The Gut Cup

Several times per year, I make bird bread. I’m lazy, so I don’t do it as often as I should. Even though, its really easy to do.

You don’t follow any specific recipe. You take cornbread mix, and a nice base – either pumpkin, or sweet potato. Then you toss in whatever you have handy, bake it, and serve. This last batch that I made was very sparse, ingredient wise, compared to what I normally do.

Organic corn bread mix.
Organic sweet potato puree
Cooked Brown rice
Asparagus
Turnip greens
Bright red hot peppers
Carrot/Orange juice mix

And that, was it. Normally I include a goodly bit more ingredients, but I was economizing. You toss all that into a blender, turn it into gunk, toss it into bake pans, and bake. Freeze most of it, and then break it out to feed on whatever time basis you want. Hermit crabs also love it – dogs, not so much.

Notice the amount of brightly colored foods I have in there. Sweet potato, red peppers, and carrot/orange juice. I know that Hermit Crabs really benefit from a lot of beta carotene, and I believe parrot feathers also benefit. I know that all of my birds have unusually bright, iridescent feathers for their breeds. Even Kermit the Blue Crowned Conure, and Kiwi the Red Lored Amazon, who are mostly green birds.

Speaking of which, Kermit was my self appointed helper for mixing the ingredients. She isn’t comfortable flying, so she didn’t fly down to the counter to get closer to the food. Instead she hung down the front of my shirt, claws gripping my collar. That way I could lift food up to her, for her to sample.

Harley macaws favorite music is Led Zeppelin, so I’ve got that cranked up pretty high, and I’m rocking out with him.

I can take Led Zeppelin, or leave them, but I’m wearing him out today, so its all good.

Normally its Harley macaw who rants. Tonight, its Kermit, and boy, is she on a roll. Lots of mimic-ing me is going on, with periodic loud(er) bouts of grumbling.

I always wonder whats going through these guys minds when they do this.

And earlier tonight, when I was trying to read, Harley was planting himself in my lap for head scritches. I would put my book down, and give him the head scritches for a few. Off he would go. I would pick up my book (actually a manga graphic novel) and here he would come back. Silly bird.

Back when I got Harley macaw, I was more intimidated by him. Mostly that big ass beak of his, which he is quite willing to use to get his way. Back then, he had a favorite game. “Dancing fat man” – he would charge my bare feet, smacking at them with his beak, while I danced from foot to foot staying out of his way.

Then I came to a realization. He’s mostly bluff. Sure he bites, on occasion, but its pretty rare. And he rarely does any degree of damage. Some redness, a minor bruise, etc. He’s really not capable of doing very much (especially since he isn’t allowed on my shoulder, and rarely in reach of my face). At his worst, he could break a finger.

So, I stopped the dancing. He would race at my bare feet, and grab a toe – then roll his eyes upward to make eye contact. With no response, he would proclaim OW! and wander off in a huff. Eventually he just took to ignoring my feet, for the most part. Though last summer, I was propped up on the railing of my back porch, watching the world go by. The door was open, and Harley was out (he is on the only one of my birds reasonably safe to be loose outdoors). I felt something grab my toe. While it scared me half to death (I had no idea he was around) I didn’t jump. I looked down, met the mischievous gaze, and with an annoyed harrumph, off he wandered.

I hadn’t really thought about this change until this morning. Harley was out, wandering around. I was standing in the hall trying to decide what to do first. Harley wandered down the hall, stepped on a toe as he was passing by, and went on down to see if the dogs had left any food in their dish. They had. He emptied it, and threw the food bowl down the stairs.

So, as some things change, others stay the same.

Weighing your birds and recording the weight on a semi regular basis is suppose to be a good thing. It helps you spot problems. I’m a slacker, and stopped doing it some time ago. So, since its a new year, I decided to pick it back up.

I weighed two of the birds tonight – Harley and Kermit. Kiwi isn’t weighable at the moment. She is fully in the grips of spring hormones and isn’t hand-able tonight. I’ll try her again tomorrow. (Harley and Kermit are also hormone hyped, but are a bit calmer than Kiwi right now).

Kermit (Blue Crowned Conure)
11/20/2007 150 grams
01/07/2008 139 grams
01/16/2010 157 grams 5.54 ounces .34 pounds

Yes, I totally missed 2009. I’m ashamed. I’m not the worlds best parrot owner (though I’m miles above the worst). I’ve had Kermit 3.5 years – she was hatched on August 17, 2006. I’ve got her eggshell around somewhere. This is the first year I’ve seen any sign of Kermit having hormone issues (and they are mild) so its possible that she has hit puberty. Conures hit puberty around 2-4 years or so, I think. I’m not really sure.

Harley (Blue and Gold Macaw)
01/23/2008 1065 grams
01/16/2010 1057 grams 37.28 ounces 2.33 pounds

Almost two years! Mind, he got to where he didn’t trust the perch I use to weigh them. I overcame that this time, with food. Harley is also 3 months or so shy of having been with me three years. He is 17-18 years old.