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View Full Version : Humorous (and true) Pet Bird Story



Jim Becker
11-11-2004, 11:00 AM
Dr. SWMBO recently posted this on Table Talk (an online community that she participates in) and I though I would share it with you...it's quite humorous...and true:
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So over the weekend I decided to give both of the birds bowls of water for bathing. Spike, the cockatiel, is usually a reluctant bather but often when it's a sunny day and he hasn't had a bath in a while he seems to enjoy a little dip.

Spike doesn't like to immerse himself in water, though, and he's never in his 15 years mastered the birdly art of fluttering his wings to get the water worked up over his back and under his wings. The best he can manage is to stand in birdie knee-deep water, shifting back and forth between his two feet, which manages to expose only a few extra millimeters of his feathers to the water. He also dips his beak in the water and flings it around a little. The dipping gets his chest wet if the water is deep enough, so he usually manages to bathe only his feet and his abdomen and chest feathers. We have other methods for getting the rest of him clean, but I won't bore you with the description.

So on Saturday I got a bowl that he recognizes as a bath bowl and filled it with water. But instead of putting it in the spot on the top of the cage where I normally put it for him, I decided to put it in the spot where his cereal plate was. This is a small plate that has Grape-nuts and ground up Total cereal on it. He really likes the cereal, but he will only eat it from a plate, never a bowl, and only from the top of his cage, never anywhere inside the cage.

Spike has many food Issues. There is, for instance, a type of bird food pellet that he likes a lot, but he will only eat it from the slim ledge that is outside the cage to fasten a small platform that he stands on inside the cage. The ledge is maybe a centimeter wide, if that. It is adjacent to the much broader platform inside the cage and is made of the same material (wood), but if I put the pellets on the platform inside the cage he will not touch them. Sometimes, if confined to the cage so he can't get to the platform on the outside, he'll try to squeeze his beak through the bars so that he can get to the pellets on the outside even though there are inside pellets sitting at his feet. The pellets are identical. If I push them through from the inside to the outside for him, he gobbles them up.

Spike also disdains all red foods and most fruits. He will eat apples, but only green apples or red ones that have had the skin removed. There are some foods he trusts only if they're old -- stale bread is preferred to fresh. Nothing with a sauce or other slimey additives is tolerated. Rice (white or brown) is good, but if it has so much as a bit of chopped parsley in it, he treats it as possible poison. In fact, any mixing of foods is regarded with great suspicion. He gets a bowl of peas and corn every day, but most of the time he will eat only the peas or only the corn. If he's hungry, he'll eat all of one and then the other. Eating a pea and then a piece of corn and then another pea is not allowed under Spike Food Rules.

So, on Saturday I placed the bath bowl in the spot where the cereal plate had been, and put the cereal plate where the bath bowl usually goes. Spike evinced some interest in bathing when, before putting it down, I showed him that the bowl contained water and said "Look, Spikey, bath bath!" Also, the dishwasher was running, and this always increases his interest in bathing. I think it must be the sound of running water.

So I turned my back for a minute to do something else, and when I looked back, Spike was standing on the cereal plate, dipping his beak and waddling back and forth like he does in the bath. He looked blissful, like he does when he really wanted that bath. I walked over and tried to catch his eye, hoping he'd notice his error before I had to embarrass him by pointing it out, but he wasn't looking at me. So I flicked my finger over the surface of the water in the bath bowl, splashing him lightly. He stopped, shook his head as if to clear some cobwebs of bliss, and then looked around a little guiltily. Then he marched over to the real bath bowl, giving me that "I meant to do that" look as he went in for a splash.

Dan Gill
11-11-2004, 12:09 PM
Strange things these animals do. We don't have birds, but our dogs and cat entertain us most evenings. My Chessie obsesses over the laser pointer spot. And our beagle prefers to knock the top of the feeder off and roll it around the floor, picking up the food that spills. Go figure.

Michael Stafford
11-11-2004, 2:12 PM
Maybe the bird wanted to get good and messy before taking a bath. Maybe the bird just likes to do it his way... Obviously not a sock and shoe and a sock and shoe kind of bird, sock and sock and then shoe and shoe...

Ian Barley
11-11-2004, 4:29 PM
Thanks Jim - best laugh I've had all day. My folks used to keep Cockatiels and there is no doubt that they come preloaded with personality!

Jim Stastny
11-11-2004, 4:35 PM
Gotta love God's little creatures.