Spider Surprise For Parrot

I am trying to be more spider-tolerant. This is not a default reaction for me, but since they are harmless, as long as they aren't on me, I try to let them live. I had a challenging encounter yesterday! After seeing this one on my wall, she found her way here:

I was so careful, going into the kitchen to brush my teeth, and trying to give her enough time to find another place to go.

And then I walked in on Beeps, right after he'd taken a bath in his water dish.  Of course, I had to rinse out and refill his water dish, so I went into the bathroom and flushed out the spider!

She was really wet, but OK.  I managed to get her outside, alive.

I'm not sure that was the right thing to do -- can house spiders survive outside?  At least it is warm out now, and hopefully if she doesn't survive, she was food for someone else.

Sleep cages!

It doesn't look like I posted about this last summer when I bought them, but due to the fact that I am living in an apartment and wanted to not get kicked out due to the parrots awakening with the sun, I bought them sleep cages.  Their normal cages are too big for me to properly cover, so this was my solution.

I was a little worried about how they would take to them, but they all love them!  I was also a little worried about putting them together myself, but I am discovering new skills of assembly I never had to use before.

Since they each get a cashew before bed, after they go into their sleep cages, Max will actually climb down and go into hers by herself.  She also knows to open the door on the caiques' cages (I don't latch them when they are unoccupied) to see if either caique left some cashew uneaten.  Occasionally, she is rewarded for this thoroughness.

Here's Beeps:

Max:

And Calypso:

I cover them, so it's dark, which allows me to keep things quiet until I wake them up.

During the day, when they are out with me, they like to play on the cages.  Calypso spent quite a while trying to rip up the cage paper through the grate today.  The reason I went to grab my camera is that Beeps actually went into this cage with Calypso on top.  I had hoped to get a picture of that, but he'd flown back to his cage by the time I returned with the camera.

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In unrelated news, the offer I put in on the house was accepted!  The inspection is on Wednesday May 1, and if all goes well, I will be the owner of a fabulous Victorian -- my dream house -- by June 15.  I'm going to try to remember to take some pictures on Wednesday so I can post them here.

This is all so exciting.  I can't wait to have a guest bedroom.  And, my dad asked if I would be interested in brewing beer with him once I have a house.  That's a hobby that Thomas and I shared, and I'd given it up once I was alone.  Now that I'll have a bigger kitchen, I can't wait to brew with my dad!

After-work routine

The past few weeks, I've started a new after-work routine with the parrots that we've all come to enjoy.

In my small apartment, I don't have enough room for them to be in a common living room, as they were in my house, which means that they have their own bedroom.  This isn't ideal, as they don't get as much ambient attention when I'm doing things, unless I make it a point to get them out.  Having them all out at the same time in a room without their cages can be tricky, as they start posturing and starting fights.  I need to be on high alert at all times.  This means that I usually rotate parrots (Max and Calypso together; Beeps separately, since he can't get along with anyone) who are out with me.

Once I have a house again (crossing my fingers; in a few months if inventory improves!) they'll be in a common area again so this won't be an issue.  Each bird respects the others' cages, so they can all be out with light supervision.

That was some wordy background!

I have moved a comfortable chair into their bedroom, and I sit there and read for at least an hour while they play.  This reading isn't always the most productive, as they frequently want to interact with me, so my book gets postponed.

I took a few pictures of Calypso's march to attention.  He starts by hanging off of his cage door, to be as close to me as possible.  And super cute, as well.

After a few head scratches, he moves around the same level as I am, making kiss sounds and whistling.  (He continues to be the most photogenic parrot I have known):

Caught in mid-scratch:

Before I know it, he's on the ground, coming over for some more personal attention:

Not to be outdone, as soon as he's on the floor, Max has to be on the floor, too.  I try to keep them on opposite sides of my chair, though yesterday, when I didn't have my camera with me, they were both ripping up the newspaper that's under Max's cage!

Beeps stays on his cage, as when he tries to venture down, Max goes after him.  He's happy, and I make sure to spend time with him everyday in a one-on-one situation.  After over 6 years of living together, I would have hoped they could be better friends!

