Petey Blog

I have a small confession to make: I am not who the blog says I am. I created this blog just for fun a little after my roommate got Petey. I write and take the photos and post them under his name. In December he moved across the country for training, and he couldn't bring Petey along with him. The options were for Petey to stay with me or find him a new home. No wanting Petey to end up with strangers, he stayed with me. But in May I was about to start a lot of moving around myself, so I couldn't take care of him properly for a few months. My roommate had gotten a house where he was, and I was going to be on that side of the country for my first trip. It was a punishing 1am flight across the country. I was so filled with anxiety that he was going to scream that I nearly got an ulcer, but he never made a single squawk except when the TSA guy took him. All of the security people were giving him so much attention, commenting on his unusual colors, nobody seemed to care if he had a certificate of health or anything. Anyways, this photo of him was taken the morning I left. It won't be the last post as I plan on visiting, but hopefully this will explain the delays.

Comments:
Ann-Marie : Hi there, I love your bird! I had a couple questions if you don't mind. Do you occasionally go out of town on weekends and is he ok on his own with enough food/water for the two days? Also, how much time a day are you able to spend with him? I work during the day and might have other activities after, but would be able to devote a couple hours at least on weekdays to a conure (thinking about getting green-cheek). Just wanted your thoughts, thanks so much!
A-M : Hi, I love your bird! I had a couple questions if you don't mind. Do you occasionally go away for the weekend and is he ok with enough food/water? And how much time are you able to spend with him during the day? I am thinking about getting a green-cheek and work full time and have some after work activities, but would be able to devote a couple of hours a weekday at least...Thanks so much!
A-M : sorry- thought the first didn't go through :)
Stewie the Sun Conure : When are we going to get more updates on Petey??
Amy : Hi Petey, I love your blog! I run a bird related blog too, about caique parrots. I was wondering if you would be interested in trading links? Drop me a line if you are!
Fabe : We have a Sun Conure named Sunny, not sure if it's a male or female, but for argument's sake we'll say female...because she keeps trying to feed me! She loves her baths, and tends to get right cranky if she doesn't get one EACH day! There was a time where we went for 2 days without giving her one, and you guessed it...she used her water bowl. We came home to water all over our new leather couch. The cage has sinced been moved, just in case! haha
Meg : hey, ur blog is pretty cool, u hav some awsome pix of ur roommates conure. in response to the person who is thinking about getting a green-cheek, i think it is probably not a good idea if the only time you will have for it is on the weekend. all conures are very social and my green-cheek screams if i dont get him out at least twice a day. on top of this you need to think about the time you need to clean the cage as they need quite a large cage for all their toys. maybe you should look into something that needs a bit less attention like a cockatiel.

Petey is content sitting on most people's shoulders, but for a select few he is not satisfied until he burrows down your shirt. This can be a good thing. For example, if you are on the phone, most of the time he is fairly quiet when he is inside shirts. If you have ever had a Sun Conure near you, you know how hard it can be to conduct a phone conversation when the bird wants your attention. For the people who haven't had the pleasure, between the noise he makes when he is not on your shoulder trying to get on your shoulder and attacking the phone randomly when he gets on your shoulder, it makes it virtually impossible. Getting back on topic, sometimes he even peacefully sleeps on your belly for extended periods. But there is an ugly side to bird shirt burrowing, one or two of the follow may occur if you are only wearing one layer. If you are ticklish, expect the bird to exploit that and use his beak to tickle you if he is in a calm but not sleepy mood. Or if if the bird is full of energy expect to have scratches from his claws as he explores, and gets stuck in your sleeves. One solution to the problem is to wear at least two layers and only let the bird in between the layers.

