The Continuing Capers of Companion-ing Cotton

[HeatherG]

He's definitely more comfortable this week - back to chatting up the birds outside and destroying toys

Well, maybe he will find a pigeon or cardinal girlfriend and you will have to deal with star-crossed bird lovers.

 

[HeatherG]

Well, maybe he will find a pigeon or cardinal girlfriend and you will have to deal with star-crossed bird lovers.

“But soft, what shriek through yonder window breaks?”
“Do you crunch your beak at me, sir?”
“As I hate towels, all dust busters, and thee…”
“Seed from my beak? O trespass sweetly urged! Give me my seeds again!”

And so on.

 

[LaManuka]

Now that Cotton's past the worst of his molt and illness, and is more chatty and cheerful, I've gotten back to trying to push the comfort boundary a little further.

Yesterday I decided to hold a walnut at the cage bars above his treat bowl, with the intention of clicking and dropping it into the bowl the moment he made a move toward me.

View attachment 42487

Um.

It took an hour

View attachment 42488

I had to text my friend for moral support and my rotator cuff gave out long before Cotton's willpower did. But he finally went for it while I was sitting right up against his cage! Click and a second walnut piece deposited and I left the room (his favorite reward).

Day 2, armed with the TV remote, a gin and tonic, walnuts, the clicker, and an empty bladder. Ok buddy, here we go; I'm ready for this standoff!

View attachment 42486

Eleven minutes

AND he thought hard about taking a second walnut directly from my fingers (through the bars) but decided against in favor of a warm perch and a nap.

Way to go Cotton, eleven minutes is a VAST improvement on a bladder-busting hour!! Must say I approve of the use of a G&T as well, purely for medicinal purposes of course!

 

[HeatherG]

How is the little nudist? Keeping some feathers? I hope so.

Even though he is awfully cute as a nekkid little Guinea hen.

Wax on!

 

[Cottonoid]

He's keeping his head feathers!

Here is an action shot of him striking at me just now (still not a fan of photos, this one!) with all his pins sticking straight up and his shoulders out - Hulk Cotton.

 

[HeatherG]

Oh, all those pins must be itchy!! Baths?

I see some other green feathers, too. Any body feathers are an improvement. And Cotton has more of a beach body than me—he can get away with it.

Jasper does the Hulk at me, too. Willow tries for a second but it doesn’t work. Do you blow kisses to Cotton? Send him a big ol’ smooch.

 

[Cottonoid]

No baths!!! Last week during a thunderstorm I opened all the windows and played a thunderstorm on my phone while playing a video of IRN bathing on TV and misted the air above Cotton with warm distilled water. He just watched me and didn't move away. I thought HOORAY finally bathing success baby step!

And the next day I woke up to all his wing feathers on that side removed So, nope. Still no baths. Even if it's not related, he didn't LOVE it.

He also has a shallow tray on the bottom of his cage and two different style bowls on top. So there are options lol

On a lunch break earlier this week I was searching how to rig up an indoor fountain/waterfall

 

[HeatherG]

No baths!!! Last week during a thunderstorm I opened all the windows and played a thunderstorm on my phone while playing a video of IRN bathing on TV and misted the air above Cotton with warm distilled water. He just watched me and didn't move away. I thought HOORAY finally bathing success baby step!

And the next day I woke up to all his wing feathers on that side removed So, nope. Still no baths. Even if it's not related, he didn't LOVE it.

He also has a shallow tray on the bottom of his cage and two different style bowls on top. So there are options lol

On a lunch break earlier this week I was searching how to rig up an indoor fountain/waterfall

What about one of those recirculating cat water fountains?

 

[Cottonoid]

I have several from having multiple cats that lived past 20 and went blind or deaf or both. Cotton investigates and then shuns them If I put a treat in to entice him, he'll figure out how to get the treat out without getting a single feather wet I keep trying them on rotation though, because it worked with food, so maybe eventually it will for water?

He's not from a monsoon region like IRN are though so I kind of wonder if ARN are more dust bathers than water bathers. I have no idea, obviously. But on hot days my backyard sparrows go crazy for warm dirt baths while the finches go crazy for water bowl baths so it has me curious.

 

[BirdyBee]

Aww poor little Cottons! Those are the most aggressive pins I've seen in my LIFE! Other than baby birbs..

