The foods we eat...err, the foods parrots eat

Gussie is like a kid when it comes to food. She will taste a great deal of foods if I coax her into it. I will do that by eating something in front of her and talking about how good it is. And I often times make the customary yum-yum sounds that you would make to introduce toddlers to new foods. Sometimes she likes them. Most times she doesn't. The times she doesn't, she pitches them at me. The times she does, she will make a sound that suggests she is pleasantly surprised. That is often accompanied with a wide eyed look that leads to pins and then a red face. Those instances make it all worth the trouble but I am well aware that her reaction could be completely different the next time around. I introduce her to anything and everything that I think I can get away with. She has a good understanding of many words so I often entice her to try things by using a food word that she routinely responds to.

I happen to be a vegetarian who is interested in health and wellness so my focus is often on natural foods with no preservatives or additives for color, stability or flavor. It is my belief that the best foods for us (people and birds alike) are those God created and makes available to us in His packaging.

When we first got Gussie we had to do some reading about the dos and don'ts of living with a bird. We have not tested the don'ts when it comes to foods that might be harmful to her. I have heard of some instances where bird owners have given their birds some of these items. Below I have listed those foods as we know them. I am sure there are others but these are the foods often found in our house that we don't share with our bird.

-Chocolate

-Avocado

-Cauliflower

-Cabbage

-Brussel sprouts

-Citrus fruits

-Pineapple

The following is a list of bird-approved foods. These results come from trial and error as well as reading and recommendations from other bird owners.

+Grains-rice, kamut, quinoa, bulgur

+Breads, rolls, crackers, tortillas, tortilla chips (without seasonings)

+Vegetables- carrots, sweet potatoes, winter squash, dark leafy greens, peppers, broccoli

Note: The vegetable listed above help the respiratory system by converting the carotene into Vitamin A.

+Other vegetables- corn, edamame, peas, jicama, cucumber, white or new potatoes, tomatoes

+Fruits- banana (ritual every morning), blueberries, cherries, apples, pears, melons

+Pasta including couscous

+Cheese in small amounts

+Meat, chicken or fish in small amounts

+Nuts and seeds

Favorite Snacks

+peanuts in the shell (every afternoon about 5pm)

+popcorn (no seasoning)

+nuggety things (little health squares with lots of nuts and seeds in them)

Forbidden foods or ingredients

-Junk food of any kind including cookies, doughnuts, fast food, seasoned chips or crackers

-Pop or soda

-Milk

-Salt, spices

-Preservatives in food (watch for MSG or other flavor enhancers)

Gussie, as all birds, has favorites and major dislikes. She will not touch broccoli, except to throw it out of her dish. She only picks up a raw carrot to chomp it into bits like it is a piece of wood or cardboard. She ignores peppers unless they are red but they must be peeled. She loves peanuts but is not interested in peanut butter. She gets excited over almond butter but rarely eats almonds from her dish unless they are cut up. She likes green and orange melon but wont touch watermelon. She gets very excited when I go to the freezer because she knows her corn is in there. Corn on the cob, being a seasonal food, is generally left in her dish unless I re-train her and coax her into eating it and chewing on the cob.

Birds, like you and me, can be very decisive and often times know exactly what they want. I think we manage to communicate quite effectively with her most of the time. It takes trial and error and patience and perseverance and imagination and cajoling and coaxing and understanding.

This bird is persnickety and knows what she likes most days. Paying attention is key.

.

One of my favorite moments!

I was getting ready for church and didn't have a lot of time so I brought Gussie in the bathroom with me while I was finishing my hair and makeup.  

This served two purposes:

1-I could continue getting ready without being slowed down

2-I could spend time with Gussie and eliminate the guilt!  ;)

She talks and dances and plays on the shower rod.  Occasionally she gets too close to the walls so I do have to watch her but I have found that, depending on her mood, I can generally trust her to keep her distance and not chew on my decorative paint job.  

One of her favorite practices has to do with eliminating all of the hanging towels from a nearby swiveling towel contraption.  I usually move them before she gets near but she has been known to remove them and toss them on the floor.  And then it's not uncommon to hear her follow that with a laugh that sounds very much like mine.  (What was I saying about not being slowed down?.....)

