Operation Getting the Flock Together

Since presenting Moriarty to Perry & Lennie on the 8th November, we have embarked on a gradual introduction programme.

The first priority is to ensure that Perry feels safe & protected.  His health issues have highlighted extra vulnerability in particular with limited mobility.  I decided at the outset to ensure his cage is a safe haven & therefore to not allow entry to Moriarty.

Of course preparation is key.  Before letting Moriarty out, I needed a way to encourage him to go back in!  I had noticed that Moriarty does not eat much during the day & although he likes millet, could leave a fresh piece untouched all day until evening time.  It seems millet would not be an adequate enticer.  Enter the green peg!  Yes, he seems attached to a green peg.  This would be my means of control!  With that decided, after giving Moriarty a week to acclimatise to his new surroundings, I let him out on the 15th of November.  Perry & Lennie were locked in.

Moriarty strolled out onto the door platform to greet the green peg.  He was immediately intrigued by the curtains just by his cage & stepped up on my finger where I could take him closer whereby he had a good chat.  He returned to the peg on the door platform.  He then plucked up courage to have a fly!  He did several laps of the room & then landed on Dalai’s cage.  He again returned to the green peg.  I ushered him inside so we could all recover!  Perry & Lennie were a bit shell-shocked at suddenly seeing this mad green thing zooming around the room!

First time out:

 

Unfortunately, because I was closely monitoring Moriarty’s adventures, there are few photos/videos.  Plus, the days have been so dark, photos look pretty bad!

We proceeded with short outings, building up to 30 mins to an hour (depending on when he would voluntarily go back inside his cage).  These would happen up to three times a day.

I will detail some of the outings in further posts.

We have got to a point where Moriarty regularly visits Perry & Lennie.  Perry finds it stressful when Moriarty is prowling around on top of their cage so I put a line of curly paper along a perch that Perry usually sits on.  Moriarty is indifferent to curly paper, though he likes crinkle paper.  For a time, he avoided the curly paper meaning Perry was comfortable beneath.  It was not long before he started chewing it though, so I switched to a covered strip of lino which, so far, he has not paid attention to.

Once secure in knowing Moriarty was not crawling about above him, Perry could relax & have a grumble, a snooze or a preen.  Sadly, he has chosen not to interact with Moriarty & I think his general well-being has coloured that decision because under normal circumstances I am sure he would have been very welcoming.  Fortunately he is not jealous that Lennie is pursuing a friendship with Moriarty.

Moriarty’s first day out

Moriarty’s 2nd day out

Lennie on his way to Moriarty’s

Lennie visiting Moriarty

 

Lennie & Moriarty have lots of beak taps & flirty moments through the bars.  When Moriarty is locked in, Lennie now regularly visits him.  Admittedly, millet played a part in prizing him out initially, but gradually he has become more confident & routinely goes over to Moriarty’s cage & sits on the visitor’s perch.

On the 11th of December, we had another milestone where Lennie & Moriarty met ‘in person’, i.e., without cage bars between them!  That will be detailed in another post!

I am very proud of Moriarty.  He has an easy confidence that helps enormously when he is negotiating new surroundings.  I am also very proud of Lennie.  He has summoned courage to come back out of his cage & to jump & leap ‘into the unknown’ (as far as he is concerned).  Though Perry appears to have opted out of a new friendship, he has graciously allowed Lennie to forge ahead without displaying anything negative, such as jealousy, to hold him back.

I have three very different, but amazing boys!

Moriarty visiting Perry & Lennie

Moriarty on top of Perry & Lennie’s cage

Moriarty

Lennie visiting Moriarty

 

Introducing Morty Moriarty!

Please welcome our new addition to the flock, Morty Moriarty!

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.

Perry & Lennie’s cage | Dalai’s cage | Moriarty’s cage

 

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!

Moriarty

 

 

The Toyboys Return

Cagney & Bezukhov have been in my bedroom for about a month (see Separation post).  In some ways it can be viewed as being on the “naughty step”, & though this makes sense with Cagney, I hesitate to tar Bezukhov with the same brush.  Why one month?  When I separated them I did not have a set time in mind – I thought I would go with the flow.  As the toyboys have been quite settled in my bedroom, it was easy to keep them there.

