If you've just dropped by or random'ed into me, please leave a comment and say hello.

Let me know how you found me, where you're from, why you're here, a little about yourself, recommend a book, recommend a movie, tell me a secret, tell me something, ask me a question, etc. =)

Ad Astra,

The Bride of the First House.
bride (at) livejournal (dot) com

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weather	:		partly cloudy
outside	:		9.0°C
mood	:		stoked

   

It looks like I just asked them to "come over here" and stand on the mark so that I could take their yearbook photos.

The reality is, it took hours of painstaking, sneaky, cajoling camera work with muscle spasm inducing patience in between each of the approximately 100 shots... then more post-production work.

But I love these two pics of them. =) In case they ever, like, go to school or grow up to be on the Senior Management Team of some Fortune 500 company with a professionally designed website, they'll have photos already done. =)

weather	:		lovely
outside	:		16.9°C
mood	:		amused

We decided that Skippy, being A Bird™, needed to learn how to swing. No, I guess she didn't really need to learn. It was just funny. =D

• Swing Lesson 1
• Swing Lesson 2

She starts off steady, then wobbles a little, then swings faster and faster while we laugh our asses off.

We haven't been doing it often. Only every few days and few times each time. I don't want her to develop calluses on her feet.

By the time we thought to take an AVI, she'd already started getting better at it. The first few times were the most hilarious.

weather	:		raining
outside	:		8.4°C
mood	:		worried

Skippy's back from the vet and sleeping upstairs with a towel covering her cage right now.

We noticed that she'd been shredding her own feathers. This behaviour is what the avian community calls "barbering" and it's something that a lot of bird owners struggle with.

We first saw it about a week or two ago... around the time Husband Guy had successfully move both of our birds from an all-seed diet to an all-pellet diet, but it could have been going on much longer than that. She picks at the feathers underneath, so when she's sitting with her wings folded in, you don't really see it. We noticed when we saw one shredded one sticking out.

I only really saw how badly it was damaged when Dr. MacDonald stretched out her wings completely today. And it looked REALLY bad. Skippy has destroyed most of her flight feathers and a lot of her glide feathers too. We could see that she couldn't fly properly, but JEEZ.

The important thing is that she doesn't have dust mites. Dust mites can cause much itching and skin crawling which would have made her crazy.

The problem is more likely psychological though. Skippy is moulting right now. They lose a whole bunch of feathers once or twice a year and grow new feathers in. She may just be out of sorts with the diet change and moulting. All the same, Skippy is getting tested for Giardia (which could cause skin irritation), blood tests, kidney, liver, etc. done just in case. Test results should be in on Thursday. The shredded feathers have been trimmed as much as possible, she got a vitamin injection... and it's been a long day for her. =(

Dr. MacDonald said to move her back to an all-seed diet. Skippy may just be one of those birds that has a psychological attachment to her food. So, we're going back to mostly seed with a little bit of pellet mixed in and plenty of food all around her cage.

And more toys. *sigh* I'd buy her all the toys in the store if she would actually INTERACT with them. Notice I didn't say "play with them". I said "interact with them". By "interact", I mean more like "kill", "maim", "destroy", "maul".

I'd be okay if she even just ignored her toys, like Sid does because there'd be a chance that she's actually doing something with them when we're not looking. But I didn't want to be spending $10 per toy when she's just going to get scared of them and have a cage fright episode. I can understand that she might be afraid of things that are bigger than she is, but when she comes out of her cage, she's not afraid of other things that are also much bigger than she is either... like my laptop and the remote control. =\

She likes to chew things up, like business cards, glasses and our couch, but she won't go near the things that were specifically for chewing. Feh.

[Update - Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - 2223h]

So, guess what? The little girl has completely stopped shredding herself. Or at least we think she has. We don't see the barbered bits of feather at the bottom of her cage anymore. She also destroyed about a quarter of this new toy I bought for her. I saw the torn off wood shavings and all the beads from one leg of it blasted all over the bottom of her cage. XD

weather	:		sunny
outside	:		19.0°C
mood	:

I've been writing irregularly. I'm trying to make a bargello stitch pattern with the hyperlinked and not hyperlinked days on the calendar in my main journal view.

No, I'm not... I just didn't want to spout cliché like: "I haven't written in a while. I've been busy." like some bloggers/journallers out there who miss two days in a row. Yes, I can see you haven't written. It's really not that big a deal.

What's been happening with me... nothing that I want to write about.

The Husband Guy wanted to bring Skippy to work with him because he works long hours and misses her. Aaaawww... =) He asked me to get a medium sized travel cage so that she'd have something big enough to be comfortable in but small enough so as not to be cumbersome.

The one that I got is actually listed as a parakeet-finch-canary cage. The doors are a bit small, but it's just the right size for Skippy, so it works quite well. It's purple. It's a very lovely, slightly deeper than lavendar purple. This cage has very ornate heart-shaped and curlicue/flourish designs on the doors that you can't quite see in that picture, but it's very pretty.

However, Skippy is yellow and totally clashes with the purple XD I couldn't get a black or a white one. The owner at the store said black and white always get sold first. Purple, purple and blue were the only ones he had left. The blue didn't look as nice.

She isn't too pleased about being in this cage and you'd be really hell-pressed to get her through the door at all. I had to open up the roof, quickly zoom her onto the perch and slap the lid on top before she has time to think about what just happened. It will eventually take two people to do it when she gets wise to it XD

I locked her in it for about half an hour to 45 minutes last night just to get her used to it. All she would do is run back and forth and back and forth and back and forth, generally being the biggest nuisance she could manage to be from just scurrying around.

The Husband said she did that all morning too. He said he was so on edge that she might kick up a ruckus that he didn't feel tired at all today =D

I went over to bring them lunch this afternoon. Two chicken wraps for us, two spinach leaves and a giant sliver of red bell pepper for Skippy. The three of us ate in his office. She hadn't eaten all morning from the seed cup so she was hungry and snarfed down the veggies I gave her when I got there.

I think I might get another cage so that Sid can come to work with me. Or I might just get two new ones on account of the purple clashing with my two birds XD They're not too expensive.

And if I get two black or two white keet cages, I might just give this purple one to the Exec. Assistant Lady to bring Chloe, the Pudgie Budgie™, into Work =D

weather	:		cloudy
outside	:		5.1°C
mood	:		content

Late one afternoon, shortly after I was hired at Work, we all hear a loud YELP coming from the disproportionately large, glass, corner office in the suite we used to be in. It was The Big Boss, of course. It was 4:30pm and he realized that he had totally forgotten about his wedding anniversary. =O

I remember there was a little bit of a commotion as he and his Exec. Assistant Lady scrambled to find a nearby florist where he could quickly grab something on the way home.

He's still alive, so I guess it was all good. =D

So, this year, on my first Ass-Not-Fired-Yet Anniversary at Work, I e-mailed him to thank him for a great year and to remind him that HIS wedding anniversary is coming up very soon. XD I know he's been married for twenty some odd years, so I thought I'd give him the heads-up just in case this was one of the big ones. =} He told me this year wasn't a big one, but he appreciated the thought nonetheless.

Yay me! Yay Big Boss! XD

On the subject of anniversaries, there seem to be a metric butt tonne of them around this time.

February 08 was the 5th anniversary of the creation of my LiveJournal. I've been spewing nonsense here for over 5 years.

March 16 was My Little Bugger's Hatchday.

March 20. Today... well, this morning at 10:26am Pacific, was the beginning of the Vernal Equinox. Yay, daylight.

And coming up:

May 22, Victoria Day long weekend, will mark two years since Sid has been with us.

And of course, July 7, but that's a little further out, yet.

weather	:		drizzling
outside	:		6.9°C
mood	:		amused

Dr. MacDonald had confirmed that Skippy is, in fact, a girl while doing her checkup yesterday.

She's a very loud, very brightly coloured Lutino girl that acts like a total monkey boy and stands in her cage with one leg up on her side bars in sort of a Captain Morgan pose... TERRIBLY unladylike.

She must get it from me XD

We'll need to move her to a pellet diet, or a mostly pellet diet. When she starts laying eggs, the seeds won't provide enough nutrients for her. I really want to get her a new cuttlebone, but the ones I've found have smelled ... off, to me. We'll ask Dr. MacDonald if she has fresh cuttlebone next week when we bring Sid in for his appointment.

So, get this: we have to bake her birdie cookies. =)

Take the pellets, mix with hot water and mash it with a spoon until it becomes kinda gooey, but still kinda lumpy. Add some seeds. Mix. Spread on a small sheet of aluminum foil, sprinkle some seeds on top and bake.

They end up looking like itty-bitty M&M cookies with multi-coloured bird seed =) We gave Sid some too.

The things we do for these little squeakers... At least they're eating it. =D

weather	:		cloudy
outside	:		3.7°C
mood	:		recumbent

Right. Nothing quite says "Vacation's Over" more loudly and clearly than your house falling apart the moment you come home.

The central heating is busted in our house.

And thus begins the phone tag with the Fix-It Man, rushing home early, waiting and waiting and waiting for him, not being able to buy the right part to replace, having to wait until today and now waiting and waiting and waiting, hoping he hasn't forgotten, like he has in the past... !!!

