shershe
Meeting neighbors
I adopted a cockatiel named Butters on Sunday. He has what his previous momma called his "woobie". She had given him lots of store bought happy hut type snugglies, only to have him snub his nose at all of them. She thought he needed something soft to cuddle up to and sleep, so she stuck a washcloth thru the cage bars and he loved it immediately. This is now what we call his woobie. He whispers to it. He grooms it. He feeds it. And just once I caught him doing, well, what I would consider humping it.
The thing I hate about the woobie is that it is filthy. It needs washed desperately. But, his previous momma told me that when she would try to remove the woobie from the cage to wash it, and once to try to replace it, he would scream and scream and carry on.
So, I decided that since he already is going through stress having to move to a new home and get to know new people, etc. that I do not want to stress him any further. Every day he is seeming to settle in more and more here, seeming to be more comfortable. He is very friendly and tame. But, at first he would scream if I removed his food dish, but now he doesn't because I imagine he's learned that I'm not taking it away, just giving him more yummy food. At first he would only sit on my finger, but would not allow any head scritching. After the second day, he started asking for head scritches and now loves it all the time.
I plan on introducing a new, much larger cage (the HQ flight cage) next week, with lots of new toys. I plan on sitting it up beside the small cage he has now and letting him (hopefully) crawl over on his own and investigate and get used to it before taking the old cage away.
Maybe then I would be able to wash the woobie and put it back in clean, or should I just put a new woobie (washcloth) in the new cage and hope he transfers his woobie affection to the new one?
Here is a video of Butters with his woobie. This is the only time I've seen him actually "loving" it. haha
woobie love on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to not allow him to have a woobie friend, just want to make sure his friend(s) are clean.
The thing I hate about the woobie is that it is filthy. It needs washed desperately. But, his previous momma told me that when she would try to remove the woobie from the cage to wash it, and once to try to replace it, he would scream and scream and carry on.
So, I decided that since he already is going through stress having to move to a new home and get to know new people, etc. that I do not want to stress him any further. Every day he is seeming to settle in more and more here, seeming to be more comfortable. He is very friendly and tame. But, at first he would scream if I removed his food dish, but now he doesn't because I imagine he's learned that I'm not taking it away, just giving him more yummy food. At first he would only sit on my finger, but would not allow any head scritching. After the second day, he started asking for head scritches and now loves it all the time.
I plan on introducing a new, much larger cage (the HQ flight cage) next week, with lots of new toys. I plan on sitting it up beside the small cage he has now and letting him (hopefully) crawl over on his own and investigate and get used to it before taking the old cage away.
Maybe then I would be able to wash the woobie and put it back in clean, or should I just put a new woobie (washcloth) in the new cage and hope he transfers his woobie affection to the new one?
Here is a video of Butters with his woobie. This is the only time I've seen him actually "loving" it. haha
woobie love on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to not allow him to have a woobie friend, just want to make sure his friend(s) are clean.
glad to hear the woobie is gone!