A video of Beeps.  Every time after I do a certain whistle, he says "Pretty baby!" It sounds clear to me, but when he does this for visitors, they can't understand him.  (ETA: Apparently this video is not working.  Ever since blogger "improved" their interface, I have had trouble with videos.  This has been going on for years!  I will try to figure it out tomorrow.  For now, just imagine Beeps saying "pretty baby!" after I whistle.  This happens twice.)

When he saw me taking pictures of Beeps on his cage, Calypso had to climb to the same spot on his cage for attention:

However, he didn't do anything exciting enough to warrant a video!

With Calypso off of the floor, Max flew up to her favorite spot: the arm of my chair, where I scratch her head while reading:

I am currently reading "In the Garden of Beasts" by Erik Larson.  It's about the American ambassador to Berlin during Hitler's rise to power, prior to World War II.  It's non-fiction that reads like fascinating fiction.  Highly recommended!

Tomorrow I am running a marathon.  I have not been doing much speed work, so I am not anticipating that great of a result.  Additionally, the weather forecast is not fabulous.  It will be that terrible in-between weather that is so difficult to dress for!  I am maintaining a good attitude and determined to have fun, even if I'll be slower than last year.

Hormonal caique? Oh, yes!

I received this question in the comments, which I will answer below:

I found your blog while looking for approaches to handling my hormonal caique. Do you know of any dietary options by chance?

The bird's hatch date is 12/19/09, and this year she's been on an extended celebration. I've had her since May '10 or so. "Her" isn't formally confirmed; breeder's guess by feeling the pelvic bones.

Her diet is a variety of fruit/veggies in the morning and access to a grain mix during the day.

Other than a recent plumbing disaster (variety of chemicals used, cutting a drain pipe, etc.), and a family visit during the holidays, no changes to our normal routine. It's been several days of return to normalcy, but aggressive behavior has intensified.

The bird is normally cage-free, with a bull terrier in the house (equally cage-free). Lately, they've been going at each other, with the bird instigating. The bird isn't clipped, and the dog is sufficiently well-behaved, so it hasn't been a concern in the past; however, the bird hasn't been provoking the dog to this degree before. Typically, it's the other way around.

With me, behavior is a roller-coaster. I can tolerate occasional beaking, but a love-bite on the lip from a reach-around lunge off my shoulder that I can't see coming is a bit much.

I grab her following incidents (to prevent further damage - to me) and deposit her in the cage, leaving the room. She then is pretty insistent on calling me back. When I come back, I can see the typical signs of an aggressive posture. If I open the cage and tell her to step up, she will and very shortly attempt to attack.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Hello, and welcome to the world of mature caiques.  As always, I must disclaim that every bird is an individual, but over my years of parrot ownership and volunteering at the rescue, I have done as much research as I could to try to give my parrots the best captive life I could, so I feel comfortable making generalizations, which I will do here, though of course it does not apply to every individual of the species. 

There used to be a good site about caiques that appears to no longer be available online.  I remember very vividly the line "biting is one of the downsides of caique ownership."  I've found that to be true, to a point.  The site also mentioned that they tend not to do well with other animals in the house, but I'll get into that more down below.

One of the great things about caiques is that typically they are very expressive, so once you get to know their body language, you can usually avoid bites by not trying to handle them when they are agitated.

I have two teenage male caiques, Calypso (18; I've had him 9 years) and Beeps (14; I've had him 6 years.)  Calypso has never bitten me, though he had bitten my ex-husband in the past.  He also postures as though he will bite me occasionally when I ask him to step up.  Instead of forcing him, I leave him be and try again later.  He is also trained to step up on a stick in case I absolutely needed to move him.  I believe Calypso is quite an anomaly among caiques with regards to biting, and I feel very lucky!

Beeps, on the other hand, gets worked up quite a bit.  He is very difficult to handle for a few months every year -- typically this has been December - February -- and then his sweet personality returns for the spring, summer, and fall.  He also has triggers; things that will set him off.  For example,  the container in which I keep my lizard's food incites Beeps to launch flying attacks at me, so I always make sure Beeps is locked in his cage before I feed Andreas.

What you've described sounds like it may be hormonal biting.

You can certainly try experimenting with different foods.  If you do that, I'd recommend keeping a journal so you can see if there are any correlations between what she eats and her behavior.  I tried with Beeps in the past, but never noticed any difference.  Some people recommend using cooled chamomile tea in place of water to help calm an agitated bird down.  Once again, this never made any difference for me.

