I need to stop worrying!

Today Trinity wasnt interested in food. She Didnt eat nearly as much today than she did yesterday. I did wake up late today though. (Maybe she was up early this morning eating and playing?) She always has pellets available to her. I gave her fresh food mix around 12. She wasnt interested in it. I warmed it up a bit and she ate a tiny bit of it. She munched on a little carrot and ate a couple of beans. She wasn't interested in her pellets. She was really mellow today. Didn't seem interested in her toys today either. She slept a lot throughout the day. Her droppings are normal, her eyes and nostrils are clear. Her chest feathers were fluffed and she had one foot tucked in while sleeping. Then this evening, as i was putting in her seeds, she perked up! she ate her seeds!!! Then she started climbing all over her cage, wanting out, making really cool whistle noises. Sadly I was heading out the door as she perked up (around 6pm) after a day of her being really quiet and sleepy. Is she a secret crime fighting parrot by night? Is this what's making her sleepy during the day? I was worried about her all day long but she perked up fast this evening. So I think everything is FINE. I need to learn everything is fine. What worries me is that all she seemed to eat today are her seeds :/ I hope this won't be a habit. She needs to learn to eat her healthy foods too!

Rocko Woke Up!

Rocko has been brumating since the beginning of summer! This is his second year going into brumation. He woke up in the tail end of November!
His internal clock I guess is an Australian clock. Our summers are his winters, and our winters are his summers.
Here is a pic of him after finally waking up

FLAPJACK!

I made this Video of FlapJack a while back. Thought I would post it.
He has lots of green on him in this video. Its fun to see his color change. He now has his adult yellows =)

                                  Here is a picture of him taken in October, lots more yellow =)

Here is FlapJack playing with a toy I weaved for him

He wanted to help my sister open her birthday presents (November)

It was funny, I decorated with paper chains for my sister's b-day and hung one near FlapJack's cage. He tried so hard to reach for it. So I had to make him one of his own

FlapJack got a play gym for Christmas! I'm a little bummed that the branches are kind of too big around  for his little feet. Maybe I'll give this one to Trinity and get a smaller one for FlapJack

Spartacus Went into Hibernation

Spartacus is now 1.5 years old. He just recently went into his first hibernation. They can hibernate for several months at a time, hope he's not down for too long. I still have his heat lamp and UVB light on as usual. No changes. I just added another layer of substrate in his enclosure so he will have more to burrow under.

burrowed!

Trinity's Third Day Home

So I think Trinity is settling down quite nicely. =)
I have noticed her eating and playing more today! AWESOME =) She ate some pellets, fresh bean/grain/veggie mix, some chopped pieces of carrot, and some seeds. She really likes dried pasta. Im thrilled that she eats her carrots!!! She's getting her vitamin A in! yay.
She makes this really cool whistle noise every once in a while, very cute!
I took some photos of her this morning =)

Shredding one of her toys =)

hi =)

Playing with another toy

Her beautiful feathers =)

She's eating her fresh food mix!! =)

woo! =)

Here's a video of her munching on a piece of carrot =)

She ate a little bit then played with the rest

Trinity's Second Day Home

We didn't mean to handle Trinity so much yesterday, we tried not to, but her cuteness got the best of us. She did have the ENTIRE day today to herself with no interruptions from us whatsoever. 

We were at Disneyland today, and although I was nervous about leaving her alone for so long, I knew she could really use the time to rest =)

We just got back and she's doing well =) We'll try our hardest not to touch her for a few days, and keep it to a minimal for the next few weeks. I don't want her to remain stressed…I know that can lead to bacterial build up in her system. She's so friendly though!! Not stand-offish at all. We walked in the door  and she started climbing all over the bars of her cage. I opened the door of her cage and walked away, and she climbed out and sat up on they play-top perch. 

ok so I will let her sleep in her cage tonight…Im curious to see where she perches…it was a crack up seeing her sitting in her pellet dish!

I covered her last night because my apartment has been getting  sooo cold at night (no central heating or wall furnace), I was so worried about her becoming so chilled. I just bought a little space heater yesterday and it works incredibly well. I was covering my sun conure up at night with 2 blankets and a heat pad underneath his sleep-time cage because temperatures would drop to the 50's.