It's about 14°, but we can just put more layers on. The birds can't, though. They can die with more than 10-15° of a temperature change in a 24 hour period. With 5-6° they could get sick. We'll just have to watch them for sneezing and coughing in the next little while.

We moved them into our room last night where we ran a small humidifier/space heater the whole night. We left them both there all day today as well because the rest of the house was so cold. Even without the heater running during the day, our room would lose heat slower if we closed all the doors and things.

Skippy loves warm water, so I gave her some when I got home. I wasn't sure what to do with Sid. We know he prefers warm water too, but we rarely see him drinking at all and he's too afraid of our hands to drink from a cup we offer him. Maybe I'll just grab him for a warm bath later.

I haven't had the motivation to organize pictures from our trip. I've done some, but not all of them. There are pics that we're sharing with the family, but won't be posting online. The ones left are just scenery and there aren't very many that I like. If you Image Googled for the location names, I'm sure you'd get pictures that other people have taken that look infinitely better than ours. In fact, in my more aw-what-the-hell moments, I think I should just post the itinerary that the travel company sent me (it's a Word doc, so I'll probably export it to HTML or something). That thing has great pictures.

I still have to write up some of the things I wanted to say about the trip. I still don't know if I want to do a Day-by-Day trip diary. I have more "Misc." to say than anything else. Some days, lots of stuff happened, but some days were just a lot of sleeping and playing MJ.

I'm sleeping and waking up at proper GMT-8 hours now, but I'm still feeling odd and on the verge of getting sick, during the day. I used to feel this way when I pulled all-nighters.

It's so cold out now, the temperature is going below 0°C sometimes. I asked my Mother-in-Law to bring me back a face maskie thingie. I don't want my Asthma to come back again. =\

weather	:		mostly cloudy
outside	:		10.9°C
mood	:		highly amused

I'm 7½ years old again. I'm camping in the middle of a forest somewhere far far away from civilization. It's past midnight, I'm horribly lost, like Wrong Toin At Albuh-koiky Lost, it's now pouring buckets which is one step down from raining frogs, I'm soaked to the bone and freezing to death, ill dressed for this weather because it's all packed neatly into the truck that was supposed to be meeting me at my destination. I've only just finished pitching my tent, in the muddy, puddle-ridden ground, by the headlights of my car with nothing but a Phillips screwdriver.

Okay, okay. I'm just sitting cross-legged in bed with my head holding my comforter up and tapping away on my laptop. The wireless connection is surprisingly stable. I thought it would be a bit wonky because I'm two floors away from the router =P But Husband Guy just came upstairs and laughed at me and called me a silly head, so that's the amount of fun I'm having =)

Ever since I got my wireless enabled laptop, I've settled in the dining room as my workspace, at the end of a long table with ovalled ends. I'm there instead of in the computer area where we used to be. It's also closer to the bird's cages where I sit during the day.

Almost every day, I'll get into a "conversation" with the birds from my seat. My brain somehow decides for me that the house is too quiet and I'll randomly whistle or twitter a nonsensical tune as I'm reading or doing something.

Those two LOVE it when I start talking. They'll answer back enthusiastically. I think they're hoping that it means I'll come over and take them out to play. Skippy does sharp single chirps at the top of her lungs that are more like barking. Sid does short but multi-note phrases.

I say something, they say something. I say something, they say something. And back and forth it goes. I continue these conversations almost unconsciously. I have no idea what I'm saying. I hope I'm not spouting hate propoganda, but there's no way for me to tell, really.

But because I have these conversations unconsciously, I've been known to do it in an environment where the birds aren't even around. There have been times when it's really quiet in the office at Work and I'll suddenly start twittering, out of habit. X}

weather	:		sunny-ish
outside	:		18.4°C
mood	:		okay

Wow, I haven't written about the birds in a while. They both need checkups soon. Soon.

Sid has gotten more adventurous about coming out of his cage. We usually leave his door open all day while we're home and let him wander out onto this little platform foyer =) Sometimes, we'll find him napping on top of his cage. Once, I found him on the floor by himself chewing on a pile of old newspaper. Oops. Recently, he's been actually walking up onto a flattened out hand but only if he's disoriented and confused. He gets adventurous, flies out of his cage into another room and then gets lost and scared. That's the best time to pick him up, sing and chat with him a little to build rapport. He is quite easily distracted with chatting and singing.

My Mother-in-Law found Grandma Jing-Tsun's old birdie play gym tree thing and assembled it. It's 14" tall and has dowel branches sticking out of it, a little ladder and a swing.

The first time the two saw it, they were freaked out. It was too funny. Sid won't stay on it. We couldn't get Skippy near it either. Her wings haven't been clipped in so long that she's fully flighted again. She flew away as soon as I brought her within two feet of the tree. I tricked her into standing closer to it by getting her to play with her water cup and then putting the water cup down on the floor next to the tree. Slowly, while her head was down, I'd shuffle the cup closer and closer. You could tell she knew something was fishy, but she couldn't quite figure out what, so she goes back to playing with her water.

One day, she was flying around and bashed herself against the wall or something. The silly little git lost about six height feathers on one side. None of them were bloody, so they were supposed to come out anyway. But that meant she was lopsided and unable to fly much for a day or two until she adjusted to having to flap faster on one side to fly straight.

The evil that is Me took advantage of that situation >=}

I put her on one of the top branches with one sweeping motion, too quickly for her to react. She sat there scared and frozen stiff. XD She didn't know what to do, she didn't want to play with anything, she didn't want to explore anything, she just sat there. And she'd try to get off it any way she thought she could without flying. As soon as someone went over, she would look at them like she was pleading for them to get her off the freaky thing. We were just laughing our asses off.

I brought the tree over to the table where I usually sit now and I'd let her just sit there in solitary confinement while I did stuff on my laptop. Mother-In-Law Woman would laugh that she was being punished.

We put seeds on the tray at the bottom and some on a flat spot at the top. Skippy seems to have gotten used to it a little. She's started walking up the wooden dowel steps.

There's a little swing on it too. Of course, she wouldn't get onto it herself, but Husband Guy put her on it. As soon as she stepped onto it, she lurched forward. As soon as she lurched forward, she had to compensate by leaning back. And what happens when you lurch forward, then overcompensate backward on a swing? Come on, it hasn't been THAT long since you've been an expert at Kid Physics, has it?! You build momentum and swing higher and/or faster. XD XD XD

BWAHAHA!! =D Oh, poor chickie, we were laughing at her so hard. I think we'll have to hold onto the swing for her and not let it swing too much when she's on it. But she's been ferociously averse to getting back on the swing.

We're also trying to move them to a pellet diet. Sometimes, birds don't recognize pellets as food and won't eat it. It can be a really long and involved process to get them to shift to a pellet diet without dying of starvation. Many birds can't completely make the switch, they have to be on a combination of seeds and pellets at the very most.

We're usually up at around 0730h on the weekdays, so that's when their food and water gets changed. Then some time during the day, we just blow the husks off the top so they can see the rest of the seeds and be able to continue eating. On weekends, we sleep in, so they usually get fooded and watered a little later.

On Sunday, we were late in almost a major way. Oooops. So, when we gave them pellets, they were both so hungry that they just went right at it without batting an eye. Holy crap! They just faceplanted and started munching with conviction. XD

We tried to give them just pellets during the day, then give them seeds in the early evening. I don't think they ate much all day. =P We'll have to watch them and make sure they don't lose too much weight. =P

weather	:		clear
outside	:		16.6°C
mood	:		okay

1. Are you a dog or cat person?

Neither. I'm a bird person. I guess most people don't think of avian domestic pets.

2. How many pets do you have?

Two. Skippy, a one year old Lutino, and Sid, an eight year old Normal Grey.

3. What's the best thing about your pets?

Cockatiels are easier to take care of than larger animals. They're small, so they can't do much damage even when they bite and scratch. They're kept in cages if they're going to be left unattended, so you don't have to worry about them destroying the house while you're not looking. Most importantly to me, their feces is much lower in bacteria and sulphur content than larger animals. It doesn't smell as strong as, say, cat or dog poop.

4. What's the weirdest thing your pet has done?

They do some funny things that I've posted about over the last year and a half: flinging water gleefully, chatting with everybody's toes, being outraged at a missing water cup, acting like a retarded bat, etc. ... but they don't do anything especially weird, not for birds anyway.

I have some AVIs of Skippy eating spinach and getting green goo all over her face, but that hasn't been downloaded from the camera yet. =)

5. Plans for any more pets?

Not at the moment. A while back, I had very briefly thought about getting a third — another handfed baby. Sid is pretty grouchy and territorial. I felt bad that that was the only example of behaviour towards others of their own species that Skippy had. But I'm not sure if we can handle more than two.

We'll see, though. I'm not sure how long Sid will live. When we speak sharply at him to stop him from picking, he gets upset. I can't see the anger being good for him or his immune system. He'll eat carrot, corn and peas sometimes, but he's generally not open to eating new foods like Skippy is. He could use some leafy vegetables, for example. So, nutritionally, he's pretty limited. In that way, I don't think he'll live to be more than 15 years old, tops.

fridayfiver, July 22, 2005

weather	:		partially sunny
outside	:		17.9°C
mood	:		heartbroken

I was reading up on cockatiel social behaviour to see how our two are doing in comparison with others. I'd noticed that they had several modes of communication.