The first thing I recommend is to make sure to keep the caique and the dog separate.  Sadly, I have known dozens of birds killed by the family pet (I come into contact with a lot of people at the parrot rescue.)  Every time, the story starts out "they always got along..." and usually involves "the bird always flew out of reach before" and "the dog/cat is so well-natured.  I can't believe it!"  I feel the risk is just far too great.  When instincts are involved, it only takes a second, and even careful supervision can't stop a tragedy from happening (I lost a dear budgie in 2011 to another animal when I was carefully supervising.  I wasn't fast enough and instead had a front-row seat to the tragedy.  I so wish I would have enforced true separation that would have saved his life.)

Additionally, it sounds like perhaps your caique has chosen you as her mate, and so she feels the need to drive her competition (the dog) out of the way, so separation may help calm down the hormones.

You mention that she is normally cage-free.  Does she have a cage where she sleeps and spends some time?  Birds really do best with routine and some limits.  Cages are not punishments.  My birds love their cages and will frequently go inside them during the day.  Perhaps she needs to get started on a routine that involves cage time.  Mine do best with 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep a night, and I see a definite difference in behavior.  How much sleep is she getting?  (Dark, uninterrupted; not with someone watching TV in the same room.)

What you do when she bites may actually be reinforcing to her, as she gets attention immediately when you pick her up.  It's likely she does not realize that her behavior caused her to be put in her cage, since it's too far removed, and she was already rewarded by your attention.  Then, she calls to you, as a lone bird in the wild is most likely a dead bird.  They are flock animals and only a few generations removed from the wild, so with all of the instincts that serve them well in the jungle but not as well in our living rooms.

What you want to try to do is learn her body language and prevent bites.  With Calypso, if I offer him my hand, he'll either step up nicely or he'll make a squealing fuss.  If it's the latter, he's probably going to bite.  So I either leave him alone until he's calmed down and try again, or, if I need to move him somewhere, I'll use a stick. 

With Beeps, things are a bit more interesting.  As background, both caiques are unclipped, but only Beeps really flies.  I noticed that right before he'd bite, his eyes would start to flash.  I watched him carefully, and as soon as I saw his eyes flash, I'd point to his cage and tell him to go inside.  He'd fly there from wherever he was, go inside, I'd shut the cage door, and then he'd have his meltdown.  After a few months of this, he started to go inside his cage on his own when he felt a meltdown happening.  I need to pay attention and shut him inside until he calms down, otherwise he may come out of his cage and launch an attack.  He's also stick-trained, should I need him to go somewhere he doesn't want to fly to.

I truly believe that they want to behave, but sometimes they can't control their behavior!

Another thing that may help is exercise.  You can develop games to have her flying around.  In the wild, they'd be flying and exercising their excess energy away.  Here, they just don't do that, so it often manifests itself in undesirable behaviors, like attacking.  Get her panting.  This could be having her on your hand when you go up and down (this is what I do with Beeps), or assisted flying (this is Calypso's favorite.  I cup my hands under his chest and we "fly" around my apartment, with me running.)  Since she flies, you can put her on her stand and call her to you (this is how I exercise my grey.)  There are a million ways (maybe not quite that many!) that you can exercise her, so find a way that is fun for both of you!

I'd also recommend keeping her brain stimulated.  In my house, we do trick training using a clicker.  They love it, and it's a positive way for them to expend some mental energy.

It sounds like you allow her on your shoulder, based on one of your comments.  I know that many, if not most, parrot owners encourage this.  However, I do not at all.  If I were queen of captive parrots, this is something that no one would do!  And especially not with a parrot who has ever shown hormonal tendencies or has ever bitten anyone (so, pretty much all parrots.)  Possibly excepting budgies and tiels.

Here's why: you can't see their body language, so it's very easy to all of a sudden get a face bite "out of nowhere" when the bird had been giving warnings that could have prevented it.

I have personally witnessed a macaw bite a chunk of cartilage out of someone's ear.  He was on his favorite person's shoulder and gave him a warning.  In the wild, he'd get a beak full of feathers and his communication would have been proper.  In captivity, he can do major damage and might lose his home.  I have also seen and known many people who have had to get stitches for a facial bite.  The risk is just far too high, and usually it's the bird that ends up losing.  Once again, far better to prevent than to react.

