Jenni's Turn

Tonight I tried a new recipe for Scout. It's a chopped salad, more or less. I combined a green bell pepper, some crushed pellets, some corn, some peas, some green beans, some carrots, some pinto beans, and a whole sweet potato. I shredded everything with my food processor and then mixed it. I scooped the mixture into 2 ice cube trays and froze it. I plan to put it into a gallon-sized freezer bag tomorrow morning to save space. I hope Scout likes it! Because he is a picky eater but likes stuff with bell peppers and real vegetables in it, I thought the mixture would cover the taste of the crushed pellets. He won't eat pellets, either fruit-flavored or regular. He eats almost everything else though.

Unfortunately, Dizzy is even pickier than Scout is! There are about 5 things she will eat: pellets, seeds (including millet spray), hand feeding formula, grapes, blueberries. Sometimes she will eat apple pieces but only if you hand them to her one by one. It's not really time-constructive. Dizzy is also picky about her toys. Actually, she doesn't like toys. She has a cozy hut in her cage that she uses only to cuddle and rub up against. She likes shredding toys sometimes but not always. She will play with her seed sock once in a while. So what does Dizzy have as a distraction during the day? Well, she loves to crawl into the keyboard tray of Jason's computer desk and play back there. She helps type and bites the scroll-ring of the mouse. Not a really big playing bird by herself.

On the subject of toys, Scout loves his. I am going to various websites and getting ideas of toys to make for a fraction of the cost. We ended up giving him the toys we had originally purchased for Dizzy because she won't touch them but he loves them. We got her a wooden birdy abacus with wooden beads. Within a week of the abacus in his cage Scout had chewed through the dowels on the rows. Scout likes toys he can chew, shred, and climb on. What a cool bird.

Dizzy's Turn

Oh what to do, what to do? It's Sunday and neither Jason nor Jenni have the energy to take care of me. Jenni tried to pet me but I wasn't having any of it. I'm itchy and Jason's not doing anything about it!! My pinfeathers are coming in and they are annoying. According to Jason, this is going to happen once a year and there is nothing he can do about it. But I'm Dizzy so I deserve to have it not itch. The itchiness is making me cranky.

Yesterday, Jenni was about to get a few pinfeathers. She gently squeezed the pin together until it popped off. Then she smoothed it out. But after about an hour this started to get on my nerves so I bit her until she stopped.

Jason said I can't eat just millet, that I have to eat some stupid pellets too. I tried, but I like to dip them but sometimes I drop them in the water and make soup. No one likes my soup! I wish we had some blueberries again. I wish I had something to do, someone to see, something good to eat. Right now, the most fun I get is pooping on Jason's shoulder when he doesn't know it Hehehe...

Jenni's Turn

Well, I see that a few birds have been at my computer. That figures. Scout is terrific at peeling off buttons from the keyboard on the laptop. It's always the HOME key.

Today we had a first! Recently I made a batch of frozen (no sugar added) blueberries and strawberries. I boiled them together and it made a sort of fruit salad. Then I refroze the concoction in little, single-serve bags for the birds. Scout didn't seem to like the mix today but Dizzy sure did! Or as Jason told her, "See what happens when you try new things?!" You see, Dear Reader, Scout is ALWAYS willing to try new things. Whether he likes it or not is a different story haha. But Dizzy? She doesn't like to try new things. She either runs away from them or just flat out looks at you like you've lost your mind!

Got back from the store not too long ago. I bought 2 large jars of baby food: Gerber's green beans and rice. What I am planning to do tomorrow is to use the green beans (Scout's absolute favorite!) and some frozen green beans and make a green bean corn bread. Jason recommended a bird-safe green bean casserole with unsalted saltines (instead of French fried onions). I might try that too! There's plenty of green beans and rice to go for both recipes. I also started soaking some pinto beans for overnight. I read that parrots like beans and eat them heartily. Since Scout is freshly weaned (but absolutely hates his pellets), I'm going to play around with some cooked beans and see what I can do with it.

Well, I should get going to bed. It's after 4 a.m. and I need to be up in a few hours!

LATER!

Scout's Turn

So, as I think you all know, my name is Scout. The picture above is an older picture, shortly after Jenni and Jason got me. I hatched in December of 2009 and as of yesterday, I am 25 weeks old. I don't remember too much of my original life with the breeder. They were all really nice people. Jenni still talks to them and keeps in touch about how I am. Things are different now than they were before I came to Lincoln!

