Sunday, December 20, 2009

Rosie's Holiday Boo Boo


Rosie pretty much has the run of the house. Because we choose to keep her wings carefully clipped Rosie has many ways to get around. Ladders, poles, slides and big plastic pieces that hook together making a chain.
In this case this case Rosie decided to fly and clipped the top of a chair breaking the skin on her chest bone. It started out as a very small area that fortunately Rosie left alone. Rosie re-injured the area and I called the vet. It was suggested to keep her quiet and make a paste of cream of tarter and put on the wound area. Theory being, would dry up the wound and has a bitter taste so the bird would leave it alone. NOT ROSIE! Within fifteen min she plucked out every feather on and around the area that had cream of tarter on it. In the mean time re-injuring the area yet again.
I decided it was time for a vet visit. Rosie was tenderly examined. Her breast bone was all right but the wound area was squishy and raw. At one point the vet discussed stitching the wound, I almost passed out at the thought!
Rosie was put on an antibiotic once a day dose. It seems the medication makes her tired, so I give in the evening. This requires toweling her avoiding the injured area.
Today as the pictures show it was all scabbed over looking good.
Rosie got mad at me tonight after the toweling and ripped off some of the scab and there was some bleeding.
We will make it through this. I miss her singing, roaming and just being goofy Rosie.
I want to thank all my Facebook friends for their caring and advice!

Friday, December 4, 2009

Friday, November 27, 2009

Tips on Keeping our Feathered Friends Safe During the Holidays

The holidays are joyous and active times for people and their pets. Our feathered friends partake in many of the seasonal festivities with us which makes the holidays that much more special. However, many of the decorations and objects we have around the household during the holidays may be dangerous to our birds. By taking a few precautions, we can make this wonderful time of year a safe one for our pets.

Toxic Foods- Avocado Caffeine Chocolate
Dairy (in excessive amounts) Mushrooms (potentially toxic) Onions (in excessive amounts)
Rhubarb Salt (in excessive amounts) Sugar (in excessive amounts)

Food Preparation -. Birds have a very effective respiratory tract and coupled with their relatively small size are susceptible to toxic elements in the air. During cooking if food burns or smoke is produced, any birds nearby the kitchen could be at risk of fatal smoke inhalation, remove bird from area, offering fresh air. A vet visit may be in order.
Keep your bird out of the kitchen when oven and stove are on. The potential of the bird being burned, stepped on or spilled on are high risks.

Christmas Tree - Keep birds away from lights, electrical cords, ornaments and tensel.
The trunk of a live tree is often coated with chemicals, such as fertilizer or insecticide. When the tree is placed in the stand and watered, the chemicals from the trunk contaminate the water. If your bird drinks it, they may become sick.

Poisonous Plants
Many homes are decorated each year during the holiday season with poinsettias and mistletoe. These plants do represent the season; unfortunately they are toxic for our feathered friends.

Holiday Decorations/Packages
Many people place decorations throughout the house including lights, evergreen branches, holiday knickknacks and other assorted objects to provide a festive environment. Lit candles can burn a curious pet or could be knocked over and start a fire. Icicles and tinsel draped on a mantle are as dangerous as tinsel on a tree. Monitor your pets and watch out for any evidence of chewing on these objects.

Have a wonderful Holiday season with your feathered friends, I know we will with our African grey," Rosie Red Bottom."

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

The Cupboard Grey One

Rosie's cage is always open, making her roaming the house easy. If Rosie is issuing an undesirable behavior her cage is used as a timeout, with the door shut.
When we are in the kitchen cooking, hot stove, hot oven or hot food, it is not the place for Rosie and her roaming. Because the closed cage is used as a time out we really do not want to put the grey one in there for roaming.

Instead, Rosie has her own cupboard in the kitchen. We emptied out the cupboard only putting in canned goods that she cannot harm or hurt her.

The only bad thing for us is, she rips off the labels having so much fun. We are sure to write the name of the ingredients on the top of the can.
Rosie seems very pleased in her cupboard that is in the middle of all the kitchen action and out of harms way.

