A week away didn't last

I left for a week to visit family. The girl watching the birds said they did fine, until the last day. Then Manzi went and scuffled with Maui (usually Maui is the aggressor). The girl was pretty scared and separated them right away with the ladder (previously mentioned; both birds seem to react to the ladder). Then she opened the cage and put Maui on a perch while she got the separator into the cage. When I got home, they seemed okay. I took the separator out and they were fine again. I put in again when I went to church the following Sunday as they scuffled a bit in the morning, but I haven't used it since.

They don't fight much when no one is around. It is just when someone is around, then they infrequently get in fights.

Lately, they have been sleeping together on the same perch as well. When I get in after dark, they are about a foot apart on the same perch. I'm not sure why they do that.

Anyway, I will leave the cage separator out for now. I have another trip coming up in several weeks, so I will try again. I was very happy with the girl's reaction as she took the right steps and was confident in handling the birds. Still, hopefully with them together for more time, they will work out their issues and this will come up less and less.

Manzi being overly zealous in his attacks

I couldn't help cracking up yesterday at Manzi's expense. I was playing the piano and Manzi wanted attention. He flew to the top of the piano (I gave up a couple of months ago and let him stand there watching me). That wasn't enough for the rascal. He saw me move my music and he went for an attack. The stand holding the music up only goes about halfway up though and it was just sheets of paper. Manzi flew straight at the top of the sheet very aggressively. The sheet just flopped back and Manzi crashed right into the wall behind it and fell down behind the piano.

He left a dust mark on the wall and looked up at me from behind the piano like, "Please get me out of here!" I immediately obliged, but I still laughed. He won't be attacking my music any time soon.

Hercules' potty training is going very well. I put him in the bath every other evening and set the timer. It usually takes about 30 minutes, but my floor has been very clean since.

Maui has been obsessed with her old ladder. I figured I could use it to let her climb down the cage to the ground. She spent all of Saturday and Sunday by it, begging for scratches from the ladder, fluffing up threatening it, pushing it around, chewing on the edges. Even now she is standing right next to it. She is still too scared to actually stand on it, but she is really interested in it. I haven't shown her that in two years, so I don't even understand her reaction. At first she seemed clearly afraid of it, but she stayed right next to it. Now I'm not so sure.

Potty Training

Manzi is the only potty trained animal (besides myself) in my house. I have decided to potty train both Maui and Hercules.

Maui has already been getting the idea. I hold her on the couch and scratch her, then every 15 minutes place her on the perch that Manzi flies to in order to "go potty." Maui got the idea and would go potty, then step back up on my hand. Now I just need her to show me that she needs to go, like Manzi does. Manzi will either show me he needs to go, or he will just fly to the perch on his own.

Hercules will take a different method. He only goes potty 3 - 4 times per week. I heard sulcata tortoises can be trained by placing them in a shallow bath of warm water. I do still soak him sometimes in warm water and he does usually go potty at that time. I will put him in the bath every evening when I get home from work. I heard this may take a month or so for him to no longer have accidents. We'll see how it goes.

Hercules chasing Maui

Hercules has been chasing around the birds. Here is a fun video of him chasing Maui.

I found it amusing that Maui drank some of his water while running, then Hercules was distracted and drank some water as well.

Maui is much more tolerant of Hercules than Manzi and she will put up with being chased for a while. Eventually, she'll fly back up to the cage. I was impressed the other day when I saw Maui fly to the top of her cage from the ground 2' away. She had never flown straight up like that before. She is pretty good at flying, although she still doesn't choose to fly very often.

Zombie family

I have a zombie family of the birds, tortoise and me. These are on my car, in order of oldest to youngest. I beat Maui, but not by much. I couldn't find a tortoise, but I emailed a company and within a day they created a tortoise sticker. Now people will know what the name "Manzi" on my license plate means.