Zephyr is home!

[Selestine]

He's home, he's home! Hubby and his brother got the cage all put together and set up for me last night, and my daughter and I had a blast decorating it ^_^

(There's a ton more toys scattered around but I don't want to overload the thread with images)

Got his food all ready this morning just before it was time to pick him up so it would be in the cage and ready for him so I wouldn't have to disturb him while he's getting settled in. Not sure I remember what all we've got, but the one bowl is the Volkman's Soak and Simmer, some sprouts and sweet potato, the other is grapes, apples, cherries, tomatoes, snow peas, cucumber, jalapeno, carrots, cilanto, kale, collard greens and some red and green bell pepper. Think I remembered it all.

And here he is chilling in his new cage. Want to snuggle him so bad, but going to give him some quiet time to just settle in. Think I'll head over to drop my son off at Grandma's house so I have to be good

Right now he's just looking around at everything very slowly. Hasn't moved off of the perch where I put him, but he looks.. quizzical?

 

[tortoisekeeper]

Nice set up. It looks like he should be very happy with his new home.

 

[Selestine]

Thank you, I sure hope so! He has begun to explore a little bit, now. He seems to really like the rope-type perches, and when I speak to him. I was sitting in the rocking chair reading aloud and he climbed over to this one to watch / listen to me.

 

[Betrisher]

Awwww! I have birdy envy! Your Zephyr is a handsome fellow and looks quite at home in his bachelor pad. I hope you're very happy together.

 

[Selestine]

Hah, bachelor pad -- that's cute!

 

[jroyal]

Zephyr is one handsome fellow. And that cage is huge.. It's so hard to resist handling a new bird..

 

[Selestine]

Poor little thing is definitely not settled in yet =/ He didn't touch a bite of his food that I could see. I cleared it all out for the night and kitted him out with some of the Volkman's Eclectus Seed Mix. Hopefully he'll be in more of a mood to eat tomorrow after he wakes up and realizes that no one has eaten him yet. I've got his cage mostly covered, so hopefully he'll feel hidden and a little more secure. I don't know how I'm ever going to manage to get this thing fully covered. Just getting the sheet draped over it was a task, since I can't really reach the top of it. Maybe if I make a fitted cover, it'll slip into place better and stay. Only one way to find out, I guess. Unless someone has some awesome suggestion for covering monster sized cages!

And thank you Jroyal, I sure think he is a handsome dude ^_^

 

[PetoftheDay]

Yup, getting some inexpensive fabric and making your own custom cover will be far easier to manage than draping/tucking and pinning a sheet every night! And that can certainly be a project your daughter can share with you! Do measure and than make a paper (even paper towel or newspaper) pattern to make sure it matches the curve of the sides at the top. And once you have the pattern, you can cut it for both sides, and the front-top-back can just be one long rectangle.

 

[MikeyTN]

Congrats!!!!! I would offer you one advice, they're messy eaters, if you want to keep food from sticking to your carpet or walls I would advice you to hang shower curtains in the back of the cage and either lay down towels around the cage or those plastic mats...

 

[mtdoramike]

Congrats on your new addition. Your daughter looks sooooo excited to be getting a new pet. That cage is really great as well. The food you have fixed even made me a bit hungry just looking at it

 

[ChuytheEkkie]

Awww!! Congrats!!!!! I got my Eclectus about a month ago so I can absolutely relate on that excitement!!!! BEST. FEELING. EVER!! I see he has you well trained in the food department as well! My husband is jealous that I make the bird food and not him! hahaha!

I love the black and yellow "baby beaks" !

 

[kendrafitz]

Congratulations!!! He is such a handsome little doll!

He is one spoiled baby, I love his cage and all his goodies!!

 

[Ravennessa]

He is so pretty!! and what a cage.. My sun conure says he wants to move!! LOL

 

[drlisaort]

Oh wow, your Zephyr is beautiful and WOW on his home--it's so full of fun things to do...

 

[rbreck]

Congrats!!!!! I would offer you one advice, they're messy eaters, if you want to keep food from sticking to your carpet or walls I would advice you to hang shower curtains in the back of the cage and either lay down towels around the cage or those plastic mats...

Vinyl table clothes work well too. I buy them from fabric so or clearance rack. Home improvement store have heavy vinyl which I love. Your baby is so cute.

 

[dulphinz]

He's adorable Congrats!

 

[Selestine]

Thanks everyone! He's so stinkin' cute that I can't stand it ^_^

I made a cute little cage cover for my daughter's sun conure cage, but the thought of even.. gosh.. doing the maths for the yardage on the fabric for Zephyr's cage and then cutting out the pieces makes me want to take a nap! Guess I will have to suck it up and get to work!

He is definitely taking his own sweet time settling in. He really didn't eat the first two days he was here. I put some millet in yesterday evening and he attacked that like he'd never seen food before in his life. He finally appears to have eaten his actual food today. I had to go grocery shopping and when I came back his little beak was filthy and so was his cage. Haha, it almost looks like he just decided to redecorate instead of eat it. I'm certainly glad, I was getting anxiety over his lack of eating! Looks like I will have to invest in one of those suggested shower curtains to protect my carpets -- he is not the cleanest of eaters, it would appear.

He's such a cute sleeper too ^_^ He tucks his little head around backward to sleep. I've definitely caught him sleeping with his eyes open a time or two, also.

He's still very anxious about the goings on in the house. He doesn't really seem to want to interact very much, so we're taking it slowly. Today is the first day that I've seen him really moving around the cage much at all. Prior to this he could have passed for a bird statue. Aside from the first day when he crossed the cage when I was reading (and not looking at him), I haven't really seen him move. He'd pick a spot in the cage and sit there for HOURS. Sometimes I'd peek at him out of the corner of my eye just to see if he'd blink or something.. make sure he was still alive. Today he is eating while I am in the same room (yay!) and making some kind of clucking noises with his tongue. They almost sound like the kind of noise a person would make if they were thirsty (like if your mouth were super dry and your tongue were sticking to the roof of your mouth). I don't think he's actually thirsty since he definitely ate, ate the grapes in his bowl rather than chucking them on the floor. Right now he's playing with one of his toys.

The cutest thing I've seen so far was with a piece of leather that had been tied to the dowel type perch in his cage. My husband tied.. I think they're called donkey tails?.. all through the leather and then tied it to the dowel. He must have picked them all out over night, because it was on the cage floor in the morning. I hadn't actually seen him touch any of the toys prior to this. When we saw it on the floor this morning hubby opened the cage and picked the leather up to retie it and Zephyr was VERY obviously excited to see the piece of leather in my husband's hands. He kind of puffed his feathers up and his whole body quivered and he leaned toward my husband, staring at the leather in his hands while he redid the donkey tails, and as soon as my husband tied it back to the dowel and reclosed the cage he scooted straight back over to the leather and started pecking at it. Made me so happy to see him interested in playing with something.

 

[Anya]

Nice. I didn't know that he undid the donkey tails!