Adventures of Pascal the little rascal

[Scott]

May I ask why the study of cherries stems (pun intended!) from study of phytopathology? Are they an invasive species?

 

[Skarila]

May I ask why the study of cherries stems (pun intended!) from study of phytopathology? Are they an invasive species?

You mean cherry as a tree to be invasive?
Nooo, i was studying illnesses and pests of crops. And I learned that it is *very* common that cherries contain a tiny little worm inside. I mean, you can keep the cherries in the water for a longer time and all the little worms will wiggle their way out, but still. I just couldn't fathom the idea how common that pest is in cherries, so since then I kind of avoid eating them raw. Or you will see me open each and every cherry, or I will inspect each and every cherry for that tiny hole nead the stem. If there's a hole, I ain't eating it, the birds can have it extra protein for them, hahah!

 

[Scott]

Oh how gross, never knew about worms in cherries! I've probably consumed dozens over the years given my robust cherry consumption!

I don't eat brussels sprouts, partly because a babysitter told me decades ago every piece has a worm near the center!

 

[Skarila]

Oh how gross, never knew about worms in cherries! I've probably consumed dozens over the years given my robust cherry consumption!

I don't eat brussels sprouts, partly because a babysitter told me decades ago every piece has a worm near the center!

Oh My Gosh, I really hope I didn't ruined cherries for you :18_crazy:

And that's not really a thing to say to a kid when you're trying to feed them veggies xD I can only tell you that that one ain't correct! Brussel sprouts aren't famous here in the Balkan area, but kale is, and I love cooked kale!! As a kid I hated it, but now as an adult I happily enjoy my veggie soups

Pascal seems to be the same, this big boy is happy to eat a lot of stuff now! Yesterday he murdered a blackberry, should've planned it before I cleaned his cage yesterday :dopey: now I can clean his perches AGAIN.

 

[Scott]

No worries, I love cherries and little worms won't stop me from gorging on my favorite seasonal fruits. Perhaps I'll be a bit more cautious and not blindly pop them into my mouth and remove pit with tongue!

I'm a pescatarian so naturally love most veggies! No doubt we consume all manner of undesired bits and fragments of naturally present life forms. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) publishes acceptable food defect levels. In plain English that means chocolate, peanut butter, etc contains tiny amounts of cockroaches, rodent hair, blah blah blah! https://www.fda.gov/food/ingredient...atory-information/food-defect-levels-handbook

 

[Skarila]

No worries, I love cherries and little worms won't stop me from gorging on my favorite seasonal fruits. Perhaps I'll be a bit more cautious and not blindly pop them into my mouth and remove pit with tongue!

I'm a pescatarian so naturally love most veggies! No doubt we consume all manner of undesired bits and fragments of naturally present life forms. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) publishes acceptable food defect levels. In plain English that means chocolate, peanut butter, etc contains tiny amounts of cockroaches, rodent hair, blah blah blah! https://www.fda.gov/food/ingredient...atory-information/food-defect-levels-handbook

Yeah, that I know! As long I don't see or feel it, I guess it's fine XD Maybe that is why I like heavily processed food eventhough it is the worst thing you can eat!

 

[Skarila]

The grass is always greener on the other side

Or should I say, Csilli's cage and her toys are always far more interesting than his own.

Pascal is obsessed being on Csilli's cage. While I don't mind him hanging out on her little cage (I mean...it is little compared to his aviary), I am highly against him chewing on her cage. He just loves chewing off the paint off her cage which really worries me! I keep distracting him from doing that, or I just try putting plastic clips over the part he just keeps chewing off. But then he tries to find another part to chew. Sigh. Another thing I seem to have taught him is to climb down on the outside perch that is on the enterance of the door. Sometimes it is enough to shout "get down" and he will immediately waddle to the perch and sit there as if nothing happened. That is amazing, until I am not paying attention and he will start doing it all over again, hahah. If we leave Csilli's cage open, he always will try to get in. It is, again, enough for me to shout "OUT" and he will go out, again onto the outside perch and look all cute. If he disobeys, I just need to get up or just approach and he will again, station himself. Smart stinker.

But the bad thing is that Csilli seems to have copied his chewing on the bars behaviour, and she started to chew as well. This worries me a lot, I cannot go and just buy a new cage... We have an old one which is with chroma, but I'd need to scrub reaaaal good. Also it is a bit smaller than her current one. And cannot be opened from above. Or the sides. A pain to wash.

