What is the craziest thing you've ever done for your bird?

I dropped my CAG off at a breeder to be boarded for thanksgiving. I have an iPod with music and nature sounds I use when I leave the house, so I took that too. I was giving them the spiel about her foraging box and the music and I am sure they think I am out of my mind for being that concerned. I don't know if the music even makes a difference for her but I like to think it does.

I always played the music box for Joe (my past Parakeet) at bedtime. Always. One week, we went away for vacation and had someone come to the house each day to take care of the animals. I reminded them to play that music box for him each night. I always thought that it soothed him and put him to sleep.

Birds react pretty strongly to music and familiar sounds. It will totally make a difference to hear, it will comfort her and remind her of home if you've played it for her at home. I would have done the same thing if I had to board...I have pandora stations created just for the birds

That kinda depends on your definition of "crazy."

"Wing walking" falls within my definition of "normal..."

So I can't say anything I've ever done for my birds was particularly crazy, or over the top.

:54:Nope! I got Nothin'... :54:

Conures skateboarding across my living room coffee table also falls within my definition of normal.

As does the birdie basketball court, and the little birdie bowling alley (and birdie bowling nights!)

And a bird room that takes up 3/4 of my downstairs. Perfectly normal.

And climbing a 50 foot tree because your free flighted parrot flew to close to a crow's nest and they attacked her, so she's hiding up there... Normal! (What was I gonna do, leave her there?!)

Or running to getting a ladder to get the macaw off the neighbor's roof because she's too chicken to fly down on her own, and is sitting there with her foot up in the air... (ditto!)

Or hoping in the car and driving around in circles for three square blocks trying to figure out where said naughty free-flighted macaw was going to land. (Oh, good, she's on the neighbor's roof.)

Or having a sick bird sleeping on the pillow next to your bed, because you've got to give her medication every four hours, and this way you don't have to get out of bed to do it. (Okay, she started on her pillow. She ended up on mine, with her neck stretched across mine. Overbonding works both ways sometimes, I guess.)

Or having a conure sleeping in a happy hut on the nightstand next to your bed, because, actually, that one grew up uncaged...

Or having to take said conure out of the inside of your shirt, because he fell asleep before it was bedtime, to put him INTO his happy hut for the night.

:54:Nope! I got nothin'! :54:

Okay, I do have one. Sallybird's favorite thing in the world was to get pushed around the grocery store while sitting on the handle of my shopping cart, and the store looked the other way and let me do it... so I did.

I also trained her to "pay" the cashier. She took the bills, or the credit card, out of my wallet and handed it to the cashier. (She still does this occasionally, at the drive through... )

So, yeah, they are a bit indulged.

And normal for me probably doesn't fall within the definition of "normal" for anyone else.

(Yeah, Like that comes as a shock to anyone whose ever met me! :32: )

Yay, Birdman666, I absolutely LOVE your attitude! Things that seem crazy to others are totally normal to me. We have a similar thing, but with smaller birds and smaller house (we have just one story, no basement) and are so used to constant chirping that it's terrifying when the house is quiet. Two birds cage free, and others out of cage 6-12 hours a day EVERY day. You talk to your bird and EXPECT him/her to perfectly understand what you are saying. Most surprisingly usually they do! LOL

Growing up, I never hung out with any group of people that ever defined themselves as normal. Nor did they want to.

And they all told the same stupid joke:

There are skateboarders, and then there are normal people.
There are surfers, and then there are normal people.
There are pilots, and then there are normal people.
There are skydivers, and then there are normal people.

Well, I guess we just add one more to that list:

There are parrot owners, and then there are normal people.

Am I the only person who not only doesn't know what "normal people" are but, gee it seems kinda boring to be one...

veimar said:

Yay, Birdman666, I absolutely LOVE your attitude! Things that seem crazy to others are totally normal to me. We have a similar thing, but with smaller birds and smaller house (we have just one story, no basement) and are so used to constant chirping that it's terrifying when the house is quiet. Two birds cage free, and others out of cage 6-12 hours a day EVERY day. You talk to your bird and EXPECT him/her to perfectly understand what you are saying. Most surprisingly usually they do! LOL

Click to expand...

Yeah, well a couple of mine have been cognitive and conversational, my CAG for example. Try having your bird START the conversation sometime...

Changes your perspective on things.

At dinner someone always flys out to join us Their used to going from plate to plate to make sure no one has anything better than the other one [but thats normal for us ] We sing at the top of are lungs trying to get them to join us . We play plastic boats on the kitchen table and have popcorn fights .

I run around the city stealing branches that have been pruned from trees to dedicate them to home made perches and for building play stands. I don't know how many times I've ran through my university campus with 5 to 12 foot branches to try and shove into my SUV...

Craziest thing I've ever done was to share my ramen noodles with the birds.

Now, every time they hear the rattle of the plastic packet being opened, I'm hit by a barrage of of shrieking as they bellow at me: 'Give us a bit, Mum! Give us a bit, giveusabit,giveusabit! Waaack! Waaaccckk! It's so piteous and plaintive, I cannot resist.

Sigh.

So, first I break off a bit of noodle for Dommie, then I break off a bigger bit each for Barney and Madgie. By then, Dommie has made a bee-line for The Position on the corner of the fridge. This entails clambering up onto his rummage basket, then scaling the camouflage net that hangs from the curtain rod. From there, he seizes the architrave over the door (woefully chomped by numerous expeditions of this nature) and heaves himself up onto the playgym. He runs across that and down his three-foot ladder to arrive, all puffed and breathless, on the corner of his fridge. I give him his bit of noodle.

Next, I have to go outdoors to visit Barney and Madge who, by now, are pecking violently at each other's heads, eye-pinning and squawking fit to wake the dead. They know that Mum is about to poke two chunx of ramen noodle into the cage and so they jockey in order to get the Best Bit. Once each red beak is full of noodle, it's nigh-on impossible for them to climb across the cage or onto a perch. The battle between the need to get as far apart as possible (in order to avoid theft) and the desire to gobble down the treat is written all over their little green faces. So funny! Within seconds, both lumps of noodle have been dropped to the floor of the cage and DOWN they go, scrabbling to get back what was theirs.

The crazy part of all this is that if I am sitting up with galloping insomnia and open a packet of noodles at 3am, all of the above will still happen. Those darned birds are attuned to the rattle of plastic noodle-wrapper, even when they're fast asleep. :22_yikes:

Well, there is a "parrot tax" on all forms of pasta, rice and potatoes served in this household.

You just have to know to make enough for everyone, and share...

I'm sooooo glad I'm not the only person who has a parrot with its own iPod. I had to,have Mina my U2 hospitalized and so I took all her things and her iPod name thing she needs this at night for night night music. Well now she is known as the spoiled parrot and I heard through the grapevine no one likes her there[emoji17]