Willow’s thread

[HeatherG]

We are having a quiet afternoon and Willow is seeing how puffy he can get.

 

[saxguy64]

That's pretty puffy!

 

[onamom]

I do love a good puff. Very puffy indeed.

 

[HeatherG]

I do love a good puff. Very puffy indeed.

I was telling him how beautiful he was and what a good bird, to try to get maximum puff.

He IS a good bird!

 

[HeatherG]

Willow had a long time out this afternoon. He got a lot of pets though we didn’t work on his colors. I was inspired by “Mr Pablo” on Reddit to work on a phrase with Willow, “I love you.” But I think Willow just wants to enjoy the scritches and love and not work on talking.

My experience with Lucy was that she learned important phrases that she heard a lot. Like thank you, goodbye, good bird, step up, etc. and I do occasionally hear Willow talk inside his cage. Just not on demand.

 

[HeatherG]

I wonder if learning a sound effect would be more fun than trying to learn a word? Like clucking like a chicken or quacking like a duck?

 

[HeatherG]

Guess who took a long splashy bath in the Swan fountain today?

Willow hopped right off my hand onto the rim of the fountain and drank. Walked around dipping in and splashing, and reached out his cute little footer to feel the water. After some minutes, he was reaching with his foot and I think he slipped in! Big splash and then Willow totally soaked himself.

When Willow was done splashing, he hopped onto the rim of the fountain and I stepped him up, then wrapped him in his old step-up towel and pressed some of the water off. Now he’s sitting on my shoulder, preening a little, crunching his beak, and making happy noises. Jasper is calling because he wants a bath too, and he will get one as soon as I put Willow in his house.

 

[onamom]

Another fun fountain bath for Willow! I'm so glad he loves it! I officially gave my swan fountain to the dogs as a water bowl. Ona just prefers her baths in the sink.

 

[HeatherG]

Guess who took a long splashy bath in the Swan fountain today?

Willow hopped right off my hand onto the rim of the fountain and drank. Walked around dipping in and splashing, and reached out his cute little footer to feel the water. After some minutes, he was reaching with his foot and I think he slipped in! Big splash and then Willow totally soaked himself.

When Willow was done splashing, he hopped onto the rim of the fountain and I stepped him up, then wrapped him in his old step-up towel and pressed some of the water off. Now he’s sitting on my shoulder, preening a little, crunching his beak, and making happy noises. Jasper is calling because he wants a bath too, and he will get one as soon as I put Willow in his house.

View attachment 47121View attachment 47122View attachment 47123

I think the first photo captured the slip in, then photo two shows his tail nicely fanned, and three is the post-bath hairstyle.

 

[HeatherG]

I think the first photo captured the slip in, then photo two shows his tail nicely fanned, and three is the post-bath hairstyle.
View attachment 47125

Got him mostly dry by patting the feathers and letting him cuddle on my chest under a towel. Willow doesn’t preen when he’s super wet; he shakes himself and sort of rattled his feathers. Now he is preening and Jasper is just babbling in his cage. Jasper is up next!

 

[cnyguy]

Willow seems to be enjoying the fountain bath.

Many parrots do like to imitate sounds, including the ones made by other birds and different animals. Ralph particularly likes to quack and he enjoys doing chicken clucks almost as much. He knows that the quack is a duck and the cluck is a chicken and sometimes will do one or the other on request. George the YCA used to do an accurate imitation of my brother's dog's bark and learned to caw like a crow just from hearing the ones outside. When a parrot learns to make animal sounds it doesn't necessarily mean that he won't still learn some words and phrases. Parrots can learn to do both.

 

[HeatherG]

Willow had a lot of fun bathing, and he remembered what the fountain was for and hopped right up on the rim.

He looks so smooth now! And I blotted the water from his feathers and let him cuddle under his towel and that got him close to dry. I had a tiel that really liked the blow dryer but I worry about any accidents. I did not want to put the birds to bed WET.

Jasper did not hop into the fountain but enjoyed sticking his tongue out to catch the stream of water. It was very silly looking.

So now we have another activity to burn off energy when they are full of beans. I found a nice place to store the fountain and it’s easy to assemble, too. I am tempted to pull out the rubber duckies. Lucy had a green one. Bet I could find a blue ducky.

I think Willow might enjoy obnoxious sound effects better than talking. He already has a few—he does a really mean splashy bath effect. Maybe I can teach him something really goofy.

 

[HeatherG]

Willow smells so nice today and his feathers are smooth.

Willow ate his avicake and then climbed into his basket after the crumbs. Then he started beaking his toys, rolling the ball and pulling on a wedged in coffee stirrer. I loosened the stirrer and he made some weaving motions with it! Then he dropped it. He also played with his colored chain. I named the colors of the link and passed them to him.

I hope he will get more comfortable with toys because he would be less bored with something to do. Lucy spent so much time building and re arranging her toys. Willow mostly likes to groom himself or me.

It seems like willow needs to know it’s ok to touch the toys? I wonder why he’s so constrained. Maybe he got scolded for stealing things from around the house.

 

[cnyguy]

It's possible that Willow needs some reassurance that it's all right for him to touch the toys and play with them.

I'm picturing Jasper catching the water stream on his tongue.

 

[onamom]

Where did you get Willow? Was his fist home elsewhere?

 

[HeatherG]

Where did you get Willow? Was his fist home elsewhere?

I got Willow from an older woman who took him from her daughter. The daughter’s husband didn’t like him and teased him (whatever is meant by that).

He came with the name “Willow “.

 

[HeatherG]

Willow woke me up screaming his alarm scream at the snow on the window. I hope he learns that snow isn’t such a big deal.

 

[onamom]

Willow woke me up screaming his alarm scream at the snow on the window. I hope he learns that snow isn’t such a big deal.

Scary snow! Surprisingly Ona makes her little happy purring noises at snow falling. I wish I could take her outside and let her catch snowflakes.

 

[Cottonoid]

I FEEL THE SAME, WILLOW!!! 🥶

 

[HeatherG]

Willow really wants to be held today. I’m not sure what’s up with that. He almost wants to be squished between my hand and my cheek. But h we wants me to rub his head, too.

————

Anyhow it seems that he’d had enough of being petted and wanted to go to sleep. It is late for him. So I brought him back to his cage and he ran in. I think he was trying to hide his head because he was sleepy…

I sent Willow’s former ‘mom’ photos of Willow enjoying his new bathtub. She says she’s glad he is so happy. She will be in town for a bird fair but I don’t know that I will be going. I have some bad sniffles and have made it many years without BirdFair.

She could not guess why Willow is afraid of random new things. I think maybe he is a watchful Quaker (a sentinel?). He does like to look out over the downtown and warn me about any excitement.