There's an "everybody talk at once" mode where they will chatter, squack and cheep all at the same time. It's usually while we're on the phone and/or needing to hear the other party.

There's also a "taking turns" mode where they say something, then we say something, then they say something. It's mostly Sid who does that. Skippy still doesn't quite get the "taking turns" thing =)

I came across Elizabeth Vaughn's series of articles on Communication & Social Behavior in Cockatiels. She's a counsellor by profession and she has a keen sense of behavioural observation. It sounds like she also has a pretty big flock in which she tries to let the birds have a community that reflects their natural lifestyle as closely as possible.

This paragraph, from Part I - The Cock's Song, stood out to me:

"Although hens do express themselves vocally, for the most part they do no [sic] develop song. I came across one exception however. A young cinnamon who was about six months of age when I acquired her, learned to imitate the cocks' songs very well indeed. So well, in fact, that I was sure she was a cock even though she failed to manifest any of the other male characteristics. As long as her singing continued, she was shunned by cock and hen alike. When she learned that her exceptional abilities were getting her nowhere, she silenced herself, and soon became accepted into the community..."

And sometimes, I really don't feel so bad about raising our two in an unnatural environment. Then again, sometimes, I just want off this planet.

weather	:		cloudy
outside	:		14.2°C
mood	:		okay

Skippy will walk over and kiss me on the lips if I make fish faces at her. It's just a quick peck or two before she's distracted and runs off again. She's like a magpie with shiny things =)

Sid likes faces better than hands anyway. If I make a kissy face at him, he'll run over and lean his face really close to mine... to within about an inch. But something about him makes me uncertain as to whether he'll give me a kiss or tear my lip off.

And cockatiel breath smells nutty. It's really cute. =)

weather	:		raining
outside	:		7.9°C
mood	:		happy

Hippo Birdies, Skippy!!! She turns 1 today. =)

weather	:		mostly sunny
outside	:		10°C
mood	:		happy

I gave Skippy a drink of fresh water from her water cup one day and she started playing with it. She picked up a beakful of water and flung it around, being a little sprinkler. It was sooo cute. Of course, by the time I got the camera out and ready, she was wise to me and stopped. All I got was an outtake (1.5M AVI) for the blooper reel =P

I tried again. She started bowing multiple times (4M AVI) like she had just done something wonderful and was reacting to the applause and ovation.

And a random clip of her destroying a piece of tissue (4M AVI) while Sid watches, horrified, in the background.

Sid does funny things as well. Here he is squacking like a metronome (4M AVI) to the beat of me snapping my fingers.

Birdy Transcription/Subtitle Contest

Take a look at this (4M AVI) and tell me what he's saying. =D =D =D

weather	:		rain
outside	:		3°C
mood	:		optimistic

I think I've accidentally figured out how to instill some table manners in The Little Pain In The Ass.

She would pick up a seed from her food cup just like every other bird you know. But instead of shelling it and eating it right there, she'd hold it in her beak and run around her cage. Usually, she walks over to the door in hopes that someone will take her out to play.

Sometimes, she actually eats the seed successfully. Most of the time though, she would drop the stupid seed. Then she'd have to go back to the cup, pick up another seed, walk to the door and either eat it or drop it.

She was wasting more than she was eating. Grrrr. Which isn't good for my finance induced depression episodes. Especially not when I'm in the middle of the incredibly depresso task of tallying up expenses for our 2004 income tax reporting. And realizing that there were a whole bunch of things I could have put in if I knew about them and kept the receipts. But that's not the point.

I got a package of Parakeet Honey Treat Sticks last week and finally decided to try it. After vacuuming up around their cages this morning, I put one in Sid's cage and one in Skippy's. Sid munched on his for a while and ate a good chunk off the bottom.

Skippy, on the other hand, wouldn't touch hers. I have no idea why. She does eat in the morning, but she somehow didn't recognize this as food. She must have been famished by the time I realized she didn't have any. I quickly filled her seed cups and put them back in.

She ate and ate and ate with her head down in the cup. She didn't spill A THING. The floor around her cage has been almost as clean as it was when I first vacuumed, it's quite amazing.

Of course, looking at the ingredients now, I'm not sure I want to give it to them anymore, so it's no big deal if she really doesn't like the stuff. But maybe this will make her to eat more carefully/thoroughly.

[Update - January 18, 2005]

I gave her seeds, but I left the honey stick in her cage as well. I came home last night to see that she had eaten about HALF of the whole thing and not touched her seeds all day. O_O

Dumb Chicken. I TOLD you it was good stuff. It's honey, like c'mon... jeez.

weather	:		light drizzle
outside	:		5°C
mood	:		mischievous

I was changing Skippy's water the other day and I brought her with me to the kitchen on my shoulder. As I was rinsing out her cup, she climbed down my arm and seemed very interested in checking out the sink. I put her back in her cage for a bit while I scrubbed it clean, then brought her out again. She jumped and flew right in. Sometimes, she just has no fear at all.

I put her cup down at the bottom and turned on the tap with warm water. We usually give the birds filtered water, the same stuff we drink, but our water is drinkable from the tap. I left the sink unplugged so there would only be a small puddle. She skittered around, drinking every once in a while, but mostly just hopping around in the puddle.

Skippy playing in the sink (4M uncompressed AVI; 27s; see comments).

Then I plugged the sink and let the water level rise to about her chest. I was watching her the whole time and could scoop her out if anything happened. She didn't know what to do. She had her wings out the whole time for balance. But it was most hilarious to see her trying to run through the water and not succeeding. XD She just ended up bobbing around slowly, her tail and wings all fanned out.

I tried to get an AVI of it, but every once in a while she'd flap her wings and sploosh me. I was afraid she'd get the camera wet, so I stopped. I brought her out after a few minutes. She was so cuddly with me when I was towelling her off. =D

weather	:		raining
outside	:		12°C
mood	:		amused

We've been hamster-sitting for Hammy, gtimomo's 1½ year old teddybear hamster while they've been on vacation. Hammy is so much fun and looks completely hilarious when she's cleaning her face.

Oh! This little girl knows how to open the door latch of her cage and get out!! =O She's escaped once that way before. Hammy also knows how to stand up on her hind legs, stick her paws through the ceiling bars to push things out of the way of the door. They watched her open it.

We put her in her plastic ball and let her run around in the room we're in. We have a box that blocks the entrance to the room so that she can't wander too far. Every few seconds there's a *donk* or *thump* or sometimes, even *clang* of the plastic ball bumping into something.

Then suddenly, it's waaay too quiet in here. She's rammed the box out of the way and has rolled into another part of the house!! We brought her back and set her on the floor again. That's when I saw her charging the box.

Sometimes, we'll take her out of the ball to play. She'll scurry around on our hands and arms. She's the opposite of the birds, she keeps wanting to go downward. Even from 4 feet high, she'll try to jump onto the floor. You kinda have to play treadmill with your hands to let her have a perpetual running platform =)

The funniest is when I flipped her over into one hand and cupped my hand so she's on her back, like a stranded beetle, four limbs-a-kimbo in the air struggling to get up and out of the cupped hand. =D =D It doesn't take her very long to wriggle over and out, so we had to take pictures of it really fast.

• Who? Wha?
• Struggling to get up

*          *          *

Sid actually understands what "up" means. He knows that when I say "up", I want him to go ↑ this way =)

Sometimes, he climbs down to the bottom of his cage and plays with his poop (which, apparently, is not as big a deal for them to do as if we touched our own poop, but it just grosses out the humans) >K{ I say "no" and then "up" to get him to climb back up.

The other day, he was very slowly climbing downwards. I caught him and sharply said "Hey. UP." He stopped and studied me. I said, "uuUP" again and he climbed back up to one of his perches.

A few moments later, he tried to sneak down. He went down one rung at a time extra slowly while looking at me with his head slightly tipped =D He thought he was being all sneaky and cautious, it looked SO CUTE. But I couldn't let him. I said, "Sid. Up." He stopped and just sat there on the side of his cage. I stared him down. "UP." He went back up. =)

I think he also understands that "up" means I want him to step up onto my arm. He doesn't always want to, but I think he knows that's what I want him to do.

*          *          *

Skippy has learned to attack her tassel tree and squeak angrily, just like Sid. She's learning a lot of behaviours from Sid. *sigh* She's becoming a pissy little thing, but Sid has gotten a lot sweeter since we got him.

She likes flying onto juky's head. We figure it's because his hair feels like a nest to her =D But she'll get so mad when you try to take her off of his head. She also hates being taken off of his shoulders as well. Skippy has been like that since she was only a few months old. She'll walk and climb over to wherever he's sitting, fly onto his shoulder, walk onto his face, etc. It's bizarre. He doesn't even like her and she keeps going to him. =D =D

Skippy is super scared of Hammy and will run away when she sees Hammy coming over to her. It doesn't even look like Hammy notices Skippy exists. =) I would have let Skippy run around on top of Hammy's cage, but they didn't want her pooping on Hammy's head. =\ Ah well.

weather	:		mostly cloudy
outside	:		9°C
mood	:		happy

We finally caught Sid doing ( the most hilarious stuff. +4 )

In order: 1) big black angel wings; 2) looking like a retarded bat; 3) phase shifting in and out of this universe; 4) a headless ball of feathers (he had his head bent backwards cleaning feathers on his back).

