The Continuing Capers of Companion-ing Cotton

[HeatherG]

Someone has mastered the over the shoulder look

Also it drives me bonkers that he prefers these teeny round metal surfaces to perch on for naps and sleep lately

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Did he lose his decorative buttfeather? Poor little guy. It’s getting cold out; it would be nice for him if he had some feathers.

I found an hour plus of Quaker Parakeet noises on YouTube and I would like to play them for Willow. I played r2d2 sounds for Jasper and almost got perforated. I think I’ll only play those when Jasper is in the cage.

 

[Cottonoid]

Did he lose his decorative buttfeather? Poor little guy. It’s getting cold out; it would be nice for him if he had some feathers.

I found an hour plus of Quaker Parakeet noises on YouTube and I would like to play them for Willow. I played r2d2 sounds for Jasper and almost got perforated. I think I’ll only play those when Jasper is in the cage.

He did! It got snipped and then he removed the stub. It's starting to come back now a bit. He only has his very top of wing feathers and his head so when I check him on camera during the day he's a little green head floating above a green ski, it looks like.

I wish I could go back in time and meet him when he was an intently curious baby; I bet he was an adorable green floof.

Oh wow Jasper!! That's quite the reaction!

 

[HeatherG]

I’m guessing the warbles, beeps, and whistles sounded enough like a Meyers parrot to really alarm Jasper. He got very very alert and I got him back to his house without a real bite. Some beak to skin contact but no injury. Jasper’s orange eyes really show when he pins his pupils!

 

[Cottonoid]

Cotton LOVES having birds to talk to and is a total chatterbox all day long now.

He's not so sure about Keiko playing with his toys however and does this creeper peek over and over

Keiko pecking through seeds Cotton scattered from his current favorite foraging spot...Cotton lurking in the background

Hm better take a closer look

No Cotton:

Cotton:

Cotton wasn't impressed with me laughing at him so he left to destroy his robot and glare

 

[HeatherG]

I’m glad someone understands the importance of the glare!

I couldn’t find cotton in the first two photos, though…is he really in there?

Aha! The green head!

 

[HeatherG]

You know, Cotton is tolerating those long wing feathers Ok. Do you think he might slowly get used to having more feathers?

Have you let Keiko take a bath in front of Cotton? Do you think having a bird neighbor is influencing him at all?

 

[Cottonoid]

He snipped both of them short yesterday They lasted a long time! And were super fun to see when he'd beat his wings, since they are at the very tip. I'm so glad they didn't bleed!

He does preen when Keiko does which I love!

I think his habit of holding wing feathers in his foot and nibbling the shaft is soothing to him. At this point he's likely to chronically pluck but I always have hope he hasn't damaged the follicles too badly yet!

Here's a security camera screenshot from Friday of his nibbled long wing

 

[Cottonoid]

Mr Cotton's rope perch in and out of his house broke when I wasn't around, he fell, and went walkabout across the room to somehow climb Opie's vertical cage posts then the side of Opie's cage to the top.

He has 3 ladders in different places on his side so he must've been pretty freaked out to choose to climb with Opie's face sticking out at him - there's NO way Opie wasn't being a goof with his whole beak poking out since he does it on his own without his man crush right there! SO glad Opie isn't cage protective yet!

Cotton and Opie talk back and forth a ton throughout the day. Cotton does NOT want Opie too close - if he could fly away it would be different but he loses his balance when Opie lands next to him. Opie is slowly learning to respect Cotton telling him to back off which is really neat to see.

Opie wants to be BFF with Cotton and is like a Golden Retriever puppy trying to make friends with a stoic adult Doberman. It's pretty adorable all around.

I moved some things around Cotton's space and hung some perches/boings from the ceiling but he's not using it fully yet. I can't quite tell if it's because it's winter or if he's just annoyed at my plans

At this point he's a chronic plucker - it would be really sad to see him start to lose his flight ability and adventurous spirit The few times he's fallen he takes longer to start hopping from place to place again and regain confidence - when six months ago he was scrambling up to the top of the window and swinging around like a monkey.

I hope I can keep tweaking his setup to find something that works for him to be able to climb all over while keeping him safe and allowing for gliding during the few weeks he does still have feathers after molting

 

[Cottonoid]

This is what Cotton thinks of me when Opie lands too close

 

[CosiGirl]

This is what Cotton thinks of me when Opie lands too close

View attachment 46203

I love Cotton and his facial expressions

 

[HeatherG]

I have similar eyebrows and always got in trouble for “dirty looks” when I was a kid.

 

[HeatherG]

Mr Cotton's rope perch in and out of his house broke when I wasn't around, he fell, and went walkabout across the room to somehow climb Opie's vertical cage posts then the side of Opie's cage to the top.

He has 3 ladders in different places on his side so he must've been pretty freaked out to choose to climb with Opie's face sticking out at him - there's NO way Opie wasn't being a goof with his whole beak poking out since he does it on his own without his man crush right there! SO glad Opie isn't cage protective yet!

Cotton and Opie talk back and forth a ton throughout the day. Cotton does NOT want Opie too close - if he could fly away it would be different but he loses his balance when Opie lands next to him. Opie is slowly learning to respect Cotton telling him to back off which is really neat to see.

