Cockatoo

Due to the fact that I now work, the birds get cleaned, fed, and watered every morning before I go to work, and whilst cleaning them, my Grey and Lady are let out. During this time, as I start to clean each cage, I noticed that Lady was following me as I moved around and past her cage.
I immediately took this as a bad thing and decided to manouver around her cage with caution, especially because if looks could kill……….. she would have had me dead!!!
Lady started to jump at me and savage my hair, then…………….. my neck!!

After cleaning the birds, Lady is left out, while I straighten the rest of the house, then afterwards I go and put Lady in her cage. At this point she always appears to have snapped out of her evilness.

I tired to think of why Lady had suddenly become this evil little stalker like birdie in the mornings, I came up with a few reasons!
Maybe she doesn’t like the fact that she knows she has to be shut in her cage when I go off to work, or maybe she likes time to have her breakfast before I start cleaning around her……….

Or

Maybe she’s becoming just like her paront mummy………..

Who is not a morning person at all!!!!

Whatever ever the reason, I have found it quite comical, it’s hard to explain unless you own a bird just like Lady
It just adds to her charactor

Last week, I decided that it was time for the flock to have some more new toys, so £120 later………….. New toys were on the way!!

Saturday was the day to strip down the cages and tree, scrub them sparkly clean and put the new toys in!!
Now, as I have explained previously Lady is extremely frightened of new things, so on Saturday morning I took the toys out of the box and laid them out on the back of the sofa, for the 3 birds to have a good nose at. Lady was quite curious, so……………………

I made a judgment call…………..

Lady was going to have new toys in her cage by the end of the day!!!!!

It took 3 weeks for Lady to accept the toys that I got her for Christmas!!!!
I was prepared for a challenge!!!

In one of my previous posts, I explained that my main goal for Lady, was not to stop the plucking, but to encourage her to play with her toys, or any toys!!

Well, Lady had chewed through all of her Christmas toys, and desperately needed some more!

My gut instinct took over, and it felt right to put the new toys in Lady’s cage, mainly because of her reaction when the toys were laid out in front of her.

I always leave Lady on her play top whenever I clean or do anything with her cage, so Lady watched me select the toys I thought she would enjoy the most, then watched me place them around her cage. She actually climbs down to see exactly what I am doing.

Lady’s current cage is quite small, and because she is frightened of new things, I decided to place the new toys in each of the corners, then some above the main place she likes to spend the most time when in her cage. So, toys in place, then after a few hours it was birdie bed time! I thought this was going to go one of two ways…….

1, She was going to freak out and have a hissy fit!
2, She would be nervous and weary but would settle after a few days!

I got neither!!!!!!!!!!!

She was totally calm, a little cautious, but after having a good look round to see where everything was, she was totally relaxed!!!!!

RESULT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One very proud parrot mummy!!!!!

Here are some photos of Lady’s new toys

After leaving all Lady’s new Christmas toys on the back of the sofa for a few weeks, she has accepted most of them, and has been busy chewing away!

Most of her toys were willow, foraging, and shredding toys, as she accepts these the quickest.
I purchased 3 Nutcase foraging toys, so the birds could have one each, and I shredded different coloured paper and stuffed it into the Nutcase, and then showed them that I had added some treats.

So……………….. Lady decided she was going to have a go!!!!

I left the Nutcase in Lady’s cage while I was at work, and by the time I came home, the Nutcase was empty Result I thought…………
Unfortunately, it seems that Lady didn’t quite grasp the concept of pulling out the shredded paper to get to the treats, because all 3 treats were in the pile of shredded paper on the cage floor!!!!!
ALL THAT HARD WORK FOR NOTHING, which would explain why she hasn’t touched the Nutcase since!!! Every time I think about it, I can’t help but chuckle, and in fairness, I wouldn’t do all that hard work if didn’t think there was anything at the end of it either!!

Here are some pics

Eventually, she get her treats………. After I found them out of the pile, the silly billy