Nevertheless, they had to return to the lounge (& Phineas & Thomas) one day & the time had come.

I wheeled the Manor in to much shouting, chirping, cheeping & jumping up & down.  From all of them.  It was good to see the excitement of them all being together again. 

–

However, my plan was to keep them locked up for at least a day so they could talk to each other & hopefully the novelty would wear off so that when it is time to unleash the hounds budgies, there will be no fighting.  (I can dream).

Of them all, predictably, Bezukhov appeared the most level-headed.  Though he contributed an equal share of exuberance, he recovered quickly & took to going about his normal daily business of preening & eating.  He even returned to his soapbox (the platform perch) & spent ages putting the world to rights, most probably making up for the time spent in the wilderness bedroom.  (The perch had not gone away, but clearly its soapbox status depends on which room it is in).

Cagney, as usual, was inciting chaos through the bars.  Though I had hoped a month on the naughty step (bedroom) would teach him that causing trouble is not acceptable, I was secretly pleased to see the mischievous glint in his eye was still there.

Phineas was over the moon to see Cagney was back.  He did not know what to do with himself so just basically ran around & jumped & (just the once) belly bumped Thomas off the perch.

Thomas also looked happy to see the toyboys & copied Phineas in how to express his pleasure.  I even saw him run up & down the cage floor which he has never done, though it is a staple behaviour of Phinny.

So, not only had the toyboys returned, but the noise had too.  I had forgotten how much noisier four are compared to two.  Once again, when on the phone, the person on the other end would ask if I was in a pet shop?!

For the time being all is well.  What will happen when they are unlocked & unleashed, I really do not know!

–

Separation

It was with a heavy heart that I decided to split up my flock.

After the mayhem that I last reported on, I decided they needed some cooling off, some downtime, some peace.  Oh wait…. that may have been me that needed those things…..  Actually, I felt their behaviour left me with little choice.  So, Cagney & Bezukhov have been temporarily moved to my bedroom, leaving Phineas & Thomas in the lounge.  In a way this is reverting back to an earlier stage of quarantine.

The logic of this new arrangement is to see if Phineas & Thomas can get on together & then I can perhaps introduce them to Cagney & Bezukhov (again) as mates.  Perhaps this will make a difference?  Only time will tell.

Fortunately, the toyboys have settled well in the bedroom.  They were out & comfortably flying around the room quickly.  Because of a lack of landing areas they do a lap or two & return to the manor each time.   Surprisingly, so far I have only found one tiny toyboy poop on my pillow.  I would prefer a mint but I am not complaining….

Day one of only Phineas & Thomas in the lounge resulted in Phineas knocking about the room all day by himself whilst Thomas chose to stay in the Ferplast.  Here is Phineas having a shout & I suspect ordering Thomas to come out & join him:

–

However, come late afternoon, Thomas emerged.  Phineas got very excited to have some company:

–

Thomas was only interested in having a bath though:

–

However, after he had dunked himself in the water, he seemed happier to socialise: 

–

During the evening they settled on the playgym together.  Unfortunately, they both seemed to have forgotten where their homes were, so as it got quite late, I had to grab them & pop them in their respective cages.

Thomas & Phineas snoozing on the playgym

–

That was the routine for the next 3 days… Phineas came out & had to entertain himself until around 5pm, when Thomas came out, had a bath & was then ready for socialising.

So far, so good.  All is calm

n-body problem

The n-body problem, also known as many-body problem or multiple-body problem, defines the gravitational attraction of multiple bodies & has plagued mathematicians and physicists for more than a century.

I will refer to others who are far more intelligent on this subject, specifically this website, suite101.com (Edit December 2022: webpage no longer available, please search for Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation for detailed explanations!), & link the research to what has been happening here (my comments in blue).

Isaac Newton published his rather simple equation for universal gravitation in 1687.  The force of gravity between two objects decreases in an inverse proportion to the square of the distance between them.  Uh huh… Fair enough.

