Pictures of Rocky Road :)

Peanuts, she loves peanuts.  I used to enjoy watching her deal with the unshelled, but quit giving them to her because of the risk of aflatoxins.  Now she gets Planters unsalted from the jar.  Much as she loves them, I can't use them as a training reward.  She suddenly develops an aversion when I try.  

She does pretty well with praise and scritches, and fortunately she's well behaved to begin with.  The one thing I'd really like to work on with her is the harness.  I think about it every year as the weather starts getting nice, and of course that's the time of year that I dare not touch her below the neck, so I never seem to get very far with it.

Shah couldnt care less about praise and scritches. His rule is "Thou shalt have no other living being or inanimate object before me - otherwise you are in serious doo doo". My apologies to any religious folk I have just offended.

Mr P doesnt like sunflower seeds or corn either. What he absolutely goes apesh*t over is that Hawaiian bread. He recognizes the packaging it comes in and practically bounces off his playstand when he sees me getting a piece. He doesnt like peanuts either, but he loves wheat thins. I was actually going to try to do some target training with him but he isnt really motivated by anything healthy!

Daisy LOVES peanuts in the shell but as was mentioned, they are not good for her. Currently, that is the only food she will take from my hand. She is pretty much afraid of anything she doesnt recognize as food and she is so rough when she takes the peanut, I am a little hesitant about offering her something smaller for fear of my fingers.

Rocky is beautiful and seems really sweet already. Daisy has the potential to be sweet but really just needs some patience and understanding at the moment as she is really really really scared of hands. I don't even want to try to imagine why

This morning I ran into the woman from whom we got Rocky. She didn't know he could talk. She was surprised to find out he doesn't scream all day and all night. And that he likes to snuggle. Then she referred to him as "her" bird and said she misses him. I refrained from saying, "No, he's MY bird and he doesn't miss YOU." Poor traumatized baby, who crawls into my arms for hugs, trembles when you take him a few feet away from his cage or if he hears a sudden noise (including a dog sneezing) and doesn't recognize fruit and veggies as food. He was always my bird, it just took a while for me and him to locate one another.

'Toos live a long time and I hope he's still young enough that the bad memories will fade as he gets used to being a Mama's boy. Somebody must have loved him and taken good care of him at some point along the way, or he wouldn't be so sweet and affectionate. I can mess with his feet and touch his wings and tail and beak and he's perfectly all right with that. I can reach into his cage to pet him and he's okay with that, too. He'd like to sit on my shoulder and once we've gotten to know each other well, I'll probably let him.