DaVincia gets a new play gym

Go away - I'm working here.

 

Finished gym

 

 

You can see Giacomo on the picture above, at the top of his little ladder, near bottom of his cage.

And yes, DaVincia is plucking again. Almost all the coral on her chest is gone, and her tail feathers. I guess I just have to live with this until Sep again.

 

DaVincia is put on her new gym.

For Jess, just a little bit of her stepping up, but really doesn't show much

Below, she does start to move around on it.

 

DaVinia (formerly called DaVinci) progress photos

Many of us have been following Davinia's maturity and color changes for the past 3 years, and we all wondered - will "his" beak ever turn the bright orange that will confirm that "he" is a boy.

Maturity of a Moustache Parrot

 

...



Well, it's been 3 years and other than the yellow/orange dot that began at about 1 yrs old, and although it has gotten a little bigger, is still just a dot and the rest of the beak is black.

She is 3 yrs old now and after perusing many pictures have finally come to the decision - DaVinci is a girl, and therefore I have changed her name to DaVinia.

 

...

DaVinia seems to like when I call her pretty girl. (Probably saying finally Mommy has figured it out.)

She also says "My name is DaVin?" She would never say DaVinci. It would be DaVin? with sort of a question mark at the end.

 

...

So here are some pictures of progression:

 

...

 

At 13 wks old - DaVinia's 1st morning with us. Note the orange tint to the beak. I believe they all have this orange tint when young. Then it either gets full orange if a male or becomes all black if a female. As she got older this orange did disappear.

 

Her first cage in NY and the first cage she was ever in.

 

 

DaVinia's 1st computer lesson, and Mommy's first lesson that her beak is no good for the keyboard. LOL

 

 

Here she is a little older. Notice that she has lost any red in her beak now.

This is her first play gym.

 

DaVinia's cage in PA

 

 

 

DaVinia at 1 yrs old - May 2011 - Just getting some coral color to her chest - note on the left side of the picture - side of her chest - ONE coral feather, and notice the orange/yellow dot that has started on the end of her beak. Yes, she has a plucking habit, which is behavioral.

A few months later - Aug 2011 - More coral on the chest, and more orange to the end of her beak.

Sep 2011 - She seems to let a bit of her feathers and a bit of her tail grow in each September.

Sep 2012 - Now 2 yrs old:

 

 

Jul/Aug 2013 - now 3 yrs old:

Note how much more green has come in to her face at 3.

 

Also notice the coral on the side of the face that comes up between the black marking and the green in the back of the head. From what I have seen the male's coral under the chin stops at the black -

 the black meets the green on the side of the head.

 

 

DaVinia also comes to work with me sometimes on Fridays.

She is friendly but skittish. She seems to like women more than men.

 

Hope you have enjoyed our journey so far.

Diana and DaVinia (aka DaVinci, aka DaVin')

DaVinci's 2nd Birthday - May 2, 2012

DaVinci says his first words

I've been trying to teach my bird DaVinci to talk. I kept repeating a few phrases to him, but one of then seems to have caught his fancy.

Here he is saying "How does a cat go? Meow" over and over again.

John is now trying to confuse him by telling him a cat goes Woof Woof, and I am also trying to go on to teach him that a bird goes Chirp Chirp.

If you notice right around the time 3:59 in the following video he does say something other than meow. Is it Woof Woof or Chirp Chirp?

The video is a little less than 5 minutes. He does seem to get a little clearer by the end of the video.
I am, by the way, in the room at the back of the video sewing. You can here the click click of my sewing machine.
I set the tripod up to get this.

Gianna and DaVinci sitting in a tree...

... you know the rest. :-)

Gianna has been obsessed with DaVinci, my moustache parrot, since I got him in August.
I have watched them interact with much trepidation, but I do think they are working it out, and actually really like each other.

In the morning, I open DaVinci's cage and let him come out on his own. Gianna sits right there and waits for him to come out.

I usually know when he is out sitting on the top of his cage door because she barks to tell me.

Sometimes DaVinci goes down to the bottom of the door and they greet each other.

Here they are saying good morning to each other.

