I adopted a parrot

[LeaKP]

Yes! Another reason to love greys!


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[Bryce]

Out of interest, do you find Ruby likes cuddles, i dont mean scratches i mean really leaning into you with legs tucked in and leaning on her chest wanting you to cuddle? Wondering if this is a hen thing?

She does that sometimes, but in general I don't think she's super-cuddly. She's pretty tolerant of a wide range of contact, but I avoid petting her below her shoulders, so maybe I just haven't noticed. When I carry her up or down the stairs I usually hold her against my chest rather than on my hand (for stability) and she doesn't seem to mind at all, and just quietly stays there.

 

[Chelsea304]

Wow what an excellent story. Considering she was cage bound just a few months ago! She sounds like a lovely addition to your home. Echo loved my husband right away (she prefers men) but it took me about a year to fully gain my CAG's trust and to get her consistently stepping up without biting.

Sounds like a wonderful bond she has with you!

 

[wrench13]

Bryce its good to read that Ruby has made herself at home.

 

[Billdore]

Ruby sounds like she is doing really well thanks for the update.

 

[Bryce]

Ruby's still doing well. I had to do two weeks of training for my work that had me away from home for a few hours a day longer than normal, but she seems to have weathered that with no problems. She also enjoyed a game night we had. She really gets along well with strangers.

I'm currently working on an electronic food dispenser. It will use natural foods (e.g. seeds and nuts) and ordinary parrot pellets rather than e.g. sugar tablets or other expensive and questionably nutritive rewards that most lab-type food dispensers use. I have a prototype mostly working now, though it is going to require substantial testing still.

Anyway, my overall idea is to have this dispenser controlled by an arduino, raspberry pi, beaglebone or similar small computer, so that people can implement electronic parrot games. I'll do a write-up of it for the DIY and/or Toys forum when I'm done.

 

[Kentuckienne]

Ruby's still doing well. I had to do two weeks of training for my work that had me away from home for a few hours a day longer than normal, but she seems to have weathered that with no problems. She also enjoyed a game night we had. She really gets along well with strangers.

I'm currently working on an electronic food dispenser. It will use natural foods (e.g. seeds and nuts) and ordinary parrot pellets rather than e.g. sugar tablets or other expensive and questionably nutritive rewards that most lab-type food dispensers use. I have a prototype mostly working now, though it is going to require substantial testing still.

Anyway, my overall idea is to have this dispenser controlled by an arduino, raspberry pi, beaglebone or similar small computer, so that people can implement electronic parrot games. I'll do a write-up of it for the DIY and/or Toys forum when I'm done.

Cool! I'm a charter subscriber to MAKE magazine, and people have written all kinds of articles about building things like this for dogs. One person even made a tennis ball thrower - the dog brings the ball and drops it in the funnel, and out is shoots for chasing. Looking forward to seeing what you build!

 

[Bryce]

I did some preliminary tests with the dispenser yesterday evening. It worked pretty well. Ruby got used to it extremely quickly - I think leaving it attached to her cage for several hours while I was at work helped. She retreated from it the first time it made noise, but after a couple times she instead approached it in anticipation of getting a treat.

 

[CKP]

That's awesome! My wife is a software engineer and we are working on a similar little machine for our house. We're using a raspberry pi.

We want to use voice recognition and try to tweak it where it understands him and it tallies how many different words he says and how many times. If he says something new (or something it doesn't recognize) we want it to record it so we can go back and review it.

She wants to use a pi cam and build a facial recognition program. Sometimes when we aren't home he goes on top of his cage and looks towards the stairs and says "hello" or "whats up" a couple times, then unleashes his Zon scream on our neighbors. She wants it to recognize him coming on top of the cage, then after he says "hello" to respond to him to hopefully keep him calm so he doesn't scream.

That, plus we hated Alexa and Google Home so we're building one of those and a retro pi. We love raspberry pi's lol

I'd love to see some pics of your project for Ruby!

 

[Bryce]

I haven't had a chance to take good photos yet, but it's a very simple system. It has a 3D printed wheel with a pocket perpendicular to the axle of the wheel. A motor turns the wheel, bringing it under a funnel full of treats, which fall into the pocket. The wheel keeps rotating in its housing until it reaches the bottom, where there is another hole, connected to a chute. The treat falls into the chute and travels by gravity into the cage. A photodiode-IRED pair is interrupted by the passage of the food, letting the machine know that it can stop rotating the wheel. If nothing falls within a certain amount of time, it reverses the direction of the wheel to attempt to clear a jam. There is also a second IRED-photodiode pair in the funnel, so that it can detect if it is out of treats.

An ATTINY microcontroller controls the whole thing. Currently, the motor is a stepper motor with a driver IC for it, but I may end up switching to a regular DC motor with a worm gear for cost reduction - I'm thinking of making a kit so that people can build their own. I'm not sure what the interest would be. I talked to our lab manager, who has a blue-and-gold macaw, and she was excited about the idea, but then lab managers probably don't represent a huge segment of bird owners.

