no real interest in buying her.
After several weeks (I visit this particular shop once or twice a week) the "baby crying" not only didn't stop as it should have, but became incessant. I continually pressed my shop owner friend, and bit by bit learned BabyDoll's childhood. The breeder had indeed been in a hurry to "get rid of BabyDoll". She had made a grievous mistake with BabyDoll's older sibling, and it had died. Actually it was killed by the breeder's Husky, when she left it on the kitchen table to go get the mail. Aside from the loss of income for the bird, she was supposedly too upset to take anymore time with BabyDoll, but assured my friend BabyDoll was fully weaned and indeed ready to go into a shop - LIE!
One of the clues (aside from her admissions), that BabyDoll was force weaned was her beak. Young birds beaks are not putty, but can become misshapen, and "scissor beaked" if too much force is repeatedly applied to one side, such as with a syringe during feeding. Think of it like a toddler becoming buck-toothed from sucking their thumb.
BabyDoll's incessant crying - one of the physical and psychological side effects of force weaning, was becoming apparent to doom her to live her life in the pet shop. My shop owner friend said that while everyone who considered buying her thought she was "cute as a bug", they couldn't stand the constant crying and begging, which didn't stop even if you picked her up. She actually got her name because the crying sounded so much like a human baby crying.
Some may say I'm a sucker for the 'underdog', but no one else was going to "step up to the plate", and I bought BabyDoll. Before we went home, we paid a visit to my Avian Specialist at the vet's office. He very gently reshaped BabyDoll's beak, to give her a better chance of it realigning normally. She received several different nutritional shots, since she was severely underweight, and undernourished. After much discussion with my vet, it was decided, that I go "back to the beginning" and hand feed her in an effort to wean her correctly. For those that think hand-rearing and weaning a bird is a cakewalk - think again. Its a serious commitment, that takes an extraordinary amount of time and care in the best of circumstances, let alone compounding it with psychological issues.
When I got home with BabyDoll, I started from scratch, feeding her every 3 to 4 hours as if she had just been taken from the parents. She had no problem accepting hand feeding, since that's what she had wanted and needed all along. When her weight came back up to an acceptable weaning weight, I gradually added a seed, nut, pellet, fruit and veggie mix to her mealtimes. She "weaned out" of her own choosing (as it should be) in about 2 months. As she showed less interest in spoon feeding (I hate syringes), we played more with 'big bird food'. The incessant crying stopped in about a week after getting home, since she was getting what she needed. There was the occasional begging around meal time, but not the heartbreaking squalling. She still has serious mental issues we are working on, but that's a whole other novel.

Thanks for visiting.....
~Bobbi
"Nature is the art of God." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Pluck and Feather - Mated pair Swainson's Rainbow Lories

Some of my babies are difficult or near impossible to photograph ~ Pluck and Feather for starters. They are a mated pair of Swainson's Rainbow Lories. I've actually tried to photograph them, but the god-awful noise they make at even the slightest sight of the camera, probably amounts to some very un-repeatable swear words.
Pluck got her name, because my poor baby's previous mate either found her feathers extremely offensive, or was just overly amorous. She has her wing feathers, some body down, a few cheek feathers, but that's about it. One of my roommates teases she's the ugliest bird on the planet. Feather, her current mate, on the other hand, is absolutely perfect. Hence the names Pluck and Feather. The only problem Pluck's previous plucking has caused, is she seems to have adopted the same bad habit. Her chicks have to be removed from the nest, almost as soon as they start to pin. All the babies feathers are fair game, but especially the top of their head. They come out of the box looking like a teeny, tiny Friar Tucks. I have to remove them soon after she starts this, so the feather folicles don't become permanently damaged. I actually hate to take the chicks from them, and if it weren't for the plucking, I wouldn't until they were just about weaned - they both "cry" for a couple days after the chicks are removed. I'm happy to report though, that all of chicks have grown up to be perfectly feathered like 'Daddy Feather'.
Pluck is incredibly shy, retreating to her nesting box whenever I approach. Feather, however is not. His swaying and posturing leave no doubt whatsoever, that should my fingers come just a bit too close, he would gladly rip them open for me. And don't be fooled, just because Lories are nectar eaters, doesn't mean they don't have a beak sharp and strong enough to do just that.
If you ever have the opportunity to own a Lorie, breeder or not, you wouldn't be disappointed. They are a wonderful bird species, whether they view you as parent, friend, or just a tasty snack.

Thanks for visiting.........
~Bobbi
"Dogs come when they are called; cats take a message and get back to you later." ~Mary Bly

~~~Happy Holidays To All~~~

Hmmmmm Where To Start?

I guess I should start with a little disclaimer.

I am NOT a vet - Have NEVER been a vet - and don't proclaim to know as much as a vet. I don't proclaim to be a bird psychologist either. I am not the be all, end all to bird wisdom. I'm just sharing my life with parrots - 12 large parrots, 27 smaller guys, spanning 13 different species, and 17 years.
Half my flock have been hand-raised by me - the other half are rescues in one form or another.

Everything I share concerning my birds, is not meant to be a prescription, or remedy, or solution, or method carved in stone.

That being said, if some of my trials, triumphs, remedies, thoughts, heart aches, heart breaks, solutions, and/or humorous antidotes, prove to be useful, helpful, and/or entertaining to you, that's good too.

Thanks for visiting...
talk to ya soon....

~Bobbi
"Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions; they pass no criticisms." ~George Eliot