Chop chop chop!

Chop makin' time! :)

100% organic: sweet potato (cooked), broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy, carrot, kohlrabi w/ greens, rutabega, zucchini, poblano pepper, with chia seeds, avi-greens supplement and bee pollen added.

Tonka dives right in:

This should last 6-8 weeks!

Dinner Dinner Yum Yum!

Tonight I made a fresh cooked dinner for the birds: 5 grain mix, cooked with: frozen) sweet potato, cranberries, peas and corn; fresh) carrot, broccoli, spinach. Seasoned with cumin, garlic, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, cayenne, crushed red pepper and served with sprouted seeds and pomegranite seeds.

A new way to prepare the sweet potato mash recipe!

Several posts below, I showed yall an awesome recipe for sweet potato mash balls rolled in oats. An inventive member of a parrot forum I frequent came up with a new way to prepare these! Once you have the mash completed, instead of forming larger balls and rolling in oats, I can now roll into smaller balls and bake. These make great one serving treats, and my three bigger birds all LOVE them cooked this way! The sweet potato mash recipe is a staple in my house, I ALWAYS have some in the freezer. Now, when I make a batch, I automatically portion it, and prepare half the original way, and half the new way.

It's easy to forget that sometimes simple is best!

I stole a simple but great idea from some friends of mine: I hung some dixie cups up around the playareas the other night for the birds to forage on. As soon as I hung each one up, Tonka was sprinting across the toys to get to it!  But I held her back and let Norah get to one first, and it was a difficult one!

I hung these up all over the two main play areas, and all the birds have enjoyed them. I fill the cups with bits of seed, pellets, and little toy bits like cut up straws, pony beads, tiny chunks of woods, and paper shreds. Now, when I bring the birds out to the playgyms, the first thing they do is start checking the cups to see if any new goodies have been added! This is foraging at it's most basic level, just like they would act in the wild. I love it!

Re-organization of the playareas

I have three out-of-the-cage playareas for the birds in my home. (Well, four if you count the shower perch, but I will not be talking about the shower perch today). Over the last few weeks I did an extensive overhaul- cleaning, reorganizing, and generally making-more-awesome.

The biggest and most used in the main living room play area. This is mostly for the two caiques, as they need the space and exercise more than the other two, and also because they are very naughty and need to be in the same room with me at all times when out of their cage so I can keep an eye on them!

I did a basic cleaning and renovation of this play area, it looks great and the caiques were very happy for the change.

The kitchen basket is a small play area, mostly used by Violet the cockatiel. She likes to hang out here while I cook and wash dishes, etc. The other birds do occasionally hang out here, especially Perry, but they tend to get bored and start looking for trouble. My renovation of this playarea was a bit more drastic than the first playarea. Originally, I just had the basket hanging here. I wanted to bump it up a bit, so I added in a nice gnarly chunk of grapevine, to make another level for climbing and play!

The third playarea has had the most drastic changes. This is the area over the tops of the big cages in the bedroom. The bigger birds generally only hang out here when I am the room to watch them. This is primarily due to the caiques being naughty and not staying put- they think their mission in life is to climb down the cages and get to the floor. Since I have dogs and cats, this is unacceptable! So, they are only allowed to play on top of their cages supervised. Perry, on the other hand, can safely hang out here, and won't try to climb down. However, he would get a little bored, and I wanted to have another play space worthy of the caiques' hyperactivity as well. So I do a major rehaul of this area! Since I don't use the grates on the bottoms of the big bird cages, I decided to put that grate to another use! I hung it over the cages (I stole this awesome idea from a friend!). It's such a simple concept, but what a huge change! You can now place toys on the new shelf, and hang toys below. The birds are really starting to enjoy it! Perry spends most of his evenings playing here now, and the caiques have a new area to come play sometimes- it's nice to have a change of pace!



My very own website!

I finally set up a website for my toys! It is not fancy, and I am already looking at alternatives, but at least it showcases my toys and lets people order them. If you would like to buy toys from the site, you email me with what you would like and your address, and I figure out your total and paypal you an invoice. Easy!

https://sites.google.com/site/pollyoopiepettoys/

Please check it out!  :)