It's nice and warm and cozy now. Im pretty sure they will be fine now uncovered =) 

Trinity gave me a scare this morning, I noticed her big morning poop was just urates tinted very lightly with yellow, I never see this in my sun conure's droppings so I googled it and found all kinds of possibilities of course….one of them being chlamydophila psittaci. Naturally all kinds of bad thoughts started racing through my mind…because I also read that Sun conures are known carriers! I had my Sun conure in for his check up several months ago and he came back healthy but i didn't know they can sometimes be carriers!!! So I was worried sick about Trinity all day long.

I also read somewhere else that urates are normally white but can also be yellowish or cream colored…so this eased my mind a tad. I also read that stress can cause a bird to poop a higher amount of just urates which she was doing yesterday. She had very little feces yesterday. I checked her droppings a little while ago…more feces today (good! she's eating!!) and her urates are white! GOOOOOD!!!!! She's acting perfectly fine, clear eyes, clear nostrils, active…she was playing with her toys today because there are shredded bits at the bottom of her cage =) I'm happy to see that! 

Right now she's perched on top of her cage door looking content. =)

I'm guessing the head-shake she was doing yesterday was another nervous behavior because I haven't seen her do it this evening. =)

ooooh I love her so much and can't wait until she's all settled in and comfortable! =)

Trinity's First Day Home (12/2712)

Trinity, a 4 month old Congo African Grey came home on December 27th 2012.
She was flown in from Northern California through Delta Airlines and arrived in LAX where I ANXIOUSLY awaited her arrival!
She was actually flown in with her brother Einstein who was going home to a different lady.
How cool and rare is that? two siblings who grew up together, get to fly to their homes together. Einstein doesn't live too far from here.
ANYWAYS, on to how Trinity's first day went =)

When we got home, we set the carrier down on the floor next to her opened cage and gently coaxed her out. She came out on her own, walked across the floor and climbed right up her cage to the play-top perch. She wasn't ready to go inside her cage yet, so we didn't force her, we just let her be on top of her perch. 

She drank some water, and nibbled a bit at some pellets.

We watched her and talked to her for a bit, She never growled. If we came too close for comfort she just simply moved away. 

Brian and I had to run some errands, so we attempted to get her to step up onto my hand so I could put her in her cage.

She was a bit reluctant of course, but she stepped onto Brian's hand and we put her into her cage safely. 

She discovered all of the toys and began playing

We got back home, we opened the cage and let her come out on her own. I gave her some cooked bean/grain mix. I added some shredded carrot, which she picked out first. She didn't seem too interested in food today. She nibbled here and there on both her pellets and bean/grain mix, but she didn't really eat as much as i would have liked. I kept an eye on her droppings, she seemed to only be pooping urates today..there were some solid green coils every once in a while, but she really didn't eat much for us today. I really hope she eats more tomorrow!

I tried offering her some food by hand…she ate a couple of beans and a couple of shreds of carrot. 

I noticed that since she's been home she was itching quite a bit, and sneezing. I think its the dry cold air, so in hopes to relieve her, I steamed up the bathroom with the shower, got her to step up onto my arm and walked her to the bathroom and placed her on the shower rod. She was so calm during all of this. She really seemed to enjoy the steam, she fluffed up and perched on one foot. She was just so cute!!! We were in there for about 15 minutes just watching each other. 

She stepped up onto my arm again and i carried her back into the living room where she could perch on top of her cage. 

I turned on the humidifier. I think it made her feel better, she stopped itching for the rest of the day. 

At this point, she must have felt comfortable with me because she climbed to the edge of the top of her cage and kept wailing about as if wanting to come over to me. Brian went over to her and she stepped up onto his arm and proceeded to crawl up his chest and tuck herself under his chin

After giving her lots of love, Brian set her back onto her cage, but she was still wavering as if to say "pick me up again!"

So this time I went over to her and she stepped up for me. We went over to the couch and cuddled some more .