Csilli is having a really tough molt right now, and she doesn't let anyone near. She just wants to have her peace, but Pascal being a young rascal, he is always pestering her. Following her, crawling all over her cage which stresses her even more, and I have no idea what to do. If I separate them, Pascal will just follow her to the other room, and again, crawl over her cage. If I close the doors, well, cue drama. He will shout and yip and yap nervously that he just wants to go to the other room. Yesterday as I was (trying to) napping, Pascal was sitting on the lower part of the cage, nearest part to the couch and yip-yapping nervously, silently though, for 20 minutes so that I would get up and open the door for him. Stinker.

Now, I cannot keep them both in the same aviary because of the beak size differences. While they are outside together, there is always someone keeping an eye, but if Pascal turns territorial, he could easily and severely injure Csilli.... They are not bonded at all, Pascal is just obsessed with Csilli, but there is no affection the other way around.

Pascal started to molt as well these days, not so harshly, but we are finding some feathers here and there. Hard to believe all this differently coloured feathers came from the same bird! What a colourful sock. He is doing great, very energetic, flying all around (leaving the feathers around the room) and very playful. While he doesn't want to do anything with me (aside of tricks and training, because TREATS), I don't mind, he is such a funny fella. But I still didn't find a good distraction for him not to bother Csilli, especially when she is under the weather now.

This morning Csilli just looks and feels awful. She is losing a lot of feathers, looks like a hedgehog which is probably why is she so uncomfortable, and this morning she seems to started vomiting/regurgitating too. It is not hormonal, as she doesn't seem to be doing voluntarily. I just have to separate her from Pascal as she surely needs some peace and rest, but lord... Pascal will just be such a hard thing to handle. Seems he is having separation anxiety. I will not give either of them away, especially not Csilli that I love and hold so dear. I am not sure what to do with her now, aside of giving her that peace, maybe the vomiting is from all the stress? My Partner doesn't want to take her to the vet just yet, as we don't want to stress her further. Worst thing we will pick up some of her dropping and send for examination. Right now that she is in a seriously heavy molt, we cannot tell if it's stress or what. Around 2-3 weeks ago she fully switched to pellets, by her own choice. She is eating the same thing as Pascal (Roudybush pellets) so I highly doubt the pellets triggered anything. Well, maybe triggered the molt.

OK, Csilli highjacked Pascal's thread, but I had to vent out a bit. I just hope my little blue gem will be fine soon.

 

[Scott]

Hopefully nothing more than a heavy molt with attendant hormonal activity. Keep a close watch on Csilli, hopefully vet visit won't be needed! Are you able to weigh her?

 

[Skarila]

Hopefully nothing more than a heavy molt with attendant hormonal activity. Keep a close watch on Csilli, hopefully vet visit won't be needed! Are you able to weigh her?

Hi Scott, Turns out it was just stress from all the heavy molt and Pascal nagging her. Pascal was closed in his fortress for the day (he did NOT like that), and Csilli could rest a bit. We did try to call the vets when she started regurgitating/trying to clear her crop but none of the vets were available! As if she knew, she got much better in the afternoon, and today she is more or less her old self, whistling and chirping and now nagging Pascal instead

Csilli is a little fat bird, despite she is free all day. She is a tiny budgie by size, but whole 45 gramm. We call her fatty chicken. She will possibly lose some weight after some time since she moved to pellets now.

 

[Skarila]

Hi, I'm a sock muppet!

Sooooo, I was quite busy these last few weeks. I picked up a new hobby - diamond painting, and lord, for me it's so calming. I simply love it, so, I apologize for not updating for a while or being active!

Pascal is doing quite fine these days. I had to fully separate him and Csilli as he is uhm, well, too interested into Csilli. At first she was just preening his head, they were very cute together until he was chasing her around and simply trying to mount her... Last thing I need my budgie to become hormonal as well, so they're living in separate rooms now.
I continue with the daily training. A new one that I taught is waving, I still cannot believe how easy it was to teach him that! Since he was doing the "hand shake" I could teach him the waving. Now that he knows a handful of tricks, I can keep him busy. He loves doing the little tricks for a treat.
Speaking of treats, yesterday I brought home some Harrison's pellets that we feed the Senegal with. And Pascal sees the pellet as a treat. He was stepping up and all to get some of that yummy pellet! I was quite pleasantly surprised, since we won't be able to get more Roudybush after we use up the bags I have, I will certainly have to move him to Harrison's. And it's amazing news that he would accept those pellets readily. Maybe because he loves Harrison's power treats? I wonder how similar it is (I know the power treats are with red palm oil, but still). Sooo yeah, Now I can praise and feed him more "treats"!

