We are back to almost normal, the girl's Mother picked them up, then brought them back today for me to watch while she took the oldest one back to the Doctor. After several tests they proclaimed that she has a severe UTI with none of the usual symptoms, she is still running a high fever after six days. I am already missing the constant chatter of little girls, and how they can always find something for you to do when you sit down or are on the phone.
We are currently house-sitting for our neighbors which means, for the most part, my DH is at home and I am at the neighbors. I haven't milked but once in the last six days. But I am confident that he is doing a good job. He hand milks much better than I do, but my doe does prefer the spray nozzle milker, the bad part is that the dogs and cat are getting all of the milk.
Those who have followed my blog for a long time will know who Lolita is, she is a Yellow Naped Amazon Parrot who belongs to my neighbors. You can read how she sliced and diced my hand in this post: Back Home.
After she shredded my hand, I did gain some courage back and handled her several times afterward but then on New Year's day while we were at her house for dinner, she got agitated and grabbed her owner's cheek while sitting on her shoulder. She nearly took a chunk of meat out of my friend's face. I lost a ton of courage by witnessing this. After all, this is the lady who handles this bird daily.
So here I am, back to being her caretaker for a few days. She is cooing and flirting with me constantly. It is so hard for me to ignore her advances. She just keeps begging me to take her out of her cage and play with her. I did finally give in while my Husband was here last evening. She sat upon my shoulder and preened my hair, she kissed my face and rubbed her head on me, a perfectly well behaved, affectionate parrot. Who can turn into a man-eating dragon in a flash.
She sounds and acts so sweet with the girls, that I have to constantly warn them of the dangers of sticking their tiny fingers in the cage to pet her. The two year old was nearly beguiled by her sweet cunning ways.
Showing posts with label parrot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label parrot. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Back Home
I'll bet you thought that I was never going to blog again or that I had lost my typing fingers, that is almost what happened.
We have been staying at the neighbor's house while they were gone on vacation for the past three weeks. They are home now and we are moved back home. Running back and forth, taking care of everything there and everything here has nearly disabled me. I am down in my back for the most part but am getting better, I think.
I have mentioned the neighbor's parrot whom I adore before, but this is the rest of the story. She is temperamental to say the least, very moody. She will flirt with you until you fall for her cute ways, then when you try to touch her she will take off your finger.
She loves my husband and responds to him better than to me. She says "hello" every time he walks into the room. I can be with her all day and she does very little talking but the minute he walks in, she won't shut-up. However, when he puts his arm into her cage she quickly jumps on board but always ends up biting him at some point for no apparent reason. Her bites to my husband have only resulted in bruising.
She had only bitten me once when I first met her, but I have handled her a lot since then with no problems. When I walk up to her she will lower her head and press it against the cage for me to scratch her head. I get her out of her cage quite often if all of their dogs are outside or in their pet taxi's.
One night, I can't remember which one but it was right before the neighbor's were scheduled to fly home. My husband was on the computer in their computer room and I was sitting on the couch in that same room. All of their dogs were in pet taxi's for the night, my dog was loose in the house but I had shut the door because I had Lolita on my shoulder.
She walked down my arm and buried her face against my chest. I was scratching her head and neck and pulling on her feathers and she was purring like a cat. We had been doing this for some time and each time I tried to stop she would find my hand and put her head under it again.
My husband got up to leave the room and left the door open. Chloe, my dog, came in which wasn't a big deal but I didn't want her in there, so I yelled for my DH to please get her out and close the door.
Well, when he came back he raised his voice at Chloe because she didn't come out as soon as he asked her to and Lolita nipped me but it really didn't hurt that bad, so I didn't react. He yelled at Chloe again and this time she went out and he shut the door loudly. Lolita bit me again and this time she took a hunk of flesh off of my index finger's knuckle.
My reaction was to push her backward off of my arm and onto the couch but she managed to stay on my arm and grabbed the hand of the arm that she was standing on in the webbing between my thumb and index finger. Then she bit me twice more on the thumb. This time I put her on the floor and she walked off calling me names and mumbling to herself.
