Without Dark You Cannot Have Light

So first off Yoda was depressed that we named him Yoda. We called him Herbie (The name he came with) and he instantly was a different bird, so he is now Herbie again. We now have:


Normal Green Cheek Conure: 2 years old, presumed male "Herbie"

Yellow Sided Green Cheek Conure: 10 weeks old, non DNA sexed, we call it male! "Naboo"

Herbie is a rehomed parrot so he has some challenges. He is extremely sweet and loves to be out with his people. On the downside his previous people loved him but not in quite the right manner. They didn't snuggle him, or cuddle him. They didn't touch his wings and his beak and his toes. They just left the cage door open (he stood on top) all day or he rode on their shoulders.

We've taught him to like his beak touched. We're still working on his wings and scritches. He likes pets and he's awesome at step up and step down. He is starting to watch the baby and learning from him. He has learned to explore a little more rather than sit stoically on a shoulder. He has also started to learn to fly by watching Naboo!

He finally took to fresh fruit and veggies too. We struggled with that a few weeks. His family had him on zupreem and occassionally dehydrated fruits and veggies but not the fresh stuff. So after talking with Tracy and Mike at Varitees and Dr. Weltig our Avian Vet, we switched Herbie over from zupreem to RoudyBush and finally got him eating fresh fruits and veggies!

The zupreem is a good food, but it is colored. Colored food means added waste products and unneeded things in their diet. We all decided it was better to feed the Roudybush without the added colors and whatnot. Not to mention birds..... keeping an eye on the color of their poop is a way of keeping tabs on their health... on the zupreem their poop is whatever color pellet they chose to eat that day so you have no way of knowing what normal is. On the Roudybush its tan, the same as the pellet lol.


Naboo is doing fantastic! He was handraised and handtamed at Varitees and for 2 weeks or so before he came home we visited him almost daily and helped socialize him. From that day I've worked on manhandling him to teach him that A) its ok and B) to love it. He loves having his wings stretched out, he loves being petted under his wings. He loves having his beak "beeped" and held. In fact he snuggles and sleeps with you and while he does he likes you to gently hold his beak. He's now about half baby half adult in his mannerisms and Dr. Weltig says its ok and expected for him to hold onto these mannerisms until about ten months. Yay! More baby time!

He started eating fruits and veggies yesterday! I was getting worried, he never even visted that bowl until yesterday. All of a sudden he was just chowing down on his broccoli! He is very social, very cuddly, and very sweet. He is also a monkey who hangs upside down, runs around in circles, plays with everything and destroys everything wood. He's amazing. We just have to keep doing what we're doing and he'll stay like this, loving everyone and everything. (I'm still waiting for his "Oh I have a beak, and I'm gonna be in charge stage. That will probably make me cry when my little baby decides to be a monster, fortunately their bites don't hurt because they've both been trained not to bite hard)



This product is awesome. Carrots, Broccoli, and cabbage all already in parrot friendly strips! They both love this stuff and their list of "yes I'll eat that" grows by the day we've got

Herbie:
Cantalope (one of his favs)
Honeydew
Grapes
Hot peppers of any type
Bell peppers of any type
Pineapple
Sweet Potato (one of his favs)
Broccoli
Carrots
Cabbage
This is a far cry from the first week we had him when he wouldn't eat a single fresh fruit or veggie! He tries and likes more every day now

Naboo:
broccoli
carrots
cabbage
pineapple (a little bit)
bell pepper (a little bit)
He isn't eating much but he's eating more every day, we're proud of him! He has learned from watching Herbie!


We have tons of pictures we'll be uploading them as soon as we can remember the password to taj's online t-mobile album :)



More updates coming later today on the other critters and whatnot.