As I am rambling on, as usual, here is a quick summary, with a few extras:

1. Keep bird and dog separate at all times.

2. 12 hours of dark, uninterrupted sleep every night.

3. Watch body language closely and prevent (rather than react to) bites.

4. Develop another way to handle her when she's agitated (e.g. stick train.)

5. Exercise until she's panting, several times a day.

6. Keep her brain stimulated (e.g. trick training.)

7. Absolutely no shoulders.

8. Keep all petting (if any) to the head only.  Absolutely no petting below the neck, under the wings, etc.  You are turning her on and making promises you can't keep.  No playing on/under blankets.  No nest boxes or anything that might approximate one.

9. Do not feed warm, mushy foods.

Good luck!  I do hope this calms down soon, but you may need to realize that you will have a few months every year with limited physical interaction with her.  This is the case for Beeps and me, but once his hormonal season has ended, our relationship returns to what it was before the hormones kicked in.  Other people may chime in with additional thoughts, and I will add anything here if I think of something else to say!

Beeps marches on

Beeps, beeping around and thinking about getting worked up.  When I whistle like that, I can usually get him to say "Pretty Baby!"  Had I tried to pick him up in that state, there's a good chance I would have gotten bit.

Plant fun

A month ago, my good friend came over to visit. Max and Calypso are both a bit skittish around other people, but Beeps loves everyone, especially if he senses they are bird people.   (The exception to this is my uncle.  Max loved my uncle on sight and actually solicited head pets from him!  He had no idea how special this was, even though we tried to explain it to him, and my mom had her feelings hurt as she has tried to befriend Max for over a decade.) My friend is a bird person (she has two parrots who are probably going to stay with us while the humans go on vacation, so you will get to meet them!)

So he hung out on her leg:

Then, something startled him, and he flew to the plant, which he loved.  He spent a long time in the plant, chewing off the (usually) dead leaves and playing around:

A short video:

This plant has become one of his favorite places to play; it's like an extra stand in the dining room!  He tends to head over there as soon as he flies in.

Bicycle ride

Beeps was flying around my apartment last month, exploring, when he found himself in my back bedroom, where I am currently storing my workout equipment, including my bicycle.

This is where I found him, beeping and saying, "pretty baby!"

Unacceptable!

Some unacceptable things that have happened in my new apartment:

Max on my breakfast table, chewing up my newspaper:

Max, drinking water out of Beeps's cage, while Beeps is still in his cage!  (They don't get along at all, and she was removed as soon as I took this picture):

I didn't have a table for the first couple of days, so I was eating breakfast on the floor.  The parrots were in their room.  I left for a short period of time, and found Calypso helping himself, and Max not far behind (she is at the top of this picture.)

And, not to leave me out of my unacceptable list: most of this stuff is now unpacked since it's been three weeks, but I still have more to go.  I need to get motivated!

Max attempts to irritate Beeps

but luckily he does not rise to the bait!

I think she might be missing Stella and the teasing they used to do to each other.

Last week, I had Beeps in his cage since I was painting and he kept flying to my shoulder.  Calypso and Max were still out since they weren't flying to me.  But Max decided to try to cause some trouble, anyway.

Beeps appeared oblivious to Max, and he continued on his merry way:

Another personal update

Things are going well on the personal front.  I have rented an apartment in a trendy part of town where lots of singles live.  It's also about 2 miles away from work (so I can take the bus and frequently walk home!) and very close to amazing running.  I have several friends who live less than half a mile away from my new place, so I am very excited about my upcoming life!

Perhaps the best part of my new apartment (pictures in a few weeks!) is that I am allowed, and it is big enough, for me to keep my three remaining parrots and my lizard!  So, Max, Calypso, Beeps, and Andreas will be staying with me.  (Thomas said he'd like to keep Max but he won't fight me for her.  I am keeping her!)  This is fantastic news as when Thomas broke the news about his infidelity, I feared the worst and thought I might need to rehome almost everyone.

It's a little over 100 years old, so it has gorgeous wood floors, built-in bookshelves, and lots of other charming accents.  I can't wait!