Comments:
blueyes : Never seen a bird do that but I guess he's gotta really like the person to do it.
Carwyn : Love this picture!
moirana : our sun conure girl bella does the same thing.... she spends hours sitting in the shirt enjoying the world...great pics of petey... have to say, i LOVE the flight pic...
Bruce -- Harper Blue : Actually, I can think of a third, rather alimentary problem....
sweet_wolf : I have a Fallow green conure that loves to burrow in clothing, she will fall asleep when she is that close to myself and her papa
katrina : can we please have more petey???
Christine : That is funny my sun Conure loves to climb in my sweatshirts when I am holding her. When I hold her she leans back against my chest or shoulder. she does not like to sit on my finger.

Petey likes water. There are two choices, let him take a shower or watch every drop of water in his bowl get all over the place.

Comments:
kyashi : lol, he looks just like my sun conure, looki, when he's wet xD except my birdy's afraid of cameras, so i can't take pictures without her screaming her head off

Petey has found one more food that he will get excited for, Lafeber Tropical Fruit Nutri-Berries. The bag explains it can be used as a complete diet for your bird, but Petey has just been eating them in addition to his regular diet. He not only likes the papaya, pineapple, mango and bananas in the food, but he really seems to like the berry shape. At first all he was interested in was breaking them apart; however, he quickly he realized what he was dropping. The description says the shape minimizes wasted food, and claims that 96% of it is eaten. Maybe it just takes some practice because Petey does drop quite a bit of it as he breaks it apart. He has gotten noticeably better at eating them in the past week though.

Comments:
Jade : Petey looks like a Sun Conure...is he? I had one a long time ago. Best pet I've ever had! I'm trying to talk current hubby into getting me another one (the last one died a horrible death and it's taken me 10 years to get over it!)! First time here, I am sure you can tell! Good luck in the battle! :-) I'm off to explore more! I adore Petey!
Carina : Just wanted to say, that Petey is soooo cute!! I have a couple of red-rumped parakeets, but they are afraid of hands and rather shy at all, but also cute. :-)
stewie bird : I think the 96% eaten thing is a marketing ploy. Stewie drops at least a third of his NutriBerries (probably because he knows there's tons more where those came from. spoiled little bird)

Previously we had no means to quickly give Petey positive reinforcement. He already is a pretty well trained bird; he steps up on anyone's finger just about every time except in the evenings. But we would like to see if he can do more advanced activities. He loves banana chips, but he takes quite some time to finish them. To help with his training, we needed something that he would work to get, and could also finish eating it quickly. We found out that he goes crazy for dried papaya bits. At first he did not have much interest in them, but soon we found him climbing out of his open cage to get the bits left on top of his cage. The brand we used was made by Kaytee and named Healthy Toppings. We had experimented with another Kaytee treat, Yogurt Tropical Mix, but Petey has no interest in those yet. I would recommend that you don't give up too quickly when testing a treat with your bird. I have read that Conures and other parrots may benefit from seeing other birds or even humans eat a food before they have much interest in it.

Comments:
Charlotte : I love your parrot Petey! Is it a sun conure? I have a Meyer's Parrot who is ugly. xD

Petey wasn't outside for very long, there wasn't any wind, but it was very cold. Petey is almost like a guard dog, he alerts everyone when he sees people come to the front door. He saw everyone outside building a snowman and did not want to be left out.

Comments:
L : adorable bird! love the photos :)
Ikatron : That is a great page. Thank you for sharing
Erin S. : That's the cutest picture EVER!

Whenever Petey sees his mirror image, he barely takes notice of it and loses interest quickly. I've read that birds can become obsessive of their own mirror images if given a mirror toy in their cage. Some cases say that the birds will start to feed their mirror image, even groom it. Mirrors used to be a popular toy for birds, but new opinions are beginning to question its effect of the bird's social behavior. Either way, Petey seems quite content without a mirror and I would suggest avoiding mirrors if your bird is already social with you and other people. The photo with this post is of Petey perched on a food bowl above his cage, it was taken a while ago. He seems to prefer being up there less now, he likes being in his cage to eat or sleep, on his perch in the living room when people are in there, or being on people when he's awake.