It's kinda sad to see how bald he is in his armpits because he's been plucking his own feathers out. He'll be cleaning himself under the wings and suddenly you'll hear this *SQUACK!*. When we hear him, we call his name sharply and he'll stop to look up at us. Sometimes, he goes back to it, but other times, that's enough to stop him. We'll try to go over and chat with him to take his mind off picking. It works when we're home and actually doing it, but I think he still does it when we're not around on the weekdays during the day. It's better now that Mother-in-Law is around, but she can't always be there to stop him every time either. ={

What's really interesting is I noticed Skippy chirping sharply at him when he picks too! =O =D She did that twice yesterday when I was doing dishes. I yelled "SID!" a few times from the kitchen to stop him. Then I heard:

Sid: *SQUACK!*
Skippy: *CHEEP!*

And when I turned to look, Sid had looked up from picking. That happened twice. =O =D Heehee, she's helping. Pretty nifty! =)

He's started playing with ... well, he attacks his toys, both the tassel tree (the loops made out of rope in his cage) and the plastic bell balls (in the upper left corner of the pictures). He does his angry squeaking when he's attacking it. I know he's pissed, but we have to ask Dr. MacDonald if it's better for him to be attacking stuff and possibly being stressed out or plucking himself, breaking skin and possibly getting an infection.

On a happier note: Sid has now added a laughing, giggling noise to his repertoire. This new one sounds like *KEEkeekeekeekee* *KEEkeekeekeekee*. It must be from all the laughing we do in the house around the birds. =)

And when he's being really playful, he and I will do the wolf whistle duet =) He did the first note, stopped and stared at me. So, I did the second note to remind him, stupidly thinking that he had maybe forgotten or something. He did the first note again. I did the second note. Then I did the first note AND HE FOLLOWED WITH THE SECOND NOTE!!! And we went back and forth like that. OMG, that was just SO SO COOL. =D

We brought them both out at the same time one day just to see if they'd socialize and play together. We took them both into the TV room and put them both on the floor so that they'd both be on neutral territory and on the same level (ie. neither was higher up than the other, so neither was given the height dominance). They largely ignored each other and played by themselves. A few times, Skippy tried to go over to Sid, but he got all defensive at her.

Another time we tried, Skippy was hopping around all over. She happened to skitter by him. She didn't even touch him, but it must have raised his blood pressure through the roof because we found a small drop of blood under him after he walked away a little. It must have come from a small picking wound on the edge of his right wing that had scabbed over, but not quite. *BIGSIGH*

But we did get a picture of them together... sort of. ( +2 ) And while Husband Guy lay on his tummy playing with Sid, Skippy climbed onto his butt XD

Skippy was being a sprinkler again. She dips her beak into her water cup and shakes her head, throwing water every which way. Of course, when you try to catch her doing it (4M; uncompressed AVI), she won't do it anymore. But the face plant and the squat-poop was funny =) Heh, this is the most recent AVI of her. Compare. =)

weather	:		cloudy
outside	:		16°C
mood	:		aaaaaaawww...

baaaaabyanimals

Oh. No.

I've seen this community mentioned before, but I had the good sense to resist clicking.

Until now.

I caved. I'm not going to survive this cuteness. I may as well claim long term disability now.

Speaking of a-nee-eenie-meenie-mals, The Chubby Chicken is now 82g. Her face even LOOKS a lot like the A&W Chubby Chicken. =D

weather	:		sunny-ish
outside	:		14°C
mood	:		amused

We think Skippy might actually be a boy.

We won't know for sure until late October or early November when she finishes moulting. If after the moult, she still has yellow on white bars under her tail, she's a girl. If her tail feathers are solid, then she's actually a boy. Cockatiels are all born looking like little girls, with the yellow bars under their tails and the same colouring.

She hasn't been dropping many feathers lately, so she might be done. But it slowed down a bit earlier this summer and then started up again. So far, she still has two tail feathers on either side with yellow bars.

Skippy's quite vibrantly coloured (boy sign), but Lutino females sometimes are. She's a little too chatty to be a girl. Hens usually don't vocalize much at all.

She's also doing something that sounds like a wolf whistle which is very much a boy sign. It sounds so wrong it's hilarious, but we think that's what she's trying to do. She does two flat pitched squawks. The first note is consistently higher than the second note and there's an awkward half break in between. So we know she's doing it on purpose. =)

But she's starting to learn to do the pitch variance that we do and closing the gap between the two pieces so that it sounds more like a wolf whistle.

Sid's wolf whistling and flirting isn't working on her. The only girl in the house that it's working on, is me. =)

The only way to find out 100% for certain is a DNA test. A breeder might need to do this, but we don't need to know badly enough to pay for that. But, for now, I'll have fun saying that Skippy is either a Tomboy or a Metrosexual.

weather	:		thundershowers
outside	:		17°C
mood	:		amused

First of all, everybody, listen up. This is how push buttons work: it is a binomial distribution of N=2 Bernoulli trials. In other words, a button is either "PRESSED" or "NOT PRESSED".

What the hell is up with this "press the button halfway" buffoonery?

</persnickety>

Anyway, I took pictures of all the feathers I had that had fallen off the birds, but they didn't turn out, so I need to redo them all. But I snapped a few pictures of the funny girl, Skippy =)

When I take her water cup out to clean it, she'll go over and stick her head in the cupholder looking for it. It kinda looks like a torture device that's way too big for her head =D

( Wheredit go? (+2) )

Cockatiel cages usually have two sides of horizontal bars, but the front and back are vertical.

( Mountaineer Skippy (+3) )

weather	:		mostly cloudy
outside	:		18°C
mood	:		okay

My two chickies have been moulting all summer so we've seen all kinds of feathers coming off them. They seem to be still moulting, but as long as they're not plucking or losing blood feathers, I'm not going to worry.

I love it when they drop feathers. I want to keep them all. I had them on the dining room table, but sometimes, Skippy will fly onto it and blow them all away with her flapping. Now I have them in a heart shaped former chocolate box.

The big wing and tail feathers are fascinating to look at. I think I'd like to clean off the dirty tip of Skippy's whole tail feathers and make one of them into a teeny feather pen. I should Google around for... I found instructions on how to make a quill pens, so I can try it. It would never be used, but it would be a neat thing to do as a keepsake*. And I could do it for that one feather that Husband Guy still has from Guai-Guai. That would mean a lot to him.

Skippy's been losing a lot of the cut wing feathers, so we know she's going to be flying higher and further very soon.

Sid just dropped a whole one from the side of his wing that was partially grey with his white wing pattern. It's a very clean and bright shade of white, so that says he has a good healthy portion of body fat. *sigh* With Sid, I'm just falling down impressed that I don't find blood on the ends of the feathers he tosses anymore.

The cutest ones are the small inner feathers with a tuft of down and a little fan on the end.

No, the cutest are the crest feathers. I have two of Sid's. One of them looks like a question mark, it's so adorable. I had one of Skippy's, her's is all pale yellow. But it got lost or vacuumed up or thrown out. =P

No, the little orange face fuzzies are the cutest. I don't know why. It would kinda be like thinking an ear hair is cute. The orange patches are where their ears are.

I tried to get pictures of all the feathers, but I couldn't because I'm a Photography Idiot™. If I hold the camera too close, it won't focus right. If I'm too far away, you can't see the feather. *sigh* I don't think it's the Canon S300's fault. The problem is between the floor and the shutter.

Skippy loves to play with her feathers too. She'll stand on her left foot, hold her feather up with her right foot. She'll stand there on one foot, chewing and playing with the feather for a few minutes at a time. Once in a while, she'll drop it, but you just have to give it back to her and she'll play all over again.

She's a Lutino (see all cockatiel mutations), so she used to be bald behind her crest. Guai-Guai was like that too. Most pet quality Lutinos are. They're specifically bred for their colouring and the gene for baldness kinda came out of that selective breeding. To guarantee Lutino chicks, people would breed a Lutino cock with a Lutino hen and that would make the baldness worse.

Skippy came from a Lutino father and a Normal Grey mother. Her father was also bald, but he had such a minor case of it that at first, we thought he wasn't and were very excited that Skippy might not be a baldy either =D We looked at her Dad more carefully when he was sleeping and he was a little bald.

So, whatever. We love Skippy as a pet, we weren't going to breed her or enter her in Cockatiel Shows or anything. At about 4 months, when a whole bunch of new feathers came in, I noticed that she had some tiny new shafts on the top of her head(!) It's still pretty sparse, but there's a thin layer of feathers on top of her head now =D

But I don't think we'd be able to sell her for a higher price or put her in a show anyway because we noticed two feathers that have very dark brown bits of colouring on them. It's not dirt and they're not mites (that was the FIRST thing we checked) =P The brown impurities would mean that she's not a true Lutino and would probably be disqualified as a Lutino show bird. Maybe if they had an Almost Lutino But Not Quite Because of Two or Fewer Spots category, we might be able to enter her. XD

* In Taiwan, they have these Baby Keepsake sets that you can buy. They send a guy over to your house and shave the hair off your kid. People used to do this anyway because, supposedly, cutting off all the hair at 2 or 3 months (the 胎毛; "fetus hair") will promote hair growth. I say it's just a Baby's Coming of Age ritual for the family. So, they save the fetus hair and make a calligraphy brush with the hair. And recently, they've added other stuff in these Baby Keepsake sets. They sell like hotcakes. It's as standard as the engagement photography sets.

weather	:		mainly clear
outside	:		22°C
mood	:		cheerful

Sid is getting smarter and smarter about not getting caught for a bath =)

It used to be easy. His cage door opens down, like a drawbridge. I'd hold it up like a platform, chat with him for a bit and he'd walk right out onto it. I'd then quickly put the small travel cage top over him, slide the tray bottom underneath, hook it shut and take him upstairs to get spritzed.