This past week, I completed my first original painting.  It was inspired by a picture that a friend took: trees silhouetted against a sunset.

First, I painted the sunset:

And then I added the trees:

I have no talent, but painting is so much fun!  I highly recommend it to everyone!  It is so peaceful to put paint to the canvas.  I put on some music or a lecture and I paint away.

The parrots are nearby on perches, watching me.

Max had recently taken a bath:

Since Max was on his cage, Beeps flew over to a stand:

Calypso was out, too, but I didn't take a picture of him.

I never would have thought that this is the turn my life would have taken, but I am looking at it as an opportunity to explore new interests, reconnect with friends and family, make new friends, and really live life to the fullest.  What other hobbies or interests might I pick up?  Who knows?

I can get into my new apartment on March 17.  I'm not sure when I will fully move in as I don't start my new job until April 16.  I know I keep saying this, but I plan to update the blog more regularly now that life is settling into a new routine.  I have a painting almost done that I hope to showcase tomorrow!

Playful Beeps

Beeps has been enjoying his time in the kitchen.  I absolutely love it when he sits in his rope swing:

When I let him out, he needs to either see me or be on me the vast majority of the time.  It's rather comical -- as soon as I leave the kitchen, I hear him flapping to come and find me.  The one exception is when he decides to go into the bathroom instead.

He plays on the top of the shower door:

And when he gets bored with that, he jumps to the shower head and goofs around a bit:

What a funny little guy!

All about Beeps

Beeps has been extremely hormonal lately.  I had moved Calypso back into the living room, and this seemed to set Beeps off.  Beeps started doing the caique freak-out, where he'd make this hard-to-describe screeching sound while attacking his leg.  This is something I'd seen from Calypso in the past.

After a few days where Beeps wasn't getting any better, I moved him into the kitchen today, so he could be separated from Calypso.  This is one of my main concerns about taking them both with me to my new apartment once I have to move out of the house due to my impending divorce (probably will happen next month.)  I will be in a smaller place, so it will be more difficult to keep the caiques separated.

Anyway, I am trying to take things one day at a time and not get too hung up on the future!  Beeps seems to love his new position in the kitchen.  Funny, he prefers to spend time on the stand next to his cage, rather than his cage.  There are tons of toys on/in his cage and not much to do on the stand, but who can get into the mind of a caique?

Then, he flew over to what was Stella's green stand, in the other corner of the kitchen, and hopped over to the counter.  He'd never done this before!

So I took a little (not that interesting) video:

I've always heard that caiques hop instead of walk.  I've seen videos, and occasionally I've seen it in my own caiques.  However, in a combined 13 years of caique ownership (I've had Calypso for 8 years and Beeps for 5) I have seen maybe 15 seconds total of hopping.  I keep talking to them about hopping and maybe they'll start doing it someday!

Clingy caiques

The caiques continue their clingy ways.  Max has, too, though I don't have any pictures of her.  I suspect they can sense things aren't right with Thomas, so they are seeking reassurance from someone that actually loves them.

The problem with clingy caiques is that they don't really get along, but if they are both near me, they are rather close to each other, which means they have to be on alert and maybe attack each other.  I do my best to keep them as separated as possible!

Calypso, on the table (he had been eating my breakfast right before I took this picture) and Beeps, on my lap:

And Beeps, again on my lap.  I find it is pretty safe to keep him here as he's a bit lower so Max and Calypso have a harder time trying to get him.  He has been so incredibly loving lately, I really am going to try to find a place that will allow me to keep him as well.

I hope that once we get into an apartment and establish a new normal, they will go back to being more independent.  It was really tough cooking tonight when Beeps kept flying to me and the others were walking around, pecking at my feet, and begging to be picked up!

I feel like I should give a personal update at the end of each entry for the foreseeable future.  Things continue to go well.  My best friend and I went to dinner yesterday and then saw the movie Anonymous.  It was only $1 for the show!  And it was a really good movie.  Of course, I love historical fiction films that take place in Tudor England so I am biased.  Tonight, I met my dad for a college basketball game at his alma mater.  Unfortunately, they lost, but we had a great time.  My divorce is resulting in much more bonding with my family and friends!

