Past Posts

This is from Manzi's old blog where you can check out all of his older posts:
http://africangreyparrot.info/forum/index.php?s=0436c75c3649f9eb31e26002686d84e2&automodule=blog&blogid=13&

If you don't want to go visit his old blog, here are the past couple of month's worth of posts just to get a feel for what kind of blog you are dealing with:

Aug 22 2008, 06:52 AM
Manzi still won't go on his playstand, so today I am taking further measures. I have been putting almonds on his playstand. He won't eat them unless I put him on his playstand. Now he will grab the almonds and takeoff to his cage to eat them. So, now I am going to put his food on his playstand so he will eventually go there to eat his pellets. I have done this with other things and it is quite successful. I have heard that Greys would rather starve than eat something they don't like, etc. Who ever said that doesn't know Manzi. Sometimes he might not eat the item right away, but within a few hours his hunger always gets the best of him. When other people watch him, they always give him too much good stuff (fiesta mix) so he stops eating his pellets. When I return, he won't eat his pellets waiting for me to get out the good stuff. After half a day, he is always munching on his pellets.Another problem I have with that statement "they will starve to death..." is that who tested that? Who put something in their bird's cage and let them slowly starve all the way till death to see if it was really true? I doubt it has been tested. Anyways, I am getting off track.My husband came back from his travels with a stuffy nose and a cough. Once again, Manzi is coughing, sniffling and clearing his throat all day long. It is pretty funny to hear.

Aug 17 2008, 01:01 PM
We are leaving soon, so we are slowly getting rid of stuff. Yesterday we gave away our fish tank and then moved Manzi's playstand over about three feet. Now, Manzi doesn't want anything to do with his playstand. I put him on the play stand and he flies off immediately. I also have another balloon which Manzi doesn't like. These small adjustments have caused Manzi's potty training to be almost completely reversed. He has already had three accidents today. Since he is trained to go potty on his play stand and now he is scared to even stand on his playstand it seems that the rest of the house is fair game. He has also been very quiet. In the next couple of weeks he is going to go through some big changes when we leave him with some neighbors while we are out of the country. Hopefully he will adjust alright.

Aug 14 2008, 10:19 AM
Manzi got into a new container of Nivea cream. He grabbed a beak full of the cream and took off running. I caught him and tried to get it out of his beak. Anyways, that was a few days ago and he isn't dead so I guess he'll be alright.My husband came home monday after being gone nearly two weeks. Manzi did not look happy to see him again. I think Manzi finally figured that he chased my husband away. Despite this, Manzi is much better behaved when my husband is around and gets into less trouble.

Aug 11 2008, 12:28 PM
I have a friend with a english laborador retriever. She has come over a couple of times. The lab is a service dog, but he used to be a duck retriever and won championships. So, he is always very interested in Manzi. He will smell Manzi's feet when Manzi is climbing up the bars inside his cage, while Manzi tries to bite his nose. Yesterday, they came over again so I held Manzi and let her dog sniff him. Manzi was alright with that, but kept trying to bite the dog. Eventually, Manzi gave up trying to bite him and held his foot out showing he wanted to touch him. I decided to let him do that. Anyways, the dog put his nose up to Manzi's foot to smell it and Manzi clamped his foot down on poor lab's nose. The lab jumped back very quickly and wanted nothing to do with Manzi after that. So when I held Manzi out, the lab backed up. In a year or so we plan on getting a dog. It is pretty clear that Manzi is going to show him who is boss and put a healthy fear into the dog. Manzi is so fearless of the lab and is always trying to walk right up to him to bite him. My friend calls him the suicide bird because Manzi is taunting a trained bird dog.

Bathroom

Aug 7, 02:58 PM

Today, Manzi only tried once in the morning to get to the trashcan. Maybe he is making a break through.

A couple of months ago it was climbing up the kitchen drawers and I would pull him off them numerous times throughout the day. Before that it was pulling out the cutting boards. I have gone through so many of these stages with Manzi; I wonder what will come next.

Usually he doesn't get aggressive during these stages, but with the bathroom trashcan he began to get quite aggressive. The other stage that he got aggressive over was climbing up the office chair. At first he would work very hard to get to the top and then get cozy. After a day or so, he would get to the top then chew the back of the chair. Within a couple more days, he played king of the mountain (which he has to protect against all adversity) and he wasn't going to let me take him off the chair until I threatened him with the spray bottle.

Destructive again

Aug 6, 05:35 PM

Remember when I wrote about Manzi always wanting to go into the bathroom to tip over the trash can?

Well, I have been shutting the door to the bathroom, so lately Manzi will run and stand right outside the bathroom door (even when I am not in the bathroom). I thought this was harmless, until today I was working in the office and peeked at Manzi chewing by the door. He figured out how to chew into the bottom of the door frame and there were crumbles of paint and wood around him.

Now, he is no longer allowed to stand outside the bathroom door. He still wants to go in the bathroom, but has settled at being two feet from the door. He sure is a stubborn one!

