No Photos! January 14, 2008

We thought it is time to write about Pepper, since we don’t write about her much, though she is our very special baby. However, she hates the camera, and thinks it is a “Pepper-eating-Monster” and doesn’t let us take pictures of her. Sight of the camera, or any thing else in our hand for that matter, triggers a defensive mechanism in Pepper and she will start swaggering with her wings puffed up, ready to attack if the thing got any closer. Not wanting to trouble her, we have sort of given up on decent pictures of Pepper. On a positive note, she has gotten better at not plucking and actually has more feathers than when we first got her, an year ago. Thats right! Its been an year since we got her and it has been special for all of us

Will you take that Camera off my face?

Nikko’s anguish January 12, 2008

Nikko has not been very happy that he doesn’t get enough coverage on the blog and has been a little envious of Amy getting all the attention. Here he is, complaining about what and all we make him do for a little spotlight

Does this qualify?

How about this?

Adoption and Adoption Days September 28, 2007

Yesterday was Nikko’s first adoption day. We can’t believe it is already an year since the little guy came into our lives, and , that he is almost 3 years old! Nikko is getting a new happy hut and we all had loads of cinnamon coffee cake last night.

Do I look like I am 3?

And tomorrow is Amy’s adoption day too! She already got a whole bunch of new toys, including, of course, a tennis ball. She has been going crazy with all the new toys to play with.

Wanna come and play?

The biggest news of all is about Pepper. We have now officially adopted Pepper! She acts like she knows it too Overall, we need to have a big adoption day bash here.

What took you guys so long?

Blog Burnout… August 7, 2007

We have been suffering from a little blog burnout, after the blogathon. It felt like a feat to have written 49 posts in 24 hours, but it also zapped a lot of our energy. I was hoping to post last weekend, but alas, it was a lazy one! Anyways, wanted to update everyone that we are all doing alright. Mostly, its the same old, except we have been trying to get Nikko say my name. He does give it a try. Watch out for video soon. Talking of videos, we received a nice clip of Sephora playing with her birthday presents. We all had fun watching it!

Jealous Nikko July 28, 2007

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Blogathon 2007 - Post 28 - 9.30 PM

Nikko is the typical kid in our house. He always wants attention and has favorites - Shankar. He always follows Shankar in what he is doing, and does not like it one bit that any one else has anything to do with Shankar. He has bitten / tried to bite me, quite a few times, as a recipient of Shankar’s attention. Though he doesn’t bite Pepper, anytime anyone gives Pepper some attention, he wants it too and he wants it all! With Amy, she is ok, as long as she stays away from the cage and Shankar does not give her too much attention when Nikko is watching. If either of us, starts to play with Amy, anywhere close to Nikko - he threatens to get to us. And, of course that enough to send Amy back to her bed. Here is one such Nikko’s feat - hanging from the cage door, like he is going to jump on us!

Pepper’s Bath Time July 8, 2007

The birdies are not too happy that all of the recent posts have been about Amy. So, here is a short note on Pepper!

Pepper is scared of water, other than whats in her bowl for drinking. She can me a running water sound, like gurgling and will do it when she sees us drinking liquid stuff or when she wants more water. Sometimes when she is really excited, she will stir her water with her beak, thats about all her fun with water. Any other time, she hates to come in contact with water.

Due to her feather plucking behavior, however, we try to get her wet, at least once every few days, to moisturize her dry skin and reduce whatever irritations she might have. Once a week, she gets to jump in the shower with one of us, and either get wet from the spray or have a full bath, with a misty spray. In the first instance, she just freezes and waits for us to get done. Leave her alone in the tub, its worse than dealing with a kid, who doesn’t want to take shower! Oh, and then there is the arch enemy - spray bottle!

Once she is done however, she like to be wrapped in a towel and held tight.. its one of those I am holding a baby in my hand moments.. Here she is all snuggled in..

It is also a lot easier for us to keep track of her feathers when she is wet - like the new ones that is coming out and those that she has pulled out.

We are hoping that as summer sets in full swing, she might get a little more water friendly!

Training Nikko June 6, 2007

Stepping Up and Saying Hello

As mentioned in every single pet-bird manual, the first thing we trained Nikko is to Step Up on a dowel. The idea is he to get him familiarized with the stick, and if he climbs on it, then treat him. Before we discovered his passion for sunflower seeds, I used grapes for his training. It was a hard process, as his goal seemed to be to avoid the stick and still get the grape!

Once he learned the idea of doing something for a treat, the process got much better. It didn’t take long for Nikko to step up, both on a stick and on the finger! But when he thinks he doesn’t have the right balance on the finger – he uses his beak to get it and many a time results in a bleed, from the finger, of course! Once we got into the mode of training Nikko, we started the process of Clicker Training and he has made wonderful progress.

Here is Nikko, Waving at you, saying Hello!

Some of you may wonder: Why train pet birds?

This is what About.com has to say:

Birds are complex creatures that sometimes behave in ways that are difficult for us to understand. While some quirky behaviors are normal and acceptable, owners need to know the proper ways to manage undesirable behaviors such as biting, chewing, and screaming.

And Lianne McLeod, has this to say:

Training pet parrots has benefits that extend well beyond the entertainment value of a parrot that can talk and do tricks. Training will strengthen the bond you have with your parrot, who will look forward to the one-on-one attention involved in training sessions, especially when success means lots of praise and attention along with favorite treats. In addition, teaching some simple commands will make handling your parrot easier.

For us, it was simple - we wanted to train him, so that he is comfortable with us and we are comfortable with him and we all have fun! Training him has made our interaction much more wonderful. We know and understand him better and he has a meaningful way of interacting with us. We all have some other activity to look forward to, other than having him just sit with / on us. It is also a good way of distracting him from unwanted behavior. A lot of people are surprised when I say I interact with Nikko over the phone. It is hard to think of a bird being smart enough to understand someone over the phone, but I think that all the time spent with him, training and having fun has added so much more to our relationship!