On the job front, there has been an interesting development with the job that I talked about earlier that said they wanted to go in a different direction.  The second in command called my recruiter and said she wanted to talk to me about possibly taking the position even though her boss thought I didn't have enough supervisory experience.  Isn't that strange?  I don't know what will happen, but I'll update here.  How can the second in command go behind the first in command's back?  I wasn't very high on this job in the first place, and I refuse to be anyone second choice (see: my marriage) but I will listen to what she had to say.  I had a phone interview yesterday and I have one tomorrow.  The one tomorrow is with a company that I'm super excited about, so hopefully all goes well.

And, in somewhat exciting news, I have a date on Thursday!  It is my first first date since 1998!  I know it's probably too early to date, but he knows I'm not interested in anything serious.  He's a friend of a friend and we've been exchanging e-mails for a few days.  We get along really well via e-mail so we're going for coffee Thursday evening.

Countdown: only 4 more nights under the same roof as Thomas and since he was already in bed when I came home tonight, I'm not sure I should count tonight, which brings us to 3.  It's so close!!!  The negative energy of the dark cloud of doom and gloom has only limited time remaining here.

Saturday

I had a great morning!  I met one of my favorite running partners and we had a great chat for 2 hours as we ran.  I have signed up to do a 50 kilometer (31 mile) race in May, so I need to get out and do some longer distances than I have the past few months to train.  I ran 15.1 miles this morning, which put me at 40 miles for the week and allows for an extra beer with dinner tonight :)  I don't even want to contemplate what my mental state would be without running.

I have been trying to avoid Thomas as much as possible.  I stayed in bed until after he left for his run and I left for mine a bit early so I wouldn't be here when he returned.  Unfortunately, there's about a 0.2 mile section where I would be going out and he would be coming home that we could run into each other.  I mean, what are the chances?  100% in this case.  I just waved to him, as I would any other runner.  He has become someone that I used to know.

Then, I met my mom for lunch and some shopping.  We had a great afternoon!  I had a phone interview for a job yesterday (my current job ends on March 31) and found out that they want me to come in for an in-person interview next week, so I had to get a new suit, which my mom bought for me.  The last time I wore a suit was in 2003 and I'd already donated my old suits, thinking I'd never have to wear one again.  (You know...I put Thomas through medical school and then he allows me to follow my dream of going back to school or working or starting my own nonprofit.  I held up my end of the bargain...)  I also bought another pair of pants since I only had one pair that fit me, having lost weight due to the stress of my impending divorce.

I came home and spent some time boxing things up and getting ready to move more things to my parents' house.  I want to get down to just the essentials here in case Thomas gets violent and I have to quickly leave the house.  That's part of the reason I'm trying to get the animals placed as soon as possible, with smaller, temporary cages at my parents' house if Max and Calypso have to stay there until I get an apartment.

Almost real-time blogging; these pictures were taken about 30 minutes ago.  Thomas is currently out on a date with his married mistress; the parrots and I are enjoying an evening at home.  We hope he stays out until they go to bed and I go upstairs to my room.

Calypso, who does not realize his dreams are about to come true and he will soon be rid of Thomas forever:

Max, who knows something is up and has been extra loving to me in an attempt to reassure herself everything will be OK:

Basil, who returns to his home a week from today.  He loves his owners, so will be very happy to see them again.  The plan is for him still to be willed to me at some point.  I can't keep him now because he's too loud for an apartment, but by the time he needs to be rehomed, hopefully I will be in a house and he can come back to me:

Beeps, who is reacting to the stress in the house by being increasingly aggressive, but just to Thomas (and when he sees the camera, as usual):

I've gotten daily updates and pictures on Stella.  She is doing remarkably well in her new home.  She always seemed to want to befriend Max, but Max was not interested.  In her new home, Stella's grey companion, Ellie, appears to want to be friends, so we're hopeful things will go well.  Additionally, she lives with a severe macaw who loves greys.  When he was at the rescue where I volunteer, I'd take him around with me to greet the parrots.  He'd ignore everyone except the greys.  When we'd stop by a grey's cage, he'd blush a bit and say "hi!  hello!" and flirt a bit.  He's enjoying his little grey harem (from afar -- they don't physically interact, he just talks to them.)

