Our "new" bird is extremely weird

@unksol She’ll take food as well as a treat from you from our hand if offered. At the shelter, they did open the cages so the birds could have out of the cage time, but since she was there only 3 weeks before we got her doubt that had an effect on her. Are pretty sure at the point all her actions were the result of her prior owner. Not saying that is bad as she seems comfortable around us, not scared of noises or movements-just not very demonstrative in any of her actions.

@Felton10 yeah maybe she just didn’t have as much freedom for some reason. I was thinking if you could call her away from the cage for a treat. Or leave something out she would want to coax her out

@unksol She has numerous outside the cage options-toys on top of cage and the landing outside the door and I moved the play gym close enough with some in the shell almonds and peanuts (both raw and unsalted) to interest her plus the play gym is close enough to climb on if interested.

Put some pieces of french bread pizza in front of her and she couldn’t get to them fast enough to eat.

@Felton10 lol I figured she was set up like a queen. Just being stubborn about it. She is very pretty. Hopefully she spreads her wings

@unksol Thanks-I don’t think she is lacking for much. Think it is just a matter of time until she feels comfortable enough is explore new things. Might be a problem though as she doesn’t have her wings clipped and if she decides to fly, things could get interesting.

@Felton10 did Walter not fly? I guess I just assumed he did.

I am just used to watching the doors/windows cause cats. Although Janet somehow snuck past me into the garage. Despite multiple measures to prevent that. looks like she enjoyed herself climbing and knocking over shit until she started to cry about the situation. Thankfully I think she’s fine… There are chemicals and gas cans and just a lot of car products out there

@unksol Walter’s wings were clipped so he couldn’t get any altitude and if he tried to fly would just flutter to the ground and not crash.

Just came out of my office and this bird either must have ESP or was doing it to make a fool out of me and prove me wrong. She was climbing all over the top of the cage and knocked something off that wasn’t secured, scared herself when it fell and quickly went back in the cage.

@Felton10 lol Rommie has been very shy but this afternoon she was just all up on me with some of the others. Seems like sometimes there is a threshold they are slowly approaching and then they just cross it and behavior suddenly changes.

@Felton10 @unksol Maybe her former owners didn’t let her out of the cage much?

@Kyeh @unksol We came to the conclusion almost from the beginning that whatever she did or didn’t do was influenced more by her previous owner than by the species of bird.

@Felton10 @Kyeh I think as soon as you take an animal out it’s natural environment the whole nature vs nurture argument goes right out the window. I mean there are some very instinctive things for some animals. But for the most part. They learn based on their environment/rules . And adapt

@Kyeh @unksol The only thing we knew about the previous owner was that he was an older gentleman who passed away. So it might make sense she didn’t get out of the cage much and had limited interaction with him.

A side note-one of the issues we encountered with her was she didn’t seem to be interested in eating any fruits or veggies which makes up 80% of their diet in the wild. Well yesterday before I gave her her usual breakfast of scrambled eggs and fresh mango (which I put vitamin powder on to give her A and C she was missing by not eating her veggies), I put carrots and broccoli in her cage and she ate a lot of it for the first time and did the same thing this morning so might be over the hump on that issue.

@Felton10 @unksol That’s terrific! I need to follow her example!
A friend of mine has a beautiful tortoise; she gets all kinds of fancy veggies that her “dad” doesn’t eat himself (but should.)

@Kyeh @unksol I figured she might be more hungry first thing in the morning and eat anything if veggies was the first and only thing I put in front of her.

@Felton10 @Kyeh I mean I have those microwavable steam bags right in the freezer and they are like a dollar and I don’t eat them regularly. Just cause.

Sounds like she’s adjusting at least

@Felton10 @unksol I’ve started buying those salad “kits” even though they seem kind of expensive, because I DO eat them, whereas when I get the ingredients separately I often end up throwing out a bunch of them (well, at least I compost them.)

@Kyeh @unksol I have always given my birds raw veggies figuring cooked ones have less vitamins. The vet said it didn’t make any difference whether what I gave her were cooked or not. Bought a bag that had broccoli and carrots in them for 3.79 and it lasts around a week or more.

@Felton10 @Kyeh lol I meant from a human perspective I can be that lazy. Even though I should eat better. I bet you could get one of those big bags of mixed frozen vegetables and let it thaw in the fridge. Still raw and precut. They sell like soup/stew/stir fry mixes that have a lot of variety

@Felton10 @unksol So you think she likes the cooked ones better?
I’ve read that frozen veggies actually have a good amount of nutrients in them.
I like throwing in some of the frozen ones into things to add a little extra - like right now I’m eating a mixture of canned red chili and jarred green chili with some frozen corn thrown in, topped with fresh chopped onion.

@Felton10 @Kyeh frozen is generally better than “fresh” because it’s flash frozen right after picking. Vs getting hauled around in trucks in a delicate state to get to the store halfway across the county.

Since it’s flash frozen the ice crystals are very small hence why the texture isn’t mush like if we just put veggies in the freezer.

I usually dump an entire bag of corn into that big pot of chili after it’s done. Or l the chicken soup. Maybe some peas there.