She finally walked back over to where I was sitting and I put my arm down for her to come back up on, but she wouldn't do it. I was bleeding anyway, so I yelled for my dear husband again to get the hand held perch and come and get her. He stuck his head back in the room and seen that I was bleeding, so he went after the perch and got her put back into her cage and bandaged me up.
I was very upset because I didn't want her not to like me. So he got her out of the cage with the hand held perch and he brought her over to me and she came onto my arm as soon as I offered it. We didn't have any more problems after that and I managed to control my fear.
The bites weren't too severe but I did get a little infection in the hole that she made in the web area between my thumb and finger. I still love her, she is just a normal parrot, and I have started begging for one of my own but I don't think my DH will give in on this one. The neighbors did have will's made out recently and we get the dogs and the birds.
Here are some pictures that I took of Lolita taking a bath, she is a Yellow-naped Amazon.
We have been staying at the neighbor's house while they were gone on vacation for the past three weeks. They are home now and we are moved back home. Running back and forth, taking care of everything there and everything here has nearly disabled me. I am down in my back for the most part but am getting better, I think.
I have mentioned the neighbor's parrot whom I adore before, but this is the rest of the story. She is temperamental to say the least, very moody. She will flirt with you until you fall for her cute ways, then when you try to touch her she will take off your finger.
She loves my husband and responds to him better than to me. She says "hello" every time he walks into the room. I can be with her all day and she does very little talking but the minute he walks in, she won't shut-up. However, when he puts his arm into her cage she quickly jumps on board but always ends up biting him at some point for no apparent reason. Her bites to my husband have only resulted in bruising.
She had only bitten me once when I first met her, but I have handled her a lot since then with no problems. When I walk up to her she will lower her head and press it against the cage for me to scratch her head. I get her out of her cage quite often if all of their dogs are outside or in their pet taxi's.
One night, I can't remember which one but it was right before the neighbor's were scheduled to fly home. My husband was on the computer in their computer room and I was sitting on the couch in that same room. All of their dogs were in pet taxi's for the night, my dog was loose in the house but I had shut the door because I had Lolita on my shoulder.
She walked down my arm and buried her face against my chest. I was scratching her head and neck and pulling on her feathers and she was purring like a cat. We had been doing this for some time and each time I tried to stop she would find my hand and put her head under it again.
My husband got up to leave the room and left the door open. Chloe, my dog, came in which wasn't a big deal but I didn't want her in there, so I yelled for my DH to please get her out and close the door.
Well, when he came back he raised his voice at Chloe because she didn't come out as soon as he asked her to and Lolita nipped me but it really didn't hurt that bad, so I didn't react. He yelled at Chloe again and this time she went out and he shut the door loudly. Lolita bit me again and this time she took a hunk of flesh off of my index finger's knuckle.
My reaction was to push her backward off of my arm and onto the couch but she managed to stay on my arm and grabbed the hand of the arm that she was standing on in the webbing between my thumb and index finger. Then she bit me twice more on the thumb. This time I put her on the floor and she walked off calling me names and mumbling to herself.
She finally walked back over to where I was sitting and I put my arm down for her to come back up on, but she wouldn't do it. I was bleeding anyway, so I yelled for my dear husband again to get the hand held perch and come and get her. He stuck his head back in the room and seen that I was bleeding, so he went after the perch and got her put back into her cage and bandaged me up.
I was very upset because I didn't want her not to like me. So he got her out of the cage with the hand held perch and he brought her over to me and she came onto my arm as soon as I offered it. We didn't have any more problems after that and I managed to control my fear.
The bites weren't too severe but I did get a little infection in the hole that she made in the web area between my thumb and finger. I still love her, she is just a normal parrot, and I have started begging for one of my own but I don't think my DH will give in on this one. The neighbors did have will's made out recently and we get the dogs and the birds.