On this particular Sunday morning Gussie was being quite playful.  She moved back and forth on the shower rod covering every inch of it as if it were here very own playset.  She was chattering and making happy noises and even competed in volume with the blow dryer.  Then, except for the noise from the blow dryer, it was quiet.  I turned to see what she was up to and couldn't stop laughing.  She was hanging off the shower rod by her beak with talons splayed and nothing close enough to remedy the situation.  She was totally helpless and she knew it.  So, I rescued her and called an end to her playtime for that day.    

I only wish I had a camera ready for that shot.  It is so clearly etched in my memory that I  still laugh out loud every time I picture it.

It's definetly one of my favorite moments....and I wasn't even late for church.

Who's in charge here?!

I have to admit to occasionally being a bit of a pushover when it comes to accomodating Gussie. Well, I could upgrade that by  admitting that at times she is actually the one in charge.  

Because she is a good little communicator I can usually tell where she wants to go and what she wants to do.  Now remember that I told you in an earlier post that she doesnt ever try to fly because she thinks she's a people?  She waits to be picked up...sometimes not so patiently either. She flaps her folded wings against her body while she leans forward in a "dive bombing" pose and gets all excited until someone  comes to get her.  She will sometimes add some jabbering sound to her act and her face gets pink.  (That is a sign that she is excited.)  And we call that her "pick me up" dance.

So, what's a well-trained "Mama" supposed to do at a time like that?....go pick her up and take her where she wants to go, naturally.

If I keep her on my folded fore arm she leans towards whatever it is she wants to see better.  As we leave my office (her bedroom) we walk past a mirror in the hallway.  Oops, we don't walk past it, we stop to admire the pretty bird in it!  Then, if we move slowly enough, we vear into the bathroom doorway.  She knows there's a mirror in there as well so we have to visit her reflection before we can move on.

I often wonder whether she realizes that she is looking at herself.  Or if she thinks she is seeing another bird.  I told her to kiss the birdie one day and she actually kissed her reflection.  It was comical but to this day I have never seen it repeated even with frequent urging. She also tries to look around the sides of the mirror like she expects to see another bird.  

She has some favorite places to check out around the house and oddly enough, she could inspect them 20 times a day and still act amazed.  Do you suppose she does that for my benefit?  :)

We moved in to our house over three years ago and we have several doors with louvered panels.  I dont know if it's the fact that her depth perception is different than ours because her eyes are on the sides of her head, or whether she really believes that they are stairs to climb but she wants to climb up them.  They are always a source of amusement for her and she is always a source of amusement for us as I raise and lower her to inspect each slat on each door.  

Just tonight as we were watching a movie she called for me.  "Mama", she cried from the office. I told her I would be there in a minute. She was quiet.  I went to get her as promised and when she spotted the open window sill because the blinds hadn't been lowered yet,she got all excited and leaned towards the window.  So, being obedient and accomodating, I put her on the window sill to admire her "kingdom" outside.  She was content because she knew she was in charge.

All's right in the castle when the bird is happy! 

 

More Toys and Some Training

Now, as promised, I am going to share some silly tales about the two bigger bottles in the picture.

Gussie is a pretty mild mannered parrot but she does have a side that is quite excitable which is seemingly linked to something in her past. Evidently, spray bottles, like the one pictured were used for training and discipline. We innocently followed that "tip" from her previous owners but it didn't take long to determine that the practice was quite useless. To this day, after having her with us for more than 8 years, she still reacts to the sight of a spray bottle. But that's not all. When I ask if she wants to do laundry with me she practically jumps off her perch to get onto my shoulder. She knows it has to do with bottles!

We have bottles for spray starch, bottles for fabric softener, bottles for stain remover and most every other thing you might want to keep handy while you do laundry. The minute she gets on my shoulder she assumes "attack mode" as we step towards a very eclectic collection of bottles! I dare say I'd have to replace a good half dozen every time she "helped" if she had her way.

The reaction is the same every time without fail. I am still not sure whether she is retaliating for those times she was squirted after misbehaving, or whether she is just playing with intensity. Either way, it is always entertaining for me and besides the fact that I forget about her "passion" and occasionally get my fingers in between her and the bottle, I enjoy the exchange. It is always good for a laugh.

Now, if you go back and inspect those bottles in the picture you may notice some parts missing or some puncture marks. One has a canning ring around it to draw her attention because I shake it when I am playing with her. She responds accordingly and even though she is not much bigger than the bottle is, she can never be accused of backing down.

By the way...she also reacts the same way to rubber gloves (any color) AND, of all things, the ironing board. I don't think I will ever figure that one out!

Toys

I don't know about your parrot but ours is pretty easy to entertain most days. For some reason, she is not that interested in all kinds of toys and gizmos like you see in the pet stores. I refer to her as a "scaredy bird" at times because she is afraid of different noises and wild colored things. She gets all up in arms over a Gortex jacket that my husband owns. It is orange and blue and when she sees it she generally morphs in to an attack bird with her beak open and poised for the kill. But, trust me, her bark is worse than her bite. She backs off as he gets closer to her. She has tried to bite the jacket when presented to her without my husband in it, however. We just learned early on to take him out of it before she greets him in the evening. Less chance of perferations that way, for both him and the jacket.

But I digress....this post was being written about toys after all!

Early on we read about a parrot's need for interaction and stimulation. We agree on both counts but just like humans, we find that Gussie will make her own choice about what she chooses to be stimulated or entertained by. Although there have been a some additions, she generally returns to the same ones over and over again.

Her favorites????

Try a small plastic bottle with beads in it. One that's just the right size for her to catch in her beak at play time. She catches them and then tosses them and likes the sound of the beads. She takes on that "attack bird" stance when I shake it before tossing it to her. Sometimes she will pick it up with her talon but has the worst coordination when she tries to put it in her mouth. She often times hits herself in the face repeatedly before she drops it in frustration. It is more than amusing but she is so focused on making that connection that we are generally the only ones laughing.

Can you guess which of the toys in the above photo is Gussie's favorite? I will give you a hint...it's the one with the most holes in it. You'll see a small white bottle in the center of the collection with red lettering. It is clearly time to replace that and I am happy to report that I found a suitable replacement earlier this week. It remains to be seen if it will become one of her favorites, however.

Where can you find these little gems? The white ones come from tooth powder at a health food store. One of the small cloudy ones comes from soap bubbles that are provided for weddings as an alternative for throwing rice. (See the note at the bottom of this post.) You can find small shampoo containers for use while traveling, which is the origin of the other small cloudy bottle. That one clearly has beads inside so the noise is good but it has never been one of her favorites.

Now I'm sure you must be wondering about the two bigger bottles. I think I will save that note for the next post. It will be entitled "More Toys and Some Training".

Note:
Do you know why we no longer throw rice as the bride and groom leave the church? This could be folklore but I was told that it was harmful to birds who come in to do the clean up. It seems that since the manufacture of that quick rice that can be cooked in about 60 seconds (you know the name), birds were eating it and because it is made to hydrate more quickly, it was actually harmful to their digestive tracts and they either died or got very sick. The longer cooked varieties suited the birds better.

Laughing

I think you will agree with me that change takes time and while getting to know this bird we had some boundaries to establish. We have forever been thankful that Gussie is not a screacher nor is she messy by the standards of most blue and gold macaws but she does tend to demand attention from time to time.

Like most folks we had a routine that allowed us to share time together as a couple before or after our weird work hours. We would often have tea and "bickeys" (....a term that is derived from cookies and biscuits that we picked up from our New Zealand friends) while we watched a movie on TV. Gussie knew what a bickey was and wanted to get her share the minute I walked in to the room with the tray. At that time we had a large home and Gussie had her own special space in three different rooms. On this occasion her space was a modified-recycled desktop that my husband made into a play area. She was quite at home there and enjoyed being able to see us while she played or preened or chattered. We were very content with our movie and she seemed content on her perch until a very quiet moment when she sought to get our attention by LOUDLY and clearly saying, "HEL-LO!!!!" It was startling and hilarious at the same time. We looked over to see her looking at us as if to say she was ready to be noticed. The best part came when we stopped laughing, she started. She parroted my laugh exactly. That was a first and it created quite a string of giddy moments for all of us. It was shortly after that evening that we discontinued our cable service. She was not only great entertainment but she saved us a lot of money each month.

We have never heard her use such a demanding tone or say Hello in the same way since but it remains one of our favorite stories. She has developed an uncanny timing when it comes to laughter. It doesn't matter if we are laughing in the middle of a discussion or watching a comedy, she seems to be able to sense the timing and she laughs right along with us....not after us, but with us.

Something Learned: I remember reading about parrots after Gussie arrived. I laughed when I read this reference to typical parrot behavior. "What's mine is mine and what's yours is mine". That is SO very true when it comes to bickies. If I walk in the room with a tray she will fuss until I pick her up. Then, if I don't give her a piece she will make her way to the tray with lazer focus and help herself....but she'll take the entire thing and believe it's hers.