Wet birdies!

This afternoon I showered with Raptor, then Mika.  Since I was going to have both birds wet, I figured it'd be a great time to take wet bird pics!  Well, that didn't completely work out according to plan.  I put Raptor on the playgym in the office for less than FIVE minutes while I finished my shower with Mika and by the time we came out Raptor was almost completely dry!  >_<  The only wet part left was his head and back of his neck.  Mika, though, is still wet as I type.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised...  whenever Mika bathes, he gets SOAKED.  He'll get soaked all the way down to his skin, and he'll stay wet for quite a while as he dries off.  Maybe it's because Mika's feathers are just so incredibly soft and floofy?  Raptor, on the other hand, has an oily sheen to his wings and tail feathers.  Whenever he bathes, his face and tummy will get wet but water just beads right off of his wings/tail.

Anyway, the wet bird pics of Mika came out really well - he looks like a punk rocker with his head feathers sticking up!  Hehehe!

With Raptor's wet bird pics, you can see that it's mainly his head that is still wet.  I had a REALLY hard time getting good pictures because he kept moving back and forth all over the tree, rubbing his beak all over the place.  Such a bummer because I had him in the water for a good 10 minutes!

T4W "Garage Sale"!

Things for Wings, one of my favorite bird toy vendors, was having a "garage sale" a couple of weekends ago to sell off overstock of toy parts and items she had only a few left of.  I wasn't planning on participating because I wasn't in need of toy parts, but was still very curious as to what Danita (owner) would actually list on her site.  

Danita said that she would be putting items up throughout the whole weekend, at various times.  I imagined bird lovers around the world sitting at their computers and cell phones, refreshing the website every few minutes to see what else she's put up for sale. LOL  Heck, I was one of them!!  >_<  The entire first day, Saturday, I was able to restrain myself from buying anything.  I was quite proud of myself!  Then Sunday rolled around and that was a different story. LOL  At one point, I hit "refresh" and a BEAUTIFUL Pet Products by Nature willow coin/fleece snuggly swing popped up at an incredible price!  Without even giving it a second to sink in, I bought it hoping no one else snatched it up before I could finish pressing buttons.  Well, there went my non-participation in the sale!  

Since I bought the swing, I figured I might as well add a little more to the order - you know, to get the shipping's worth.  (I'm sure that is what all of us who bought during the sale thought.)  The next items I got were 80' of coconut rope and two loofah loaves.  After that, a limited number of 12" aspen platform perches popped up so I grabbed two of them for Raptor.  He sometimes enjoys chewing the bark off his willow platform perch, so I thought these would be nice for him after he's done with the willow.  To complete the order, I got two willow coin snugglies. Pretty much everything from this order, except the coco rope and loofah for toy making, is for Raptor.  Mika has zero interest in wood.  

I received the package yesterday and it was heavy due to all the wood items!  The first thing that took me aback was the sheer size of the willow swing!  Danita had said it's 12"x12" but the thing just looks massive.  I anticipated Raptor being afraid of the swing (he hasn't reacted well to fleece so far) by getting the willow toys, a small and a medium.  I'll introduce those to him - first the small then the medium - to get him used to what it looks like.  I'm hoping he'll get used to them - and like them - so that when I give him the swing he won't freak out.  I don't plan on giving him the swing until we've moved to the house next year anyway so I've got plenty of time.  Either that, or I may decide it'll be a communal swing and put it up on the bird room ceiling.  We'll have to see when the time comes.  ;) 

The aspen platform perches are also huge and thick!  Very nice!  I am very pleased with everything I got.  Thank you so much for having such a fantastic sale, Danita!  :D 

Pics from the day before.

I had other things going on so I didn't get to post these pictures the same day I took them. 

Every time I wash the dishes, I have to put Mika away (and Raptor if the bf isn't home to watch him) because he will get all up in my business, trying to bathe in the running water.  With all the suds flying around, I'm not willing to risk anything so he and Raptor had to occupy themselves in their cages while I got my cleaning on!

I'm so cute!

Looking up at mommy.

Look at that face! *melt*

Time for a nap (see him gripping the left chain).

One of my favorite hang out spots.

Wanna play a game, mommy?

It's called hide-and-seek.  Now count to 10.

She'll never find me behind this toy...

Rats!  She found me!

You're not as bad at this game as I thought you'd be.  :P

Rappy can be so cute!

Raptor may be temperamental and aggressive, but he can also be oh-so-cute.