I was born in Meadville, MO, but in January 2010 I traveled with the breeder and her dad to St. Joseph, MO to meet my new "parrot parents". Jenni hand fed me for the first time and more of it got on me than in me, but I was happy because there was food involved. Then Jason, Jenni, and I all went for a long ride home to Lincoln, NE, and I was home. Again, Jenni hand fed me some formula and it got all over the place. I bobbed my head. Jenni asked me if I thought I was a boxer because of the bobbing and weaving! I loved cuddling and I still do sometimes. Jenni and Jason took really good care of me.

I love food. Jenni made up some stuff recently that I really like. It's a mixture of brown rice, mixed vegetables, shredded sweet potato, and a shredded orange bell pepper. It's good. It's so good that I have to make a mess of myself when I eat it!! Jenni stopped feeding me formula last night on my 25 week birthday. She seemed sad about it. I cheered her up by grabbing her glasses, flapping my wings against her head, and barking in her face. Ah, what a wonderful life it is!

Right now I am molting and getting in my adult feathers. Jenni said it will be all over soon and tries to give me scratches and help peel pinfeathers. Sometimes nothing helps. It itches so badly! I don't like baths and I don't like to get totally wet. I just like to jump in my water dish once a week and soak my head and my front and the top of my wings. That's all the bathing I need.

Last weekend they tried to clip my wings. HA I totally outsmarted them and flew off. I don't want my wings clipped. I like having my independence to fly to Jenni whenever I want to see her, which is all the time. Besides, they only got an inch of my primary feathers. It will take a lot more to keep me down!

Well, I need to get going to bed now. Night night!! Bring food next time!

Dizzy's Turn

5/13/2010

As a "fancy" green cheek conure, I have always had my eye for the dramatic. I was about 9 months old and living with two other green cheek conures at a garden store when I saw them walk in. Jason and Jenni. We flirted back and forth for a while. I showed them that I could nod with my whole body. They nodded back. Some words and money were exchanged, and a brand new huge cage was bought especially for me. Then I came home in November 2009.

That first night I was very nervous. They had 2 cats that they tried to keep out of the bedroom for the first few days. The kitties made me nervous. Jenni brought me to her shoulder and I hesitantly walked on. Then I bit her. I was scared and everything was so new. They kept saying, "Hello!" and "Pretty bird!" over and over again. I was very frightened then and hadn't adjusted. I bit Jason a few times that night too.

I knew they were thinking about getting rid of me. I could sense it. Since the world naturally revolves around me, I know everything that's going on. They talked with the lady from the store a few times about returning me. They said they didn't want a bird that bites after all. I tried to be good, I really did. It worked and for a few hours each day I would coo and be sweet looking and make nice noises. But if Jason left the room I screamed. How dare he leave me? I am DIZZY! I was afraid that he may not come back.

We all tried harder. I started to trust Jason and even Jenni a little bit. I wasn't sure about Jenni because she moved too quickly sometimes and tried to pet me. I don't like to be pet like the cat! I loved that Jason and Jenni would take turns eating beside my cage with me for those first several weeks. I would eat then too. Everything was going fine.

But then I had a bad day. I was mad because I woke up and the sun wasn't shining and the day was dark and gloomy. I was mad because my favorite fruit pellet, the banana, wasn't hitting the spot. I was mad because I wasn't getting what I wanted right then and there. Jason wouldn't respond to my demands to make it better so I bit him. When Jenni came home from work I bit her too. They bled. Secretly, it made me laugh. These silly humans and their blood. They think they need ALL of it. Then I screamed. I yelled and I yelled and I yelled for no apparent reason. I couldn't fix the weather, I couldn't fix the pellets, and I couldn't get my way this time. Jason was mad; he had just quit smoking and I was driving him crazy. He yelled back at me to be quiet. Jenni came into the bedroom and got me out of my cage. She held me for a few minutes and cuddled with me. She spoke softly to me and I calmed down after a while. It was decided then that I would stay in Jenni's room from then on. That worked out fine.

My days are much better now. To tell you the truth, I don't know what was wrong that first several months. Now, I have great days. I am a diva. I am the light in your day. I am everything you wish you could be. I bite sometimes, when I don't want to be held or petted. I bite Jenni more often than Jason. To tell you the truth, I think Jason is awesome. I get to spend the days with him talking and laughing and riding on his shoulder. Jason is my second favorite person in the world.

The first is me.