After a few times, he grew wary of coming out onto the platform. It would take me a lot longer and much more patience to get him out. Then he stopped walking out onto the platform altogether. Little bugger. =\ He'd still come down and sit at the cage door, but he wouldn't come out any further. He could scurry back into the cage before I could get the top over him. He's even started looking around for the travel cage and only gingerly come out if he didn't see it.

Today, I realized there's a side door on the cage. >=} With the main door open, I got him standing at his main door. Then I reached in the side door with one of his ladders and just offered it to him. He thought there was evil brewing so he flew right out his main door.

Ha-HA! That was exactly where I want him. He's not very agile, he's pretty out of shape and his wings have been clipped. There's no danger of not being able to catch him. I just walked over and put the travel cage top over him while he was on the floor being confused. =)

I think the baths are really helping. I don't see any blood feathers at the bottom of his cage at all anymore. I hardly see any stray feathers, period.

After his bath today, I put him back in the cage. He climbed onto a higher perch so his head was near the top of the cage. Sid still loves to talk and sing to my fingers, so I talked back to him. While he had his head back, singing, I reached in with one finger through the cage bars and touched his head. He didn't move, he kept singing so, I very gently pet his head with my finger. For a few seconds, he didn't mind. After a few seconds, he remembers, "oh yeah, I don't like being touched" and turned to bite me. I saw it and moved away slowly just as he was turning his head.

A while later, I tried again. He let me scritch him on the head again. Just for a few seconds until he started getting antsy about it, then I'd stop. I must've tried it three or four times. =D Yeah, he shows me as much love as an unsocialized bird can. =)

I think I might use the same side door tactic to get him out and flying around at least once a day for some exercise. He'll get smarter and adapt. But so will I. =) And it's all good because he needs a little stimulation to keep his mind off of his picking =)

Skippy is an adorable little thing as usual. She's generally less vocal than he is. When she sings, she sometimes does this *boop-boop-BOOP-boop-boop* song. It's SO CUTE to hear. Sometimes, she and Sid will chirp back and forth to each other. They'll get louder and louder until it sounds like a full-on screaming match. We laugh that they're trash talking and swearing at each other.

Lately, she's taken to jumping on my head when I fix the food and water cups in her cage.

Skippy turned 5 months old on August 16. Her immune system should be fully developed now, so we can put their cages closer together. There's a cabinet a few feet from her cage that we were going to put Sid's cage on. There's all kinds of crap on it, so we'd have to clean it off.

We may do that this weekend. =)

weather	:		rain
outside	:		16°C
mood	:		giggly

In case we really needed yet more evidence of this, my birds will henceforth be known as:

Skippy

Sid

Guai-Guai

You may now gape in utter speechlessness. =)

weather	:		partially sunny
outside	:		21°C
mood	:		disappointed

After two cage fright traumas, Skippy has been doing okay. We put on a small lamp at night and that seems to be working out fine. She has feather #9 and #10 fully grown on both sides now (the breeder clipped them all when she was a baby, so those are still short). She's moulting and very snippy and short with me. As near as I can figure, the people who handle her (animal ER doctor, her avian vet and most of the staff) are mostly women, so she might be associating me with "those girl people that do nasty things to me".

She's very lovey-dovey with Husband Guy. She runs up to the door and squeeps when she hears him around. She'll run up to his outstretched hand. She lets him pet her on the head and the back of her neck.

When I reach into her cage now, she'll sometimes back away or snap at me. And the times she does let me bring her out, she'll always want to explore and play away from me. She still walks around on me, but you can tell that she isn't so much playing with me as much as she's playing on me and around me. Most of the time, she's ignoring me completely.

I sometimes wonder if she hates me because I'm "the other woman". O_o I get him to mist her and clip her nails. I don't even want her seeing me around when he's doing it.

Anyway, if I really had to, I can get her to step up (like if she started thrashing again). But if I try to pick her up and she doesn't want to step up, then I just say, "okay, that's okay" and leave her be. And I'll try again in a few minutes or in a little while. She isn't completely against the idea.

*sigh* It's pretty disappointing when they don't like you... =(

Sid, on the other hand, talks and sings to me more readily. He knows to wolf whistle at me and call me a "pretty girl". He and I can chat for a good long stretch =)

But he still won't step up onto our hands. He will bite and he will attack if you put your hand under him. Their eyes are on the sides of their head, so they can't see anything under their beak. Anything moving around in the general vicinity of his tummy is going to wig him out and he's going to kill it. But if I move slowly, with intent (like putting his veggie dish in) and talk softly while I'm doing it, he'll understand and just move out of the way for me to get in to do whatever I need to.

He seems content to just talk and whistle with us through the cage. It's pretty clear that he likes it, he'll call you back when you turn around to leave. And he'll deliberately call me "pretty girl" to try to get me to come back. So, as long as he's not pissy and aggressive, I'm satisfied that I may never have him on my shoulder or on my hand.

weather	:		sunny
outside	:		20°C
mood	:		trying not to fall apart
music	:	Joan Sutherland - Lakme, Ah! Ou va la jeune Indoue (Delibes)

Life was horrid this week. I'm okay for now. Everything seems to be sort of back on track. Skippy is sitting on a corner of my chair, next to my butt. "*bweep*?", she says, looking up at me. You climbed down there yourself, sillyhead.

It wasn't that it was so busy, it was no busier than usual; it was... emotionally packed, for lack of a better description.

On the Work front, one of our best Lead Developers had tendered his resignation during the week. He is the Dev Lead on the Big Evil Slime Bucket Project™ and will be leaving in three weeks... mid-project. He's a brilliant guy, works hard and makes a lot of good things happen. It's hellacious enough right now while he's still here, so I'm really afraid to think about what's going to happen next. I'm having a hard time thinking of anyone who can replace him.

Skippy had a really bad thrashing incident Thursday night. After her first cage fright, we got her a night light. But the night light cast a shadow on the wall behind her cage. Essentially, if you're a little bird with crown feathers, the super evil-ass black monster on the wall with big, sharp, spikey horns WILL kill you and not much will convince you otherwise.

We propped up a box in a strategic position to eliminate the shadow and it worked well. But that night, I was manoeuvering it into place and I dropped the plastic dish thingie beside it. It made a LOUD clatter and she flapped like crazy.

I picked her up to talk to her, calm her down and she was bleeding profusely in my hand. She lost a lot of blood. I thought she was going to die from either exsanguination or shock or both, right there in my hands.

We calmed her down and got her to the Animal ER. Dr. Brigitte was on duty again and recognized us. She did the same thing as last time, put Skippy on oxygen in an incubator to calm her down, help her get oxygen into her system and inject some fluids under her skin so she didn't go into shock. They kept her overnight to monitor her condition.

Then Friday morning, I picked her up from the ER and drove her over to Night Owl where Dr. McDonald is. She was getting prep'ed for a surgery with another bird, so she didn't have time to talk to me about anything. =P

Skippy is okay, but I'm not. I was crying in the ER waiting room and I was just a wreck. I thought I'd killed her. All because I tried to cover the stupid shadow that she would have eventually learned wouldn't maul her, that probably wouldn't have mattered anyway if I had just left well enough alone.

It turns out, she isn't actually injured. She has new feathers growing in, they have really big shafts and they're filled with blood. This is normal. They're just a bit too big for her body size, but it's still within the realm of Normal. She's one of those birds whose wings should only be trimmed back 1 inch or, preferably, not at all. That's all it means.

But the problem is, right now, these shafts are in that state where the feather part hasn't grown in yet. So, they're wide open at the end. When she gets freaked out, her blood pressure goes way up which makes the blood pump faster and further. Which means the blood will come out the open ends of the shafts.

She may have to be fitted with a wing sling to keep her wings slightly out so that she can't fly and damage something, just until the feathers grow in. We may have to make her sleep in complete darkness. One of Dr. McDonald's assistants has to keep her cockatiel in a box in a cupboard at night. We might put Skippy in a covered and padded aquarium. Until we can get that ready, we're at least not using that night light anymore. Last night, we used a small lamp that casts a softer light and it worked well.

There was a whole lot of other crap happening around me too, so I was a wreck this week.

weather	:		full on cloudless sun
outside	:		23°C
mood	:		worried
music	:	Kreisler - Schon Rosmarin (Perlman)

Skippy is 3 months old now... gosh, how time flies =} She's doing very well. She's still very tiny, but her weight is holding steady at 73g. She gobbles up most of the corn and pea niblets I give her almost every day and is definitely eating out of her food cup.

But lately, I've noticed that she's been very easily spooked by a lot of things, some of them very minor (though, I suppose if you're only 5" big and don't understand anything, everything can look huge and scary to you).

She goes jittery when she hears crows outside. She also does that when she hears other birds outside singing/chirping as well. I guess this is normal because her instincts are telling her that might be a predator. Or she could be on my hand or shoulder, I'll pull a tissue out of the box and she'll be startled. She's seen me do this a zillion times and she still startles.