Maybe getting a little ahead of myself here, but I'd like to offer the kit in two forms, one a "screwdriver only" kit that anyone can assemble, and a more sophisticated "maker version" that requires soldering and crimping connectors. (The SMD parts if any would be pre-soldered.)

 

[Bryce]

Well, Ruby's given me some useful feedback on the design. "Well, a parrot could definitely grab this lid off the funnel, drop it in her cage, and maybe even poop on it for good measure. Also, the funnel should probably be built in to the structure and not just secured on the top with a grubscrew, because a parrot could pull the funnel off and spill seeds everywhere," she communicated to me by doing the things mentioned. "Also, the seed delivery chute, the one you printed out of the pink ABS plastic filament that was on clearance? I gotta say, it looks a lot like a baby parrot mouth, and I just had to regurgitate into it. Knew you'd understand."

Valuable feedback I will incorporate in the next iteration of the design. Thanks Ruby! I've also lined up my friend's macaw to test the next version, so we can see if it can stand up to a bigger beak.

 

[Bryce]

Ruby is still doing well. She bit me after I forgot that long sleeves are an abomination in her bird religion, but other than that we're doing fine. She's getting to be a better flyer, she flies to people occasionally and has flow to her cage a few times as well. Mostly she flies down to the floor, still, though.

She also went visiting again and was well-received. She travels so well.

 

[Bryce]

Here's Ruby operating her new toy:
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOrhdxujU70"]African Grey Parrot Presses a Button to get Treats - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Jen5200]

I love it - so smart!

 

[Bryce]

Ruby went with me to visit my parents for a few days. She was very well-behaved during the ~9-hour drive there (and again on the way back). She actually slept part of the time in her carrier.

My father was a bit forward with her and got bitten (not bad, but drew blood) but they both talked to her a lot. She was the treat of the party too when my parents had some friends and relatives over. I think she's happy to be home again, though; I felt like she was a little nervous when she was away from home. Mom had a nice cage for her to stay in, but it just wasn't her cage, I think.

 

[LeaKP]

I love that you are taking Ruby out! Aside from the asking for it bite, what a success! Congratulations!


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[TiredOldMan]

I keep waiting for the catch...

Mine came in egg form Read my thread 'i think i'm doing well, am i?'. I'm new to parrots apart from budgies and a cockatiel, i think the thread has shown mistakes i've made along the short road so far. Hopefully it may help you avoid the same.

Search feature couldn't find your post. Could you provide a link? I would like to read it

Thanks,
Dave

 

[TiredOldMan]

I haven't had a chance to take good photos yet, but it's a very simple system. It has a 3D printed wheel with a pocket perpendicular to the axle of the wheel. A motor turns the wheel, bringing it under a funnel full of treats, which fall into the pocket. The wheel keeps rotating in its housing until it reaches the bottom, where there is another hole, connected to a chute. The treat falls into the chute and travels by gravity into the cage. A photodiode-IRED pair is interrupted by the passage of the food, letting the machine know that it can stop rotating the wheel. If nothing falls within a certain amount of time, it reverses the direction of the wheel to attempt to clear a jam. There is also a second IRED-photodiode pair in the funnel, so that it can detect if it is out of treats.

An ATTINY microcontroller controls the whole thing. Currently, the motor is a stepper motor with a driver IC for it, but I may end up switching to a regular DC motor with a worm gear for cost reduction - I'm thinking of making a kit so that people can build their own. I'm not sure what the interest would be. I talked to our lab manager, who has a blue-and-gold macaw, and she was excited about the idea, but then lab managers probably don't represent a huge segment of bird owners.

Maybe getting a little ahead of myself here, but I'd like to offer the kit in two forms, one a "screwdriver only" kit that anyone can assemble, and a more sophisticated "maker version" that requires soldering and crimping connectors. (The SMD parts if any would be pre-soldered.)

I'm in. I'm interested in the maker version!

 

[Bryce]

A lot has happened since my last post here, in particular I have had a career change that has resulted in a lot less free time to work on hobby projects - I am still hoping to eventually turn the parrot game into something more packaged for other people to use.


As to Ruby herself, a year on she is still doing well. She's been pretty well behaved. Makes some annoying sounds in the evenings but nothing too severe. She's usually good around strangers and has warmed up to everyone in the house (though not to the same degree), with inappropriate pair-bonding attempts seemingly having ceased. I built her a large perch/play gym, which she is good about staying on despite being flighted. She also now likes to stand on the curtain rod while people are showering, but does not like going in the water (indeed, she will refuse to come off the rod until the shower is off.) Great companion animal, I am continuing to enjoy her company, and hoping for many more years.

 

[noodles123]

Welcome! Glad things are going so well!
SIDE-NOTE: At this point, I am assuming you know about Telfon/PFOA/PTFE (and the fact that it hides outside of the kitchen and can kill your bird..) but as it is not always common knowledge, I feel the need to ask.


EDIT- where do you get that treat toy? Did you invent it? I think I a cage with similar doors so....