Manzi and Cesar

Here is Manzi looking up at Cesar while he is in the office on the computer. Manzi follows him around the house and will let him pick him up. He still won't step up to Cesar from the top of his cage, but he is getting better.

Overwhelmed

Yesterday talking to Cesar he told me he was getting a bit overwhelmed with Manzi. The constant cleaning, the noise. It is getting a bit too much for him to handle all alone. Another neighbor offered to take care of Manzi, but Cesar is going to tough it out. Manzi still hasn't warmed up to Cesar. He will let Cesar pick him up if he is on the ground, but he won't step up to him from the cage. Manzi is also still being very flinchy around Cesar. I noticed while video chatting with Cesar (Manzi was sitting on his lap) that Manzi would flinch/spread his wings every time Cesar moved his arms. Hopefully Manzi stops being scared of him and starts being a bit more trusting.

Cesar returned home

My husband returned to the U.S. and got Manzi back. He said Manzi was somewhat happy to see him. At home, Manzi is already stepping up to him although at first Manzi was still a bit afraid from the change (it was a couple hours ago). Manzi was not coming out of his cage and was just hanging out inside even though it was open. But the apartment is rearranged with some furniture gone so it looks quite different so that might have made Manzi a bit more weary of the change. Within a bit, Manzi climbed onto the top of his cage and began to chat as usual. Hopefully I will be back soon and things will be good as ever.

Armadillo

This post is a bit off topic, but on Christmas Eve we spotted an armadillo. We were driving to a dinner when we saw something scrambling around on the road. At first I thought it was a rat, but as we got closer we saw it was a young armadillo. We pulled over and took some pictures. It was not too happy with us approaching and took off into the brush. It was surprizingly fast and able to jump. I heard that they can't bite, so I touched its back. It was as hard as the shell of my tortoise. The armadillo was quite small (the size of a large rat). Here are the pictures:

On the road


Leaving


Escaping into the brush

Manzi not liking James

Here is an email I got from James (by the way, it seems Manzi likes Aida like he liked me, and dislikes James as much as he disliked Cesar):

Manzi is alive

He has found a particular sound pitch that is quite painful to hear (for me, Aida says it doesn't hurt her ears), and he now delights in making it at frequent intervals.

Every morning he climbs on his bowl that he gets his fiesta in and throws a little tantrum asking for more (even if he hasn't finished what he was given the night before . . . so I am guessing that there is some particular seeds he likes better than others (the sunflowers are one I think)).

Whenever he is home with me and Aida is gone he gets a little crazy . . .

If it is just an hour or so he mainly just swears, and makes a lot of noise.

On the day before thanksgiving he went really nuts. Aida was gone the whole day. When I came home he was loud (as usual). And he was acting like he was upset at being left without human interaction for a day. I know that Aida lets him out of the cage so I thought that might be part of his agitation. I gave him a big helping of fiesta, and he was still acting a bit crazy. I opened his cage, and to my suprise he actually flew at my face squacking. His flight path was interupted, and after a very short recovery he did it again. After 5 times of this I had enough, and had to grab him with some gloves and put him back in the cage. He squacked for about 5 minutes straight, and then went on his top perch and was quiet. I covered him up for the night early. The next day I still gave him lots of fiesta and treats in his bowl (as it was thanksgiving after all).