It's Raining Tail Feathers!!!

Thunderstorms don't scare me... until the other night!  We've had a drought here in Texas and we've been with out thunder for a very long time.  The other night we had a really LOUD clap of thunder and it literally scared the TAIL FEATHERS out of me!!!  I was all comfy cozy in my cage with my cage cover on dreaming birdie dreams.  Then WAMO! I thought I was a Goner!  My instincts kicked in and I automatically released all but 3 of my tail feathers!  

You may not know this, but birds have a built in defense mechanism where we release our feathers when we feel threatened. Better for the predator to get a mouth full of feathers than get us! I lost 9 that night and molted 2 the previous week end. As a result the back of the bus has very few passengers! (If you know what I mean.)  Oh, don't worry... the feathers will grow back! I am fine and acting perfectly normal. No other feathers are ruffled.

All of my Facebook friends have been so nice and supportive of me.  Here are a few of the comments I have received:
    Can I have your feathers? :) ♥
    Aw, you're cute with short hair. :)
    Aww poor buttless birdy.
    Poor, poor E! Ask your humans for some knickers or coveralls!

They also asked some really good questions:
When you feather come back in does it itch or hurt. I guess what I'm trying to say is, is it uncomfortable?
Good question! Last time this happened, I didn't like my tail stroked. Marcia pets me with a long stroke
from head to tails with her hand cupped. When her hand got to the tail, I didn't like it and moved my tail
out of the way. My tail was sore. She will not be stroking my tail for a couple of months!
Does this affect your balance at all?
You would think it would affect my balance, but I still get around just as well as I did before. 
I can still fly-hop from my perch to the kitchen counter and to the table. I perch just fine, no problems!
Why is your cage so clean?
Ha! My cage got cleaned the night before. This picture was taken first thing this morning. My morning bomb was done on my play perch. Also, if the humans are home I'm usually out of my cage, hence a neat and tidy cage, but BIG messes around the play perches!

This has happened to me before.  Once, in September 2010 I was in my cage sleeping and all was quiet.  No thunderstorms that night.  Can't tell you what scared me exactly, might have been a bad dream or it may of been a Gecko. They come into the house during the summer. They are tiny little guys and don't hurt anything but to eat an occasional spider they find here and there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_House_Gecko

Morning After: September 14, 2010 

Thinner, but still Pretty!  September 2010

Re-growth after  4 weeks

Re-growth after 6 1/2 weeks

Now, if you will excuse me... I have some feather making to do!

The Drawer - Frequently Asked Questions

My drawer has become very popular these days.  Ever since it made its appearance on YouTube in March of 2008 I've received a lot of questions and comments.

Marcia used to keep kitchen towels in it.  When I decided this was my drawer she found a new place for the towels.  Then came the toys.  In the cabinet below she used to store boxes with Christmas dishes. I started chewing the boxes, so those dishes found a new place too.

A drawer in the kitchen might not be for every parrot.  Some parrots would destroy a wooden drawer.  For some reason I've never chewed hard wood.  I prefer the softer woods and soft plastic.  A lot of you ask the "poop" question.  Well, I have never pooped on the drawer or in the drawer.  I am always given "poop" breaks and taken off the drawer and put on my perch to take "care of  business".

I would spend all day on the drawer if my humans would let me.  But they don't.  I am only allowed when they let me.  The rest of the time I'm either in my cage or on a perch somewhere in the nest.  I really enjoy talking on the drawer too.  Visit my YouTube movies and take a look!

Many of you have asked, how do you keep the drawer open without it closing and squishing me!  The answer  is:  Unigrass 6600 Drawer Slides.  You can find them on the internet, hardware stores, even eBay!  They are inexpensive too.  They are installed on all the drawers in my nest.

Slide mounted on Drawer

Slide mounted in cabinet

Here is a video showing how the slide works.

