Tales from Quarantine – Crinkled Paper (2 of 8)

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!

 

Curly paper in seed pot

 

Lennie’s Pleasurable Places

This post has been a long time coming & because of that, is quite long & video heavy.  Warning over!

From early on, Lennie began to wiggle & jiggle when & where he could.  He has come across as experimental but it is possible he has just not been fussed & made the most of whatever was available at the required time.  In the following videos you can get a flavour of his open-mindedness.

1st December 2016 – Raffia toy.

 

14th December 2016 – Perch, holding onto millet.

 

22nd December 2016 – White seed feeder.

A Taming Tool

Three years ago I posted on the joys of curly paper (click here).   The latest recruit is Dalai.  He loves curly paper!

 

He quickly makes short work of what I peg up for him.  The floor underneath him is littered with chewed up bits.  I thought that curly paper may be the thing that helps with taming.  (I say ‘taming’ but I really mean getting Dalai to not be scared of my hand.)

As soon as my hand goes into the cage, Dalai usually retreats to behind a mirror, whether it is his red mirror or the mirror on the swing.  Food did not seem to entice him out.  Curly paper has.  I hold up a strip & let it wave & wobble & gradually his curiosity gets the better of him & he stretches out to chew it.  As he tears off the paper, he has to get nearer my fingers.  After a few days of doing this, he got to within about 3 inches of my fingers which was a breakthrough, given that he would usually hide.  With a little more patience, he tentatively touched the tip of my finger with his beak!

We are now at the stage where he nibbles the tips of my two fingers that are holding what is left of the curly paper.  He still does this from the safety of the swing.

I want him to associate nice things with my hand/fingers.  I did not think that curly paper would be my ally in this task!

 

A beady mirror

The lantern mirror has always been popular in this household.  Since Atilla kindly removed the clapper off the bell & I later removed the bell, the mirror has undergone some transformations.  Here is the latest, adorned with paper rope & little beads:

–

And here are Phineas & Thomas checking it out:

Curly paper

The simple things in life can be the most effective. 

• Take some plain paper. 
• Curl it. 
• Peg it up.

Watch Cagney chew the paper & stay out of trouble for all of 1 minute 6 seconds….

Watch Atilla chew the paper & Cagney join her in chewing the paper……

End result - no more curly paper