One time, I forgot she was in the cupboard and shut the door. Soon I could hear a mysterious knocking coming from the kitchen. It was Rosie, knocking with her beak from the inside of the cupboard ( in parrot Morse code I am sure) saying "get me out of here."
If you are interested in Rosie's book, please click on the link below

Friday, October 30, 2009

Happy Parrot Halloween



It's that time of year for decorating and carving pumpkins. As usual Rosie must impose her critiques and help with carving. Rosie's help consisted of ripping the guts out of the pumpkin and flicking seeds all over the table and floor. There are several beak holes in the nose and eye holes that are hard to see. Rosie in fact had a great time and there was plenty of laughter! BOO


If you are interested in Rosie's book, please click on the link below.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Rosie's Tea Party

As I have mentioned so many times before Rosie roams the house, looking for action of any kind.
On this particular day the kids had the brilliant idea for a tea party. As you can see from the picture the kids managed to find pieces of this and that for a table cloth. I can see the T Rex has a skirt on, Brat the Cat sits in the middle and Long Neck finishes out the trio. I could hear the kids giggling and decided to investigate. As I stood there in amazement with a big smile, I could hear Rosie clickety clacking down the hallway. Rosie not wanting to be left out of anything entered the bedroom, eyed things over and climbed up on the table, using the long corner of the tablecloth. Rosie just stood there on the table as if thinking "now what."
I could not resist taking a picture!
And then there was a foursome for the tea party. :-)
If you are interested in ordering Rosie's book, please click on link below.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Grocery Bagging Bird

One of Rosie's favorite things to do is help us un-pack after a shopping spree at the grocery store.
Rosie enjoys picking through all the bags, pulling items out, nibbling on what she can and of course, listening to items hit the floor.
Once all is un-packed, we will pile all the empty bags up on the counter. Rosie will play with the empty bags, climbing in and out, seemingly enjoying the crackling sound they make.
Once The Grey One is done, the kitchen is a mess as usual!
Listening to Rosie laugh while having all the fun is well worth it! We wouldn't want it any other way.
If you are interested in purchasing Rosie's new book, please click on link below.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Iguazu the Conure



The following story and picture of Iguazu the conure was sent to me by a Facebook friend. I thought the picture and story was cute enough for a post on Rosie's blog.

Iguazu the Conure
Iguazu on occasion eats with us, plucking food from our plates and drinking from our glasses. One day after lunch, we opened the dishwasher preparing to load the dirty dishes, Iguazu had other ideas. As always Iguazu wants to be part of everything, he flew in the dishwasher and remained then until we were done loading. All the while seemingly wondering what we were doing.
I started to close the dishwasher wondering how Iguazu would react., he would not move! Finally I had to ask him to come to my shoulder because he would not leave on his own. He definitely loved the dishwasher!
By Matnilde/France




Sunday, September 20, 2009

Silly Rosie




Check Spelling
Rosie just loves playing games just as much as we like watching and interacting. Most of the game playing is made up by her, her rules, her way! If we try to elaborate the game she at times will get mad and show her distaste. So, we go with the flow and follow her lead.
One of Rosie's favorite game is playing in the dog food container. Rosie is always delighted to see the plastic bin sitting on the counter and will make her way to the area. Rosie loves throwing dog food, laughing and running around the edge of the container. There is a little tin cup in the bin used for measuring. Rosie love throwing the cup on the floor and yelling "yea" when it hits the floor. Rosie will say "come over here"wanting us to pick up the cup bury it in the dog food so she can dig it out. Rosie will climb in the bin scratching at the food like a chicken until the cup is unburied. Once again throwing the cup on the floor! Rosie certainly enjoys herself and the dogs like cleaning up the mess. Silly Rosie
If you are interested in ordering Rosie's book please click on link below.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Roaming the House


Rosie pretty much owns the house, directing us and the dogs on a daily basis. Luckily, Rosie and the dogs get along very well!!!! If I had to venture a guess, the dogs are afraid of Rosie.

Our grey one loves roaming the house, walking down the hallways looking for action. Typically, Rosie will roam looking for the kids or us if we are in the back of the house. We can hear her peeping and clicking on the floor and she gets closer.

Her newest pay ground seems to be the dogs water and food dishes. Rosie slides down her pole from cage to floor aiming right for the dishes. As Rosie is laughing she will yank the dishes out of the holders banging and rolling the dishes on the floor. Once she has completed the empty food dish mess, she will take a bath in the water dish. Once she has emptied one dish she heads for the second, water all over the floor and cupboards. Keeping in mind Rosie is laughing, burping and sneezing the entire time.

Rosie also enjoys walking along the bottom of the kitchen cupboards ducking down and running along this space. Around our house you always need to look before stepping! Goofy Grey Bird!
If you are interested in ordering Rosies book, click on link below.