Happy Birthday to my awesome little man!

In 2 days, June 20th, my sweet baby boy will be 5 years old! Gosh, I don't know where the time went. It seems just like yesterday that I brought him home. We learned so much together, I learned not to stress out over his stages while he learned how to trust me. I treasure our times that we spend together, but especially our night time snuggles. Those night time snuggles are the best time of the day for me! I look forward to those because it is just me and my baby, I relax and let the world take care of itself. He is the light of my life. My Peanut!

Sisco Sissy Sissybug or Sis

Whatever you want to call her. She's my nekid Nanday Conure whom I love with unconditional love. I have to, she's nekid and I don't think that'll change any time soon. I have been trying new things out to see if I can get her to at least lessen up on the plucking. The other night I heard what sounded like a painful scream but since she is normally making some sort of noise, I didn't really think much of it. The next morning there was dried blood on the bottom of her cage and she has a sore under her leg. I don't want to put a collar on her, it won't change the fact that she plucks. I want to trade her bad habit of plucking to something better.

The changes that I am making:
Soaking bathes at least once a day.
Outside time if weather permits.
An occasional outing with me.
An occasional walk.
More veggies and fruit.
Different ponchos to deter plucking but to encourage playing as well.

She also gets my undivided attention at least 2 times a day. We sit and snuggle and she normally falls asleep on me. Once in the morning and once in the evening. Sometimes, if I'm not running errands or doing some work we will sit in the afternoon and she'll take an afternoon nap. If I'm not holding her, she doesn't nap.

Today she is playing with toys!! What's different today than any other day? Well, I am home and the curtains are closed. Nothing else is different. I don't get it.

I have to modify her poncho a little because it is too loose around the neck. She is able to get to her shoulders with this one on. She has plain ponchos for night time just in case anyone was concerned about her getting a bead stuck in her beak or something...

My Arm Has Fallen Asleep

Oh, the discomforts I go through for the sake of my birds. Numerous times a day I will have: various body parts go numb, restless leg syndrome, bleeding eardrums, feathers in my coffee, and feetie prints in my mashed potatoes.

As I type this, I have a precious baby, snuggled against my chest, leaning into my hand for support. We've been sitting this way for an hour, her sleeping and me playing around on my computer. I was content sitting on the couch with the dogs, but she wasn't content being on her cage. So, she hopped to the floor and started walking towards me, letting me know that she wanted held!

I've had people tell me that birds, "do not cuddle. That's a human want." Yeah, ok. They're missing out on a lot if they think that.

Howdy

Wow! A lot of things have changed since 2010, mostly with the birds. Some have gone to the rainbow bridge, some have found new homes, and some new ones have come in and some old ones have come back.

We are all doing well and we're happy. I try to keep in touch with the new families that have adopted some of my birds, and I've been reassured that they are all doing well. I'll try to catch everyone up soon. 

My Angel Baby

If someone would have told me 3 years ago that I'd be laying in bed with a 50 gram sleeping green bird in my shirt, instead of sitting and watching tv with my husband, I would have said that they are absolutely nuts!

The love I feel for this tiny being, I can't even put it into words. I miss him when I am away from him. I want the best for him.

They say that a parrot is nothing like a child and that we shouldn't treat them as our feathered children. But, you know, I've only felt this way 3 other times before with my 3 human children.

Although, 4 years ago, we lost a very much loved member of our family and when she died I don't think I could have mourned any more if she were my human child.

Anyway, back to my original thought- They also say that we shouldn't project human emotions on birds either. I don't understand this because they do have emotions, and for that matter, moods.

They get sad, they're happy, they mourn....When I wrote on a forum that Peanut moped when he was in his cage, I got told that Peanut did not mope. Birds do not mope! I just thought he was moping.

Nope! Sorry! I can read Peanut's moods and emotions. I even know when he's thirsty! (I know that's not an emotion or mood, I'm just saying...I know my bird) When Peanut is locked in his cage, he just sits. He doesn't eat or play. Now, if his cage door is open, he will go in and out, he will even eat and play with his toys! Totally different moods!

Like I said, I love the little guy, he is my heart-some days he's the reason why I get up in the morning.

Decision made

I thought everyone would like to see the birds I'm talking about :o)

Well, seems that all the birds are staying. Except maybe Peaches the female lovebird. Female lovebirds and I do not get along very well. She has an egg butt :o( There's nothing I can do to keep her from laying eggs! *sigh*

So, what's going to happen now? Well, in the PM, Lee is going to put new toys in the conure cage that I have set out. He's also going to refill their foraging baskets each night before bed.

Training Gibby to step up on the T-perch is going very slow, but we are working on it so that is all that matters.

My daughter and I went away this morning (we went to pick up a dog that she adopted from a rescue-which means that I didn't get anything done this morning! But, I will worry about that tomorrow because tomorrow is another day-my new motto), and when we got back, the birds freaked out because there was a new furry critter in their living space. Everyone was caged, except Buddy the Jenday. He comes and goes as he pleases, but generally stays on his cage playtop. But, my son came downstairs as I came in the door and said that there was a bird with green wings in the bathroom LOL

So, I go into the bathroom and there is Buddy sitting on the counter. I asked him to step up and he did very nicely :o) He's done it before for me so I wasn't concerned, but he came from a home where the female of the family and Buddy did not get along.

This morning, though, he flew at me twice as I was folding blankets. He has a fear of blankets and since his door to his cage is always open, he is out when I fold blankets in the AM. Anyway, I totally ignored him and he didn't make contact with me or the blankets at all.

