dhorje

Get someone over to feed your grey. This is what I did when I was away for holiday. I was lucky because my sis in law lives nearby. She came to feed my fids 3X daily, cleaned the cages and my Grey had out of cage time too.

My Grey is probably the most traveled parrot in my country. I take her to jungle hiking 3X a week. And also she enjoyed her daily 250ft outdoor flight until lately because her landing platform had been repainted. She got spooked by the change.

Sometime last year, one Sunday morning I was walking my Grey in the street. We were walking past some shops. Suddenly my Grey took flight because she was spooked by the noise of a roller shutter when a lady was opening up her shop. She flew in circles (she was wearing a harness) until she dropped on the ground. Before I could pick her up, a cat came out from nowhere pounced on her. She quickly flew to me. That saved her life, being flighted. Being flighted, my Grey gives me a lot of headaches in the house. But I won't take the freedom of flight away from her to make life easier. On the brighter side, flighted parrots are more joyful and full of antics. I will definitely miss my Grey if I clip her wings. She will no longer a "real" Grey.

When we were away on holidays, my sis in law came to take care of our fids. My grey, Cocoa is not bonded to her. She would not hesitate to bite my SIL. But Cocoa would fly to her and perched on her shoulder when my SIL was preparing food for her like what she was doing with us. Getting her into the cage was not easy. My SIL had to bribe Cocoa with sugarcane to get her in. My grey recognized her as her temporary caretaker. She was happy to see my SIL coming to the house.

Cocoa and the chick.

A few vids. Exercise and Sun tan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYXaeccIjqs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkJdhxRo70s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4PxAeWNUHo

After feeding. My wife spent more than 1 hour cleaning up the chick. After clean up.

We have not met before and we do not know each other. We are total stranger but this guy left his less than 2 months old grey with me to bird sit. He has to go on a business trip to oversea. We'll be caring this baby for 5 days. I don't know how he took care of this baby. There were food stuck in her nostrils and hardened food on her body. We received this grey at 10.30pm yesterday and the 1st thing we did was to remove the hardened food in her nostrils. This is the 1st time we pet sit a bird. We got up at 5.30am this morning. There she is. She got up earlier than us. Feeding the baby.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of-2qvxLQC8

As usual this morning I took Cocoa out for flying exercise. First thing I did a recall which she failed to respond 2 days ago. She did it this time. I pulled the line out from the reel, probably about 100ft long. I commanded her to fly to the monkey bar. She took off as usual and when she was about to land, she changed her mind and flew away from the monkey bar. I thought she would land on the nearby swing but she flew higher and higher. She was heading towards the lamp post. She tried to land on top of the lamp post. I quickly ran towards her hopefully she would fly back to me. Luckily she did not manage to land on the lamp post. The line got caught to the post and she had to fly down and landed on the ground. This had never happened before. I was wondering what happened to her as I was picking her up, removing the line from the leash and rolling back the line. After that, I walked towards the monkey bar and damn, I knew what had happened. They re-painted the monkey bar, the swing and everything. The monkey bar used to be blue and now it is red, green and yellow. The new colors spooked her and she didn't recognize her usual playgym. I slowly placed her on the monkey bar which is now red. She stood still instead of monkeying around which she normally did. I waited for a few minutes before trying again if she would fly there. I kept the line short about 5 ft. Darn she didn't want to land there and kept on flying in circles until I brought her down to the ground. The new colors upset me as well. I have to start all over again to train Cocoa to fly there. If she had landed on top of the lamp post, I really did not know how to bring her down. I think I had to sit there all day long until she got fed up and flew down to me.

As you know Cocoa is very health conscious. She loves hiking. Hiking helps to keep her trim and fit. She rides on me while I do the walking.

Some pics taken today. Cocoa playing with my daughter who was hiding behind the curtain.

I cooked the sprouted assorted beans with peeled and chopped potatoes, 3 types of sweet potatoes, pumkins and carrots for about 15-20 mins. After cooling down I blended all the cooked ingredients and kept them in small plastic bags as per serving. I took me more than 1 hour to do this work. I scooped some of remaining food off the blender and gave it to Mocha. I told Mocha the food was VERY GOOD and highly nutritious. You know what he said? "NO GOOD". Damn! I worked for NOTHING. : (

Cocoa was nervous in the presence of other birds. I placed her next to a 6 months old grey. The baby grey tried to be friendly to Cocoa but she fled in panic. As you can see in the photos, the little tiel was not afraid of the giant Macaw. Cocoa panicked when I placed her close to the Macaw.

The B&G that sat next to the tiel is only 5 months old. Pic #6 is a 16 years old male Macaw. He went berserk when he saw the female Macaw (2nd last pic). He turned very aggressive, even the owner did not dare to touch him. Many did not turn up for the event. Otherwise there would be Cockatoos, Eclectus and Amazons.

It wasn't a good day this afternoon. The rain didn't dampen the spirit of the parrot enthusiasts. Some of the hardcore ones turned up despite the non stop drizzle. We all gathered under the hut at the park. One lady asked me to do a demo. She wanted to see Cocoa fly. I went to an open area. There were trees sheltering us from the rain. I placed Cocoa on the ground and walked about 10ft away. She flew to me on command. I thought she would fly directly to me but instead of landing directly on my arm she flew past me and made a circle and back to me. Cocoa received a roaring applause from the crowds. I felt daaamn proud. Sorry no video.

I went hiking again this morning, this time only Cocoa and I as my wife had to go to the wet market. I met another hiker when I was taking a break. He asked if Cocoa was a parrot. He then asked if I had an eagle which he saw me carry around in the street. He didn't know Cocoa was the eagle he saw in the street.

We went hiking this morning. The starting point was quite tough because it starts with steep slopes. After climbing the slopes, I took a break waiting for my wife to catch up. A man was coming down from the opposite direction. He saw me and Cocoa. He asked, " you have a bird on your shoulder. what bird is that?" I replied, " it's an eagle." He asked again, "how long have you been keeping this EAGLE? Hahaha! He really believed Cocoa is an eagle.

Cocoa is a dominant bird and also a jealous bird. Most of the time she refused to let Mocha (a Hill Mynah for those who do not know) to perch on our shoulders. Cocoa would chase Mocha away. Not only that, she also chased Mocha away from the kitchen cabinet and the fridge. This morning Mocha followed my wife to the dressing room. He likes to perch on the clothes rack. Cocoa flew in later and perched on the curtain rail at the window. Mocha chased Cocoa away and took over the curtain rail. Cocoa then flew to the door. And again Mocha went to "attack" Cocoa. Cocoa had to flee and she crash landed outside the room. Mocha claimed his 1st victory over a bird almost twice his size.

Its toe lickin good.

We went to my mom in law's house during the weekends which is located 180km away. We went to a nearby oil palm plantation and got ourselves a bag full of nuts. Different sizes of palm nuts.

Superbly taken pics!

I watched it recently. Quite entertaining. Recommended for parrot crazees.

Were you paid by BP competitors? : )