 

[BirdyBee]

I have several from having multiple cats that lived past 20 and went blind or deaf or both. Cotton investigates and then shuns them If I put a treat in to entice him, he'll figure out how to get the treat out without getting a single feather wet I keep trying them on rotation though, because it worked with food, so maybe eventually it will for water?

He's not from a monsoon region like IRN are though so I kind of wonder if ARN are more dust bathers than water bathers. I have no idea, obviously. But on hot days my backyard sparrows go crazy for warm dirt baths while the finches go crazy for water bowl baths so it has me curious.

ARN may still find pools of water to bathe in. African weather depends on the country. Some are deserts and other are rainforest.

 

[HeatherG]

Pet guide.com says:

“Native Region/Natural Habitat

As their name suggests, these parrots are naturally found in a narrow region in Africa. This region cuts through the heart of the continent and cuts through countries like Senegal, Mauritania, Guinea, Uganda, Somalia, and Ethiopia. They are also common in the valleys of the Nile river, and the famous city of Giza. This region includes a variety of habitats, and in all of them, these parakeets thrive.”

I don’t know whether these are dry or wet areas. Sounds like some ARNs are from wet areas, though.

 

[Rozalka]

The natural range of all ring necked parakeets:

It's a bit hard to find about habitat details because ARN isn't a species. But from what I remember the marked region of Africa is dominated by savanna.

 

[HeatherG]

Maybe you could get Cotton a pet budgie to preen him? Though that might teach him how to preen well, he could hurt the budgie. I wonder if watching a real bird preening would help him?

Willow would be very grumpy if he had all those pins and I did not remedy it.

I wonder if you could give cotton something to rub his head on?

 

[Cottonoid]

Thank you for the ARN habitat info! That's what I've found, too. I'm pretty sure his main issue with not bathing is that he is likely a parrot mill baby who never learned how to bathe or properly preen from his parents.

Maybe you could get Cotton a pet budgie to preen him? Though that might teach him how to preen well, he could hurt the budgie. I wonder if watching a real bird preening would help him?

Willow would be very grumpy if he had all those pins and I did not remedy it.

I wonder if you could give cotton something to rub his head on?

He has surfaces and objects where he can rub his head if he wants to, but I haven't seen him do so.

His little porcupine head! It doesn't seem to be bothering him as much as his body and wing pins did, thankfully.

 

[Cottonoid]

@PippTheBananaBirb you're not kidding about aggressive pins - and these are all replacing existing feathers! Not bare skin! He's looked all week like he has a mohawk across the whole top of his head when he's relaxed, there are just so many spikes! I bet it's so exciting to watch when they get their ring for the first time

 

[StormyPica]

@PippTheBananaBirb you're not kidding about aggressive pins - and these are all replacing existing feathers! Not bare skin! He's looked all week like he has a mohawk across the whole top of his head when he's relaxed, there are just so many spikes! I bet it's so exciting to watch when they get their ring for the first time

View attachment 42746

Aww, spiky boy. Now he just has to keep all his new feathers!

 

[HeatherG]

Cotton needs a big smooch on his beak.

Does he give kisses? I just walked past Willow’s cage and heard tons of little smooches floating out to me.

I just caught myself trying to rub the beak in his photo. How silly of me! Cotton is cute.

 

[BirdyBee]

The natural range of all ring necked parakeets:
View attachment 42725
It's a bit hard to find about habitat details because ARN isn't a species. But from what I remember the marked region of Africa is dominated by savanna.

That area would include both desert and a bit of rainforest.

I looked it up now, and found this:

So yeah, I was close, it contains woodland, Savanah, and desert.

 

[HeatherG]

That area would include both desert and a bit of rainforest.

I looked it up now, and found this:
View attachment 42750
So yeah, I was close, it contains woodland, Savanah, and desert.

I wonder what it is that keeps them in that one latitudinal band?

https://animalia.bio/rose-ringed-parakeet has the most thorough description of ARN habitat that I could find quickly: “They can be found in grasslands, savanna, shrubland, rainforests, mangroves, and wetlands. These birds also occur in rural gardens and agricultural areas.” Looks like they nest in palm trees and feed on cereal crops, dates, mulberries.

Wish I lived somewhere there were parrots!