Fire Alarm

I had a friend over from Davis. Anyway, she thought I need to take more photos with Manzi. I did not get Maui in the photo shoot. Here is one of the photos.

Maui did something interesting this morning. She was preening and a tail feather came out. She then grabbed the tail feather in her foot and used it to scratch her head. She did that for about 10 minutes until I pressed record on the video camera. At that point she dropped the feather and refused to pick it up again when I handed it to her.
When I first got Maui, she didn't know how to properly use her preening gland. It is a gland which makes oils to keep their feathers conditioned and water proof. She would move her head towards the gland, but not make contact, nor would she spread the oil around. Just last week she finally started using her preening gland. She must have watched Manzi and picked it up. Maybe now her feathers will begin to darken to Manzi's color.

Manzi and Maui went through a stage a couple of weeks ago of fighting a lot, but they are doing better again. Manzi has been harassing Maui, but not so bad. Sometimes when she is on the ground, Manzi will chase her around. She usually flies back up to her cage when this happens. I was pretty ticked at Manzi a couple weeks ago. I was making some beaded earrings. He was playing on his cage when he decided to go to the ground. That was fine, but I didn't realize Maui was already on the ground. Next thing I heard her shriek terribly afraid. I jumped up and realized that Maui was on the ground cornered by the cabinets, but charging at Manzi. Manzi backed down as Maui stood her ground. She was fine, but the worst part was that when I jumped up, startled, I accidentally tipped over my container of beads spilling hundreds of them on the carpet. That took a while to fix.

Lastly, on Friday I was not happy with the birds. I came home and they were making the incredibly loud shriek over and over all evening. I had to move (I am about 10' closer to the sky, but the exact same longitude and latitude), so I had a couple people over that were complaining that their ears were hurting. I didn't know why the birds were making that noise, until a neighbor came over wondering how the birds dealt with the fire alarm that went off that day. I found out it was going off for 1/2 hour before it finally got shut off. I found out that it happened a couple of months before too, about the time they first started making that noise. Their cages are right below the alarm. That is why they were making that noise. Hopefully it goes away. They have already been making it less since Friday, but it takes about six months for them to drop a noise.

License plates arrived!!!!

Isn't he darling?


The plates just came today. When I become a two-car household, my second car will have Maui. I am so excited to have moved to a state that still has Manzi's name available on license plates.

New Trick

I decided to get back into trick training with Manzi. It has been a while. I have been doing some maintenance, but no real training. Also, I abandoned his play stand in Davis so he has not known what to do when I ask him to play dead (previously he would fall backward on his playstand perch and hang upside down). His new trick is copying off Michael's Kili. It is playing dead on the ground. I point the gun, and am wanting Manzi to fall over onto his back. He is putting his foot up for me to roll him over on his back as soon as I point the gun. The first couple of times he whined protests while I put him on his back, but then he saw that he got a treat out of the deal and stopped complaining. Hopefully we'll have this trick down in a few days.

Maui got scared today and circled around. She missed the landing on her cage and circled again. By then she was tired and landed on Manzi's cage. He was on his cage too and flew at her. She shrieked pretty loud and Manzi backed off. I was there in an instant, but hesitated separating them as it seemed they knew enough to give each other space. I am still torn between wanting to keep them safe by not letting them have a chance at biting each other, and allowing them to work out their own differences. I have heard they probably won't really hurt each other, but the possibility is there.

Earlier this evening Manzi was under Maui's cage, scavenging. Maui got a bit irritated when she saw him so she went to the bottom of her cage, just above where Manzi was. Then she began to drop pieces of newspaper shreds on him. Manzi was pretty upset. He fluffed up and threatened her. Maui grew tired of that and finally went back up to her perch, allowing Manzi to continue scavenging in peace.

Sleeping in the closet

I have been having trouble with Manzi and Maui. I wake them up around 7am every day while I am getting ready for work. The trouble is on the weekends if I stay up late. They patiently wait all the way until 8am in the morning before wondering what is going on. Then they lose their patience and begin to call, whistle, scream, talk and basically enjoy the morning. I thought that is all and fine as I should not be sleeping in, but they wait until 8am because it doesn't get light until then. What happens when it gets light before 6am? Then I came up with the closet plan. I set their travel cages back up and converted them into their sleeping cages.
The first day they were ticked and were screaming for a long time. I set up a night light in the closet. I strategically picked the closet of my second room so it has to go through quite a few walls before I hear them. The second night they were better, but still protested. The third night I turned off their night light when I heard them protest. I gave them an almond each time I put them to bed too. It has been about five nights now and they hope right into their sleeping cages. I think they have happily adjusted and they do not scream at all when I put them in, or in the morning before I take them out.

I took a nap a few days ago when I wasn't feeling well. I heard the birds chatting away. Manzi screamed and it was quickly followed by Maui saying, "Knock it off!" She had such a stern voice and said it crystal clear. It took me a moment to realize it was her as I thought maybe someone outside was telling my birds that. I haven't heard her use that in a while. Manzi cycles through phrases, but Maui seems to retain everything and bring them up spontaneously.

Lastly, I ordered my Manzi license plate. He is going to be famous.

Very funny note:
Someone asked, "how does one convert a travel cage to a sleeping cage?"
The reply by coworker, "remove the car and add a closet."