Tomorrow, I'll have Lee shut his cage door when he gets up to go to work. Problem solved :o)

Ohno! At this exact moment, Oreo the blackmasked lovebird is doing the mating dance to Joey the DNA'd male linnie! Somebody's a little confused! LOL!!

Difficult decision

For my regular readers, this is going to be a post where I will be "thinking out loud" as the saying goes. I need to get my thoughts out where I can see them. So, please feel free to ignore these ramblings :o) But, if you have any suggestions, feel free to add them. I could use all the suggestions anyone has because it is probably something that I haven't thought of.

I am thinking of rehoming some of my birds. I (use to be WE but hubby works out of state now and is gone for 58 hours a week and doesn't have time for his birds-the conures) have 13 and thinking of rehoming all but 5. I am keeping: 2 lovebirds, 2 linnies, and a cockatiel.

But...this is breaking my heart :o( This is why I can't decide what I want/need to do:
My day starts at 5AM. I am up, showered/bathed, had coffee, and ready to accept daycare kids by 5:45.

7:30 my mom comes for her shift to start. We divide the day in half so I get some time to get some stuff done and some time for her to get some stuff done. She stays until 11:30, then it is my turn to take care of the kids. Right now we only have my nephew and 3 school aged little girls.

Between 7:30-11:30 I am scrambling to get:

• Leelee's school schedule done (he does cyber school but needs a detailed schedule. Due to his Asperger's he needs everything written out and explained to him.)
• Birds up, birds fed, birds bathed. Buddy the Jenday Conure is a plucker so he gets sprayed everyday and sits under his UVA lamp.
• Next comes cleaning the kitchen-unloading the dishwasher, loading the dishwasher, cleaning the counter tops, sweeping the floor, and I usually wipe the floor with a wet rag.
• Next is the living room-furniture gets wiped, rugs get picked up and given a good shake (I have rag rugs under each cage door to catch crumbs and poop. Then when I can't stand to look at the rugs splattered with poop any longer, they get tossed into the washing machine), and floors get swept. I scrub any where that a bird missed the rug and pooped on the floor.
• Next is the bathroom-counter gets wiped, toilet gets swished and the tub gets wiped. Then I scoop the litter pan and sweep/wash the floor.
• At this time it is usually 9:30 and I let my mom have a smoke break.
• Then it is back upstairs to clean the bird room and cages. 3 cages get broken down and scrubbed in the bath tub. 2 out of the 5 cages in that room get scrubbed only once a week because they are for sleeping only. After cages are scrubbed, tables get wiped down and then it is time to vacuum the room.
• On to my room, I just make my bed and tidy that room.
• By this time it is 11:30 and time for me to go to work. I make lunch, feed my son and my nephew, throw a load or 2 of laundry in, play with my nephew...etc until 2:30 when he leaves.
• 2:30 til 3:30 is MY TIME! I try to use this time to relax and play on the computer. But, if I have errands to run, this is usually the time I do it.

I have to mention here that mornings are also times I run errands if I have any such as doctors appts and the like. So, none of the above get done except for feeding the birds.

• 3:45 is when one of my little daycare girls gets off the school bus. But, she's been here since she was 8 weeks old, she's now 9-almost 10. So, she comes in, has a snack and starts her homework. At this time I am folding and putting away laundry.
• 4:30-6:30 is when I cook dinner and spend time with my little birds. When my daughter starts to feel better, this is when we will go out to feed her horse which takes about an hour.
• 6:45-Hubby comes home.
• 6:30-7:30-we eat dinner, clean up from dinner, get ready for tomorrow and put birds to bed.
• 7:30-Peanut and I go to bed.
• 9:00-Peanut goes in his cage and I go to bed.

I have not had a chance to do anything with the big birds. When hubby worked 3rd shift, he was able to spend a lot of time, and I mean hours, with the big birds. Now, they get less than 45 minutes of his time a day, except for weekends.

They can not thrive on that! And, Gibby is very aggressive towards me and since they share a cage, that means I can't reach into their cage to do ANYTHING in there! I have to trick him just to put their food bowls in there. :o(

Am I being too anal about cleaning my home? Yes, probably but I have to keep up with the food mess and dog hair that accumalates daily or else we will be walking on seed hulls and such. My family likes to walk around the house barefoot...and I have some pretty proficient food flingers.

I made a T-perch today and started training Gibby to just accept the perch being near him. If I can just get him away from his cage, I can put more toys in, clean it, etc. But, again-where do I find the time to do that?

Hmm, I just had a thought.......I could set out what I want in their cage for hubby to put in before putting the Suns to bed! :o) And, if I can successfully train Gibby to step up on the T-perch, I can get him into the kitchen to bathe and eat with us!

Hubby is the one that cleans the big cages, but if I get a hand held steam cleaner, considering Gibby is tolerable to the T-perch, I can clean the big cages!!

It's not like I'll be watching my nephew forever. The girls I watch will be growing up and not needing me anymore. After they leave, that is it...........I will be officially retired from daycare! WOOT!! :o)

But...the thought of only having 5 birds is appealling to me. Is that selfish? Or is it more selfish to keep all them knowing that they aren't getting the attention and stimulation they need and deserve?

And what about the remaining birds? Will they forever wonder where everyone went? And, will they forever worry that they are next?

Do I think too much? Heeheehee

Is it wrong to use Doritos as a reinforcer for stepping up on the T-perch? Yeah, probably LOL