Friendly Manzi

Aug 5 2008, 08:59 AM

Manzi is quite friendly when I take him outside, but the past week I have had visitors (females) and he has been nice to them. He even lets them hold him. If men come over, Manzi is usually silent the whole time, but with these female visitors, Manzi has been a big show off saying all of the phrases he knows and hanging upside-down, etc.

They think Manzi is so cute.

Also, my husband left for a couple of weeks, so I take Manzi with me whenever I go outside. I ask Manzi if he wants to come and if he sees the leash, he will usually avoid it. So lately, I have been telling him, "Do you want to come or go home?" At first he didn't understand it and would avoid me, but he quickly learned that he had to go in his cage if he didn't hold out his foot for me to put the leash on him. For the most part, Manzi would rather go with me so he holds his foot out, but every few times he doesn't want to come so he just flies to his cage. He really is very smart since I ask him to make a decision and he thinks about it and then decides.

Shower Falls

Aug 2 2008, 06:56 AM

I always take Manzi in the shower with me and he hangs out on his shower perch. About half the time, he wants to go under the spray of the water in which case I hold him on my arm and let him spread his wings and enjoy the shower.

Lately, when he isn't interested in getting wet he has been just perched on his shower perch. But, he gets bored and begans chewing on things. The most chewable items are the suction cups which hold his shower perch to the wall. I tell him no, but when I am rinsing my hair I can't see what he is doing, so the past week, he has popped first one and then the other suction cup off the wall after which he crashes to the bottom of the tub. I think after yesterday's fall, he is finally learning his lesson because then he stood as far from the suction cups as possible.

Balloons

Jul 31 2008, 08:05 AM

By the way, the laptop was fixed by the next day. The dell repair man laughed at the cause. He said he has heard "my dog ate my homework," but never, "A bird attacked my laptop."

I got a balloon two days ago. It is a metallic helium balloon. Manzi is scared to death of it. There is something else that can be in the air besides him. What is worse, whenever Manzi flies around to dodge the balloon, his wind current makes the balloon move which scares him even more. Yesterday he got a bit out of hand so I put the balloon in the other room.

Destruction on the home front.

Jul 28 2008, 01:45 PM

Manzi has gotten out a few times over the years and done some minor damage. This morning, when I was coming home after being gone an hour I heard Manzi take off as I was opening the door. I knew he was into something and was running because he was not supposed to be out of his cage. Here is what I found:



Not only did he rip off and crack many of the keys, he also destroyed the rubber and metal pieces under the keyboard. I hope he didn't ingest any metal.

Luckily, I have insurance and it will be fixed by tomorrow (I was surprized to find that the insurance did cover destruction by parrot).
Permalink Comments: 2

Continued Flight Training

Jul 28 2008, 07:23 AM

Yesterday evening we took Manzi flight training again. It was cool, so he wasn't going to overheat. Anyways, he was too interested in some red woods and kept trying to fly over to them. So, I finally let him go check them out. He learned very quickly that the outer branches are weak and he kept sagging and flipping upside-down while trying to perch. Today, I'll do flight training again. He missed quite a few times yesterday. I will keep doing it until he makes all of the flights, then I'll try without the harness (this might be a very long time away).

Longer distance

Jul 24 2008, 07:54 AM

We went to the huge field yesterday. It didn't go as well as I planned. Manzi made the first two flights (250 feet). Then he wanted to fly around for a while. After doing that, he started getting too hot. He was panting with his beak open. I wanted him make a final flight before finishing for the day, so we went into some shade and tried a smaller distance (100 feet). It took him three times before he decided to come to me. He kept getting distracted or coming within inches of my hand but not slowing down enough for the landing. By the end of the flight training, he was exhausted and I was a bit frustrated. We'll try again today.

Also, after watching him yesterday, I am not going to try the leg thing. Sometimes he gets going very fast and then gets to the end of the leash and it pulls him pretty good. With the harness it is alright, but I think it would really hurt him if it was his leg that it pulled.

Flight training

Jul 22 2008, 07:48 PM

Today flight training went incredibly well. Manzi made every single flight from a pretty good distance. Tomorrow I will take him to the really big field to try long distances (300-400 feet) and to let him fly around on his own (with his leash still on, just not having to come directly back to me). I will post an update.

Manzi is liking his harness less and less. I thought it was just that he hated to go outside, but when I show him the leash which I clip to his foot, he will actually hold his foot out and he really likes going outside with that. I think that I will add some stretchy rope to his foot leash and try using that for flight training. I get worried about having an accident with the foot leash. He needs his feet to land in an emergency situation and the harness doesn't hurt him if he has to stop fairly fast in it. I think the foot leash could hurt his leg if he got it wrapped around a tree and stuck.

A walk outside

Jul 21 2008, 07:30 AM

Now that I have a leash that I just clip onto Manzi's leg, he seems to enjoy being outside. Before, with the harness he spends all his time trying to chew it off. Now, he will hold his leg out for me to clip the leash to it so he can go outside.

Well, yesterday we went for a walk and he wasn't as friendly as usual. He only said, "Hello" to a few people. He wouldn't say hello to anyone who was on a bike and stopped to see him.