Simple as this may seem, what happens when a third object is added into the mix?   Third object = Phineas.

Could it be as simple as just adding another variable to Newton’s equation?  Of course not.   Certainly not where Phineas is concerned.

The three body problem, in fact, turns out to be so very difficult that it has stumped mathematicians and physicists alike for centuries now – ever since Newton’s original equation first arrived on the scene.  And I thought *I* could solve it???

As difficult as the three-body problem is, it is almost indescribably simple compared to the problems created by adding further bodies to the equation.   Further bodies = Thomas.

Multiple Bodies and Chaos  Uh huh… that’s what I have here…

What is the reason for these difficulties?  Very good question.

Simply put, anything more than two bodies in a system, and the solution can very quickly turn into one best exemplified by Chaos Theory.  That explains it perfectly.  Chaos.  Mayhem.  It’s all here.  I have a lounge demonstrating this.

Multiple bodies cause perturbations on each other which, while perhaps small and miniscule at first, become compounded as more time passes, quickly multiplying the variety of possible outcomes by an exponential degree.  Ok, ya lost me here.  But still, Chaos Theory?  Cool… It’s in my lounge!

A mad day of fighting and flirting

Who knew that flirting could cause such mayhem.  Indeed, cause such fighting… 😦

They were all out.  Cagney & Bezukhov were chasing Thomas, wanting to flirt with him.  Phineas chased Thomas to fight with him.  Thomas wanted a little flirt with Cagney but Bezukhov wanted to flirt too & of course Phineas was incensed that Thomas appeared to be taking Cagney away from him.

As Phineas was actually out to fight & not flirt, I grabbed him first & put him back in his cage.  This should ease things.  However, without Phineas, it seemed Cagney & Bezukhov were more likely to fight with each other, over Thomas.  It was just chaotic, as can be seen from this shameful video:

–

As it was easier to catch Cagney & Bezukhov, (Thomas is still suspicious of my hands) I managed to grab Cagney & put him in Thomas’s cage, (the Ferplast has small doors so it was easier to keep him in).  I then grabbed Bezukhov & put him in with Cagney.  The two of them carried on fighting for a few moments, rolling around the floor, but as they were now separated from Thomas, quickly ran out of steam & finally managed to compose themselves.

This left Thomas out on his own.

Peace reigned, albeit temporarily.  He briefly went in the Manor for seed, but otherwise, settled first on Phinny’s cage for a preen, then on the Ferplast.

After a few hours I quietly opened the Ferplast door.  Bezukhov came out first.  He had a blast with Thomas.  They were running around & flirting & getting on very well together:

–

At an opportune moment I managed to lock Bezukhov in the Manor & then Cagney came out of the Ferplast.  Thomas, was more than happy to have a flirt with him:

–

Again, at an opportune moment, I managed to also lock Cagney in the Manor with Bezukhov.  This left Thomas free to go back to his own home.  Alone.

In the odd calm moment, I could not help but be reminded of one of my earlier post “Who’s chasing me??“.  With all the shenanigans, still no one was chasing Phineas….

At the end of that day I was left confused about the best thing to do next….

It was a one-off

It appears that the spontaneous sleepover that I previously reported on, was a one-off.  Unfortunately, soon after, I had to be out most of the day so had to go back to the usual 3 cage bedtime routine as I did not trust having them all in the same cage overnight AND during the day.

So, Thomas returned to his own home. Phineas returned to his own home & Cagney & Bezukhov returned to the Manor.  That is a simple enough arrangement, however, Cagney & Bezukhov decided to throw a spanner in the works & at bedtime decide to perch on pegs hanging off Thomas’s cage. I have to wait until they are so tired that they will not protest when I take them back to their own home. They will not go back themselves because if one goes back for food, he thinks the other is flirting with Thomas & we cannot have that.

A Spontaneous Sleepover

Having recently posted about the musical cages situation, somehow, a few days later, they all ended up together in the Manor.  It was getting late in the evening & they were beginning to snooze.  In fact Cagney & Bezukhov retired to their usual bedtime perches in the loft area.  Both Phineas & Thomas stayed on the perch a level below.  Would they be sleeping overnight together??

