I was attaching some wooden ladders in his cage today and he grabbed one of the zip ties from me and had a great time playing with it until he dropped it and it fell through the grate. He got really agitated at the loss of his new toy so I made him one that wouldn’t get lost so easily.
Click to enlarge.
OK, here’s the playtop photos:
He also figured out how to fly tonight. He made one good flight across the room to land on a chair. The other two flights weren’t quite as graceful. I’ve been taking him around the house exercising his flight muscles. We’re going to get his wings clipped on Saturday now that he’s able to control his flight somewhat. He’s able to gain altitude and I don’t want him doing that, I just want him able to control a landing or fall and he looks like he’s at that point.
Morning feeding: pre 460g, post 527g.
He’s taken to sitting on my shoulder now that he’s more steady. I’ve been walking him around the house and he’s started to spend time on the playtop on the cage. I’ll get a picture of him next time he’s up there.
His weight is a bit up now. This morning prefeeding was 463g and post was 528g.
If you’re wondering what he likes to eat during the day, he has three bowls:
He seems to like the jalapenos quite a bit. I’m going to see if I can get him one of those pepper trees with some other types of peppers on them, since he doesn’t seem to mind the heat at all.
I’m working on getting him a better camera as well. This one he’s currently got is pretty bad.
The morning feeding went well, the evening, not so much. He didn’t want to take it as quickly as the morning but still better than it has been.
I got him a scale so I could keep track of his weight. Prefeeding weight tonight was 457g and after feeding it was 519g. The scale also figures out nutritional value of what you’re weighing it and it seems that a 500g bird is about 1053 calories.
He makes a lot of cute little noises when he’s falling asleep, he sounds like R2D2. Here is a quicktime movie of him making the noises and eventually falling asleep. Very cute.
Well it looks like I was feeding him incorrectly in two ways… 1. I was feeding him from the wrong side of the beak. 2. I was feeding him too slowly and he was getting frustrated. Kim (at Omar’s) was kind enough to show me the correct way to do it today. Short, sweet and fast and he was fine. I’ll be trying it in the morning and hopefully he won’t be hostile any more during feedings.
Do birds dream?
Mine apparently does. More often than not he babbles in his sleep. Tricia says he takes after me in that respect. I’ll try to get it on video although the camera sound usually wakes him up.
I’m trying him with different foods now. He loves yams and I’ve added jalapenos, broccoli and peas to his dish. He seems to enjoy the broccoli as well as a few chunks of wheat bread. He also likes the jalapenos but not as much as the broccoli. Hopefully he’ll wean quickly. Handfeeding is messy and kind of a pain and he doesn’t seem to enjoy it very much.
He’s not taking formula as readily as I’d hoped but he sucked down a few teaspoons of mashed yams like Paris Hilton with a bottle of vodka.
Well he’s had a long day. He liked his carrier and got his first ride in the convertible. I finally got him to eat although it was spread over two feedings and a good amount ended up on his face and my shirt.
He’s really clumsy like most baby birds and is having a hard time staying on the perch when sleeping. He’ll start swaying and then fall off. Eventually he figured out he could snuggle up to his toy and stay on the perch.
More pictures are here.
He’s babbling now and anything that is in reach gets in his beak. So far his favorite toy is my Jabra bluetooth earpiece with the foot toys in his cage coming in a close second.
He’s home now and enjoying all the things in his cage. I tried feeding him but he was in no mood to eat so I’ll try again later tonight.
I’ve set up the LinusCam. It updates every 60 seconds with a snapshot from inside the cage. You can also view it with the link on the left sidebar.
First of all let me say that if you are ever looking for a quality bird in the Southern California area, you have to go to Omar’s Exotic Birds. I’ve been bird shopping for about a year now and their birds are the happiest and most well-adjusted I’ve ever seen. The people are very helpful and they spend a lot of time with you educating you on proper techniques as well as advice for choosing the right bird and equipment. I’ve seen a lot of birds in a lot of pet stores and it’s sad to see how scared and neurotic they’ve already become. This place definitely outshines them all.
That being said, I just got a call from them, Linus is ready to come home! Apparently they’re starting to escape their playpen and he’s down to two feedings a day now so I’ll be taking him home Saturday. It’s a bit sooner than I expected since I don’t have his computer yet but I’ll have the LinusCam set up soon enough so you can see him in almost real-time.
I should be receiving the special keyboard today and I’ll post more about it after I get some pictures.
OK, so I think I might go with Linus for the bird’s name. Linus Pauling, Linus Torvalds and Linus from Peanuts are all some of my favorite people.
You’ve undoubtedly noticed in some of the photos that two of the toes (and nails) on the right foot are white. The tongue also has a white stripe on it. Apparently this is a result of the “pied gene.” It’s nothing special really however it gives the bird a couple of distinguishing marks, making it easier to identify in a crowd.
The pied gene results in decreased melanin production in spots or sometimes all over the body.
I got the new carrier today. It’s made by Celltei and custom sized for an African Grey.
It looks better than the photo and is made pretty well. The stainless steel mesh is nice too, it’ll help keep out the mosquitos and might not be as easily chewed as a nylon mesh that is common on most carriers.
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