It just seems like every little thing is scaring her recently. I don't know if this is normal. Maybe it's something they go through after their fearless, unknowing baby phase...

The biggest worry is that she gets spooked while she's in her cage. We've already had to take her to the Vet ER that morning from the thrashing incident. Every time she gets scared, we'll take her out. We talk softly to her and cuddle her — well, not really cuddle cuddle, but just hold her close to our bodies, but let her go wherever she wants to be... shoulder, by my neck under my hair, or stay on my chest just under my chin, etc.

weather	:		cloudy
outside	:		14°C
mood	:		happy-ish

Hippo Birdies, Husband Guy!!! pne beat me to it, but in my defence, he's 9 hours ahead of us.

Me: Philip says Happy Birthday.
Him: Philip who?
Me: Philip in Germany.
Him: Oh, the "Philip/Stella/About-To-Have-A-Baby" Philip?
Me: *giggle* Yeah, that Philip. =)

He got cake from Work and we went to The Keg last night for prime rib, even though he was only 29^364.75/₃₆₅ yesterday. =)

I have to say, I'm very proud of what he's done with his life. He went from not planning to do anything after highschool to Senior Development Lead. And will possibly go even further in the next little while. I don't want to say anything to jinx it... =}

The down side of today was having to take Skippy into the Veterinary ER this morning. Husband Guy put her cover on her cage last night so that maybe she'd sleep better. We've put the cover on her cage before, so it's not supposed to be a big deal. But last night, she somehow started thrashing. He took her out and looked her over, but didn't see anything, so he put her back.

This morning, her wings were bleeding on both sides. O_O It had clotted over, but she picked at it and it bled a little again. Birds don't have a lot of blood, so any bleeding at all can be fatal. Dr. Brigitte took her into the ER and made sure she was okay until Night Owl opened for Dr. McDonald to have a look at her.

Dr. Brigitte said Skippy weighed in at 80g though(!!) which does make sense because we know she's visibly bulked up quite a bit. She's been bouncing between 72-74g every morning for the last few weeks, so maybe our scale is weird. =P

At least Sid is home and doing well. He's looking much better, quite a bit more alert, active and doing less sitting around grooming.

*sigh* If it's not one, it's the other. =P =P =P

[Update - 1738h]

Skippy is doing fine. She just had a bad thrashing incident for the first time, but it'll be fine. Lutino cockatiels are just more prone to cage fright and thrashing than Greys. She's also molting so she's lost a lot of her baby flight feathers, but they're hollow and not bloody so they were mature feathers that were supposed to come off. No more covering her cage and once Sid is past the quarantine period, they're going to be on the family room side of the house. But at night, we're going to move them to the alcove in the other dining room at night, so that they're not in the high traffic area.

weather	:		cloudy
outside	:		13°C
mood	:		amused

Two pics and one AVI:

• Wet Rat I (24K) — I love this pic of her, she is positively demonically pissed off XD
• Wet Rat II (24K) — she's a little drier, so she's just merely royally pissed off =)
• Munchie (4M; 21sec) — munching on her veggies.

Cockatiels are supposed to get misted every few days to a week. They're the dustiest of house birds and the misting helps keep that under control. Otherwise, they get dust mites and trigger my Asthma, but it hasn't been too bad. =P

You're supposed to take a spray bottle and spritz them down. Some people have birds that actually like being misted. *sigh* No such luck here. =P

And I had to take an AVI of her eating. There's something very satisfying about watching an animal eat. Not just because Skippy is underweight, but any animal in general. She's actually holding steady at 72-73g. I don't know that obsessing over it will do anything more at this point. I think that's her natural healthy weight.

Oh, and Sid will be coming home from Night Owl tomorrow night. =)

weather	:		mostly cloudy
outside	:		16°C
mood	:		happy

Skippy is almost 11 weeks old now. She's still an adorable, clumsy baby. Whenever I pick her up, she'll jump onto my chest, attack any plastic buttons on my shirt for a bit and then crawl up to my shoulder, by my neck and underneath my hair. It's warm there so she'll sit and just snuggle there for a while.

She loves my hair, she'll chew on it, groom it, groom herself, play peek-a-boo, hide-and-seek and generally futz around in it. =) Then she'll run down and across my chest to the other side and do the same.

We got her a rope toy with tassles yesterday. We put it on the table to let her investigate it and get used to it. She was okay with it. It was horizontal lying on the table, but when we hung it up in her cage, it was vertical and suddenly looking a lot bigger than before. It was funny to see her body leaning away from it and looking up at The Tassle Monster with extreme apprehension =D But I saw her playing with it this morning. Kinda like, "okay, if it's not going to kill me, then I guess I can touch it."

Sid will have a tassle toy too, it might help with his overgrooming problem provided he's not too freaked out to touch it. It should be a good distraction from grooming himself all day.

In the wild, they are observed to only spend about 25% of their time grooming. 25% of their time is spent interacting with others of their species. About 50% of their time is spent looking for food and eating. As soon as you put them in a cage by themselves with food and water provided, what can they do? Eat. And groom themselves. All. Day.

We might go see how Sid is doing at Night Owl this afternoon after Husband Guy gets back from basketball. I think Dr. McDonald said she'd put a collar on him too. Oh, I'm sure he'll be really pleased with that.

weather	:		possible showers
outside	:		13°C
mood	:		beguiled

I keep saying, "I'm not an animal person. I'm not an animal person. I'm not an animal person."

Yet, there I was last night, peeling peas and skinning corn niblets, by hand, individually and heating them up, for Skippy.

Yet, I'm overjoyed to see that she's eaten. And overjoyed, still, that she's gained weight.

weather	:		cloudy
outside	:		14°C
mood	:		okay

In addition to spinach and lettuce, Skippy loves corn and peas as well. She's not as crazy about haricot vert, but she will have some. She just licks carrots, but doesn't actually eat any.

I should try fruit one of these evenings.

[Update - 2310h]

We came home this evening to see Skippy's food cup full of hulled seeds. SHE'S BEEN STUFFING HER FACE WHILE WE'VE BEEN AWAY!! =D Well, Brother-in-Law actually came home shortly after 0900h this morning because he was sick, so she might have known that someone was home. But he says he came home and went straight to bed until 1700h, so it's not like he was up and about.

weather	:		evening showers
outside	:		15°C
mood	:		cheerful

Skippy playing with a paper star — 0:59s, 17M, uncompressed AVI. You might want to right-click and Save Target As. We tried to compress it with an MPEG encoder, but we couldn't find one that worked. =P

The big clubby paws belong to Husband Guy.

The banging and crashing in the background is me, making dinner. Be glad that there was no explosion this time, uh-kay?

Porky, I mean Skippy, has been eating on and off all day. Between destroying paper stars and grooming herself. She's still very uncoordinated, but I think she's a lefty =)

Okay, I'm off to play "Would You Rather..." =)

weather	:		drizzling
outside	:		11°C
mood	:		hopeful

埋 mái

頭 tóu

苦 kǔ

幹 gàn

It means "head down in intense labour."

I'm sure this phrase was originally used for physical labour. But it has also been used, metaphorically, to describe the act of studying or any other mentally or physically strenuous activity.

小鳥出來鬧了一陣子就回籠子埋頭苦幹。

This is how I would describe Skippy eating after some heavy duty paper strip attacking. =D

The Skippy Ticker, BTW, has been posted, but I made it so that it won't show up in your FRIEND View. I want to keep them on record, but rather than annoy everyone with the same stupid thing every day, if anyone is interested, you know where to find my journal. =)

We have more pictures and AVIs of her playing, but they're on Brother-in-Law's machine. I'll upload them later this afternoon. And I can say that she is cute now. =)

See my Word Collection

weather	:		drizzling
outside	:		11°C
mood	:		worried

Skippy and I must be kindred spirits. We have the same weight problem; the opposite problem as everyone else in our respective species. We both have trouble keeping our weight UP.

The biggest worry is that birds are really good at concealing any illness or problem they may have. In the wild, if they look sick, they're as good as food. Predators will get them. So, if you see a bird that actually looks sick, it'll be almost too late.

*sigh* She can't keep losing weight forever. She has to have hit the bottom now. Hmm... that's what my Financial Advisor keeps telling me about the market too. =P It's the long weekend, if we're here, she will eat. We should see some gain over this weekend.

weather	:		light rain
outside	:		14°C
mood	:		okay

I swear, Skippy has gotten bigger since we got her last Friday. I don't understand how she could have been a porky 84g... and she must have been almost 90g before she was weighed for the first time on Saturday too.

It sounds like adult cockatiels can be as little as 70g and still be normal. *shrug* Not freaking out. Not freaking out.

We were rearranging the perches, seed cups and toys in her cage for Feng Shui this morning. =) Based on her habits yesterday, we tried to make things easy to reach and as high up as possible without being ridiculous.

Baby Bird Antics of the Day

My girl is an Olympic Champion Seed Flinger. Her distances rival World Shot Put records. She'll spazz and spin around. The next thing you know, I have a seed poking into my heel (OOOWW!) in the next room over.

