New Year's Resolutions

That scary white stuff is all over the place outside, but I'm safe and warm inside in my cage with my walnuts and seed treats. It's the last day of the year and time for my parrot new year's resolutions. For 2013, I resolve to squawk as much as I can and eat as many walnuts as I can and be as cute as I can, and I also resolve to welcome everyone who visits our house with lots of preening and I'll try not to squawk too loudly in their ears but I'm not making any guarantees because I am, after all, a parrot.

Talking and Squawking

We had a visitor over Thanksgiving -- Miss Duke, an African grey parrot, kind of like Trouble but a little bigger. She's quite the talker. And not only that, she rings like a telephone and beeps like an answering machine and then makes noises like a telephone conversation. My person thought it was very interesting and paid a lot of attention to Miss Duke and laughed and laughed when she talked. Hmmmmph! Well, I can beep like a microwave oven or a telephone, too! And I can say "Pretty bird" all day long if I want to. But my feeling is that just about anything else I might want to say is easily conveyed with a few loud squawks, so what's the point of using all those other words?

It's Winter

I woke up this morning to find a whole bunch of that scary white stuff all over the place outside. My person says it's just a dusting. Dusting or not, you won't see me going outside until everything is green again like my pretty feathers. And even then I might not go out much. I didn't go outside in my carrier a lot last summer. I mean, why do that when you have a nice cozy cage inside and food dish that's always full?

The Thankful Parrot

Well, it's that time of year again -- Thanksgiving -- and time for my annual thankful blog. This year, as always, I am thankful to be a parrot and not a turkey. I am thankful to have a comfortable cage and a food dish that always is filled with tasty things to eat. I am thankful for my daily seed treats. I am thankful to have a kind person who feeds me and pets me and gives me a seed treat every afternoon, even though sometimes she yells at me when I chew her things or bite her and even though sometimes she makes me stay in my cage when I don't want to be there and even though sometimes she goes out all day and leaves me alone at home and even though sometimes she uses that scary vacuum cleaner near my cage and even though sometimes she plays with predatory things like scissors that I have to protect her from, but I love her anyway.

Running with Scissors

My person has been playing with scissors a lot recently and it's really freaking me out. She doesn't seem to understand how predatory they are. Every time she picks up the scissors, I have to bite her ear and squawk at her to warn her that danger is near, but she doesn't get it. She just gets mad at me. Sheesh! I'm only trying to protect her. Then she just leaves the scissors lying there on the table, so I have to fly over and attack them. It sure takes a lot of work to protect my person from predators. I wish she would just put those mean scissors away for good.

A Parrot's Opinion

Sometimes in my capacity as a professional parrot I am asked to give my opinion on things pertaining to parrots. Recently, the Purina Company kindly sent me a bag of their new parrot food and asked me to write about it in my blog. They gave me the food, but the opinions expressed here are, as always, my own. We parrots may like to "parrot" things we hear, but I promise you my opinions are not "parroted" (in that sense of the term). Anyhow, I received a bag of Garden Recipe parrot food, for parrots and large conures (that's me!). I was very excited when I saw my person opening the bag as I knew it contained something tasty for me. I can recognize a bag of parrot food a mile away. I should explain that this is not the type of food I normally eat. My person feeds me pellets, fruit, and table food, so I am used to eating all kinds of people food, and I love it. But I am always up for checking out something new. I was excited to see what kind of new food the bag contained. It is a mixture of things, including pumpkin seeds, peanuts, dried fruit, dried corn, pellets, and things that look like Cheerios. And sunflower seeds. Sunflower seeds! My absolute favorite thing in the world to eat. I set to work right away picking out the sunflower seeds and eating them. When I had finished them all, I kept picking through the rest of the pile looking for more sunflower seeds and was very disappointed not to find anymore. So I just flew up to my person's shoulder and sat there forlornly. After eating the sunflower seeds, the rest of the mix just didn't interest me. Now, I know my tastes aren't the same as other parrots'. If you are a parrot who likes dried fruit (I never touch the stuff), dried corn, or those things that look like Cheerios, you'll find plenty to interest you in the Garden Recipe mix. Personally, I like pellets and even enjoy the occasional pumpkin seed, but if there are sunflower seeds around, why would I eat anything else? My person says that's why she doesn't feed me this type of mix. You want my opinion? I think that's mean. I don't mind if all that other stuff is there as long as I get to eat the sunflower seeds. But my person says I can only have those as an occasional treat. Humph! So I guess I'll be sticking to my usual diet and will only be seeing the Garden Recipe at treat time. I'll look forward to that.

Autumn

The first week of October is almost over, so I guess it really is autumn. Around here, that means that the summer chewing frenzy is long over and we're now well into molting season. The bottom of my cage is covered with little down feathers, and my body is covered with lots of pin feathers (the new feathers growing in). It certainly is an itchy experience! However, my person gives me frequent baths, and that helps. Autumn means winter is just around the corner and soon we'll be settling into a cozy season of listening to the furnace rumble and roar (the poor furnace was sick again a few weeks ago and had to have some surgery, but it seems to be feeling much better now, thank goodness), eating wild berry jam on toast, and watching the snow fall. I sure hope all my down feathers will have grown back by then!