yesterday Bentley joined us for the first time in the living room. yes, he is out of quarantine, although still taking his meds. (final day of meds will be june 25th, and then he goes to the vet for a re-check to make sure the bacteria levels are normal). we have him on the opposite side of the room, closest to the kitchen and he has his own little playstand. so far things are going well. my other birds are kinda interested, but they have been hearing bentley for the past 2 1/2 months so they know "he's okay".
one thing i did learn after moving bentley out to the living room is that he knows how to "answer the telephone", like my other foster bird. when the phone rings, bentley says "hello?". cute! so far, i have heard bentley say "hello", "whats up" and "okay".
this morning, i made a nice omelette with their usual breakfast food mixed in. it was nice to see all birds eating their breakfast as my husband and i sat for some breakfast of our own.
Friday, June 8, 2007
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Today was a cute day for Bentley - he laughed for us for the first time! All of our birds laugh in their own way - our amazon has a high-pitched "nervous" type laugh, our green cheeks have a sneaky chuckle, and our other foster bird does a "ha ha ha" laugh.
well, bentley has an airy "ha ha ha". thats the best that i can describe it. :-) it made me crack up the first i heard it, and it was really a joy to hear it. i don't know if birds understand the joy laughter signifies, but for me to hear it come from a bird lets me know that they are comfortable enough to imitate a sound that us humans do with great expression and drama.
well, bentley has an airy "ha ha ha". thats the best that i can describe it. :-) it made me crack up the first i heard it, and it was really a joy to hear it. i don't know if birds understand the joy laughter signifies, but for me to hear it come from a bird lets me know that they are comfortable enough to imitate a sound that us humans do with great expression and drama.
Sunday, June 3, 2007
yesterday, a nice family, (Mickaboo-approved!) came to visit both Zeba and Bentley. They were interested to see if any of them would be a good match for their family. It was a nice visit with a few injuries. (sorry!). I personally think that they would be a great adoptive family. all three of them showed a lot of patience and calmness with both birds. from the visit, i think Bentley will be getting a new forever home. hooray!
i did learn a few things about bentley:
1) it seems that he likes men in general. bentley sure showed he was very friendly to the father. he nipped the daughter on her finger as she offered him a sliver of almond. BUT, it could've been because of some nervousness and hesitation in the air, or i think i was because of the color red that she was wearing. (all of my birds seem to hate the color red.). once she took off her red overshirt, she retried giving bentley an almond and was then successful. great job! (i give her LOTS of credit for retrying after being nipped).
2) bentley loves attention from anyone! they were strangers in his room, yet he happily sang to them and absorbed the happy energy in the room. bentley is sure a peach. although it seems that he does create a strong bond with one person, he shows that he can like other people as well. we knew he was not going to stay with us very long because of his overall happy-go-lucky personality.
because bentley is currently on a 28-day regimine of antibiotics, the family said that they will wait till his meds are done and he has a vet recheck. if he needs more meds after that (which i sure hope he doesn't!) they agreed that they would administer the meds.
congrats bentley! i think you found your forever family!
i did learn a few things about bentley:
1) it seems that he likes men in general. bentley sure showed he was very friendly to the father. he nipped the daughter on her finger as she offered him a sliver of almond. BUT, it could've been because of some nervousness and hesitation in the air, or i think i was because of the color red that she was wearing. (all of my birds seem to hate the color red.). once she took off her red overshirt, she retried giving bentley an almond and was then successful. great job! (i give her LOTS of credit for retrying after being nipped).
2) bentley loves attention from anyone! they were strangers in his room, yet he happily sang to them and absorbed the happy energy in the room. bentley is sure a peach. although it seems that he does create a strong bond with one person, he shows that he can like other people as well. we knew he was not going to stay with us very long because of his overall happy-go-lucky personality.
because bentley is currently on a 28-day regimine of antibiotics, the family said that they will wait till his meds are done and he has a vet recheck. if he needs more meds after that (which i sure hope he doesn't!) they agreed that they would administer the meds.
congrats bentley! i think you found your forever family!
Friday, June 1, 2007
Bentley has been doing really good - active level-wise. He is hormonal in the sense that if he is with my husband (who he adores!) and i enter the room, Bentley will try to come as close to me as possible and try and bite me. he just wants my husband to himself. But if my husband is not to be seen or heard, Bentley will easily step up onto my arm with a reward of a piece of nut.
Recently, we took Bentley in for a re-check up. When we first got Bentley, he weighed 515g. For his size, that meant he was overweight. It showed because his chest really heaved while breathing, he didn't move very much, and was very timid. now he loves to go exploring so we really have to keep a close eye on him. he likes to look out of the window and people-watch. if a car alarm goes off, he makes a game out of copying the tone and tempo with his version of the alarm. lol. if people are having fun outside and laughing or yelling, Bentley will also try to ape that.
Back to his vet visit, the vet said he is now down to 440g, but he should still lose about 20g. and that in the culture test, there were elevated levels of a bacteria in his mouth/gut. So for the next 28 days, he will be on 2x a day antibiotics to clean that out. Because the antibiotics kills all bacteria in his gut (including GOOD bacteria), we also have to give him some benebac gel. this helps to replenish the good bacteria in his system while on the antibiotics.
this is the third day of his antibiotic treatment. so far, Bentley has been a real trooper. he doesn't like to be toweled, but hardly gives a fight once wrapped in the towel and after he is done with taking the antibiotics, he calms down instantly and starts to sing and be his merry self.
i haven't had much time to do as much target training as i would like with Bentley, but i plan to pick that up. Bentley is a very smart bird, and with focused training, i think he can get past his territorial aggression around my husband.
ps: oh, i just realized its about time i took more pictures of Bentley. :-)
Recently, we took Bentley in for a re-check up. When we first got Bentley, he weighed 515g. For his size, that meant he was overweight. It showed because his chest really heaved while breathing, he didn't move very much, and was very timid. now he loves to go exploring so we really have to keep a close eye on him. he likes to look out of the window and people-watch. if a car alarm goes off, he makes a game out of copying the tone and tempo with his version of the alarm. lol. if people are having fun outside and laughing or yelling, Bentley will also try to ape that.
Back to his vet visit, the vet said he is now down to 440g, but he should still lose about 20g. and that in the culture test, there were elevated levels of a bacteria in his mouth/gut. So for the next 28 days, he will be on 2x a day antibiotics to clean that out. Because the antibiotics kills all bacteria in his gut (including GOOD bacteria), we also have to give him some benebac gel. this helps to replenish the good bacteria in his system while on the antibiotics.
this is the third day of his antibiotic treatment. so far, Bentley has been a real trooper. he doesn't like to be toweled, but hardly gives a fight once wrapped in the towel and after he is done with taking the antibiotics, he calms down instantly and starts to sing and be his merry self.
i haven't had much time to do as much target training as i would like with Bentley, but i plan to pick that up. Bentley is a very smart bird, and with focused training, i think he can get past his territorial aggression around my husband.
ps: oh, i just realized its about time i took more pictures of Bentley. :-)
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