Opie wants to be BFF with Cotton and is like a Golden Retriever puppy trying to make friends with a stoic adult Doberman. It's pretty adorable all around.

I moved some things around Cotton's space and hung some perches/boings from the ceiling but he's not using it fully yet. I can't quite tell if it's because it's winter or if he's just annoyed at my plans

At this point he's a chronic plucker - it would be really sad to see him start to lose his flight ability and adventurous spirit The few times he's fallen he takes longer to start hopping from place to place again and regain confidence - when six months ago he was scrambling up to the top of the window and swinging around like a monkey.

I hope I can keep tweaking his setup to find something that works for him to be able to climb all over while keeping him safe and allowing for gliding during the few weeks he does still have feathers after molting

I agree. It was hard for me to see Lucy fall and get scared and hesitant after her second leg fracture. (First was before she came to me).

I experimented with padding and ended up moving her climbing things closer to the floor. So if she did fall she had only a little way to go.

Maybe that would be an idea?

 

[Cottonoid]

Opie has been trying really hard to make friends with Cotton, but in a Quaker way

I intervened a LOT for the first few weeks ("Opie step up, this is Cotton's house, he doesn't like you so close to him, it scares him that he'll fall") but for the past ten days or so Opie has been 99% perfect at listening to Cotton's words and Cotton's been 100% perfect at using his words.

Today Opie was sitting on a branch by the window, then decided to try climbing down Cotton's toy hanger that he always sees Cotton climbing up and down. Cotton looks like a very highly skilled pro pole dancer when he does this; it always blows my mind. Opie is not as graceful and was mostly hanging by one foot flailing around, trying to figure out his next move.

Cotton saw this, and marched down from the top of his cage across his rope bridge march march march to get close and yell

Cotton also spent a few weeks yelling at me and refusing to take treats after a 5am breakfast where I wasn't awake yet and had Opie on my shoulder - of COURSE Opie jumped off to say hi to Cotton who was NOT impressed. Whoops.

BUT! Trust is finally regained, and this week Cotton's been taking walnuts from my fingers then walking up and waiting for more. In different locations. A bigger step in a good direction

 

[LaManuka]

What a magnificent shot of Cotton that is! And I love the one from December 12 too, I seem to get that look from Fang quite a bit when Lovejoy is up to more of his high-octane shenanigans - "Mother, why do you allow this to happen??" Thoroughly unimpressed!

 

[Cottonoid]

I'm just so entranced by how expressive he is!

....Opie has also become a good enough flier to do drive bys of Cotton's cage top, turn 180 midair, then fly back to his own house cackling. Little brothers, sheesh!!!

 

[HeatherG]

Opie has been trying really hard to make friends with Cotton, but in a Quaker way

I intervened a LOT for the first few weeks ("Opie step up, this is Cotton's house, he doesn't like you so close to him, it scares him that he'll fall") but for the past ten days or so Opie has been 99% perfect at listening to Cotton's words and Cotton's been 100% perfect at using his words.

Today Opie was sitting on a branch by the window, then decided to try climbing down Cotton's toy hanger that he always sees Cotton climbing up and down. Cotton looks like a very highly skilled pro pole dancer when he does this; it always blows my mind. Opie is not as graceful and was mostly hanging by one foot flailing around, trying to figure out his next move.

Cotton saw this, and marched down from the top of his cage across his rope bridge march march march to get close and yell

View attachment 46729

Cotton also spent a few weeks yelling at me and refusing to take treats after a 5am breakfast where I wasn't awake yet and had Opie on my shoulder - of COURSE Opie jumped off to say hi to Cotton who was NOT impressed. Whoops.

BUT! Trust is finally regained, and this week Cotton's been taking walnuts from my fingers then walking up and waiting for more. In different locations. A bigger step in a good direction

Cotton the pole dancer…
“Fear my gaping maw!”
I think it’s funny when you can see a ways down their throat because they are sooo ready to bite you.

Yes, Ringnecks are more graceful than Quakers. Quakers are more the nerdy kid that walks reading a book and then trips over a chair. Not that that is familiar, oh no. But for either bird, if they fall off the perch, you had better not laugh.

 

[Cottonoid]

Quakers are more the nerdy kid that walks reading a book and then trips over a chair.

This is exactly why Opie's name is actually Ope

 

[Cottonoid]

Cotton has now expanded his vocal repertoire to include repetitive cockatiel shrieking and piercing Senegal calls.

How fun!



The funniest bit is that none of the visitors he's learned these from make these sounds often at all. But just like all of us he learns the foreign swear words first!

He has the cockatiel scream down so perfectly that while playing an online game with my kids in a different city, they went to check on why their bird was screaming

 

[ravvlet]

Oh no! That’s just about the only think I don’t miss about cockatiels. Kirby’s barking and shouting and whistling somehow never bothered me, but the pitch little birds hit is killer!

I can’t stop giggling over that photo of him yelling at Opie. He looks like a dinosaur.

 

[saxguy64]

I always find it interesting the things they choose to imitate. It's always been fun, but now we have a grey in the house, NOTHING is sacred. He heard something on TV yesterday... I now have to check to see if there's a bus backing up in my living room