Willow’s spring thread

[cnyguy]

Quaker parrots do seem attracted to noses. When I first got Ralph he used to scrape the bridge of my nose with his beak. For a while I looked like I was auditioning for the part of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer in a holiday play. He doesn't do that often anymore but now and then he'll give my nose the once-over.

 

[HeatherG]

Quaker parrots do seem attracted to noses. When I first got Ralph he used to scrape the bridge of my nose with his beak. For a while I looked like I was auditioning for the part of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer in a holiday play. He doesn't do that often anymore but now and then he'll give my nose the once-over.

I was worried because Willow hadn’t been licking me for the past few weeks. I think he was really upset about his food being changed. But now he’s back to licking me and snuggling with my face from his basket handle while I read.

Willow doesn’t always want to come out of his cage, though, or he gets excited because I’m near it and has to ‘protect’ his cage from me. And this is after he’s been yelling for attention.

Jasper always wants to come out of his cage but he gets startled easily and then I get nipped. It’s hard to know what to do.

 

[HeatherG]

This morning we are eating half a banana and orange juice. Willow is sitting on his basket handle on my lap. He’s really packing away the banana.

My dad just texted me a photo from his porch. These guys are his morning visitors! I’ve come upon them in parks and they are amazingly dinosaur-like. I don’t see any chick on the photos but I can inquire. His home should be about the perfect environment for these cranes, except I think he also has a pair of eagles on his pond.

I grew up there and really miss it. I am in a city 3-4 hours southwest now.

I accidentally finished the banana and thought Mr Beak would be mad, but he is satiated and tail-wagging. He’s TOO FULL for orange juice! How could anybody not want orange juice? And now Willow is licking my nose and forehead and preening my eyebrows.

I’m glad I have someone to preen my eyebrows. Xoxo.

 

[HeatherG]

I am in bed with a summer cold and headache and Willow and Jasper are in the living room being mostly quiet today.
Willow is talking in his cage but I can’t make out what he’s saying. He has a cute little growly voice.

He was saying “come ‘ere” to me last night while refusing to actually exit his cage. He talks very quietly . I wish Willow would talk more—it’s easy to keep your bird contented if they can tell you what they want.

I ordered some toys from Bonka bird toys: sola balls, colorful spools, an intricate dangling toy, coconut rounds for Jasper’s chew toys, and a little shopping cart.

Lucy loved thread spools and used to carry an old white one around. If she was in a mood she would cuddle or incubate it. So I hope Willow likes these. He mostly likes the toys he’s had for years which I’ve been refurbishing.

I’m going to buy some sweet corn and either grill or just boil it. I bet I could cut some rounds of corn on the cob and freeze them! The birds would enjoy that.

I bought some corn husks at the Asian food store (for tamales) and bet I could hide treats inside them and tie them closed. Could probably dye them with Easter egg dye, too. Or weave in and out Willow’s cage bars. He tries to weave his hanging toy but has no real success. I found a huge stash of chopsticks from Lucy’s birthday a few years ago. Maybe he would like them if I tied them to his seagrass playgym?

If someone would like Willow to do a simple tarot reading, let me know! He likes to pull the cards and not so much to give them back to me.

 

[cnyguy]

Ralph and Willow have something in common, both of them being quiet talkers. Several of the words Ralph knows are never spoken above a whisper. I've encouraged him to speak louder, but he has ideas of his own.

Definitely try the chopsticks and see how Willow likes them and chooses to play with them. Plastic drinking straws are difficult to find now, but if you can get ahold of any, they are good for QPs to weave with, and Willow might like them.

 

[HeatherG]

Ralph and Willow have something in common, both of them being quiet talkers. Several of the words Ralph knows are never spoken above a whisper. I've encouraged him to speak louder, but he has ideas of his own.

Definitely try the chopsticks and see how Willow likes them and chooses to play with them. Plastic drinking straws are difficult to find now, but if you can get ahold of any, they are good for QPs to weave with, and Willow might like them.

I have a whole bunch of plastic drinking straws (for a project I didn’t do) that I’ve been wondering what to do with. Maybe Willow will like them.

Willow is out with me and can’t decide whether he wants to be petted or to flap. I have promised a bite of pizza if he will relax. It seems Willow wants me to hold him under my hand while he chews on his foot. Now he is cuddling with my nose while I rub his head. Lucky bird!

We are watching Monty python and I’m trying to teach willow the whistle part of “always look on the bright side of life.” I have my very own Norwegian Blue.

 

[HeatherG]

We just got two packages from bonka bird toys! Here are some small-sized Sola balls, and Willow right away chewed on one. He seemed to like the texture. Also they are tan or natural wood color and I think Willow likes that better than bright colors.

Now he’s being scared of something. I think he’s scared of the scissors I used to open the package.

We also got a huge number of colored spools and a little grocery cart, which seems like it’s not quite put together right, but rolls well and is the right size for Willow.

I think target training did help Willow to be willing to handle the ball.

 

[Cottonoid]

We just got two packages from bonka bird toys! Here are some small-sized Sola balls, and Willow right away chewed on one. He seemed to like the texture. Also they are tan or natural wood color and I think Willow likes that better than bright colors.

Now he’s being scared of something. I think he’s scared of the scissors I used to open the package.

We also got a huge number of colored spools and a little grocery cart, which seems like it’s not quite put together right, but rolls well and is the right size for Willow.

I think target training did help Willow to be willing to handle the ball.

Oooh new toy day!!! Exciting!

I love the sound the sola makes when they chew it so I can only imagine how fun it is for them!

