Scared together

There is no uniting force quite like a good scare. We endured a terrible snow storm this past weekend. The birds were happy that I was home and they were able to stay out all day long on Saturday and Sunday. They were both minding their own business on top of their cages when a snow blower went by to clear the sidewalks. It scared both Manzi and Maui. Maui took off, circled around and landed on Manzi's cage about 6 inches from him. The only other time she touched his cage he went beserk and tried to attack her. This time, both were scared and paying attention to the snow blower that they forgot how close they were to each other. Within a minute I took Maui off Manzi's cage and put her back on her own. It was nice to see them getting better and better with each other.
Yesterday they were both running around on the ground together and didn't threaten each other. Previously, Maui was always running around on the ground while Manzi stayed above ground flying from one chair to another, occasionally stopping on the heater, refridgerator, his cage, Maui's cage, his playstand or anything else that looked like it had potential for troublemaking. Manzi is getting better at flying, but still goes down more than anything. Due to that, he is also running around on the ground. I was worried as that could create conflicts, but they don't threaten each other and give each other a 6 inch safety zone.

Finally settled in (well, kinda)

Manzi and Maui are back in the original cages. They were so excited to see the movers bring them in. Too bad they are so comfortable in my place as they are running around the ground like crazy. Manzi has many feathers clipped, but he jumps with all his might and flaps like crazy and can still make pretty good distance, although he drops at a 45 degree angle once he starts going down. The bird's cages are over linoleum, so I won't have to worry about them making a mess, except that they are so intrigued by the carpet and keep wanting to run onto it. I need a new play stand to set up so that they can go to that and stay off the carpet. Manzi wants to stay near me, so I have taken to working in the kitchen on my laptop with him sitting on the arm of the chair begging for scratches whenever my hand gets too close. Maui on the other hand is scoping out the place already trying to find a good nesting site. Currently, she thinks that the cabinet by the stove is a good option, but I am doing my best to shoo her away from there. I think I will just give her a box for a week or so, so that she leaves the cabinets alone.

I feel bad that I work 8 hours/day and leave them locked up during that time. I let them out for 45 minutes in the morning when I am getting ready (although it would only take 20 minutes if they weren't out as I chase them around, etc.) and then from 5-10pm in the evening before going to bed. Still that nothing compared to when they were in Davis and were out from 7am till 10pm.

New adventures are always filled with new challenges. I will post pictures probably later today.

Minnesota

So, last night was our final destination. We're in Minnesota. Manzi and Maui are doing great. They struggled these past few weeks, but are already much better. There cages won't be coming till this weekend and so they are still in their travel cages, but they are probably thinking this is their new life (which is kinda sad). They do get out of their cages from 5-10pm when I am home in the evening. They are already running around the apartment like madmen trying to wreck havoc. The drive was very hard on both of them and at stops they did not want to get out of their cages (or at least they would not leave the top of them). Within a day of being at the hotel, they began to wander around again and today they began wandering around the apartment. Manzi and Maui have not been showing any aggression towards each other. Both have gone on each other's cage without any problems too. Tomorrow I will start feeding them together again and see how that goes. I am very tired tonight and will post pictures and probably a video this weekend. The move has been hard on me too and I have neglected this blog. Hopefully I'll be back to regular postings soon.

Baseball

It seems that Maui knows a thing or two about baseball. She's sung this song twice now (just watch the beginning to hear the six notes in the tune):

I couldn't find the tune anywhere else in a short clip and I sold my piano so I couldn't play it. Anyway, after singing, "da da da dun da daaaaa" she says, "Goal!"
She does not sing this frequently enough for me to even try catching it on camera.

Manzi is doing very well. I still haven't clipped more than 3 feathers on each wing, and he hasn't gone back to much flying. He will fly from his cage to me and back, but that is about it. Now he sits with me most of the day while I am working on my computer. It seems the secret to having a well behaved bird is to take away their main method of transportation. As easy as it makes caring for Manzi, I hate it. He is so much more full of life when he is zipping around my place like a maniac.

Eating Slowly

Yesterday I gave both Manzi and Maui a whole almond (courtesy of Maui's previous owner). Manzi can finish an almond in about a minute. Maui on the other hand is very slow. She takes close to 10 minutes. She chews on each piece of shell she breaks off and then finally gets to the center.
So, they were both on their cage eating and by the time Manzi had finished his almond, Maui hadn't even gotten to the seed part. She was still busy chewing away on the shell. I was looking closely and it appears that she might even be consuming bits of the shell. Usually when Manzi is finished he tosses the almond aside, but he was watching Maui closely. He didn't want to be finished while she still had something to eat. So, he began chewing up the shell too, copying her. Next thing I know, they were both chewing the shells into little tiny bits. It still took Manzi only half the time it took Maui. Eventually he didn't have anything else to chew so he flew back to me, but not after first staring hopefully/jealously at Maui. Maui fluffed up at him as if to tell him, "Don't you dare!"
It reminded me of how some kids eat something really fast and then stare at those who still have their dessert in front of them slowly savoring every bite.

Both birds are back to eating together on the floor again. It has been going well. Every time Manzi looks up at Maui, she puffs up at him while backing away. Manzi then resumes eating after which Maui does the same. The bowls are 12" apart.