Maui punking Manzi

Maui has done a couple of things to punk Manzi lately. Here is the first situation:
Manzi has been doing a very high pitch screech. I finally got fed up with him one day and scolded him right after a scream and flicked some water on him (my hands were wet from washing dishes). Manzi got very quiet for a moment and then screamed again. I repeated scolding him again and flicking some more water at him. Manzi got quiet again and this time instead of turning around to keep washing the dishes, I watched him. A second later I heard Maui do the same scream. It was as if she was thinking to herself, "So that noise brings about punishment to Manzi, hahaha! I can do that." As an ending note, I do not agree with getting mad and punishing Manzi in such a way and realize that this was a lapse in judgement and in patience.

Yesterday Manzi was running around getting into so much trouble. I finally stuck him back in his cage for a rest. Maui proceeded to stand on top of her cage and got within an inch on Manzi's cage. He got close to her from inside his cage and would fluff up at her, but she didn't get intimidated. She knew he could not come out and go after her so she just stayed there whistling away.

Maui gets in moods where she can be pretty feisty towards Manzi and has little patience with him. Besides that, they haven't had any scuffles lately. Manzi has continued on the path to cuteness with others and has not even threatened anyone lately. He is now enjoying the attention and scratches of others. I am almost ready to let my guard down, but I really don't want anyone to get a chunk taken out of their hands.

World of Numbers

Being that I live in a world of numbers I found this comic incredibly amusing:


Yesterday something pretty amazing happened. A neighbor stopped by with his wife. They wanted to see my birds. The guy walked right up to Manzi and picked him up. Then he tried to pet Manzi's head. I nearly panicked as I don't want a bitten, bloody finger on my hands. The neighbor told me not to worry. Sure enough, Manzi did not bite him. He did grab his finger and tried to push him away. The neighbor still insisted and even touched Manzi's wings out of curiosity. The entire time Manzi would just try and push his hand away, or even put his head down allowing himself to get scratched. When the neighbor was finished (after about 10 minutes) he tried to put Manzi back on his cage. Usually at this point Manzi will jump off very quickly. Instead, Manzi held on tight not wanting to go back to his cage, preferring to be held by the stranger. I was amazed that Manzi took so well to this guy. Manzi is getting better and better with people. Maui does not bite me, but she has bitten others very hard. I also do not know her as well as Manzi. So, even though Manzi tends to be worse behaved, I do trust him a lot more with others as I can tell if he is going to bite or not. I was worried at first with this neighbor, but then I realized that they were both okay. He had absolutely no fear of Manzi. Manzi was a bit nervous at first, but then enjoyed the attention. I feel so good after my baby is friendly and doesn't act in a way that could incite a lawsuit.

Neglect

Manzi is telling me that he is neglected. He cannot gain any lift in flying, but he can jump and get quite far, so he still "flies" all the time. Either way, he often comes up to me and looks up at me wanted to get picked up. I usually pick him up. This morning, I was making my lunch for the day and Manzi was looking up at me with puppy dog eyes begging to be picked up. I no longer allow him on my shoulder and I was using my hands, so I just ignored him. After about 4 minutes of this, the little rascal jumped at my bare feet and bit my toe quite hard, then he ran/flapped to his cage. It was like he got fed up of being ignored and thought to himself, "I'll teach her." Anyway, he didn't make me bleed or anything, but it hurt and he did have bad intentions. As such, I need to make sure that either give him attention, or stop him from begging. It was like I was unintentionally teasing him or something. Manzi struggled with my brother around and really did not like him. Hopefully this is just some residual anger and he will calm down soon enough.
I really need to figure out a play stand soon so he can hang out with me in the living room. Maybe I can just put newspapers under his flight stand and use that. It will get messy, but I clean an awful lot. I was thinking of putting both Grey's on the flight stand and just put something in between each time one tries to go after the other. Then they will learn that they have to deal with each other (or they will just continually try to threaten each other). That is just an idea.

Forgot to Lock her up

I came home last night and Maui was on top of her cage and her cage door was open. I must have forgotten to lock her up when I left. I am so glad it wasn't Manzi who was out. I looked around the house and didn't see any signs of her wandering around, not even droppings. I am not sure I believe that she was sitting quietly on her cage all day either.
This morning, Manzi got into trouble as I was getting ready, so I locked him up while I went into my room to change. I heard Manzi and Maui threatening each other (they make a noise most comparable to the "whooo" from an owl to threaten each other; I'm not sure who taught who that noise, but it has turned into their threatening noise and I can be sure that when I hear it, one or both Greys are fluffed up either at each other, or at another person). I went to look at what was going on and to my surprise, I saw Maui on top of Manzi's cage. Manzi was climbing, but staying a safe distance as she will bite his feet (they both quickly figured out that they can bite each other's feet to do harm). I put a piece of cardboard between the bars of the cage to keep Manzi from biting Maui's feet and pulled her off the cage. Usually Maui is not the aggressor. Anyway, I was wondering if this happened yesterday while she was out all day.

Busy, busy, busy

Before we left Davis, the birds were in small cages in an empty living room. Manzi is out roaming around while Maui is hanging out inside. Here is a picture of their tiny travel cages (they are the largest ones that would still fit in my car, and a tight fit is was).

Here they are stuffed into my Prius, where they stayed with me and my brother Jason for nearly four days. Manzi stayed behind me.
While Maui stayed behind my brother.

They were so happy to be done with the car ride and temporary housing. They are very happy to be settled in. I am still working on teaching them not to stand on the carpet, but they are learning quickly. I abandoned Manzi's play stand in CA, and am looking for a new one. I retrained Manzi to go to the bathroom on his cage, but that is way messier than on the newspapers on his play stand.

My brother Albert arrived here for the holidays. He is staying just under two weeks. It turns out that my brother is not Manzi's favorite (or second favorite) person in the world. While I was at work, he decided to let Manzi out of his cage. He gave Manzi a walnut and then he began to sweep. Manzi ate a bit, but was then distracted by his sweeping. My brother thought Manzi was done with his walnut and picked it up. Manzi, upset by this, launched an attack on his bare feet. Here is the foot injury he sustained:

After I arrived home, my brother decided to pick up Manzi with his hand. I warned against it, but he said he wasn't scared. Now, he is scared:

Finally, I was able to get shots of Manzi's new technique. He hides under his cage and then waits to ambush my brother. Here is my brother taking a look at Manzi. Manzi is just beginning a charge. A few seconds later my brother was standing on the chair that you see in the back ground.

Lastly, this Christmas was wonderful and for the first time, I bought my very own Christmas tree.