I rarely get good in-cage shots of Raptor because the office, where his cage is, doesn't have as much natural light flowing in as the bedroom does (where Mika's cage is).  Even when he's on the Java stand, right next to the window, the light still isn't that great because of the next stack of condos blocking the sun.  Today we had to move his cage into the bedroom temporarily for a few days while we do stuff in the office, so that meant nice lighting! :D 

He spent a good amount of time just hanging out on his boing, looking fluffed up and baby-ish!!

After his nap, he spent quite a while playing with his Grey Feather Toys MegaFone.  I really enjoyed watching him play with the chain and washers - he was really going at it!  Unfortunately, most of the pictures came out very blurry because he was moving around so much. 
 

So cute.  :)

Recent orders.

Sometime last week I received my small Grey Feather Toys order and, today, both my Things for Wings and My Safe Bird Store orders came in.  

Normally when I order from GFT I get their noisy, mostly indestructible stainless steel toys.  This time I decided to try an all-destructible order with a couple of foot toys.  So far, I have a foot toy in each cage (neither of them have touched it so far) and the Lil Hearts hanging from the boing on the Java tree.  The others will be saved for a later toy rotation.  Thank you so much, Rebecca!

Lil Hearts

Crunch & Munch

Polly Wolly Doodle (small)

Something Amiss (medium)

Flick Fleck

I always have a hard time resisting toys from Danita at Things for Wings.  Not only are ALL of her toys incredibly unique and beautiful, she comes out with collection after collection and you can't help but at least get a little from here and a little from there!!  In the past, I used to make HUGE orders with her but I've been much better at quantity control - mainly because I still have a LOT of toys that haven't gone through a single rotation yet.  Hehe.  Anyway, the most recent collections to come out are Grandma's Strawberry Patch and Pine Only.  Absolutely adorable!  The Fresh Picked Strawberries have been put on the office Java stand and the rest will be saved for a later toy rotation.  As always, thank you, Danita!!

Fresh Picked Strawberries (x2)

My Little Pine Pony

Palm Tree (x2)

Wonderful freebies!

Last, but not least, the order of supplies from My Safe Bird Store.  Normally I order one pound bags of the Totally Organic Pellets (TOPS) but, this time, I decided to finally just get the large four pound bag.  I also got some more Avitech probiotics, and decided to try some of Avitech's new Herbal Extracts.  I got Immune Booster and Pau D'Arco primarily for Mika, and Relaxation/Calming primarily for Raptor.  Other than that, I got some Bountiful Harvest, Goldenfeast Asian Medley and Bean Supreme.  As usual, Kathie (and Kara) have sent a bunch of freebie goodies - both for bird and human.  Thank you guys!

Good stuff!  ;)

 

Pinelisious!

I took some pictures of Raptor with his new toy today.  The Pinelisious is my favorite of the toys I ordered from Birds Favorites Toys.  I was going to wait until next toy rotation to put all the toys in his cage, but I just couldn't wait with this one.  Hehe.  So I put it on the Java stand in the office.  Raptor is chipping and nibbling away at the toy as I type!  :D

Seeing how nice it looks on the playgym, it makes me wish I had ordered multiples...  >_<

Oooooh...  what's that new thing down there??

It looks delightful!

Let me take a little nibble here...

A bigger nibble there...

Time to chomp!!

I love chipping pine into toothpicks all over the carpet for mommy to vacuum!

Thanks, mom!  This new toy is awesome!!

Birds Favorites Toys.

I recently received my order of toys from Birds Favorites Toys.  This is another vendor on a parrot forum I belong to, but she happens to be closing up shop.  She got herself a full-time job (YAY!) and won't have time to dedicate to her toy business anymore so she had a huge 40% blowout sale.  Well, 40% is rather hard to resist so I browsed through her site and found several items that caught my eye.  ;)  

Raptor has recently been getting into chipping wood that isn't balsa or yucca (very soft woods) so I got these toys to further challenge his beak.  I won't be putting them in his cage until later but I hope he likes them!  They are very cute and quite LARGE!  On top of the wood toys, there was a cute paper flower toy I couldn't resist (and hope Raptor can't resist shredding) and I got a bunch of Paulie Rope for when I make some toys myself.

Margaret was SO generous and gave us a bunch of extras - wicker pieces, different woods, and other natural toy parts.  Thank you so much!!  :D

Blooming Flowers

Pinelisious

Working Horse

Escape

Paulie Rope and extras!!