Rub a dub dub, Nani's in the tub...well not tub but sink didn't rhyme. I wanted to share a video of Nani taking a bath. She's not really that excited about getting wet but occasionally she'll be in the mood. And when she does she goes all out.

Well, maybe not luxury but she's sure upgraded. Last summer when we took her home I wanted to have a nice play gym for her to enjoy but couldn't afford to buy one. Caiques are quite expensive and I bought the largest cage I could find so my funds were pretty much wiped out. I decided to make my own out of tree branches. So I did some research to be sure I'd be giving her branches that weren't poisonous and ended up choosing Sumac (not Poison Sumac mind you, Rhus typhina which is not poisonous at all and it's flowers can even be consumed). It didn't turn out too bad but it definitely looked home made. Another problem was since the branches sprawled out so much I had to lay newspaper all over the surrounding floor which looked bad and never stayed in place so I had bird bombs all over the place anyway.

So I'm have some mother-daughter time the other day and someone decided she was also my daughter and wanted to participate in all the fun:



P.S. See her flight feathers finally growing in? For those of you who read my blog you know she was severely clipped at a very young age. I'm happy she has been experiencing a little flying (not much, she's only got 3 on each side) but as you can imagine she thinks the house and all that's in it belongs to her. *sigh*

Yesterday I took Nani to my daughter's school to see all of the 2nd graders. Due to a few kids with allergies the teacher asked that we do it outside, which posed a few challenges. First off Nani loves going outside (and is accustomed to it) but is always "on the lookout". She spots hawks miles away and won't move a muscle all the while growling. She also does this to songbirds, squirrels, butterflies, gnats, and leaves blowing in the wind. Ok, so she's a scaredy cat. So she was not as relaxed as I would have liked but did amazingly well considering.

I talked to the kids about the two types of Caiques, where they come from, that they are a more rare species and they most likely would not see one at the local pet store. I also told them about what is required to care for not only Caiques but all parrots, and the sad truth about rescues filled to the brim with unwanted birds. The teacher chimed in and told them that it is important to think about what a big (and in some cases lifelong) responsibility it is to own a pet. Many of them had questions, some of them repetitive. It struck me as funny.

Although she refused to do her tricks (grrrrrr) she was very well behaved. I gave each of the 20+ students a sunflower seed and Nani gladly went around eating out of each hand. One girl put her hand up to feed her and Nani hopped right on. The teacher said that this particular girl was quite and animal lover and she believed animals can sense that. I agree. Oh, and Nani got spooked at one point by some annoying 5th graders that had come outside and flew on the back of one poor little boy. At least he didn't cry.

When my daughter got home she said everyone was asking if they could come over to the house. We have quite a zoo with 2 rats, a flying squirrel, two leopard geckos, and Nani which is of course very attractive to kids. So will my house be filled with children running around? Uh, yeah...not anytime soon.

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Nani turned 1 year old today!


Then:

Now:

Nani is all grown up and started her first job! She's Doodle Bird's newest product model! See for yourself: Nani The Super Model!

#5 Nani decides that picture would look a lot better with her in it.

It was a nice Spring day.

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I almost don't want to do today's post for fear I will look like an incompetent parrot owner, but I feel I must as maybe someone out there will learn from my mistakes.

Incident #1:

The day before yesterday I was cleaning house, and had gotten to the vacuuming portion. Nani was out on her stand, and has recently learned how to fly (quote, unquote) to the couch and will either climb down to the floor or go running to her cage. But she never leaves the tree when I'm vacuuming...until now. I was knelt down on the floor trying to vacuum under her cage, the disaster zone as I call it. I didn't see that she had come over to investigate and was standing on the arm of the couch right next to me. I went to vacuum part of the food mess she had left on that very part of the couch (using the attachment hose) and flooooop! She was sucked in!!!!!! Thankfully her body is pudgy and she got stuck there. I quickly turned it off, within a second, and my poor bird was making that noise they do when they hate something (like nail clipping), kind of a growl. So I went to pull her out and guess what...stuck! I was panicking, but pulled slightly harder and ploop, out she came! I brought her up to my face with my hand around her body and she immediately started making kissing noises. I kept telling her "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry" while tears were rolling down my cheeks. She seemed flustered but otherwise fine, I couldn't believe it! After babying her for several minutes I set her on the couch to see what she'd do. Get this...she goes off bouncing up and down while saying "hop, hop, hop" in her squeaky voice. Then immediately attacked her toy and started whistling away. Needless to say I was flabbergasted, and left with severe heart palpitations of course.

Here is my sermon: When you are considering a Caique as a pet (which I highly recommend) and you read all the books and online info that say they are into everything, can't be trusted, and are highly active interpret that as: Caiques are rulers of your domain...nothing is off limits, when they look innocent always suspect the worst, and last but not least are little Tasmanian devils having endless energy and can run (or hop) from one end of the room to the other with triathlon speed!

Incident #2:

This one happened today. My daughter is notorious for leaving her things everywhere and I am constantly nagging her to pick up after herself. Yesterday she had a bunch of Hershey's kisses on the living room table (Nani's room). When we were about ready to leave the house I told her to pick them up and put them away, which she did. Fast forward to this morning at around 10 a.m. and Nani is out running around from her tree to her cage and back again, as normal. Now keep in mind the house is spotless as I just cleaned. So she decides to crawl down on the floor and eat the tidbits she's dropped. I was sitting right there with my laptop, so I let her be. She went exploring under the coffee table, which is also normal. All of a sudden I hear what sounds to me like when she chews apart the dry leaves outside. crunch crunch crunch. I say to her "what are you into?" and bend down to take a look. Ahhhhh! Chocolate! It was all over her beak! I freaked and rinsed it out the best I could. Then I immediately called the vet and explained. There was only a small chunk missing so I know she didn't eat much, and I had no idea if she had ingested the foil as it was all peeled and mashed into the chocolate kiss. My vet said that judging by the amount of chocolate that was missing it probably wouldn't be a problem. But she said if she ingested the foil she could become impacted and need surgery. I reexamined the leftovers and it seemed very unlikely that she had ingested much, if any. She told me to keep an eye on her and her droppings today. Now since this happened she has been absolutely normal, singing and eating like no tomorrow. I will continue to watch her closely...I love her so much!

Moral: Don't let your birds forage on the floor and always double check after your 8 year old claims to have cleaned!

I took this video last week. She had been kind of cranky all week, and she was"biting" more often than normal. As I was putting on my makeup to go out Nani cames waddling over and grabbed my mascara. That was fine, I didn't need it yet. But when I did, oh boy watch out. She wasn't having it! Thankfully she calmed down this week!

Einstein the African Grey parrot is somewhat of a celebrity on youtube.com. She is an excellent talker and very entertaining to watch! This 9 minute 35 second video is definitely worth the time. Here is Einstein's "Word Practice". Einstein also has a blog and website with fun facts, videos, and a friends page. Well, guess who her new friend is!

Nani spends a countless amount of time watching Einstein's videos intently and has learned to say "look at you!" with such expression.

So Nani would like to make a shout out to her new friend Einstein! Woo!

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