She's very sweet! and LOVES tucking herself under my chin. She actually fell asleep! =)

I set her back on her play-top perch for a while and tried to get her to eat some more food, she wasn't interested =/

A little later it was night-night time, so I covered her cage with a huge blanket

I peeked in on her and she was sitting IN her pellet dish, (which was full of pellets) trying to sleep! Both of her feet were in the bowl with her tail hanging out over the edge. This just looked uncomfortable and thought maybe she didn't trust her balance enough to sleep perching.

I cleaned out her carrier, put some fresh paper towels in. I placed Trinity inside, She wasn't thrilled about going back in, but she was pretty calm. =)

I just peeked in on her and she's sleeping facing the door of the carrier, in front of the perch. She's so cute!

I will leave the heater and humidifier on.

There's one thing I noticed that she does a lot, she has a weird head tweak that she'll do. Its not a bobbing motion, its more of a quick side-ways shake. She did it quite often today. Is this something I should be concerned about? or is this just normal baby grey behavior? I tried googling it but got all sorts of different answers….normal behavior to calcium deficiency to something stuck in the esophagus, to feather in the ear to nasal infection……..so that's not very helpful. 

well thats how her first day went =) I hope it wasn't TOO stressful for her.

MEET THE ANIMALS

This blog is dedicated to the antics of the animals of the house! Our family consists of:

ROCKO THE BEARDED DRAGON
Rocko is a 4 year old male sand fire X blue bar bearded dragon
His hobbies include eating, sleeping, basking, soaking, and pooping

SPARTACUS THE ARGENTINE BLACK-NOSE TEGU
Spartacus is a year old and currenty 3.5 feet long.
His hobbies include EATING, sleeping, exploring every nook and cranny, basking and pooping

LOKI THE ALBINO BURMESE PYTHON
Loki is 3 feet long and still a baby.
His hobbies include sleeping, exploring, keeping me up at night, eating and cuddling

KAA THE COLUMBIAN RED-TAILED BOA
Kaa is 5 feet long and growing! He was rescued from terrible conditions he was being kept in by his previous owner. He came to me in a dirty tank (documented in a video), and emaciated. I am happy to say he is doing perfectly fine now and is fat and happy =)
His hobbies include getting himself stuck in the tightest of spaces, wrapping himself around anything he can get his tail on and cuddling.

STARK THE BABY COLUMBIAN RED-TAIED BOA
Stark is another rescue case, he actually came to me in worse conditions than Kaa did.
He was starved and covered in mites, as well as stuck in 4-5 layers of old stuck skin that he couldn't shed off due to low humidity and improper husbandry.
I was able to remove all layers of stuck shed off of him, and he's doing perfectly fine =)
His hobbies include basking in the sun, eating, hiding, sleeping and pooping

NAGINI THE COASTAL CARPET PYTHON
Nagini is the only one in the family who has a nasty attitude (well besides me). He is still pretty amazing and the most curious of all my snakes. He's quite a cutie.
His hobbies include musking me when I attempt to handle him, biting me when I attempt to handle him, coming up to the glass of his enclosure to peek in on what you are doing.

FLAPJACK THE SUN CONURE
FlapJack is going to turn 1 year old on January 20th. He is such a clown and can entertain for HOURS! Anyone who has a sun conure will never need a TV ever again! He is such a cutie!
His hobbies include screaming, shredding paper, chewing on anything he can get his beak on, hanging upside down by one foot, dangling by his beak, taking baths, EATING, pooping, and cuddling.

TRINITY THE CONGO AFRICAN GREY

Trinity will be 5 months old on the 12th of January. We are still getting to know each other, but she has been such a sweetie.

LEMONDROP THE DUMBO RAT
Lemondrop is looked after by my sister; She is more of a "furry" kind of person ;P
Lemondrop joined the family just before Clio passed away. Unfortunately Lemondrop lost an eye when she was attacked by Clio, but that doesn't stop her from being super hyper and explorative. She acts as if she hasn't lost an eye at all. =)
Her hobbies include keeping my sister up at night, shredding paper, making nests, EATING, exploring my sister's bed, pooping and sleeping.