Bird update

Bird, bird, bird, bird is the word:

Well, here is a bird update:

Well our flock is doing ok; we have had some minor victories and defeats.

Addicus, the most care intensive seems to be doing well. We have added 3 shredded shirts to his cage and put up a roll of register tape, and he seems to love both. He seems to be picking less, though he is a big baby. Whenever we leave the room for a moment, he is screaming, but that is to be expected. He is getting more familiar with us, letting down his hair so to speak, and having fun dancing and laughing and such. The bad side of it is that he is getting a little biteier. Just this morning as I was putting him away, he bit my thumb hard enough to make me bleed. I have got to get that squirt bottle out and use it more. The other good news is that he is eating more, although not any one thing consistently. Picky picky picky.

Mrs. Zorah is flying now, and has picked up the habit of flying onto poor Adonis’s cage, because it is fare more interesting then hers, much to Adonis’s chagrin. He seems irritated about it sometimes, but she is now as big as he is (and she’s a Timneh… goes to show what a runt he is of a Congo) and he tends to back down when she asserts herself. Otherwise we are down to one hand feeding a day and she is eating her own food like mad. Its about time to get her own full size cage, probably next month when more money comes in.

Buddi is not doing much. He is eating like a pig, and most anything we give him. He is not incredibly social, but he talks quite a bit. Found an interesting behavioral quirk that he has the other day. When I bring my magnetic security card near him, he follows it around like a zombie… when I stop it, he will actually let me scratch his neck, but prefers the card scratching his neck even more. We tried this with some other magnets, and it worked just as well. We went ahead and got him a magnetic perch and he loves it. Sometimes he will just go in his cage and hang out on it.

Adonis is the one having problems right now. With all the new birds in the house, he is a bit stressed and has started clipping again. We paid lots of attention to him last night and he seemed to have a good time (he is the talker with the most vocabulary so far) so we are watching him as much as we can. We have put some rags and extra toys in his cage, and hopefully it will help.

Well, still need some Congo females and a male Timneh… egad. I cant imagine the ruckus with 6 or 7 birds total. Not to mention all the babies!