New Platform Perch for Moriarty

When Moriarty arrived, he came with a corner platform perch in his cage.  Though he has since moved into Dalai’s old cage (the Silver Villa), he still spends time in his old cage every day.

Moriarty napping on his old perch

The platform perch in there is one of his favourite spots, especially for a nap.

He had chewed down the rim at the part where he rests his head, which in itself is not a problem, but a little further along, a nail of unspecified metal was exposed.  I thought, it is time for a new, safe perch.  I did some research to find a perch of the same, or nearly the same dimensions, & ordered a custom made one from The Natural Bird Product Company (https://www.naturalbirdco.co.uk) who craft natural perches & toys by hand in the UK.

It arrived on the 2nd July.  It took me a while to get around to installing it as although the new platform perch slotted through the small Ferplast Canto door, the old one did not.  I thought it might come out through the bottom tray but that area is heavily padded so it was actually easier to take the top off the base & get the perch out that way.  It was a good opportunity to give the cage a thorough clean too.

The only worry about acceptance was that the new perch is slightly shorter than the old one.  Stupidly, I forgot about one side being 1 cm shorter, & installed it with the short side along the front.  There was about 1.5 cm difference with the old perch along that edge.  Moriarty took to the new platform perch quickly, but for general purposes only…

Moriarty on the new platform perch

He struggled to find his old napping position on the severely shortened length, often looking like he was going to tip off the edge…

He resorted to napping in different places…

Moriarty napping on the door platform

Moriarty napping on a different perch

Seeing his struggle, I remembered the new platform perch had a longer side, so I flipped it around & for good measure, also threaded through a wooden slat (0.6 cm thickness), bringing the perch closer in length to the old one.

Moriarty napping comfortably on his new perch

Balance in Moriarty’s universe was restored.  He was back napping comfortably on the platform perch in no time!

A Helping Hand

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.

Perry & Moriarty

Moriarty & Perry

Lennie, Perry & Moriarty

Perry & Moriarty

Perry

 

 

Favourite head rubbing perch

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

 

Tales from Quarantine – Thirty-Five Second Tour (8 of 8)

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

 

Tales from Quarantine (1 of 8)

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.

Before

After

 

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!

Gravity seed fountain

Stainless steel bowl

 

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!

 

 

Change of scenery

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:

Lennie snoozing in Dalai’s cage

Perry on Dalai’s swing

 

 

 

Lennie and the Long Perch

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!

 

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.

Remembering Phineas at Christmas

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.

 

 

 

Bezukhov’s addendum

Last year, Bezukhov wrote an informative post on “How to Avoid Taking Your Medicine” (click here to read it).  This is an addendum to that post.  Apparently, another key method has come to light & Bezukhov wants it documented.  Here is what he has to say:

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Hello millions of followers & fans.  It’z Bezukhov here.

I hope you all found my post on how to avoid taking your medicine helpful.  The first & most important method of avoidance dat I wrote about was to ‘Stay Free And Avoid Kapture‘.  As my human usually traps me in the Manor, my area of ‘staying free’ iz very limited.  Kapture iz, I am most annoyed to say, inevitable.

However, there is another technique dat kan be deployed to seriously undermind the authority of the human: ‘Feet Clamp‘.  This iz where you stay still but firmly clamp your feet around the perch.  It sounds too simple to be effective, but effective it iz.  The human kannot move you away or pick you up.  They kan try to pull you up off the perch but stay strong, & you will go nowhere.

Your human may den have to use their other hand to prise your toes from the perch.  Remember to do The Clamp on the highest perch so your human has to do all this on tiptoe.  S/he will give up soon enough.

I think this technique iz a worthy addition to my original post.  I just had to share.

Whilst I am in a sharing & confiding mood & I have your attention, I would like to give public thankz to my best buddy Cagney.  In the last week or so, he has got increasingly displeased at the way our human harrasses me every 48 hours & has rebelled.  The times when Mama has her hands around me, but kan’t move away as I am clamped to the perch (see above), an impetuous Cagney leans across from his perch & viciously attacks ¹ her hand to get her to let me go.  I am very grateful for his support at such a time.  Thankz Caggers!

I also grudgingly give thankz to Mama for allowing me this platform to express my thoughts & opinions.

Wishing you all plentiful seed.

Over and out. x

Me!

My bruvver from another hen

 

[1] ‘Viciously attacks’ can be interchanged with ‘gently nibbles’ (Cagney has no idea how to bite), onesweetiepea (ed)

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