A blog about my beautiful budgies.
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.
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!
Around the time of retiring the Manor & introducing the New Villa, I came across a triangle shaped piece of cage in a charity shop. It looks like it was a triangle shaped door but I pictured it as a landing platform.
When it came to the new living arrangements with the two Villas, I set it up to use on the New Villa, resting on top of the main door when open. It is pegged along one side to the part of the Villa that the door closes against. The other side rests along the open door, with a tie to keep it in place.
It has proved to be a popular platform, particularly with Dalai who appears to have commandeered it. From what I can see, a password is needed before anyone else can go on it. No password? Then you get beaked off!
Following on from my post on Lennie’s pleasurable places, I will attempt to balance things out by reporting on Perry’s pleasurable places. Perry has not been anywhere near as prolific as Lennie in the wiggle/jiggle department, but has indulged nevertheless. His first foray into this habit was with the red mirror.
28th February 2017 – The red mirror.
However, Perry’s current preferred pleasurable place is the green peg (below).
26th June 2017 – The green peg.
I choose to believe this behaviour is completely normal. 🙂
Perry
A favourite perch is the wooden peg. For some time now, years in fact, a peg has been positioned on the inside of the Manor landing platform. Sitting on it affords good views across the room. Its most attractive feature is most probably that there is only space for one bird to sit on it at a time. It has been used by all: Atilla, Raspy, Cagney, Bezukhov, Phineas & Thomas.
There is one disadvantage of this peg. To me, that is. When the landing platform is lowered, the peg has to be removed as it is redundant & just flops there, taking up space. During recent turbulent times when the landing platform was raised & lowered many times an hour, it occurred to me there must be a more efficient way to deal with this that could satisfy both myself & the toyboys (current Manor occupants).
Enter The Natural Bird Product Company (http://www.naturalbirdco.co.uk/)
When I broached them about this dilemma, they agreed to make a smaller version of one of their existing designs. And here it is!
Dinky perch: length 10cm, stem height 6cm
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This new dinky T-shaped perch mimics the qualities of the peg inside the manor but when the landing platform is lowered, turns into a useful perch. Of course there has been some avoidance of this new perch by Cagney & Bezukhov, but I can say now, a few weeks after its introduction, that it has been accepted, & here is the evidence:
(Click on photos to enlarge)
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Bezukhov has a favourite perch. He often sits on it when they have their outside-Manor time.
Is it on the custom-made play gym? No.
Is it the fancy-shaped natural wooden perch curling up from the top of the Manor? No.
Is it the rope perch trailing round the side of the manor? No.
It’s the teething ring. Yes. A simple baby teething ring is his favourite perch.
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Cagney is partial to the wooden peg too. Why do they prefer the cheapest perches?!
Atilla can be an independent girl when she wants to be. She likes to keep tabs on the mirror under the Manor & often requests the HNS to ferry her there & back. However, shockingly, I am not always available to attend to her every whim, so I rigged up a perch & peg system connecting the manor door to the stairway, giving her a pathway to the mirror.
It did not take long for her to make use of it….
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