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!
I have always thought that arranging the furniture in a cage is a skill. There are lots of questions to ask, like will the position of this perch/toy mean it is covered in poop? Will the toy be in an accessible yet challenging place? Is there enough space for wings to be stretched or even for a fly?
I thought I had considered all things when rearranging Moriarty’s cage yet somehow he found a glitch in the design. If he dismounts his swing in a certain way, one of the bottom bells gets caught in the Olympic rings! Despite this being a fault, it almost turns into a new toy. The swing’s bell is now in a great position to be biffed, & the swing can still be used, even at the funny angle!
As I rearranged Moriarty’s cage, he had new toys to play with. It was good to see his curiosity in action & to see him exploring new things. The Olympic rings have been a successful addition.
During quarantine, I introduced Moriarty to dried grass. It was one of the few things that kept him quiet for a few minutes!
Moriarty is a fan of shiny things. This was apparent quite early on. He was often playing with the bell at the bottom of his chewy toy & the bells on the bottom of his swing.
His mirror gets a lot of attention which is probably expected for a bird that was on his own.
I suspected he would appreciate the disco ball, which he does!
I love my disco ball!
I love these shiny bells!
I love this bell!
Cor, what a handsome chappy!
During quarantine, I introduced Moriarty to vegetables, with varying success. Actually, truth be told, not a lot of success! He was not scared of what I was offering, but did not really eat anything with any gusto. Post-quarantine he has expressed more than a passing interest in apple. I am hoping that more time spent with Perry & Lennie will encourage more vegetable eating.
Trying the baby corn
First bite of broccoli:
The salt lick has been popular with all birds I have introduced it to & Moriarty was no exception:
It was obvious very early on that Moriarty liked lots of stimulation.
His home was the Ferplast Canto which has rotating seed pots incorporated into the design. These were not being used & were turned outwards. I decided to swivel one back around & fill it with crinkled paper. This has proved to be a hit!
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.
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!
Please welcome our new addition to the flock, Morty Moriarty!
He is a rehome & was dropped off here by his concerned owners who felt he was not getting the attention he deserved. He arrived on Friday the 16th October, with a large cage & a bag of food, toys & accessories. After a little over three weeks of quarantine in my bedroom, on Sunday 8th November, I wheeled him into the room to meet Perry & Lennie.
I have not let Morty Moriarty out yet. Though Perry & Lennie have had a few days with him, getting used to the extra noise, so far they have not gone to visit him. Moriarty is the other side of Dalai’s cage (that seems to be the name for the Silver Villa now…) which is quite a trek given that their health/flying problems have curtailed their movements somewhat.
Nevertheless, on the first day, Lennie did venture out onto the top of their cage door & peered across at Moriarty, so I am hoping he will pluck up a bit more courage in the next few days & maybe go into Dalai’s cage to get a closer look.
Moriarty is less than one year old & still has a young outlook. He is very lively. He is not afraid of hands though does like to bite, however, he loves bells, so if he is on my hand, biting, I just steer him towards a bell & he is distracted!
I am looking forward to telling you more about him & also reporting on new flock dynamics which I am hoping will be all positive!
Spearmint Perry & Lennie Denisov came to our home on the 14th of November 2016. They had been in a busy cage of about 10-12 budgies. Though I specifically got two so they had company during quarantine, I thought it still might take some time for them to adjust to the quieter surroundings. I hoped they would also become friends during quarantine.
They were indeed very quiet that first evening; both sat together on the perch in the corner. Fortunately, the perch they chose to sit on had the millet spray by it, so they were able to eat something without having to be particularly brave.
It did not take long for Perry & Lennie to relax into their new cage. They were relatively quiet at first, but tucked into the millet quickly & had a tentative explore of their new home. I initially put seed in a dish on the floor of the cage as that was how they were used to feeding. I was happy they were eating but it was quite a few days before I actually saw them drink.
Gradually, they started checking out different things. They found the little white dish with tonic seed. They found the central chewy toy which provided (& still provides!) hours of beak action. That particular toy was a success – the raffia could be chewed & pulled out, the paper string could be chewed & the little knots untied & beads could be played with (before they fell off!) & wooden blocks could be climbed.
It took them a bit longer to work out how to use the swing, but once they did, they used to sleep together on it of a night.
Puddings & Toyboys 