Louieâs 2020 mojo molt fit the year. It was a bad molt this time around and lasted around five months. Since my most popular posts are all about Eclectus Mojo Molts, I figured it was time for an updateâand provide a progression photo series so others can see how these can go. We saw the first hints of it in early August, 2020: Slowly and … Continue reading Eclectus Mojo Molt: Progression Pictures
As a first-time bird owner, I found many online parrot training guides to be… rather vague. It was hard to figure out how to create a tangible training process for my parrots out of abstract ideas.
Fortunately, I had a ton of guidance from the bird rescue where I used to volunteer, and now several years of the hands-on experience of rescuing five different parrots from varying walks of life.
Thus, I’ve created a list of suggested milestones for training parrots who are hand-shy to step up. Continue reading Teaching a Parrot to Step-Up: Recommended Steps
Do you? Do you really? They are unpredictable; they bite often, and bite hard. They are far, far from kid-friendly. So let’s face it; most birds, were they dogs, would be put down. Louie’s grandfather (or at least great-grandfather) likely flew the canopies of the Solomon Islands. And Ozone’s father is probably still terrorizing some local somewhere in Africa. At no point should you assume … Continue reading “OMG, I want a parrot!”
When you think about adopting a baby bird, consider this: You are raising a child monster with permanently-affixed pliers, and that child is gonna be a two-year-old for fifty to one hundred years, depending on the species. Every mistake you make in his or her formative years, every bad habit you instill, will be with you for the duration of that parrot’s life. It’s so important … Continue reading A Parrot: The Forever Two-Year-Old
Naturally, my status of ‘crazy bird lady’ meant that I just had to find the wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill on a recent impromptu trip to San Francisco. Here’s how I did it. Continue reading How to (reliably) find the Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
Oh, the holidays–friendship, cheer, the season of giving… What more could a bird want than a bit of pizza crust? Unfortunately, Louie acquired a mild case of toe-tapping to go with it. đŚ This performance brought to you by pizza: I gave Louie a tiny bit of pizza crust (standard practice when we feel like spoiling our birds.) This particular pizza crust came from Old Chicagos, … Continue reading Allergies Don’t Disappear: Mild Toe-Tapping
I’m on the writing committee for a local charity, and this is one of the songs we might be using/rewriting for our musical. Tippy clearly likes it as much as I do. XD Click here to watch him rock out and ‘stick it to the man’! Continue reading Flock of ROCK!
Screaming is one way birds get attention (positive, negative, it doesn’t matter!) Now, I can’t definitively say whether or not this was the case for Miss Viola Waddlesworth at her former home, however, her friend Sam, the African Grey who went to a neighbor’s house, frequently shouts, “Shut up, Waddles!” …So yeah, we likely have a few years’ worth of bad habits to break with her. One major … Continue reading Teaching a Bird NOT to Scream: Reality
Louie met one of his kin today at the bird shop, a Red-Sided little dude who, at four months old (and still growing!), is the same size as Solomon Island Louie. Actually, junior might be a little bigger. That’s the closest I’ve ever seen a bird come to an existential crisis. Louie’s eyes got HUGE, he muttered a bewildered, “Hi Louie!” as if he were looking … Continue reading Prepare for trouble… make it double!
Progress! Eeee! VI LIFTED HER FOOT TO STEP UP TODAY! I MADE MY GOAL! …The reason I am so excited about this is because I didn’t think I was actually making any progress; she was comfortable leaning against my wrist to take a chip from me, but refused, refused to even try to move her foot closer to my wrist. But today was the day of toast. … Continue reading Step Up Progress: Lifting a Foot
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