A blog about my beautiful budgies.
How I love to see Moriarty greet me in the morning.
When he hears me enter the room, if it is not too early, he will jump to the mid-height perch at the front of the cage and peer under the cover at me. I open the blinds, lift the covers a bit, then put my face up to him to say ‘Good Morning, Sweet Pie’…. taking care not to get my nostrils in biting distance!
Morning Moriarty
Morning Moriarty
Perry’s lack of flying (partly physical & partly, I suspect, laziness!) means he appreciates a helping hand to get around. Since Moriarty’s arrival, Perry has been increasingly keen to be out & about. To aid in this, I resurrected the Hand Navigation System (HNS), originally developed by Atilla.
There is a glaring difference in their ways of using the HNS. Atilla was firm & decisive, whereas Perry is less so. With Perry, there is a lot of changing of mind/direction & a lot of me asking, “Where do you want to go, Perry? Here? There? Nowhere?” Despite the different styles, the system still works well.
The major route is out of Moriarty’s cage to Moriarty’s old cage (Ferplast Canto) & locations in the vicinity, like the curtains & the back of the chair. Sometimes, Perry may even set foot on the window perch. He will also join Moriarty on top of the cages.
I have thought of setting up a perch system to get Perry from Moriarty’s cage to these areas but this would mean more perches to remove whenever I need to close up the cage quickly, particularly in an emergency, or need to move it for cleaning purposes. For now, I will continue to give Perry a helping hand.
It took time, but finally, on the 5th April, Moriarty braved the window perch!
Due to Perry & Lennie’s current lack of flying ability, the window perches have been out-of-bounds for well over a year (certainly Dalai was the last to use them). This has meant that Moriarty had to find his own way to the window perches, without anyone setting an example.
I would try & encourage him onto them when he was sat on my finger & a couple of times he would touch them & once even put his foot on one, but needed a bit more courage to take that next step. On the occasion I had Perry on my finger, I would take him over, hoping he would remember the old days when he liked to sit on the window perch but if I got too close he got a bit worried so I would withdraw.
Moriarty regularly sits on the back of my chair & looks out of the window from there. It was from that location that he took the brave leap to the window perch. Unfortunately he was not there long enough for me to record the historic occasion! However, since then, the window perch is now a regular haunt for him. I am pleased about that because it provides more stimulation, from watching birds, squirrels, wind through the trees, rain, people passing through or children playing games.
Perry often rubs his head on the ‘triangle’ perch. He steps down into it & rubs his head on a knobbly bit:
One time he fell asleep mid rub:
Perry
Moriarty puts his tour guide hat on & shows us around his quarantine cage:
Tour Itinerary
0:01: Begin on diagonal perch
0:05 Dried grass
0:08 Ladder
0:13 Platform perch
0:18 Perch where mirror is
0:24 Food bowl
0:25 Swing
0:27 Diagonal perch & platform perch (again)
0:28 Diagonal perch (again)
0:30 Middle of cage (flying area)
0:32 Conclude on perch where mirror is
Don’t give up the day job, Moriarty!
Moriarty
Moriarty coped with quarantine (Oct/Nov 2020) well but it was clear he needed lots of attention.
When his previous owners brought him in, & the cover was raised, there he was, swinging away, seemingly not bothered about the move. That first sight of him made me think he would take most things in his stride. As for the elephant in the room…. yes, he has a similar colouring to our dearly departed Bezukhov but in real life perhaps a greener shade.
Moriarty’s foot
His cage originally had 3 cement perches & a cement platform perch, along with a wooden perch & a wooden platform perch. I replaced the cement perches with a variety of wooden ones (there is nothing wrong with cement perches but ideally they should not be the main perches & not used as a roosting perch). I did notice a small red/orange spot on the underside of one foot which might have been the start of an irritation – it disappeared quickly. You will see from the photo posted here that the toenail on his short, forward toe angles inwards. The odd angle has not caused any noticeable problems.
As far as toys, he had a lovely swing with colourful, wooden beads, a mirror, a chewy toy with a bell at the bottom. I should note that the swing has two bells at the bottom – it was quickly apparent that he loves shiny things! I added some more toys, such as the rings, the disco ball (ultra shiny!) & a paper rope toy, along with some dried grass for further stimulation.
He was not scared of hands so though not tame, was not worried about me entering his cage to make all these changes. In fact, he had quite a bite on him but I think that may have lessened with the introduction of more toys to keep his beak busy!
The seed situation was curious as he had one of those gravity seed fountains mounted in one of the cage gaps for the incorporated seed bowls. Though he would perch on it, I never once saw him eat a seed from it! He had millet, so was not starving but at times when there was no millet, he still did not eat the seed. (It had an area underneath that collected the husks so I could see if he ate any). Given his love of shiny things, I put in a stainless steel bowl with seed & he immediately took to eating from that. Knowing he was eating the seed mix, I could start rationing the millet!
