Life with Muffin

[calzephyr77]

I placed a big order with Parrot Trends a few weeks ago and here's some of the fun stuff that arrived. Muffin's old X-shaped perch was chewed up and needed replacing. He got a toenail caught in another perch, so that one went. Muffin doesn't deal with change easily. He also hasn't shown interest in the new toys. I gave the pinata to the budgies and

Comments

[ext_5649257]

Yeah, it can take a while for birds to accept or show interest in new toys. If they're not afraid of it, just leave it in their cage and in a few weeks (maybe) they'll be chewing on it!
The photo of the perch that your cockatiel is on...the perch looks very uncomfortable to me. I suggest getting a soft rope perch (I think they're called a Booda rope perch). Most pet stores carry them, or Amazon.com, or your favorite online bird supply store. Or a natural wood perch, such as grape wood (also at bird supply stores). The one in the photo could cause sores on your birds feet (you don't want to deal with that, neither does your bird).

[calzephyr77]

The perches are JW comfy perches and similar to the Booda ones. Muffin is sitting on the front door of his cage. He also has three natural wood perches, a pedi perch, which he barely sits on and a plain wooden one. Don't worry, he has a lot of surfaces to sit on since he's out of the cage most of the day and the bird groomer comes frequently to trim his nails :-)

[thtsgoodsquishy]

Is it weird that I was just thinking the other day, we haven't had a Muffin update in a while...

I remember those days! I would buy stuff for my girl and she would want nothing to do with it. Sometimes I would play with some of the items to make her jealous, and that would make her come over and check stuff out.

Muffin's posture is so cockatiel, though--Why did you put this weird stuff in my cage? This is my sanctuary! I had it just right! Now it's RUINED!

Does Muffin make unhappy noises about any of this? My girl did. But she would do something similar to what Muffin's doing in the picture--stay on the cage, but get as far as possible from the new items. Eventually she'd start checking stuff out, but it would take a while, and sometimes she'd yell at it while doing so. Birds are funny like that.

[calzephyr77]

Muffin's posture is so cockatiel, though--Why did you put this weird stuff in my cage? This is my sanctuary! I had it just right! Now it's RUINED!

LOL, isn't it? He treated the new perch like lava for a week, daintily stepping over it and sticking to his branch. I also had the nerve to move his water cup and cuttlebone because for some reason, even though I put the new perch almost exactly where the old one was, it didn't line up anymore.

I tried playing with the new toys too and Muffin seems to think I can keep them ;-D

I update his Facebook at least once a week--I'm taking three classes this semester, so it's been busy! The link is http://www.facebook.com/MuffinBird

[mimimanderly]

I find that my three parrots like different sorts of toys, and just will not play with toys outside their favorite category. Petey, my Yellow-Nape, likes bells, and his swing is his absolute favorite. He can make it swing wildly by climbing to the top cage bars and climbing back onto the swing, which he enjoys. Max, my Grey, LOVES his bells (we call them his "jazz bells", since he also loves listening and whistling to jazz). He also likes chewing on corrugated boxes. We keep a steady supply on top of his cage. These guys don't seem to care for chewing on wood block/rope toys. Mikey, my Mealy Amazon, likes those, especially in the evening. She likes a good pre-bedtime chew. So generally, if one bird doesn't take to a toy, I just put it in someone else's cage.