Skippy was also being a water sprinkler this morning. I put her on the edge of her big water cup. She took a drink first, but then she picked up the water and shook her head, flinging it on herself, the table and everything.

weather	:		sunny
outside	:		17°C
mood	:		trying not to worry

VSE: SKP (Skippy, the Lutino Cockatiel)
Hatch Date: Tuesday, March 16, 2004
IPO Date: Saturday, May 15, 2004

Date	Weight	Δ	% Δ	Bid*	Ask*	52-w High	52-w Low
2004/05/20	73g	-4g	5.47%	77g	90-100g	84g	73g
2004/05/21	72g	-1g	1.38%	74g	90-100g	84g	72g
2004/05/22	70g	-2g	2.86%	72g	90-100g	84g	70g
2004/05/23	72g	+2g	2.78%	74g	90-100g	84g	70g
2004/05/24	72g	0g	0.00%	74g	90-100g	84g	70g
2004/05/25	72g	0g	0.00%	74g	90-100g	84g	70g
2004/05/26	74g	+2g	2.7%	76g	90-100g	84g	70g
2004/05/27	73g	-1g	1.37%	75g	90-100g	84g	70g
2004/05/28	73g	0g	0.00%	75g	90-100g	84g	70g
2004/05/29	72g	-1g	1.39%	74g	90-100g	84g	70g
2004/05/30	72g	0g	0.00%	74g	90-100g	84g	70g
2004/05/31	72g	0g	0.00%	74g	90-100g	84g	70g
2004/06/01	70g	-2g	2.86%	72g	90-100g	84g	70g

*BIGSIGH* It's hard to steel ourselves to not worry. She'll definitely eat when we're around. She definitely knows how to eat and what she's supposed to eat. We just have to trust that she has strong enough survival instincts that she won't completely starve.

She ate non-stop from the time we got home last night at 1930h to 2130h until we put her back in the cage.

This is also about the time that she's starting to assert herself to try to find the "pecking order" in our house. She has a shorter fuse for things she doesn't like now. She's biting more and a little harder than she used to, but she's still much more personable than Guai-Guai ever was.

Skippy is still wobbly and unsteady at maneuvering around perches. Her feet have gotten stronger and she's much better at climbing around the cage now, but she still stumbles at trying to get herself into the right position to eat comfortably from the little seed cups. I put the silly girl on the part of the cup that was made for them to stand on, but she keeps shifting herself to stand on the side edge that's a lot thinner and harder to grasp. Go figure.

Instead of bringing her out in the travel cage tray, we'll start standing by her cage as she eats out of the cups. This way, she learns that this is a valid eating procedure as well and will more likely do it on her own when we're not there.

The Victoria Day long weekend is coming up. We'll be home with her and hopefully, she'll eat more often during the day. Husband Guy has a build on Monday, but I'll be home.

Oh, and kat_box, Husband Guy also won't be going to B & G's wedding in Edmonton so that he can be with her that weekend.

I say again: *BIGSIGH* =\

* I know that's not how Bid and Ask work. "Bid" is what we hope she will weigh tomorrow based on the last weight. "Ask" is what she should be based on the average of the entire Nymphicus Hollandicus species. Eventually, the function of the Bid value over time, should be convergent with the Ask, which is held constant.

weather	:		partially sunny
outside	:		14°C
mood	:		calm

Skippy is 77g this morning, which is up 4g from yesterday. We'll get her a stock ticker symbol and trade her on NASDAQ =D

But she's gained weight only because she was stuffed to the gills three times yesterday. If she still lost weight, there'd be something seriously wrong.

Husband Guy made a really good point that we've been freaking out and doing something different with her every day. That might have just made the situation worse. With what the breeder said yesterday and knowing (*knock-on-wood*) that cockatiels can live about a week with no food whatsoever, we should try something consistent for a while. We put seed cups and millet everywhere around her cage and left her home alone.

She has to get used to the sights, smells and situation of our house anyway. If by Friday she's not sustaining her weight, the breeder will take her back for a week. We can try to bring her home again the following week. If the same stupid thing happens, then we'll know that it's an environment thing and we'll return her to the breeder for a full refund. We'd rather her live well and be happy in someone else's home.

It could be that we're overreacting because Dr. McDonald seems to be wanting to err on the side of caution.

We were reading a whole bunch of sites online last night on weaning advice. One of them said baby birds can be intimidated by too many toys, that's just too many things going on in the cage for them. *phew* I bought her one wooden moon thingie with a bell on the end. I was beginning to think she was bored and that we didn't have enough things for her to do. Another one said that it's very scary and daunting for them to be at the bottom of their cage looking upwards, so put lots of perches at different heights and food in multiple easy-to-reach locations. We did notice that she ends up at the top of the little ladder in the morning. Okay, so move lots of stuff up higher.

We had a power outage this morning. It started at 0400h, but we didn't wake up and discover it until 0700h. We decided that laying around worrying about when we needed to get up wasn't going to do us any good, so we got up to check on her.

I think we've found a pattern to her. She eats after a good bout of playing. The trick is to get her to playplayplayplayplay, then she'll duck down into her food and munch for a while. She played and grazed from about 0700h to 0845h.

SeedFace™: At one point, she took a drink of water, then put her face down to grab a seed. When she came back up, she had a whole pile of seeds stuck to her face. She could see them, but couldn't do anything about them. She looked so comically funny, we were laughing so hard XD It was hilarious to watch her try to get at them, shake her head, rub her head under her wing to get them off =D

Heroin Addict™: When she gnaws on her cuttlebone, she gets white powder all over her nose and beak. It looks like she's been snorting something. XD XD

Yesterday, at Night Owl, one of the staff told me that she saw Skippy dunking the millet in her water to play. =) So, we can see she's otherwise very happy and pretty well adjusted. The eating should kick in any time now.

We also capitalized on the fact that she loves paper. Out came the shreds from the paper shredder. Husband Guy and I started folding paper stars like we used to in highschool. </a></a>skippy loved them</b>. We made some stars so that they had a little paper handle on them and waved them around her head. She'd run after them trying to catch the star on the end. =D

And then she ate. And ate. And ate. =)

Before we left, we tied up a whole bunch of paper stars all around the cage. She was attacking one just as we were leaving.

weather	:		mostly sunny
outside	:		15°C
mood	:		frustrated

OH, FOR FUCK'S SAKES.

She's 73g this morning. Down from 77g yesterday morning, from 80g, from 84g.

Even with all the pigging out all day yesterday, she's not sustaining her weight. She's otherwise happy, active and playful. Right now, she's rapaciously trying to take the plastic flower button off my shirt.

I'm taking her to the vet one last time. I am not paying to board her there for a few days, that's just more than I wanted to spend.

I'm going back to the breeders to tell them that she's still losing weight and if Skippy doesn't make it, I want my money back. It isn't due to neglect on my part.

[Update - 1100h]

Skippy is going to be at the vet all day today for monitoring and they're going to handfeed her twice, but only charge us for one feeding.

I called the breeder again to say that she's still losing weight every day. I understand that they do lose a little weight when they're weaning, but from 84g to 73g is over 10% and that's way too much. EVEN IF she's being playful, active, vocal and eating. And this is costing me a lot more money than I had planned.

I did get a verbal agreement that if she doesn't live, we will get our money back. And they're also willing to either take Skippy back completely and refund us or just take her back for a while to make sure she's okay.

That makes me feel a whole lot better. I'd really like to just keep Skippy with us because she has to adjust to being with us anyway. Moving back and forth can't be good for her.

weather	:		mostly cloudy
outside	:		19°C
mood	:		amazed

I brought her out at 1630h to do the same thing I did with her at lunch. But then I got called away because of Work, someone wanted me to verify a build in the lab. I was running back and forth between my office and the lab when I noticed she was actually eating!! =D

But I think I'm going to bring the Little Attention Whore to Work with me for the rest of the week just to solidify this. =)

*SQUEEE* SHE'S STILL AT IT!! =D

weather	:		sunny
outside	:		18°C
mood	:		happy

Well, now. =) Skippy ate like the dickens for about half an hour to 45 minutes.

While I was getting myself a salad, I grabbed a piece of lettuce, spinach and broccoli separately for her. I closed my door and took the top off her cage so that she could stretch. I gave her a bit of lettuce which she wasn't sure about at first, but eventually, she nibbled and ended up really liking it. She ran after me when I took it away for a sec =)

Lettuce is mostly water, so after a while, I switched to a piece of spinach. Skippy really likes leafy green stuff. After a bit of trying to convince her that she couldn't have my food (she can't touch the dressing in my salad), with my left hand holding the spinach for her, I ate my lunch with my right hand. She munched and munched and munched. After the spinach was finished, I picked up a spray millet for her and she went at that for a long while as well.

Little bugger. =\ Yes, I think she's just lonely. We'll save the broccoli for tonight.

I held her and played with her for a bit before I put the top back on her cage. She's back in the corner now, trotting and squeeping like she was before. She wants out, but I have to work. =P Oh, no wait, she's preening herself in the corner... oh crap, she saw me looking at her and wants out again =}

But I'm so happy that she just pigged out. I might do it again at 1700h again before heading home.

weather	:		sunny
outside	:		15°C
mood	:		hopeful

Welcome to the Skippy Weaning Network™, where it's All Skippy, All The Time.

*sigh* So, she was 77g this morning. I think all my organs and innards have gathered into a tight wad in the middle of my body, just under my ribcage.