Also He started to slowly molt, veery slowly. While Csilli looked like she exploded and we could make a new bird within 3 days, Pascal is throwing his feathers here and there in tiny amounts. I can see now how terribly barbed his feathers were. I am keeping my hopes high that he won't destroy his new feathers, and that the quality of the feathers will be higher due to a better diet. I mean, he was a silly baby in a huge aviary with so many other birds, so no wonder his feathers were all destroyed and barbed. I see the new side tail feathers growing already look beautiful. I would like that he drops the long destroyed tail feathers too!

This weekend we're going for a vacation, and I am looking forward to it! Yesterday we also visited a guy who will take care of Pascal while we are gone. The guy owns two adorable Green Cheeks and a gallah, and they're all so...asjkdlaskld. adorable. One of the GCCs did not like me at all (the guy nipped me hard a few times, but that's ok), while the other 3 month old baby was just...being adorable. I was baffled I could just grab and cradle and smother the bird. I have to apologize to the guy, I just missed snuggling with a bird. I was amused how the guy's birds are tame, especially his silly gallah. She is so cute, such a clown. She didn't nip me, but did let me and my partner know not to touch her. Or the couch, hahah. I think Pascal will be just fine there, maybe he learns how to snuggle when he sees how the other gccs snuggle. He will certainly want to be with them and follow them, and since they love being on their human, maybe he will try to land on a human for first time.

Pascal is still very insecure about landing on us or near us, but I see he wants to be near! I realised that it's fear that is dictating his behaviour, so I am training him to become more comfortable around things he is afraid of. For some reason he was terrified to step up from, lets say, a lamp or the shelf, so now during our step up sessions, I let him step up, then I leave him somewhere like a shelf, or lamp or the couch or smth, praise, give him his treat, then ask him to step up again and kind of rotating around the place. Soon I hope to do the same around the room as well. For now we go "on a journey" where he steps up, I walk around the room, and let him step down onto his cage, and only then he gets the treat. If he flies off before I let him step down, no treat! I think he is slowly adjusting as he will step up more readily during our sessions. Also it was quite encouraging from the guy who will babysit my bird, that he also had an aviary bred GCC before who was same as Pascal, and after a looong time and a lot of patience and training it became the snuggliest and cutest bird ever. However, the lesser my expectations are, the better I think. Best thing I can do is not have expectations from a wild animal.

And oh, guys, he let me continuously pet and kiss his beak before bed time as he clinged the beak against the cage bars, and oh lord, it was so cute. Too bad the lights went off, as he snapped and immediately went to bed. I was so close to give him a head scratch!!! Now he's not so interested in beak petting in the evening, so I am still trying to catch the perfect timing for it....

 

[Scott]

Lovely update, you are clearly infatuated with parrots in general! What is diamond painting?

Pascal's friendly wave is adorable, albeit with slightly open beak lol. Invitation to approach with thinly veiled threat! Keep that pic in mind for a future POTM Contest!

Given Pascal's continued insecurity, might see benefit with boarding in parrot-friendly environment during vacation. They are so perceptive and eager to mimic behaviors!

 

[Skarila]

Lovely update, you are clearly infatuated with parrots in general! What is diamond painting?

Pascal's friendly wave is adorable, albeit with slightly open beak lol. Invitation to approach with thinly veiled threat! Keep that pic in mind for a future POTM Contest!

Given Pascal's continued insecurity, might see benefit with boarding in parrot-friendly environment during vacation. They are so perceptive and eager to mimic behaviors!

Hi Scott, Diamond painting is kinda like placing little rivets/sequins/plastic pieces to their little designated place, and 30 000 tiny pieces later, you have a lovely picture!! You can google it to get a feeling what it is

And oooooh you will never believe me. Pascal let me scratch his head. I am in heaven!!! It was 30 second long but I am soooo happy!!!! He let me do it on Tuesday and today!! Also the little stinker got entangled in his toy in the morning so he was absolutely not happy that I can to catch him to free him from the toy. I was for certain he will hate me for the day but I guess not!!! He improved imensenly in just a week since we fully separated him and Csilli.

 

[Scott]

Google was my friend and learned the concept of diamond paining. Seems updated version of paint by numbers meets adhering various beads to create stylized image.

Quite a breakthrough with Pascal, hopefully a start of something wonderful. Perhaps removing him from Csilli mellowed his hormones?

 

[Skarila]

Home, sweet home!

My vacation at the Croatian seaside was superb. I haven't been to the sea for around 15 years, so I was extremely excited for the travel.

