Odd Parrot

Having no prior experience of parrots, we don’t know whether Larry is any odder than other parrots. However he really does seem an odd little thing. Now he is at eye level with us we are seeing a lot more about what he does in an average day, and that largely seems to be based around attacking his pine cone, attacking his perch and throwing pipa shells back in his food bowl. He also spends quite a lot of time rearranging his cage (or palace as he likes to think of it), however in true Larry style, this entails a lot of squarking and loud maneuvering of his sticks.

When his cage was on the wall, above Ian, Larry used to love nothing more than bathing in his water bowl, which used to result in Ian having an impromptu shower as Larry splashed around with gay abandon. So we put a bigger water container in his cage which he could have a good old splash in – which he has ignored. Instead, he’s literally been doing head stands getting his head into his water bowl and ignoring his lovely bath. We can only think that splashing around doens’t have the appeal if Ian’s head isn’t immediately beneath it. He’s quite cat like. His very favourite thing ever one day appears rarely to be the same the next day.

It is also quite funny watching Larry when he snoozes on his perch. He looks very precarious balanced there, but as far as we know he hasn’t fallen off yet. When he sleeps on the floor of the cage he rests his head on his pine cone, which makes us think that perhaps he secretly loves his pine cone, despite how his constant attacking may appear. It’s nice having him at eye level and he is quite a source of entertainment and I think he is enjoying it too, but his ‘I’m Happy’ squark appears much the same as his ‘I’m Unhappy’ squark.

At least he is still keeping Rosie entertained, and happily she has given up pointing at the house next door and has spent the last two weeks pointing at Larry. Admittedly, she has lost her pointer-hunting dog stance and is now lies pointing at him.

Watching Larry climb around his cage is very funny. He uses his beak to help him climb, but he slides down the bars too.

We took Alfie for his first walk – or hop, outside the house today. He did really well, hopping all the way. Although he does walk on his stumpy leg, when he is walking or running he just uses three legs. He didn’t seem worried and was quite happy, but perhaps his leg is a little stiff now as he’s not leaping on/off things with his normal devil-may-care attitude. We’re getting used to a low-flying yorkie propelling himself into roughly the direction he wants to go and without too much fear as to where he’s going to land. I don’t think he has too much control over how strong he propells himself on his one good back leg which is why he’s a little random!