If you and your human decide that a kitchen drawer might be fun, please remember that safety and supervision must be kept in mind at all times.  Please be aware of electrical cords and remove them from the area.  Kitchens are not the safest places for parrots, so please be careful!

Nest Rebuilding

You may have noticed there hasn't been a lot of Blogging the past year. Well, I apologize. My humans, Jeff and Marcia decided last year that they would be making some changes around the nest. Boy, It sure has been hectic!

Last January, Marcia found these huge pieces of stone called, "Granite". They make counter tops out of this stuff! Well, some men came into my kitchen and hauled off the old counter tops. (Nothing was wrong with them either!) But Marcia had been wanting granite ones for about 20 years, so I guess it was time for a change. Then came the new ones. BIG, HUGE, flat pieces of stone! These men were in my kitchen practically the WHOLE Day! (I had to stay in my cage in Marcia's office.) It looks really nice, but I was kind of afraid to walk on the granite at first. It was colder and slippery. But it didn't take me long and I was running all over it!
The next day a man called a plumber came and hooked up the new faucets. He hooked up a big one and a little one. The humans call the little one a filtered water faucet, but I call in my sink perch! It's where I perch when I help Marcia do the dishes. I bet when they bought it they didn't realize it would serve two purposes! They really got their moneys worth... didn't they!
Then, a couple of weeks later some more men came to my kitchen with little square pieces of stone and started putting them on the wall in back of the countertops. They took their time and were here for about a week! Again, I had to stay with Marcia in her office. I didn't mind it so much. I got to come out once in awhile. These guys really liked me and tried to teach me new words in a lauguage called Spanish. It was OK, but I'll stick to English because it's easier for Marcia and Jeff to understand. ;>

When they were finished I had to leave the house! They needed to put something called a sealer all over everything and it had something called High VOC. Marcia learned a lot about "Volatile Organic Compounds" (VOC) during this nest rebuilding. It was best that I leave, so I went to stay with my neighbor who I REALLY like. They live right next door. I only had to stay there for a day. Marcia and Jeff opened all the windows and got the place aired out for me to come home that night.

The place actually looked really nice! Ahhh! Done at last!

OH! NOOOOO! Now Marcia wanted the wall paper taken off and and new paint! Will this ever end??? I hear paint is really stinky and this will take forever because she want the WHOLE HOUSE painted too!!! While they are at it, they (well... Marcia) decided that the carpets needed to go and now would be a good time to put in wood floors. Are they out of their minds!!! I can't live though this kind of upheaval!!! Not to mention all those nasty VOC things! This is going to take weeks! If not months!!!! What is a bird to do!!!

Time to fly the coup!!!!

That's exactly what we did! All 3 of us! We have this wonderful friend, who needed to go out of town on business for several weeks and said he needed a house sitter. Will we needed someplace to sit! We moved lock, stock, and cage over to his nest. He only lives about 15 minutes away, so Marcia could go back and forth to take care of me and supervise work on the house. I like this temporary nest because it had a cool patio and a big swimming pool. It was Summertime by this time and I got to perch in my small cage and watch the squirrels and birds on the patio. (Marcia or Jeff had to be with me, she wouldn't leave me out there alone.)

This was a summer I'll never forget! One time Jeff locked himself out of the house! I was on the perch inside. He decided to go for a swim until Marcia got home, I was a good birdie and stayed perched. Marcia got there and couldn't find Jeff and I was "Home Alone!" Finally, she figured it out. It was so funny! A couple of weeks later Marcia locked herself in the garage! I was on the perch and her laptop was on the kitchen table right next to me. She knew I could fly down and have some fun with her laptop if I wanted and she panicked! Luckily, a man was there working on the garage door opener and he helped her break into the house! From then on they carried house keys with them ALL the time!!!!

I had a great time at the temporary nest, but after about 6 weeks it was time to move back to the new and improved nest. I must say it was an adventure and I thank Marcia, Jeff and our friends for keeping me safe. The nest looks great and I hope we don't have to do this again for a long time!!!!!