DaVinci loves their toy basket, but Gianna is not so sure about sharing her toys. She gets a little excited when he does this, she paws him, and goes to bite his tail, or his head. I tell her to try to relax, and watch like a hawk.

OK, where'd he go?

Gianna has becone a great baby sitter for DaVinci.

DaVinci gets a new toy for Christmas

...and Mommy gets a new video camera. Uh-oh.

Does he hate or love the toy?:

DaVinci and our trip to the Pinocchio house

Hi, DaVinci here.

We have a house in the Pocono mountains of Pennsylvania

which my Mom and Dad, and sister and brother

(which you will meet below)

refer to as The Pinocchio house.
.

We went there last weekend.

.

I love it there,

and here are some of the reasons why.
.

First - This is my travel home. It's pretty cool in here.

Mom says it is a kitty kennel,

but she turned it into a really cool trailer home for me.
.

She put a perch in it,

and a toy which I love tearing apart during the ride.
.

There is my food and water in the back. - See?

OK, I'm ready now. We're off to PA.

This is my cage in PA.

I have lots of toys in there,

and even a pink chain that I like to play on.

Oh, they shut the door on me now.

Wow, this is a rare treat.

.

You want one?

.

This is my play gym for here.

.

It's a little small, but I really like it.

It has a cool ladder and even a bell.

And I get to sit right in the middle of the living room.

.

That's my sister Gianna.

She just stares and stares at me all the time.

I think she needs a drink, but she will not leave my side to get it.

She thinks I need a babysitter I guess.

.

Mommy is very busy right now.

Look at all of her crafty stuff .

That's my brother Giupetto, over there on the right.

I like him.

He's cool and he doesn't try to attack me.

I hope you enjoyed my little vacation pictures.

--- Bye ---

DaVinci Gets a Play Gym

DaVinci thinks this play gym was for him to enjoy,

but it is really so I can have a break while he is out of his cage,

and it is working out pretty well so far.

Here he is exploring his play gym:Hmmmm.... These look like steps.

How am I doing?

It has a toy too?

He really likes it best right up on top, especially when Mommy hand feeds him treats like this dried banana. Already a spoiled boy.

DaVinci also LOVES his fruit. He gets fruit every morning.

Here is a short video of him eatting the fruit before I even finish filling the dish.

He loves watermellon.

You can see his eyes flashing as he eats the watermellon.

Alice explained that they do this when they are excited.

On the weekends I make DaVinci some warm breakfast.

This is an organic couscous with mango, carrots, coconut and other things.

You can see his eyes really flashing when he finds the raison.

I call it flashing when the pupils in their eyes go from big to tiny and big again.

Take a look when he finds that raison. Oh my! Hee hee.

IS IT A DINOSAUR OR A BIRD?...

My husband and I have been looking for a Moustache Parrot ever since we saw one on last month's PetJubilee photo contest. A breeder seems to be hard to find, but last night on a whim I called the store I had bought Sinbad, and they had one 12 week old baby, and now he is mine.

He doesn't have all his coloring yet, nor all of his feathers. He is bigger than I thought.

But the funniest thing is his blue feet. It is hard to see that he has blue feet, but they are a powder blue.

We don't know if he is a boy or a girl yet, but the store owner says that because she does see the beak getting lighter, she thinks he is a boy. Her girls have a black beak, and the boys have a bright red beak.

He was scared in the store and kept biting. I tried to calm him by whispering his name - Lorenzo - bite, Santino - bite, Leonardo - bite, Santana - bite, Gaetano - bite.

All of a sudden another name came into my head - DaVinci - and he stopped biting and looked up. LOL So he is called DaVinci. Maybe some day he will even tell me, as they can learn to talk.

He is a big boy - bigger than I expected. He reminds me of those baby Teradactyls, the dinoaurs that look like birds.

He has never been in a cage before - so this was new, and he caught on pretty quickly. And he already has lots of toys.

Here is his first morning out with mommy.

Here is his first computer lesson.

Maybe he can take care of all of that paperwork.

I'm sure there will be many more pictures to come.