As it got later, I partially covered them, ready for bed, but I left their front door open in case any of them changed their minds, but no, they were all settled.  When I finally went to bed myself, I quietly closed their door & wished them goodnight.  Naturally, I set my alarm to go off extra early so I could assess the situation as soon as possible the next morning…

Did they manage to sleep together overnight in the Manor??

Switching cages

Since young Thomas has emerged from the Ferplast, we have been playing a rather complicated game of musical cages.

Initially, I let Thomas roam about on his own, without the others to distract him.  He generally settled on either the Manor where the toyboys tried to woo him or on Phinny’s cage where Phinny generally ignored him.

Thomas outside, Cagney & Bezukhov inside the Manor

Thomas outside, Cagney inside the Manor

Thomas outside, Cagney & Bezukhov inside the Manor

Thomas outside, Phineas inside

–

After awhile, I let Phineas out.  He seemed a bit put out that Cagney was showing interest in this new, young whippersnapper.  Whilst he was civil to Thomas, once any serious flirting got underway between Thomas & Cagney through the cage bars, he was not quite so magnanimous.

Thomas & Phineas outside, Bezukhov & Cagney in the Manor

Thomas & Phineas outside, Bezukhov & Cagney in the Manor

–

Letting out Cagney & Bezukhov & therefore having all 4 out at the same time proved a little chaotic.  Thomas, being new to being out, was getting stressed at all the comings & goings.  He tried to eat seed in the Manor but Cagney kept trying to kiss him.  Not to mention Phineas trying to stop Cagney from kissing Thomas.  At one point, Thomas was in the Manor alone, so I quickly locked him in to give him time to collect his thoughts & also to eat some seed in peace.

Phineas & Cagney watching Thomas eat in the Manor

Thomas inside the Manor, Phineas outside

Thomas inside the Manor, Cagney, Bezukhov & Phineas outside

–

After that episode, I tried letting Thomas, Cagney & Bezukhov out, but not Phineas.  Phinny would go crazy in his cage watching Cagney flirt with Thomas.

Phineas inside, Cagney, Bezukhov & Thomas outside

–

Another time, Cagney & Bezukhov were in the Ferplast with Thomas but when Thomas came out I locked both Cagney & Bezukhov in, once again, to give Thomas some breathing space.

Bezukhov & Thomas inside the Ferplast, Cagney, Phineas outside

Bezukhov inside the Ferplast looking cute

Cagney & Bezukhov inside the Ferplast, Thomas & Phineas outside

–

Like I say, it has all been rather complicated.  There must be a formula for success that is already in existence.  I need to do some research….

Tempting Thomas out

The Ferplast is a very nice cage.  A good size & roomy; especially for just one bird, in this case, Thomas.

It is possible it is too nice as it has taken Thomas 3 weeks to leave it & venture into the big, wide world (lounge).

We have, of course, been trying to tempt Thomas to come out.  Food was the obvious choice: millet and/or fresh seeded grass.  Many times Thomas sat in the open doorway eating his treat.  Many times Thomas sat on the open door itself, eating his treat, but still turned his back & retreated to the safety of the Ferplast.

Thomas

It is possible he was intimidated by the others & in fact Cagney & Bezukhov were very quick to go in to visit Thomas rather than wait for him to come out.  This meant a lot of the enticing was done whilst the others were locked up.  I particularly wanted him to come out on his own as I feared the others would be too excited & chase him, making Thomas panic & possibly crash land somewhere & either hurt himself or put himself off of coming out again!

To see him finally choose to come out was a lovely moment.

He proved himself to be quite the thinker, taking his time before moving forward with his next step/jump/fly.  He carefully climbed from his open doorway to the top of his cage.  Then he jumped across to Phinny’s cage & slowly & cautiously made his way across.  After some deliberation, he then made his final leap onto the Manor & greeted Cagney & Bezukhov.

 

–

–