Rocky is doing really well at the rescue.  I visited him on Thursday but forgot to take pictures.  He's housed next to a female severe macaw, and the two of them go to the bottom of their respective cages and interact.  I took him out and he seemed rather happy to see me.  He was talking, singing, and dancing.  He's extremely resilient and will be OK.  He's enjoying the activity of the rescue and I will be involved in finding him a great home.

Thomas has not asked about Rocky or Stella at all and has basically ignored the parrots we still have at home. It's so strange how someone can change so much, or possibly that they were able to hide for so long and then reveal their true self.  He fooled me for years, but now that I look back on things, they weren't as great as I thought they were.  I am doing some writing exercises to understand our relationship and heal.  One was to come up with 5 nice things he'd done for me over the course of our relationship and then 5 upsetting things.  I could only come up with about 3 nice things and stopped at about 32 upsetting things before I realized I was supposed to stop at 5!

I just rationalized and made excuses for a lot of his behavior.  I'm pretty sure he has a combination of narcissistic personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder, so I'm pretty lucky to be able to get out and start anew.  It's just too bad that the parrots are affected by his behavior.

My friends, both online and in real life, have been amazing.  Even my massage therapist has been calling to make sure I'm OK and gave me his cell phone number in case I ever need to chat.  My mom and I have made tentative plans to go to Europe once the divorce is final (possibly with my dad and sister), and my favorite running partner is going to hook me up with one of her friends who loves to go birding and would like a companion.  2012 is going to be a fantastic year!

Danger shower

Thomas was taking a shower last week, so I asked him if he'd be interested in having Beeps as a companion instead of Rocky. We joked that it would be a danger shower since Beeps is so unpredictable.

He did make many threatening moves throughout the course of the shower, but he was all bluff.  Nothing like a little adventure in the morning to keep Thomas on his toes!

Obsession

Beeps has recently started flying into the kitchen on a much more frequent basis.  He's not looking for trouble; he just wants to be near us.  Unfortunately, this riles Calypso up, who feels the need to keep track of Beeps's every movement and frequently threaten him.  Beeps appears mostly oblivious to this.

Calypso stops what he's doing -- whether that's playing with a favorite toy or eating, but usually one of the two -- to stare at Beeps.  This continues until Beeps flies back into the living room.

Both caiques have been extra loving to me in the past week.  This has been most welcome.  Now, if only they could put aside their differences and befriend each other!

Pretty baby

I took this video last week of Beeps.  He was quite excited, doing his special whistle and saying "pretty baby!" and I wanted to get it on video.  When he saw the camera, he got even more excited and started doing his head snaking and marching around.  Had I continued much longer, I would have risked a bite.

He usually does the whistle that I do here, then follows with "pretty baby!" but the camera alters his behavior.  I did the whistle, trying to get him to end with "pretty baby!" -- this worked twice while I filmed, but usually has a much better success rate.  The camera really does trigger him!

As soon as I removed the camera from his sight, he stopped his menacing behavior.

Food cart

Speaking of caique explorers, our parrot food cart is right next to the living room stand where Beeps spends much of his time.  Previously ignored, the food cart has become a new playground for Beeps.  He spent quite a long time yesterday trying to eat pellets through the plastic containers.

Of course he had those same pellets in his cage, but I suppose it is more fun this way.

I don't know if yesterday's explorations were a one-off thing, or if this will now become part of his routine.  I suppose only time will tell!

Taking a drink of water

Last night, I got home from work a bit later than usual, so Thomas had beaten me home.  As soon as he heard me, Beeps flew into the kitchen. (He's at that stage of his hormonal period where he wants nothing more than to be on, or at least near, me at all times.)

However, Beeps got a bit distracted when he saw a mug of water on the table and decided he was thirsty.  The mug was perfectly caique-sized, and it was so cute watching him drink out of it.  However, before I could take a picture, Max flew over and bullied him away from the water.

I don't even think she was thirsty; she just wanted to prevent Beeps from doing what he wanted to do.

Happy ending for Beeps -- I picked him up and spent some one-on-one time with him, which he much prefers anyway.

Concetrated parrots

All four of these guys have their own cages, in this room, but they frequently all hang out on the stand:

Of course Rocky had to threaten me: