Some Random Thoughts Regarding My Pet Parrots

Last night I was watching the telly with the parrots; taking Scooter out (both are never out at once because Rusty will try to display feed Scooter, and he will bite the dickens out of Rusty in return…).

I had one of my famous narcoleptic spells and had fallen asleep. Almost an hour later, I woke up and groggily noted Scooter had nestled under my armpit to nap with me.

I moved to the left. Scooter woke up and quickly waddled over to nestle between my neck and head.

Does this bird have a death wish? How the heck does he breathe? If I didn’t shower at night, how COULD he breathe?!

This is the same bird that gets annoyed and bitey whenever I want to scratch his neck – something 99.99999999^64% of birds love their human owners to do! (Rus, once he gets out of “hyperactive mode”, will be calm enough for me to scratch his neck - for hours on end if I had the stamina...)

I went to an online forum and asked; conures just love to snuggle close to their owners like that. Worse, a sleeping person might subconsciously roll over and squash the bird. Or the bird could suffocate too for being dumb enough to press so deep into one's arm pit. (blech!!)

Now I will let Scoot perch on my neck when I’m at the computer; he’ll crawl around using my t-shirt to cling on and later snuggle on my neck. But never when it's bed time. Parrot pancakes do not sound appealing. Unless I was a cat.

I can also tell you that Rus has found a new hobby – climbing chains. I took some rubber ball dog toys, strung a metal chain w/bell at the end through them and hung them in both cages. Scooter bats them with glee; he digs the noises they make. Rus will cling to two balls with his talons and maybe bang a third with his beak – he’s the little acrobat, and he’ll even “horizontally backflip” when traversing the front of his cage too... Am I ever so glad they don’t have parrot equivalents to catnip or LSD... But I digress. However, on the balls with longer chains, Rus will climb up the chain. While it’s great to see him exercise, but recalling the time he broke his toe nail, it’s possible he might put his toe through a link instead of wrapping his talon around it, fall, and really get hurt. Chances are slim he’d have a nasty accident, but I don’t want the risk (or another $534 vet bill, even though Rus is well worth it). So I removed the longer chain. I might get a rope toy he can climb, then remove it once it starts to fray (nails can get trapped). He'll just have to hang upside down from the top and be happy. Fortunately, most parrots ARE happy in that position...

Lastly, both of them cried when I left for work this morning. Some say parrots have the minds of toddlers. I say they have the minds of manipulative little con-artists...