The smoke has cleared so I also did flight training yesterday. We did medium distances (200 feet) and he made a few and missed once. Using the term "miss" is really misleading. He flies toward me, then something distracts him and I can see him first look away and then turn and fly towards whatever it was that interested him. One flight he did that, but then I called him again and he turned back towards me and landed the flight. I need to some how work on getting him to want to fly to me without distractions.

Crazy Squirrel

Jul 20 2008, 12:02 PM

Today, I noticed a squirrel acting very funny right outside my patio. He was acting like this for about 15 minutes before I began to film him and continued for another 20 minutes or so. It is very cute.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=qTpOYw61UWs

competing with the piano

Jul 16 2008, 01:57 PM

Manzi just loves the piano. I usually don't let him on my shoulder when I am playing because he always tries to climb down my arm so he can get to the keys and walk up and down them to make noise.

Yesterday when I was playing, Manzi tried to fly to my shoulder. I didn't let him so he finally settled for staying nearby. Then, as soon as I would began a song, he would began singing and making noise himself. Everytime I finished a song, he would wait for me to began another one. He was getting so loud and it sounded like we were having a contest of who could be louder, the piano or Manzi. Manzi doesn't just scream, he makes all kinds of weird noises, he just does them very loud. After about 30 minutes of the competition, I could hear my husband laughing from the other room. He said that he doesn't think Manzi could control himself, that he just has to make noise.

Needless to say, Manzi is very happy when I play the piano, although I don't think I really need any backup singers.

Nuts and Bolts

Jul 14 2008, 08:28 PM

Manzi has known for a while where one nut and bolt are on his play stand and he always takes it off.

A couple of days ago he suddenly realized that there is not just one, but five sets of nuts and bolts on his play stand holding the stairs, and perches together. Luckily, he is able to unscrew all of the nuts. It makes my day more entertaining looking around on the floor for loose nuts.
Permalink Comments: 2

Manzi fighting

Jul 12 2008, 02:53 PM

Here is another video of Manzi. Lately, he has been trying to beat up this toy that hangs on the top of his cage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8GSXawzjGQ

He wasn't growling in this video. He usually only growls when he gets really into the fight or when he gets a foot stuck or gets scared.

Also, it is still very smoky here (going on three weeks now) and smells very strong outside, so I haven't taken Manzi out. There are health advisories telling people not to go outside if they can avoid it and don't do exercise outside. I will wait until it clears up before resuming flight training.

Mamma's gone

Jul 6 2008, 03:35 PM

I am out of town this week. Usually after being away Manzi treats my husband like his best friend within a couple of days. This time my husband told me that Manzi wasn't giving him any special privileges (stepping up from his cage, begging for evening scratches, etc.). He thinks its because Manzi finally learned that I always come back after leaving so he knows he doesn't have to find a new favorite person.

Manzi is still let out for most of the day though so my hubby says Manzi is just as happy and loud/talkative as ever. I will return on Friday and I'm sure both of them will be happy to see me. My husband loves the fact that Manzi usually is his best friend whenever I away though so this time it was a disappointment.

Manzi color identification

Jun 28 2008, 08:37 AM

I took of video of Manzi's color training session this morning. He did very well and correctly matched the blocks with the color almost every time. He is just doing orange and green. Next we'll add red and yellow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpJ87FFPoZo

Back to basics

Jun 27 2008, 02:12 PM

I have been very busy for the past few months, but now I have some time again so I reverted to color training. Manzi is doing alright. I will put up a video of him doing it in the next few days. He is just doing orange and green. I have only been working the past three days on it.

The second day he was getting a bit frustrated and would just throw all of the blocks, but I have been trying to keep the training under 3 minutes and that seems to help him stay focused.

Bathroom Trash

Jun 22 2008, 03:08 PM

This past week Manzi has found it very entertaining to run into the bathroom and tip over the small trash can. Maybe its fun because all kinds of stuff comes out, or maybe because it really got my attention. Anyways, at first he just did it a couple of times, but then he did it three times in one day and I was ready to sell him (not really). The past couple of days I have kept the door closed, because it is anytime that he sees it open that he beelines straight for it. So, he hasn't done it the last couple of days, until today I forgot about it and he did it again.

That's funny

Jun 18 2008, 07:36 AM

Yesterday, me and my husband were watching a funny video clip. We were both laughing and as usual, Manzi joined in by laughing too. Then Manzi said, "That's funny." He has never said that before, but he obviously heard that phrase and associated it with laughing.

Then, this morning I told Manzi, "That's funny," and he immediately began imitating a laugh.

He was also being very loud at one point, so I said sternly, "MANZI" to which he replied, "too loud, man." He already knew the problem.

Out of Shape

Jun 16 2008, 03:24 PM

I took Manzi out flying yesterday. I have been taking him out for short walks lately, but he hasn't done much flying lately. It has been a week since he last went flying. Anyways, yesterday after 5 minutes of flying he was breathing pretty hard. I need to start taking him out for longer periods of time so he can build up his stamina and doesn't breathe like I do after climbing a couple flights of stairs.

This morning he was singing "la cucaracha" and then switched directly to Andrea Bocelli. It is funny to hear party music combined with opera.