Saturday, August 29, 2009

Hm.

Not sure what to make of this, but the AGP has recently taken to climbing down her open cage door to to a point just behind and above my head and saying, "Hello!" in that soft, sweet, sexy voice she learned from her first mama. Then yesterday, out of the blue, she climbed from the door to the back of my chair. She sat there for about 20 minutes, just keeping me company I guess, and enjoying the view from another perspective, then she went back up the door to the top. Later she did it again, only staying a minute or two.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

No, we don't spoil 'em or anything. . .

I was talking to somebody the other day about the cages we have in our bird room, and the fact that the cages are so big that two birds has effectively become our limit!

Larry has one of these all to himself:


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OW!

". . . surely parrots evolved from velociraptors."
-Rebecca K. O'Connor

I had to laugh. The AGP, obviously, is a prey species, not a hunter, but boy can she bite!

Finding information on parrot bites is tricky. I found a general conversation about bite strength that degenerated into a 'my pit bull is meaner than your pit bull' sort of argument, in which in passing it was mentioned that macaws have a bite pressure of 350 psi. No source listed. Another site, also unsourced, says 500-700 psi.

A Wikipedia article on companion parrots in general states that the larger parrots "have a jaw strength comparable to a large dog." I've never been bitten by a dog, so I have no opinion on that. The AGP, on the other hand, has bitten me any number of times over the past two years, and I can completely identify with the velociraptor analogy.

For a good, if brief, discussion of parrot bite strength, click here.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

My parents went on vacation and left me here with a sitter

We went out of town last week, and the regular birdsitter was out of town too. The son of an old friend/neighbor/colleague of mine came to the rescue though. Despite a total lack of experience with fids, he did great. The AGP even learned a cute new whistle, for which the new sitter denies any responsibility.

To add insult to injury, the Birdfather took her for her annual checkup and a nail trim when he went to pick up the dog from the vet, and to salt the wounds he brought the dog back home.

I know the AGP thought, after a dogless week, that we were surely over that phase. She was really giving the dog the stinkeye in the car on the trip back!