Here are some pictures that I took of Lolita taking a bath, she is a Yellow-naped Amazon.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Storms
I haven't had time to blog for several days because I am trying to take care of a neighbor's house and pets while still trying to take care of my own. They have four house dogs, a cat, two cockatiels and a loud mouth parrot that I just adore. The horrible storms haven't helped much either. My computer has been shut off most of the time recently. It seems like there is a new storm moving through every few hours.
We only got 2 inches of rain here on Friday night, but central Indiana got 10 inches and from what I have heard it is nearly impossible to get to Indianapolis from the southern part of the state. Bridges are out and roads are under water.
Our barn did flood again on Friday night and I did fall again yesterday in the same place that I fell the other day. This time I didn't have time to try to catch myself, so I am not quite as sore. I walking into the goat/chicken house and all of the sudden I was laying flat on my back looking at the sky trying to catch my breath. The good news is that only my backside was covered with mud and manure this time. I have told my DH that I am not going back in that lot unless the ground is dry.
Our last mare is getting ready to foal. The foaling stall has an inch or two of water in it, so we are hoping to get it dried out before she decides to foal.
I will probably blog more than once today if it doesn't storm.
We only got 2 inches of rain here on Friday night, but central Indiana got 10 inches and from what I have heard it is nearly impossible to get to Indianapolis from the southern part of the state. Bridges are out and roads are under water.
Our barn did flood again on Friday night and I did fall again yesterday in the same place that I fell the other day. This time I didn't have time to try to catch myself, so I am not quite as sore. I walking into the goat/chicken house and all of the sudden I was laying flat on my back looking at the sky trying to catch my breath. The good news is that only my backside was covered with mud and manure this time. I have told my DH that I am not going back in that lot unless the ground is dry.
Our last mare is getting ready to foal. The foaling stall has an inch or two of water in it, so we are hoping to get it dried out before she decides to foal.
I will probably blog more than once today if it doesn't storm.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Egg Shells
We save all of our egg shells to be recycled. When we use an egg the shells gets tossed in a bowl and left out on the kitchen counter to dry. After a couple of days of drying, I crush them with my hands into a big mortar and pestle for grinding.
Then I put the ground egg shells out for my chickens to eat, they love them. It puts the calcium and grit that they need right back into their bodies to make their next eggs.
The trick is to make sure that they don't look like egg shells to them, so that they don't eat their own eggs or another hen's eggs. Birds love eggs as well as egg shells and when they start eating eggs it is hard to make them stop.
When babysitting our neighbor's parrot, I feed her boiled eggs and she loved them. I haven't done it but I'll bet my chickens would love boiled eggs as well.
Chickens love protein and will eat meat, worms and insects are their favorite food of choice, they prefer these delicacies over corn and seeds.
I noticed the other day, one of my Barred Rock hens running for her life past the bedroom window. So I went to see what was chasing her, it was the other hens and the rooster. The funniest thing you ever saw was this hen running all over the place with a dead mouse in her beak with all of the other chickens in hot pursuit. One of them finally grabbed it and a tug-of-war began until the other hen won the battle and ran for the hills. She found a good hiding place and enjoyed her trophy. I tried to get some pictures of the chase but they were too fast for me.
Then I put the ground egg shells out for my chickens to eat, they love them. It puts the calcium and grit that they need right back into their bodies to make their next eggs.
The trick is to make sure that they don't look like egg shells to them, so that they don't eat their own eggs or another hen's eggs. Birds love eggs as well as egg shells and when they start eating eggs it is hard to make them stop.
When babysitting our neighbor's parrot, I feed her boiled eggs and she loved them. I haven't done it but I'll bet my chickens would love boiled eggs as well.
Chickens love protein and will eat meat, worms and insects are their favorite food of choice, they prefer these delicacies over corn and seeds.
I noticed the other day, one of my Barred Rock hens running for her life past the bedroom window. So I went to see what was chasing her, it was the other hens and the rooster. The funniest thing you ever saw was this hen running all over the place with a dead mouse in her beak with all of the other chickens in hot pursuit. One of them finally grabbed it and a tug-of-war began until the other hen won the battle and ran for the hills. She found a good hiding place and enjoyed her trophy. I tried to get some pictures of the chase but they were too fast for me.
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