Parakeets by the book....

What I really need to do is quit reading the book on parakeets, and stop looking on-line at cages and toys and perches and bells. Both Houdini and Bluebell are now used to me re-arranging the inside of their cage and I'm wondering if they look forward to each new day as a new opportunity for an HGTV program called "For The Birds."

According to the book, parakeets (or any caged bird) will get bored with their perches and toys..... well, I guess I would too if I were stuck in one spot for 24-hours every day. When we first found Houdini in the garden, and then bought Bluebell at PetCo so Houdini wouldn't get lonely, I hung up all the colorful plastic bird toys inside their cage. Tsk, tsk..... you're not supposed to give them all their toys at once.... they will play with everything the first couple of days, then get bored and not touch any of the toys at all. So out came all but one toy. (Funny how these parakeet toys look like those plastic baby-teething toys they sell at Kids R Us.)

Then the perches....... it's advised that you give the birds a choice between thick perches and thin perches..... this way, their little birdie-feet don't get cramped being in one position all the time. So out came one of the standard 1/2"-thick perches that came with the cage, and out I went into the yard to find small branches that had fallen from the pecan trees. Houdini and Bluebell liked the pecan branches so much that I took out the second standard perch and put in more pecan branches. When you look into their cage now, it looks like a small tree is growing inside, with branch-perches going across the width of the cage and thinner branches "growing" from the bottom of the cage towards the highest point of the roof-shaped top of the cage.

I had put a few jingle-type bells into the cage, attaching them to the plastic toys with some string. Tsk, tsk..... their beaks and their toe-nails can get caught in the little teeny openings on those jingle bells....... so out they came, and I'm still looking for bird-safe bells (little brass ones with a clapper on the inside). Until then, the parakeets are bell-less but are making up for it by having their toys alternated every couple of days. (No, these birds are not spoiled.)

The cats are still in the TV room for most of the day. In the afternoon, I put the parakeet cage out on the porch so the birds can get some air and watch the chickens, then I let the cats out of the TV room so they can explore the kitchen and breakfast room, and run up and down the back stairs. Mickey Kitty meows at the top of the stairs because the door is latched so they can't get to the front of the house or up to the second floor, and Sweet Pea meows by the back door because he knows that the birds are out on the porch and he can't get to them. The TV room isn't exactly a cat-prison...... they can look out the big screen doors in there, they have cat-sized furniture in front of the windows, countless toys and pillows..... plus they have their own private bathroom which is huge...... that wing of the house has become more of a cat play-room than a people TV-room. (No, the cats are not spoiled.)

At least three or four times a day, out comes the broom (with me attached to the handle) so I can sweep up the seeds that Bluebell spits out of the cage. The parakeet food has all sorts of seeds in the mixture, but when Bluebell gets to one he doesn't like, he spits it out-- out on the floor, not back into the dish or onto the bottom of the cage. (Picky, picky.)

According to the book, parakeets develop different personalities.... they are not all the same. With our two, Houdini is quiet and neat and inquisitive. Bluebell is forever chirping, forever grooming Houdini, trying to set a record for seed-spitting, and always trying to rearrange the pecan branches with his beak. Bluebell has successfully dislodged two of the branches..... one landing on the floor of the cage, the other one being pushed right out of the cage. Translation: he didn't (for whatever reason) like those particular branches. Result: I threw those away, found two new ones, washed and dried them both, and made a different arrangement in the cage. Bluebell seems to approve. (Shades of AngelBoy, my still-missed blue-eyed cat. Come to think of it, Bluebell is the same shade of blue that AngelBoy always loved. Coincidence or not?)