Spiceopods
Meeting neighbors
When Dusky (our little foster nanday) came to us, he had been covered 24/7 in a cage with no toys or perches for... at least half a year, possibly longer. He'd never had fresh foods, tho at least he was eating pellets instead of seeds. He was eerily quiet, terrified of having his cage cover lifted, and not sure what to do with new toys and perches.
But he's made amazing progress even in the ~2 weeks he's been here! For example:
~Deyan
But he's made amazing progress even in the ~2 weeks he's been here! For example:
- A couple weeks ago he barely made a sound at all, but after a couple weeks of humidifier, air purifier, and us chattering next to him, he's a downright chatterbox! He chirps at us all morning and afternoon most days.
- Now one side of his cage (the side facing the sunlight and away from people) is fully uncovered during the day and the rest the whole bottom half is uncovered.
- The past few days he's even been venturing down to the uncovered part to explore or peek at us. Usually if we look at him he panics and scampers back up to the top of the cage, so we try to give him his privacy and look away, but this morning I turned around and saw him at the bottom of the cage looking right back at me, and he just chirped a couple times before calmly climbing back up to the top!!
- He's revealed that he LOVES to CHEW. He's been steadily demolishing his hardwood perch, haha.
- Upon learning that he's a big chewer, we decided to give him a chew toy near his favorite corner (to distract him from trying to chew up his rope perch). But that involved putting our hands in his favorite corner, which we were worried would scare the snot out of him! Turns out we had nothing to worry about. He was grumpy about the intrusion and wary of the new toy, but he let us install it without biting or screaming or prolonged hyperventilating, and by the next day he was already chewing on it!
- He's now tried a bunch of fresh foods (and frozen veggies) -- so far his favorite seems to be fresh spinach, but sweet potato and frozen corn also seem to be a hit, and he's very intrigued by baby carrots.
~Deyan