I also put in a water bottle along side his water fountain in the hope he would use it. During quarantine he never quite understood it was for drinking water, but was fascinated watching the bubbles go up the bottle as I pressed the water end. He also got quite attached to the shiny spout, often having long chats with it!
Perry’s mobility is gradually being compromised by his growing lump. With this in mind, I made a few adjustments to their cage to help him get around easier.
Lennie back home, Perry still in Dalai’s cage
The first hurdle was for Perry & Lennie to vacate their home so I could go in & make the changes, so I was on alert waiting for an opportunity. As ‘luck’ would have it, on the 24th October, I was scraping some poop off a perch with my fingernail (a not unusual occurrence) & Lennie decided this was a scary thing & shot out the cage. He landed over by the window. He made it back to the nearest safety, which was Dalai’s cage, in two stages, which, although it does not sound great, I was quite encouraged by, given his flying problems. I then got Perry & put him in Dalai’s cage also.
It was a relief to have full control of their cage & the first thing I did was give it a thorough clean! The main change I made was to have a perch run the full length of the cage at the top, hopefully giving Perry an easy walk from one end to the other & therefore easier access to the top level. I also moved the water bottle from the salt lick perch up there. The only slight issue is when he has to jump down to the seed pots but I have also lowered the triangle perch that he jumps down from. There is also a rope perch at mid-level that I also adjusted.
Perry & Lennie
The bottom was already padded, but I added more padding. Most of the time, if he falls, he usually lands on the sisal rope perch that is stretched from the bottom-level to mid-level, but occasionally the padded bottom comes in handy.
The added advantage of the extra long perch across the top-level is that it makes a cross-junction with the branch perch. I did not realise at the time, but that is a particularly good thing as sometimes Perry struggles to turn 180 degrees on the perch, so the cross-junction allows him to turn 90 degrees at a time.
All the changes were well & good but would be useless if not accepted by Perry & Lennie. Lennie was the first to venture back in & managed to avoid the long perch for a bit. However, by the time Perry strolled in, Lennie had broken in the long perch. I may make some further adjustments later on, but for now, all seems well.
Perry & Lennie
Perry & Lennie often pop into Dalai’s cage for a change of scenery.
Lennie is the more frequent visitor & will be in & out, but Perry also visits & spends some time ‘chilling’. Initially, they were wary of moving around the cage, almost like they were uncomfortable that Dalai was not there, but over time they have become more relaxed.
That said, neither have dared to sit on Dalai’s perch at the back on the far right (a twig-like perch, diagonally across the corner). Dalai did not allow them to sit on it. Perry accepted this rule pretty quickly & did not bother to attempt to sit there. Lennie wanted to sit next to Dalai on that perch, but the nearest he could get was to cling to the cage bars near the perch & if his luck was in, Dalai would go over & chat to him. If Lennie was feeling particularly bold, he would tentatively climb onto the perch when Dalai was otherwise engaged at the seed trough, but he was on edge & never hung around there for longer than a minute.
(Incidentally, Bezukhov was allowed to sit on this perch, possibly because he lived in the cage before Dalai & it would have seemed churlish not to allow him!)
Even though Dalai is not here, Perry & Lennie still do not sit on Dalai’s perch.
Here is a rare moment when Perry sat on Dalai’s swing:
Recently, to encourage Perry & Lennie to explore a bit more outside their comfort zone, I rigged up a long perch between the two cages.
As the cages are both the same & alongside each other, when their main, middle doors are open, it lends itself to having a perch connecting across them. It just needed to be a long perch, which fortunately I have. Once in place, Perry & Lennie naturally ignored it, but at least were not scared of it. Extra encouragement was needed, so I pegged some seeding grass to it. Eventually, Lennie decided it was worth braving this new perch for the treat.
When I saw him jump on the perch, I grabbed the camera & filmed:
As you can see there was the obligatory faffing about, a brief chew of the prize, followed by tucking into grass nearer to him!
This time last year, I posted about our first Christmas without Cagney. This year, we face Christmas without Phineas.
Phineas
In the photo above, the perch he is sitting on is still in the same place in the Villa, in the front doorway. In fact all is how he left it, so I can easily picture him in all perching spots. This particular spot reminds me of a specific occasion last summer.
I was out all day & came home after their bedtime. Bezukhov, Phineas & Dalai were in bedtime positions in the Villa, but because my sitter was still there they were not locked up & their front door was still open. When Phineas saw me, he sleepily got off his swing & made his way to that perch. I approached & held my hand out to him. He regurgitated to my finger. It was only a quiet, brief session as he was tired, but it made me feel so loved, missed & needed. That little action by my beautiful little grey man seemed to say, “Where have you been today? I have missed you. Here’s some regurgitated seed I have been saving for you. Glad you are back home. I’m going back to bed now I have seen you.”
So, this Christmas (& every day in fact) I am thinking of Phineas. I am also thinking of Cagney & hoping they are having fun together over by rainbow bridge with Atilla, Raspy & Thomas.
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Puddings & Toyboys 