Hi Rita:
How's the little guy doing? I traded a few emails with JB this week and he was asking for all of you.
Iain
Hank is doing extremely well. Rita gets up earlier than anyone else in the house, and doesn't usually wake up Chula (who has her sleepy time cage in our bedroom on my side of the bed). If Hank is sleeping in, she leaves him be. many times, when he detects motion or hears something, he chirps. He has his cage fully covered at night except for the bottom couple of inches. I was just covering the back, but one night I covered the front as well and Hank did not object. As a matter of fact, the next time I put him to bed, I covered the back of the cage and was going to leave it that way. Hank kind of stood on his perch outside of his cozy hut and stared at me like he was saying "you gonna finish?". I covered the front and said goodnight and he appeared to be happy. Maybe he feels a little more secure that way. Anyway, back to the story. If Hank is awake, Rita takes him out of the cage and has some "quality time" with him. No Chula throwing her weight around. hehehe Of course quality time means goodies. I havent weighed hank, but he seems to be filling out nicely. I know JB said "don't let him get fat", but I think he was underweight. We had a local breeder (who we trust with wing and nails trimming) look at him. She said that he wasn't dangerously underweight, but his keel bone was a little to prominent. I always thought that his wings felt a tad boney as well. As Hank has gotten more comfortable with us, he has been coming out of his shell a bit. He flaps his wings a lot more than he did. I hope that helps him build up the muscles in his wings a bit. He still doesnt let anyone help him preen his quills. His loss, as he doesn't know what he's missing. hehehe He has been preening himself like crazy, and Rita was a little concerned that he might be plucking. We are watching him closely, as I have heard him noticebly pluck what looked like a good feather out. I don't think it is anything to be concerned about at this point. Watching him closely though. Hank is playing more with toys now. He has a new favorite. We got him a hanging toy that is made of shiny metal pieces. He loves to stand on his top perch, grab the bottom piece of this toy and give it a good shake. So it seems he REALLY likes the shiny toys. I found a place online that has stainless steel toys for birds, so I am probably going to hook Hank up with some good stuff. Hank has his own boing, but he has decided that he likes to be on Chula's boing with her even though she really gets on his nerves and there are sometimes great beak battles between them. One of the other stainless steel toys they have is like a small metal cup that mounts horizontally in the cage by its bottom and has a length of chain coming out of it. The idea is that the bird will shake the chain and it will make noise. While I think Hank will get some joy out of that, I think he will also stick his head inside the cup and make his clucking noises like he does in the morning perched on a partially filled water glass. Speaking of noises, every day at some point, Chula will start making some noise or talking in her cage, and Hank lets out this series of loud sqawks. He keeps going until Chula stops. It's like he's telling her to shut up. Very funny. I swear Hank is trying to talk to me sometimes. Usually he starts making sounds like he is talking when I am talking to him. I stop, he stops. I start, he starts. Go figure. I have also found that Hank likes a good tussle. While tickling his neck, he will get to a point where he acts sort of aggressive. I kinda roll my finger around his head and neck as he tries to snag my finger for a good bite. The funny thing is that when he does catch my finger, he latches on, but doesn't bite down. It's like his way of saying "Ha, I got you. I win". Oh, and he is learning Rita's tickle tickle game. He is slow to accept it, but he is starting to see that these tickles under the wing are nice. I think its just a trust thing with him. Anyway, you say tickle tickle and he kinda starts to put his wing up a bit. I imagine before long he will be like Chula, throwing both wings up when he hears tickle tickle.
Wow, I have been on a tear here, with no paragraphs. sorry about that. Lastly though, Hank has been a comfort to me lately. My daughter suddenly and without notice moved out of the house and we have had no way of contacting her. She is 19, but decided that she didn't like the rules of the house. Needless to say, I was very upset. Hank would sit in his cage and look at me when I would come home and sit there overwhelmed by it all. I can't let him sit there looking at me know that he wants to come out. He props himself up on my shoulder and kisses me all over my face. He doesn't want anything but love and offers nothing else but love in return. It was a great help during a trying time. So, in closing, Hank is doing FANTASTIC.
Edited by KevKaos, 09 September 2010 - 03:36 PM.