Husband Guy tried to handfeed her and the routine hating it, spitting it out, wiping it on something, ensued. =P Husband put her back in her travel cage with seed all over the bottom. He would offer the syringe and that seemed to make her realize that if she didn't eat the seeds, she'd be force fed the yucky formula. So, she ducked down and started eating seeds. That went on for a good while from 0800h to 0900h which was great.

We're thinking that she's just lonely for company because she had all the other birds with her at the breeder's. She'll eat fine when we're around and just after she sees the vet.

I have her at work with me. She's squeeping and trotting back and forth, wanting to come out with me =(

weather	:		mostly sunny
outside	:		15°C
mood	:		gloomy

At 0915h this morning, she was 80g. *headdesk*

There were a few small piles of droppings and one pretty big, dime sized splotch. Husband Guy gave her the spray millet and she ate out of his hand for a while.

We decided to give her some formula. Skippy wanted nothing to do with it. She kept turning her head this way and that to get away from the syringe. On the off chance that I got some into her mouth, she'd turn sideways to wipe it all off on my fingers. We cleaned her up and she did have some seeds.

Close to 1100h, I played with her and got her to eat a bit more. She'll play and preen herself, but she just doesn't want to eat.

[Update - 1530h]

Dr. McDonald asked us to phone in and report her weight this morning. The Husband left a message for her to say that she was down to 80g. She called us back in the afternoon and asked us to bring Skippy in, she would feed the chickie herself. She also offered to take Skippy in for a few days so that they could watch her, but that was more money than we wanted to spend on this. Today's feeding already cost $25. We're just going to weigh her in the mornings and keep her in the small travel cage with lots of seeds on the bottom so that (hopefully) she gets the idea. We were thinking that maybe her cage is too big and she's still a little too weak or inexperienced to climb around to reach the food cups.

weather	:		mostly sunny
outside	:		16°C
mood	:		relieved

Skippy came home with us Friday evening after eating on her own at the breeder's for 48 hours. But because of the stress of the move and the new surroundings, she didn't eat much all night Friday or this morning. She didn't seem too stressed out; she was interested in playing with us, on us and exploring the new neighbourhood. She always preferred to be with someone than by herself. She just didn't want to eat, not even when I put the spray millet or seed cup right up to her beak. So she hasn't pooped much and her crop was very empty.

Maybe she's like me. I can't eat at all when I'm nervous.

We brought her to see an avian vet, Dr. Anne McDonald, at the Night Owl Bird Hospital. It was just a routine checkup to make sure she was okay so far.

Skippy weighs 84g, which is a bit on the low side, even for a girl*. But everything else looked good, so Dr. McDonald just told us to buy a scale and watch her weight very carefully. She should not be any less than 84g from now on and ideally, we'd want her to gain about 10-15g over the course of the next year.

But otherwise, she's a very healthy chickie. Dr. McDonald said she has beautiful fluffy feathers, nice beak and everything was nicely formed. Skippy was so cute, she kept playing with the towel lining in her little travel cage as we talked to the vet =D

If Skippy doesn't continue eating well and she doesn't start gaining a little weight by the end of the weekend, she may have to go back to handfeeding again, one meal a day, for a while until she gets used to her new home. We got some mash from Dr. McDonald and we got some of the handfeeding formula from the breeder for this. At this point, she told us to keep Skippy on seeds, start introducing veggies and don't even worry about going to pellets for a while. She even wrote on the data sheet she gave us, that Skippy should only get pellets mixed in with seeds and not go on a pure pellet diet.

She was still not eating all afternoon, but finally ate quite a bit from 1830h to 1900h, so that was a huge relief.

* — We now think Skippy is most likely a Lutino girl. She's a bit small for her age (8 weeks). Her cheek spots are not very vibrant. She's not very vocal, I've only heard her squeep a few times and no wolf calls. I can see faint yellow zebra stripes under her tail (they're light yellow on lighter yellow when I hold her up to the light).

[Update - 2115h]

I tried giving her some of the handfeeding formula stuff. She had maybe one or two mouthfuls and wouldn't eat any more. She kept ducking her head when I brought the syringe close to her mouth. I cleaned her face up and she spent a little while munching on seeds.

weather	:		sunny
outside	:		19°C
mood	:		okay

[Edited: We now think Skippy is a girl.]

Skippy is still at the breeder's and she's doing well. She's mostly eating on her own during the day, but she was still being handfed once a day. We've been going over to play with her every other evening or so. I've noticed that her body has become more sleek, elongated and less like the pudgy baby that we first saw. But it's normal for them to lose a little weight when they wean.

Starting this week sometime, the breeder is going to stop feeding her altogether and monitor her for 48 hours. If she's okay after that period, hasn't lost too much weight or anything, she can come home with us.

They put a few other baby cockatiels in the same cage. Skippy is the oldest in there and the others have been following her lead at eating the seeds out of the cup. Aaawww... =)

We were approached by someone wanting to give up their 4 year old cockatiel for adoption. The lady said she has started working shifts and feels she would not have the time to give her bird, Sid. At first, we thought we could probably be able to handle two birds, no problem. But we've looked at the quarantine procedures and it sounds like the first month or two would be a fair undertaking for us to have both Skippy and Sid. They can't be in the same room, which means we'd have to buy another cage. We'd have to wash our hands in between handling each of them. We'd have more vet bills. I'm not sure we'd have the energy for that. I feel badly for Sid and if we'd known about him earlier, we might have just taken him instead of buying Skippy. We'll see.

Other random update things:

• One of my latest projects went RC today.
• My long o's have suddenly morphed into an Θu diphthong. I need to stop it.
• B is getting married the first weekend in June and my beautician is booked up solid until after the wedding. I'm going to this place close to work once or twice for the wedding. They're more expensive though, but Lily is a lot further out of my away =P
• Husband Guy is going to mow the lawn. This worries me because A) he's never mowed a single blade of grass in his life and B) he has furious allergies (we both do). We have business cards for a few landscaping services, but he says he wants to do it himself.

weather	:		sunny
outside	:		23°C
mood	:		better

1. Go play with Skippy.
2. Have a Double Coated Tim Tam.

That doesn't cure all, but it helps.

I miscalculated the weeks. Skippy will be coming home with us from the breeder's in mid-May. He's not being hand fed formula anymore, they're weaning him onto seeds. I forgot to ask the breeder if we can pay for a bag of pellets and get them to wean him onto that so we don't have to switch him over to pellets ourselves once he comes home.

We went over to play with him for a while today. He can step up pretty well now. I've been playing "staircase" with him — hold my finger across his tummy and make him step up onto my finger; then hold the other finger up and make him step up again; repeat. =)

I think this is his first week of not being fed. After we put him back, it was kinda sad to see him making that "I'm hungry" squawking and ambling after us, or the caretaker, thinking that he would be next for feeding. He could see the other birds being fed, but nobody was paying any attention to him.

Poor little guy. But he has to learn to eat on his own. ={

weather	:		clear
outside	:		12°C
mood	:		chipper

Earlier this week, I said:

We're on a breeder's waiting list for a hand raised cockatiel. We went to see them over the long weekend and we saw one of the two chicklets that we might get if the people before us on the list end up not taking him/her/can't-tell-yet.

They had an older chicklet (5 weeks old; hatched March 16) that was already taken out of the nest and being hand fed. There was also a younger chicklet (2 weeks old) that was still in the nest with its mother. One of the two people ahead of us either didn't respond or didn't want it anymore. So, we were next in line.

Originally, the first person on the list was going to take the older bird and we'd get the younger bird when it was weaned. But that lady said she'd rather wait for the younger one because she was going away for a while in the immediate future.

( So The Little Turkey[TM] is now ours. =) We still don't have a name for him. )But that's okay, we have a while to give him a name yet. We won't be bringing him home until about early May. We were invited to go in, see him and do the mid-day feeding ourselves so that he can get used to us =)

This afternoon after lunch, Husband Guy, Mother-In-Law and I went over to pay for The Little Turkey. We thought we had missed feeding time, but they said they were just getting to it and had me feed him. They give them this mushy stuff from a big syringe.

Coby, one of the caretakers, showed me how to pick him up or alternatively, hold him on the counter if that was easier, squirt the food into his mouth and how to clean up his face when he got messy. When he did it, it was all nice and neat. All the food went into the bird's mouth and everything. It looked easy.

Then he let me take over.

Oh. My. God. The little guy was squirmy and ravenously hungry. I either couldn't feed him fast enough or I was near drowning him. He had food all over his face, it was dribbling on the counter top, all over me and sometimes, he'd spittle some of it back at me. I tried cleaning him up with the warm water like Coby did, but I just ended up giving him a head bath. By the time I was done, The Little Turkey looked like a nuclear disaster from the neck up. Coby and the other caretaker girl just laughed and said he always gets food all over his head at feeding time.

We should just name him What-A-Mess and be done with it. =\

Husband Guy got some pictures and some AVI movies of me feeding him. But, just in case you were expecting one of those cute fuzzy little yellow things from Easter, I have to warn you first:

( He's NOT CUTE at all! )

In fact, he's actually quite scary-looking and fugly. He has a little more plumage than the last time we saw him and he will grow into a lovely cockatiel. But just so you know, we weren't kidding when we said he looks like a miniature plucked turkey that was just jumped by a street gang.