During my vacation, we boarded Pascal to the guy who has green cheeks, a Galah and lots of tiny baby birds who fell out of the nest. The guy is a real bird whisperer - I will explain it more soon. The caretaker is studying to become a vet, an avian vet to be exact. He's excellent with birds, and he actually tamed my Pascal while I was away. Incredible. He was working with Pascal daily - stepping up from the cage and back (something he never let me do), and get this - he could give him lots of headscratches from day one. 8 hours in, Pascal was readily stepping up for him, and 24h in he let him pet him. Guy is incredible, I tell you. He said Pascal was very cuddly with him. Traitor.

I brought Pascal back home this Sunday in late evening. He was very adorable, even let me give him a long headscratch while he was settled into his little hut. He's definately stepping up much more readily, from shelves too. He still doesn't let me pet him though during day at all. He will remain seated on my finger, but will bite it (or pinch quite hard) as a sign "don't touch me". Before he'd be vocal and fly away if I even tried to touch him. Not sure which one is better to be fair. For some reason, he will let me snuggle him ONLY in the late night, in dim lights and when he's snuggled into his hut. He can see me and knows that it's me as he can hear me, but it still kind of baffles me how defensive he is with me. Like, god forbid if I touch him. But the caretaker could snuggle him for days. The fact that Pascal lets me pet him in the late evening is still a big plus I believe. Also that he's stepping up to me and actually staying on the finger is amazing. I have to admit, he does feel like a different bird now. At least a tiny bit.

Now here's the thing - I asked if Csilli can stay for one week longer at another home (where we have the senegal) just so I can work more with Pascal in peace. I see now how strongly he's bonded with that little blue bird. Today he was snoozing and calmly preening in his cage, he didn't even want to come out. I played a video on my phone that my partner sent and on it was Csilli, shouting. Pascal went NUTS. He got so agitated and wanted to get out IMMEDIATELY. And shouting back ofcourse. I am so afraid what will be when Csilli does come back. I cannot close the door of the room where Csilli would be staying, plus she loves to shout all the time, so keeping them silent isn't really an option.
Another issue is that they're very different sizes and species, and multiple times Csilli got hurt by Pascal. I cannot keep them together. Rehoming is absolutely not a choice for any of them. I was even thinking of playing sounds of budgie shouts all day so he sees there are no budgies so that he stops searching eventually. I do not know how smart that would be.

While I see great potential of Pascal becoming tame, I just do not see that potential right next to Csilli, and even separating to the other rooms is not enough as Csilli loves to shout and well... you know the rest. You just get nervous birds. Pascal is suuuuuper calm without her. I am quite heartbroken, really.

 

[Scott]

That is quite a turnaround for Pascall, interesting to see if he relapses to old behaviors with you. Having him step-up consistently is springboard to more advanced moves.

Well, they really are visual! I play videos all the time to my flock and am amazed at the reactions. You'll better assess when Csilli returns, mindful of Pascal's domination.

 

[Skarila]

That is quite a turnaround for Pascall, interesting to see if he relapses to old behaviors with you. Having him step-up consistently is springboard to more advanced moves.

Well, they really are visual! I play videos all the time to my flock and am amazed at the reactions. You'll better assess when Csilli returns, mindful of Pascal's domination.

To my pure surprise he's really doing awesome. Last evening he got extreme head scratches from me, and in return he demanded to do me a manicure (my cuticles are really bad hahah.) and preen my hand. I even got it all on video. While the flat is silent from any bird sounds, he's such an angel, and is keeping a healthy "me time" too. He just loves to go into his little corner to preen. When He's ready for interaction, he will go out in the front. That way I know 100% when not to bother him.

The guy who took care of him is assuring me that if I get a stronger bond during this week with Pascal that it is likely that it will stay. Surely when Csilli gets back, that Pascal will actively try to get to her, just I am not sure yet should I keep them separated 100% of the time or allow them some time together (just to see each other). Before the vacation I tried my absolute best to keep them separated all the time. Csilli is not the kind of bird to go into other rooms to follow a bird, Pascal however is. Time will tell, I will possibly keep them apart all the time like before. My partner works with Csilli and I work with Pascal.

 

[Scott]

Have you considered asking the "bird whisperer" to observe and possibly work with both Pascal and Csilli?

 

[Skarila]

Have you considered asking the "bird whisperer" to observe and possibly work with both Pascal and Csilli?

Well, he is a very very busy person with all the wild bird rescues, his own parrots plus the university - I have no idea how he manages it all. I have a new update on the whole thing, and lord, It was such a rollercoaster!!