 

[HeatherG]

I saw those sola balls and now I want to go buy honey smacks cereal to eat…

 

[Cottonoid]

I saw those sola balls and now I want to go buy honey smacks cereal to eat…

Oh my word you're so right!! That's exactly what it reminds me of! And yum

 

[HeatherG]

i felt badly to see that Willow had a broken blood feather in his tail and I was impatient with him stepping up. Maybe his little behind hurt?

Anyhow I ordered pellets and a bunch of different treats so I can see what his favorite treat is. I hope having a better reward will help.

I COULDNT order a small amount of sunflower or safflower seeds on chewy.com. Anyone know where I could find these in maybe pound or half pound bags?

 

[Cottonoid]

I haven't looked for smaller bags but I noticed giant bags of all black sunflower and all safflower seed at my garden store this week. If I still had a kiddo at home I'd give him the job of sorting out sunflower and safflower from my backyard bird mix to send to you, but I know I'm too impatient to offer myself

 

[HeatherG]

I haven't looked for smaller bags but I noticed giant bags of all black sunflower and all safflower seed at my garden store this week. If I still had a kiddo at home I'd give him the job of sorting out sunflower and safflower from my backyard bird mix to send to you, but I know I'm too impatient to offer myself

Maybe I can find the seeds on a soft bill site? Anyhow Willow is definitely a bit mad at me and I am trying to make it up to him. I wish I’d realized that he was sore. I feel bad for being pushy. I assumed he was just being goofy and I was wrong. (I suppose moms of human children do this, too.)

So we are sitting now. We just had a nice golden raisin and he’s munching down an avicake, since he hasn’t had one for at least a few days.

I had the same thought, but his seed mix was really old and he didn’t want the sunflower seeds from it. I figured they were stale. But since the feather incident I have been getting pinched and I really want Willow to be ok with me. I am not so stuffed up today so maybe I’m getting better and we can have a good weekend.

Anyhow, yes I’m getting pinched, but Willow is also fluffing his tail and doing other happy signs. And now I’m petting his head too.

 

[HeatherG]

Willow is having a better day. He came out this evening and we went and got the mail and the big package from chewy.com. I thought I’d give him the free sample nutriberries right away but he doesn’t want that. He wants to sit on his basket handle leaning against my face while I pet him with at least one hand. If I stop petting, he nips me. I resume, he wags his tail.

Willow could be less interested in the nutriberries. Today he must have physical contact.

Willow is a sweet little guy.

 

[Cottonoid]

I love so much that he's gotten so comfy with his basket being his spot. He's such a cutie.

 

[HeatherG]

Thank you. I love his cloudy afternoon colors!

I received the big Chewy order. I got a bunch of tropical fruit nutriberries samples (not sure if all were free or not) and some fruit treats; oat groats; millet; and mango/ pineapple/coconut fruit mix. And another pack of avicakes. Also a giant chew toy for Jasper and pellets for Jasper.

The oat groats are acceptable but not a hit. Willow likes the pineapple mango coconut mix (and there’s a couple Brazil nuts in there I will smash and feed by bits). I think the other fruit mix is banana strawberry. I will snip a couple stalks of the millet into bits and see if that works. I also have frozen sweet corn and frozen edamame to use for bribes. I could try slivered almonds and popcorn? And maybe could pick the safflower and sunflower out of a bag of bird food….

I haven’t yet found the treat that Willow will run out of his cage for. It seems like it’s so exciting that I’m near his cage, even though he’s been yelling to come out, that he has to guard his perch. He IS coming down to the middle or lower perch and not standing in his favorite spot on the top perch so I guess that’s some progress. So the last couple days I’ve covered my hand in a hand towel and asked him to step up. That has worked ok. I hope that’s not harming his trust because he DOES ASK to come out.

 

[HeatherG]

Willow took a bath in the bath bowl thismorning!

He had been looking ragged and I wanted to try a new bowl option. So I left him completely alone and he got very very wet in the bath bowl. Last time I tried putting a bowl in his cage, he was terrified and got in the top corner of his cage and screamed. This time I pulled his ladder out (not happy), added the bowl, filled it with tepid water, and splashed my hand around while touting the wonders of a “bath”.

Then I did my thing, didn’t hear much (AC and fan blowing but no screams of fear), and came back in 15 min to a wet wet bird.

Willow stepped up on my hand and we then went to dry off. He was so wet that I wrapped him in a towel and pressed some of the water out. Now I am going to cuddle him with the towel until he looks less forlorn.

 

[HeatherG]

it’s summer and my bedroom is quite warm so I’m not too concerned, but Willow likes to cuddle under my hand. I have a fan blowing warm air around and he is slowly drying off.

The question does remain: how am I going to get the bowl of water out of the cage? (Held onto the bowl with right hand, slid out dirty grate with left hand, did NOT dump bowl on floor, passed it out of tray slot to left hand and dumped in kitchen sink. Washed grate in tub. Need to bleach tub. Yuck.)

Interesting that Willow stepped right up after his bath. Then again, he watched me packaging his treats so he knew something good would come to him soon.

So both birds got a chunk of dried mango after W stepped up. I try to dispense treats similarly so nobirdy can get jealous.

 

[HeatherG]

Willow is preening the wet feathers to be tidy and flight-worthy again. He was not thrilled with the towel wrap. He put up with it, but it wasn’t great. Maybe next time we will blow dry. How luxurious! Then a pedicure and beak polish.

 

[HeatherG]

Willow is bashful in the first photo, stylish in the second one. He’s so soft and fluffy now