Enjoying the sun

The weather has been so nice, so the birdies got to spend some time outside, enjoying the sunshine and getting some vitamin D3!

Spending time outside was especially beneficial to Lino. He hurt his beak really bad a month or so ago. He got scared of something outside and flew into the window, even though I have curtains. Because of that, middle part of his beak was bruised and eventually stared to flake. This pictures were taken a week ago, so you can only see “the before” part, not how well his beak has healed.

A flower for you

I love to give my parrots fresh flowers and branches if I can.

These are two bouquets they got today

Because not everything is showing very well, here’s a list of what it’s made of: fresh willow branches, fresh fruit branches ( this is a type of apple if I’m not mistaken. My neighbor cut one branch for me), dandelion flowers and greens and daisy flowers! Be sure everything you give your parrots isn’t sprayed with pesticides or anything else and washed before you give a plant to your parrot.

Both of them enjoy these types of toys very much and especially happy that Ringo does, because a wild IRN’s diet consists of flowers, too.

A sunny day out

Saturday was such a nice, sunny and warm day, so I rolled out their cages and let them be outside for a while. Here’s a short video of them 🙂

Hazelnut party!

Last Friday I went a bit saw-happy and took down a few hazelnut branches. My plan was to turn them into branches and toy parts for my parrots and the plan worked out pretty well in the end.

One of many reasons why I love hazelnut for toy parts is because it’s a soft wood like willow and cottonwood, so during those  hormonal times, it helps a lot by keeping my parrots happy and not screaming.  Also, I know that willow coins are difficult to come by, so hazelnut makes a nice substitute for it, if your parrot is an avid willow chewer.

Making branches is quite easy if you use some common sense; use only branches that you KNOW weren’t treated with anything. If you don’t have a garden, maybe some of your friends do? Clean your branches with a pressure cleaner like Kercher or Mini-wash and after that bake them. It’s an easy procedure and relatively quick to do.

I thoroughly inspect every branch BEFORE I cut it and that’s my advice for everyone making their own perches. If something looks a bit odd, it’s better to avoid the hole thing than to be sorry later on.

From my endeavor I got 18 branches for their cages. One of the reason I like softwood branches is, from my experience at least, that softer woods take wonderful care of parrots nails. In the five years I have had parrots, not once did I had to take them to the vet to get their nails groomed, nor did they ever had a nail grooming perch.

Yesterday I rearranged their cages and decorated them with new perches 🙂

Looking at the pictures it’s really hard to believe that in each cage there are 13 or so perches and in Lino’s cage an 12″ Oddball.

When it comes to perches, I believe that the bigger the diversity the better. I only have one rule though; just one cotton item per cage at a time. Ringo has a  8″ Ring swing from Oliver’s Garden and Lino has an 12″ Oddball, also from Oliver’s Garden. I try to keep their cages on a more woodsy level and to be honest, I like it that way and it seems to me that they like it also.  I will take better pictures of their cages once I have better lighting.

From the odds and ends I had left from perch making, I made wood sticks and made a few toys. Here’s one of them:

This toy is made out of soft pine and lots of hazelnut sticks. I think Lino will go nuts for this one.

When everything else fails- willow and hazelnut to the rescue

Ringo, my IRN is 5 years old.  This means that hormone season is such a wonderful and unforgettable  time with her. To make coexisting much, MUCH more pleasant, I try to keep her beak busy with chewing, not screaming.

To do so, I often call my two best friends- willow and hazelnut.

Willow branches are the green ones and hazelnut are the brown ones. Both trees are quite easy to recognize.  If your parrots love willow coins, than they will also love hazelnut wood. It’s a soft, snappy wood with not to thick bark. My parrots love to chew on it and it keeps their beaks busy.

Because spring is slowly coming and it’s getting warmer each day,  branches are filled with little buds. Those buds are nutritious and  a great fun to chew. I love this type of all natural toys, not just in a sense that the branches weren’t treated with anything, but also that this is how they would play in the wild. I’ve noticed that they like this types of toys very much. It’s a lot of fun to watch them chew on willow and hazelnut, taking their bouquets slowly apart.

I tied branches together into small parrot bouquets and hung inside of their cages 🙂 Ringo wasn’t too cooperative when it came to taking pictures of her, fortunately Lino stepped up to the plate.