 

[Skarila]

Almost rehomed the little Rascal

And I am not even kidding. About 2-3 weeks ago the situation got quite weird. I couldn't always keep Csilli in the other room as where she was staying, the door cannot be closed, and where Pascal is, that door is like a main one, and if I keep it close, there is absolutely no air flow in the flat, which is bad. Keep the door open, Pascal kept flying to the little budgie.
I simply have to have them separated. Pascal is such a snuggle bug, and Csilli isn't. While she likes Pascal's company, she doesn't like him physically being stuck to her. And it always ends up with her nip and his bite - and someone always gets an injured toe, most of the time Csilli. Letting Pascal out even if Csilli was closed would just end up him chewing off the paint from the bars from Csilli's cage, and that exposed metal will rust eventually. And he would ALWAYS cling to her cage. I was so heartbroken and I felt like I failed Pascal. I had a very difficult decision to make - to rehome Pascal. If I was asked, Csilli would be the one to go, but she is my partner's bird and they are quite attached to eachother, and Csilli was here with us for 7 years. My partner claims she wouldn't be able to acclimate to any new environment but I call it bullcrap. But since Pascal is such a young bird, and we had him just under 6 months, I guess he would be one to go to keep peace in the house. I highly didn't agree, but there are some priorities in life.

While we were posting on Facebook for the potential rehoming, SO MANY people were interested, but immediately deterred by the price we've put. I was putting up a price as Pascal is a really rare species as a pet and is already quite tame. Probably you cannot even buy a tame Emma's conure in half of Europe. I kept the price even lower than what I paid him for. I also did specify that he had his vet papers, DNA test done and that he's well trained by now. To my pure luck, many people immediately stopped writing as soon we did the "price filter".

During that time, I was on such an emotional rollercoaster. I just couldn't let him go. Somehow, seemingly that Pascal felt something, he grew a bit closer to me. He became very snuggly with me, while Csilli was held again in the other room, with the closed doors and all. I could even bring him to the kitchen during our lunches and dinner, and he felt quite happy and comfortable. From very rare headscratches, he became very relaxed next to me and he started accepting headscratches almost every time. When my partner saw me snuggling the bird to no end(while he's perched on his cage), he openly said he has no heart to separate me and Pascal. He just sighed and said that Pascal must stay, seeing how attached to me he became (well, I am still 2nd place, Csilli is still his number 1). That evening I cried, but that time not from sadness but happiness that I get to keep the little colourful sock muppet.

Last week while I was at the store I found a mosquito net/mesh that has magnetic links in the middle. They're supposed to be put on a doorframe, and you can easily come through. that is when it hit me - that we could temporarily install it on the doorframe where Csilli stays. This way Pascal cannot get into the room. He is quite afraid of the net so he doesn't go through at all. for a day or two he kept trying, he would kind of brush against the net and fly back to his room. Now he doesn't even attempt to go there, even when Csilli is shouting. It is such a success. But here it comes a new problem - Csilli cannot stay in my workroom forever as I don't have a free wall. At all. And birds do need a wall to feel secure. She's currently on my desk, but sometimes I must put her on the couch when I need the computer - it's really not good for her.

So, we do know that Pascal will cling to her cage once we put her back, and him chewing on the bars is the biggest problem. I saved some money and bought a brand new cage for Csilli which has this powder coating, which I know that Pascal cannot chew it off so easily (his cage also has it). Try chewing that one off, you rascal!!! Now we just have to set up the branches inside (and find some, that is....) and she can start using it. She will stay in the other room for couple of weeks more, and then put her back next to Pascal. Sadly she cannot go anywhere as I have no more space. So, even if Pascal will cling onto her cage, he won't be able to chew onto her food holders as now food will also be from the inside, the cage bars are secure, he won't be able to do anything!! As long he doesn't learn how to open the door. Hope not.

Also, someone gave me a new trick how to keep him off her cage when he's outside - put lacy curtains over Csilli's cage. This way the little birdie still can see what's up outside the cage, get light, but Pascal would most likely fear the curtain and would stay off the cage. I REALLY hope that might work. Worst case scenario, his fear of curtain and fabrics would be cured, woohoo.

It is such a crazy situation, and I still fear what might be when the two birds are back in the same room. I just fear he will ALWAYS want to be in that room, that he will refuse to go anywhere else. or maybe he will start refusing headscratches, he usually does when he's in distress, and he's often in some sort of distress when with Csilli. Birds will be birds, I guess.

 

[Scott]

I love your perseverance and brainstorming with partner in concerted effort to keep Pascal!! Mosquito mesh net as barrier superb idea, might need periodic freshening with adjacent "gargoyles" to keep Pascal dissuaded from entry. Should that fail, another alternative is strands of vertical beads suspended from door frame. Worked well as barrier in my old home to separate bird room from undesired areas.

Often undesirable and unintended consequences as suggested. Companion parrots keep us on our toes and spark perpetual creativity!!