We had a nice little adventure wandering around the floor this morning. That is, until we heard some birds calling outside and decided it was best to return to the safety of the bird room as soon as possible. (That means flying. We fly MUCH faster than we walk.)

But, finding unusual places to perch is kind of a specialty of mine.

I was not allowed to stay on this perch very long. It looks really good with my coloring though, don’t you think?

So far, the two humans who have taken it who live with pionus parrots both ended up being most like Masti, the senegal! This cannot be! There must be pionus peeps out there who are more like us!

We are very upset with Michelle for not being like either of us. Of course, Gillie would be upset if she were most like Django and Django would be upset if she were most like Gillie. So, either way, one of us would not be happy.

The quiz is at http://apps.facebook.com/which-of-mich-jhfghj/. You have to have a Facebook account to take it, I’m afraid.

Django at the vet with Dr. Burkett and Fallon

Django: Going to the vet is a very important part of a pionus’ life. We both go to the vet every six months. We have our annual exam, which includes a “Complete Blood Count” (CBC) and a physical exam. Signs of papilloma are one thing our vet checks for in our physical exam. He recommends a papilloma exam every six months for South American species. That’s why we go to the vet twice a year. More information about papilloma may be found here.

At our annual exam, we also receive a polyoma vaccination. Some vets don’t recommend the polyoma vaccination for adult birds because polyoma virus is mainly only a threat to very young birds. Adults may carry it, however. Even if we don’t encounter young birds directly, Michelle might pick the virus up if we shed it and then travel with it to a place where it might encounter baby birds. For this reason, we receive our vaccinations. It’s a personal choice your human may discuss with your vet.

We went in to see Dr. Burkett a couple weeks ago. Gillie whimpered the entire time she was being examined. I had to reassure her a lot, telling her, “It’s okay, baby.” Someday she may learn to breeze through a vet visit with grace and style, as I do.

Gillie: Don’t let Django fool you. I may have whimpered, but he literally trembled the entire time he was there. For that reason, Michelle is starting to try to train us to be toweled without stress. (I’m doing much better than he is so far on that exercise,  by the way!)

Regardless, Django is correct! Even though visits are not our favorite days of the year, they are important! (And you get nutriberries and Macadamia nuts afterwords. At least, we do!)

I can’t get it to come out, though.

Don’t worry, I’m not drinking the whole time in this video. Mainly, I’m just playing.

In fact, I have three times this week; once early Tuesday morning, again on Wednesday morning, about 1:30a.m., and again at 8:00p.m. or so on Wednesday night.

I still really wanted to sleep in my sleep cage, even though I had freaked out a few times. I still like it in there! I didn’t want to sleep out in the room in a jolly ball like Django or on a boing like Masti. I wanted to be in the sleep cage. I insisted on being in the sleep cage!

So, my sleep cage was relocated. It’s now in the room beside of our room. (It doesn’t have ANY hooks in the ceiling. No rope swings or climbing nets. Just a few wood perches on a surface.) I didn’t mind sleeping in there at all, though. There were no additional freak outs Wednesday night.

And, in the morning, I got to hang out with my favorite person for a a while before breakfast! Neil!

So, I am sleeping in the room without swings again tonight. We’ll see how it goes!

Do you ever freak out in the dark?

Jungle Talk Mazy Munch toy

This is absolutely the BEST nutriberry dispenser ever!

Django and I each have one of these. Mine is yellow. His is purple.

There are different ways you can retrieve the nutriberry. If you are in a hurry, you can simply pick at it through the toy, where-ever it might be! Or, if you want it to come out in one large piece, you can bang the toy around until it falls to the bottom of it. Then, you can pick it up out of the larger hole.

It’s a wonderful toy!

Dr. B. looked down my throat and said I was very inflamed. So, they gave Michelle some peanut butter flavored stuff to shoot into my mouth once a day. I don’t like it, so I run when I see her coming with it. I’m always glad it’s over.

Michelle got me a new temporary cage and set it up downstairs. She is afraid Django or Masti might also end up with bubbly nares. So, I’m downstairs and I’ve seen her washing all my toys. I do have a few in my temporary cage, though. She also brought my heated perch down and put it in the temporary cage. There’s a heating pad above me, too, so I have a nice warm little spot to rest in when I want to.

Michelle took me back to the doctor today for another flush because I was still bubbly. She said I have to go back tomorrow, too. Let’s hope that fixes it. I do not recommend nasal flushes. Stay away from sinus infections if you can help it.

Here are some pictures of me in my new temporary cage downstairs.

Gillie in her temporary cage

I like how they feel. Humans seem to use a lot of them. They can put on several different fabrics each day and each one might feel different.

I also like it when strings hang off the fabrics and you can hang from them.

There was a little piece of fabric on my cage. It had several different colors but they all felt the same. Michelle called it a flight suit. She asked me what I thought of it. I like it very much!

Did you see how both Michelle and Django looked like they might take it from me?

I wonder what she meant by “a better way to carry it.”

It was for the last time because she brought a little carrier and took me home with her. Joe from the store gave her the toys from my cage there to help make the transition easier. It was nice of him to do so, but I was already bored with them. Michelle gave me new toys in addition to my regular ones. I liked exploring the new ones very much.

Here are some pictures from when I first came home. I stayed in the carrier in Michelle’s room while I was in quarantine.

I guess I was a little ragamuffin.

I wasn’t sure she would ever bring me home. She seemed to like me a whole lot from the very beginning, but it still took a little convincing.

When you go to live with a human, you never know how long it might take you to train them. There are some things I am certainly still working on with Michelle. But, she’s really come a long way in the last two years.

If I had to do it all over again, I’d still choose her. I just wish I could train her to take me to work with her, or to come home a few hours earlier each day. Does anyone out there have any tips on how to do that?

And, just so you know I’m not still a little ragamuffin, here is a picture of me today.