A Grey has arrived

It totally depends on the parrot in question. Benjy the budgie is quite the neatnik and doesn't toss seed hulls or tear things up and his little poopies are always neatly arranged in the same spot. Greta (RIP) was like that, too. But all the others, oy. They seem to delight in making the biggest messes possible and then supervising when I clean up after them.

We have wood floors, with linoleum in the room the small parrots live in, so I only use the vacuum to clean up Rocky's play stand. It's really a cat play stand and the platforms are covered in indoor/outdoor carpet, and of course, he spreads his treat mess all over that. Otherwise, I use a broom and mop. The dogs would feel compelled to attack a Roomba, I'm sure, and it would likely terrify Rocky.

Robotic vacuuming device that looks a bit like a UFO, only much smaller of course. You turn it on and it rolls itself around your house and bumps into walls and furniture and turns itself another direction and keeps going. The idea is that it does all your vacuuming and you just go find it and turn it off when it's done. Google "cat riding a Roomba in a shark costume" if you want a giggle. There's a great video of that out there.

When it came time to replace the carpet in my apartment, I was given a choice between new carpet or imitation-wood vinyl flooring. I chose the vinyl and like it much better. I'll get out the broom and dustpan for a quick cleanup, but the vacuum is much more efficient at picking up stray pellets and down feathers. Scooter is by far the messiest of the three parrots I've lived with (George places second, and Ralph is the least messy, but the most creative at distributing the messes around the apartment). Maybe I could borrow a dog from someone to help with the parrot messes. As much as I'd like one of my own, I think about the rent surcharge here for a pet lease and that's the end of that idea. Watching my neighbors walking their dogs out here in bad winter weather puts me off a bit too.

Things today were about the same as yesterday. Scooter seems more relaxed, but does get a little upset by all the strange sounds coming from downstairs-- the apartment under mine is vacant and is being remodeled this week, so there's lots of pounding, sawing and sanding going on down there. Ralph doesn't mind-- when they're hammering down there, sometimes he taps back at them. Scooter likes cooked carrots, and tried some fresh peas this morning for the first time. She took one taste of softened pellets and turned up her beak at the rest of them, but does crunch a few dry ones.

We gave up carpet after we pulled one up to replace it and realized how filthy it was underneath. All the vacuuming and shampooing in the world can't get it really clean. We've had wood floors ever since. Not that we're the cleanest family in town, with the dogs and the birds and us, but at least when we do clean it up now, we're pretty sure it really is clean.

Based only on my experience and that of a few others I know, Gary, Scooter will probably never be as brave as Ralph. It's not that they're shy or lacking in personality, they are just naturally cautious birds, I think. Maybe it has something to do with being primarily ground feeders. Just a guess.

But when they do get comfortable, they can be pretty comfortable:

Wow, what a good looking bird