Hi Carl! Hi Jae!
Do birds get fat? I’m amazed that a bird will eat that much human food but of course, I know nothing about them. Do they talk/squawk all day and if so, how do you get them to…hush? Does he ever get to fly outside his cage somewhere or flap his wings because 21 years is a long time to be in one small place, right? I’d go nuts but then again, I’m not a bird. And..how does a tired and grouchy bird act and what is he tired and grouchy about?
Inquiring minds want to know.
(And PS…I LOVE clean sheet day, too).
Clean Sheet Day is THE BEST!
I suppose birds can get fat- think of chickens when you are trimming them up for your own meal; for the first ten or so years of Carl's life, we clipped his wings, and he was out of his cage as much as in- rode on shoulders, climbed in small bushes by the porch or patio, skittered around in the car-- got his exercise. And, we ALWAYS had a BIG cage for any birds- his current one is @2.5' x 2.5'x 3.5' and he is the only bird; there are sticks (from old apple trees in Wa State and the "iron wood" which is Madrona, here) and a rope coil and coconut shell dangling- lots of things to climb on and visit during his day. So he has to move around to get to his food- just like in the wild. He's been what is called "wing-bound" for most of his life- even though he's not been clipped for years, he can flap and make some forward progress, but he is going to hit the ground sooner or later.
Since he has no experience "being a bird" he has no idea what he is 'missing'; if you could ask him, he ain't missing a thing. Tired and grouchy means exactly that- he dozes more (he has a 'tent' thing he uses at night and sidles up to in the day to nap against) and makes grouchy muttering noises if something happens he doesn't like- a dove lands in the tree outside the window, or I run the vacuum or the mixer- or I bump the cage trying to clean all the bird stuff from under and around the cage. Grouchy- same as you or I. His eyes are round when he's not grouchy.
Starting in about 2013, my Dear Husband started collecting dogs. Dogs-dogs-dogs- we had FIVE DOGS and some are/were terrier types- hunters of wriggly things. So Carl was no longer allowed out. The biggest dog was Lukas, the 170 lb English Mastiff- Carl would've been a mere canape to Lukas. They had an uneasy relationship as Lukas wanted to be able to get to all the bits and bobs Carl dropped to the bottom of the cage, and Carl wanted to bite Lukas; each acting appropriately for their species. We have had to say good-bye to a dog every year for the past three years, which has been sad, but also a sigh of relief for me- I'm the one who has had to take care of all the animals (DH has, until recently, been the most chauvenistic-in-action man around; he can *talk* a good story, he just couldn't *act* a good story). We are now down to two dogs (both small froo-froo type dogs) and Carl. DH is not allowed to get another animal.
And DH now feeds and cares for the dogs a couple days a week (he does it 'wrong', but I don't even sigh- he's doing it; that's what matters. Besides, they're DOGS- they would eat poop if they wanted) and I still do Carl because Carl is older and fratchety and he and I know the routine to get food where it goes inside the cage so Carl can climb and swing and scoot all over the cage, top to bottom and on every side, to get his food).
As far as becoming fat, I think, given exercise such as climbing all over the cage, and the propensity of birds to fling over half of what they eat all over the place, gaining a lot of weight would be unusual. Either that or Carl's got a really fast metabolism (also true- all birds do. Huh- that's probably it).
I'm telling you- messy creatures- don't be seduced by the idea. Like raccoons that way- great idea, bad reality.
first post to this thread..
