Manzi exploring door handles

Manzi has recently been landing on my door handles. His favorite one is to the bathroom door.

I got a bit too close to Manzi with the camera. He is daring me to get closer (by puffing up from an unscary 1lb pound creature to a potential 2lb creature!).

Here is a zoomed out picture to get some perspective. Also, you might notice that Manzi can just reach the trim of the door from the handles. Fortunately, he has not tried to do any damage to it.

Manzi and Maui have been together in their new cage for a while now and are not killing each other. I think it is nearly safe to say we've been successful. After 2.5 years of effort, they are finally together in one cage.

Maui on the attack

On Sunday Maui had had enough of Manzi and went after him very aggressively. It was right after Manzi was with me for a couple of hours. He can fly, so sometimes he will stay right next to me (there are perches for him all around).
After I put Manzi back in his cage, Maui went after him. I took her out right away and gave her attention, but she went right back in the cage and attacked him. I am surprised that neither of them were hurt as they were right up against each other biting crazily. Manzi was trying to run while keeping Maui's beak at bay, but she had him cornered. I quickly separated them, but I had to leave somewhere. So I threw some newspapers down and stuck them back in their old cages.

Then, Sunday night I kept Maui right next to me scratching her and talking to her for two hours. When I put them back together, all was well again. It has been fine today too.

Maui must have wanted to reassert herself after she saw Manzi and me together for a couple of hours. I need to be careful to give her enough praise and attention so she doesn't feel that she has to fight for my favor.

I am leaving out of town soon and don't want the birds fighting. Tomorrow I am going to split up the branches in the cage so I can slide the divider between the birds. I will leave that in while I am away so I don't worry about them fighting. It will probably be okay to keep them together, but I'm not sure I want to take that risk. Plus, the girl watching them doesn't handle them, so I'm not sure she would know what to do if they got into a fight.

Still good together

Manzi and Maui are still residing somewhat peacefully together. They haven't hurt each other anymore and are often perched quite close together (12" apart). I am hoping this is permanent and I moved their old cages into my storage room. I will give it another month, then I will sell Maui's cage.

Despite their getting along, they still have spats. I noticed that it occurs when I get home. Today, when I walked in the door, Maui saw me and ran over to Manzi and knocked him off the perch. Neither screamed or anything. I think it was Maui trying to assert herself in my presence. I will try to make a better effort to show her priority. I had to leave again and when I got back, I immediately took Maui out of the cage and scratched her neck. Afterward, I did the same for Manzi. I will keep that up so Maui won't get a chance to show dominance towards Manzi.

Tomorrow we have guests coming over with a well-behaved dog. I am curious as to see how the interaction goes. I imagine that they both might puff up at the dog, but that nothing will happen.