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Cats do seem to think things through first. They plot!!! With my dog, I could put an item I didn't want her playing with (or something she shouldn't be eating) up high, and my dog would jump and jump but fail to reach forbidden item. But not so with cats. They look around room strategically and find a path up to the 'supposedly too high' area: (jump up to coffee table, to chair, walk along back of sofa, jump to a shelf and then successfully jump up onto the 'out of reach site' (which was my tall armoire). My dogs never thought things through to figure out a route up. My dogs just jumped and jumped in the same place -- no plan, no success. lol That said, I do adore dogs! (And maybe others have had smarter dogs than me). My armoire is currently out of reach from all other furniture, alone on a wall, and that solved that. (Well, I did have one kitten, Bridget, some years back who could somehow make the jump up to high armoire from the floor (probably at around 5-7 months old) but when she reached her adult weight, she couldn't do it any more. Thankfully! Really, every home needs at least one high safe place to put no-no items! Not sure if such a place exists in a home with Bengals or parrots. lol

Sometimes when Timmy's climbing in his cage, I'll tell him "I'm gonna get your piggies!" And I grab his toes. So the other day my mom and I were playing with Timmy, and he's on the floor chasing me, saying "Gonna getcha!" I jumped on my bed, because while Timmy's good at a lot of things, one thing that he's really good at is gettin' piggies! My mom picked him up and tossed him on my bed, but by that point Timmy just wanted his head scratched. Oh yeah! I meant to ask this - is the back of the neck an erogenous zone? Should I not be scratching my buddy there?

I've been looking at giving Alfie some different play areas downstairs where he spends all of his time. He currently has a couple of areas he likes to hang out - his java tree which is next to his cage and two shelves above the sofa. He also sometimes hangs out on the cat scratching tree. I found a hanging perch which I thought would be great which cost £40 new (a good price!) so I ordered it without taking any measurements. The thing is HUGE! 😂 However, I asked my housemate to hang a couple of ceiling hooks so I have two spaces to hang it - one is opposite his shelves near the fire place (the fire is disconnected so never used) and one behind my PC chair because he likes flying over to see what I'm up to. He hasn't tried it out yet but he is a little curious about it - but not curious enough to go near it. I leave it hanging up in the back near my PC and then I move it when he comes out as we're mostly hanging out on the sofa these days. I did try to take him over to it earlier this week but he shied away so I didn't force the issue. It has a few hoops so I will be able to hang some toys on it as well - but I'm leaving that until he's actually sat on it and used to it. The added bonus is the two food bowls - gives him a place other than his cage to grab a snack and a drink when he's out for long periods. I hope he eventually likes it! Pixel (the cat) couldn't resist getting involved when it turned up. So she is there for size reference. She is not a large cat. 😂

Haha too funny! Widget and Pixel are like no other cats I have ever known. My housemate came up with the idea of bengals because I was dubious about having cats. I'm very much a dog person and have always been more wary around cats. He sold me on them because of their personality traits and activity levels. They are both extremely vocal and super active. Widget is VERY smart and will sit and observe and work things out... like how to open doors. Pixel will just charge in head first without a second thought, whereas Widget is more calculated about things. They both chase anything that moves. I have watch Widget jump a few feet in the air and catch a fly mid-flight... so you can see why I don't trust them with Alfie flying around! They are also exceptionally loyal. They are almost dog like in how they know when we are coming home and rush over to greet us. And it's not even just because they are hungry- they seem to genuinely enjoy being in our company and will follow us around the house. They do play together but they play ROUGH. They will fling each other around. Pixel will usually instigate it then scream the house down when Widget goes too far. She's a little princess sometimes. 😂

Oh yeah! Timmy has totally looked up at me with such love in his eyes, and then thrown up! Then again, I've been known to get nauseous around my crushes... "Love you so much it makes me sick"

I'm fairly sure head and neck scritches are fine- but anywhere else could lead to some mixed signals. Like most things, it probably depends on the individual bird.

In every parrot's defense: human toes can resemble peanuts to them. lol I always figured neck/throat/upper chest scritches were non-sexual. I suppose there is a parrot out there somewhere with some neck fetish, but I just avoid too many lower belly, leg and 'butt/bum' touches to avoid sexually stimulating them (which may exacerbate/encourage their hormonal responses/behaviours). Just me, and I've been wrong before. Neck and throat/upper chest scritches usually imply a certain level of trust more than an hormonal 'touch', ime. Who knows with these guys -- they could have fetishes we're unaware of. Mine seems balanced and normal when I remember the season and avoid over-stimulating him. I consider (perhaps wrongly) that any scritches near his head are not read incorrectly. Good luck!!!

Wow, we have something very similar that I found somewhere. It's dirty right now because it's been sitting in the aviary awaiting a new rope wrap (Greycie likes the sides wrapped in sisal for easy grip and nice nibbles). I hung it in the living room just for a photo and Greybie instantly decided this was a very good place for it. By the way, your wall will look fabulous with some nice food splatter there 😂