The Lazy Way to Make Your Bird Happy- Chapter 1- TOYS!

Alot of bird parents put a toy or two in their bird's cage and think that's good enough for the bird's lifespan. Imagine if you were kept in a room for 30 years with only a couple things to do. No wonder our birds develop behavrioral issues! They're bored to the point of insanity!

Or they might buy them a new toy every year or so just for a treat. Just to put this into perspective for you- depending the species and region, most birds in the wild fly miles a day, hitting up all different types of places, foraging for their food, pretty much for 8 hours. They see lots of different things, different places, and are constantly in a changing environment. So compare that to sitting in a cage all day with one or two toys, eating out of a dish. Painfully B-O-R-I-N-G and overall just really bad for your bird on many many levels. Frankly, nothing that we ever do will ever provide them with equivalent enrichment. But since humans have decided to bring these creatures into homes, it's our job to *do our best* to make sure they're as happy as they can be.

Making toys on toy making day!

I try to make sure my birds have a new variety of toys at least every 2-3 days, depending on what the toys are and how into them they are. If they are just having a great time with a particular toy seemingly daily, I'll
leave it in for longer. And I do leave Gus' favorite toy in year round, because he's a quaker and had an anxiety fit if I don't. But everything else gets constantly rotated. "But Kate," you say- "My bird isn't interested in toys!" Alas, to this I say "keep trying!" I was told that Sid was toy phobic. He wasn't, but he was definitely not happy about being presented with most. So for the first month he was here, I'd hang toys a few feet from his cage for a few days.Then I'd put it on the outside of his cage. If he seemed interested, I would just put it in his cage. if not, I'd leave it there until he did seem itnerested. I still have to do that with some toys, but most I can now just put right in and he'll go right to it within 5 minutes. It's especially helpful if I have him *WATCH* me stick a treat somewhere in it. Another thing is that sometimes birds won't play with things in front of you. I look for signs that they've been played with if I'm gone- has it moved? Is there any piece that looks disturbed? Also when I am home, I try to peak into the bird area sometimes to see. Most of the toys I thought they hated, they do play with, just in thier own way. Lastly, I would say to change up the types and function of toys. Sid loves toys he can tear up. Gus loves shiney things and things that he can preen. Sid will will rip things up when he forages, Gus likes to pick things out of various items the most. Try everything and be persistant. Also, reward him for going near a toy, if you see him interacting with it in any way. Also, try
playing with it yourself first. Make it seem like the most fun EVER. Do it often. Don't give up!!!!

You don't have to spend alot of money to have a wide variety of toys for your bird. Now, the bigger your bird (or more active your bird), I would say the more you'd have to spend due to their ability to annhiliate a toy in 5 minutes flat, but you still don't have to break the bank to do so if you'd willing to just put in a an hour or two once a month or so. Once a month or so, I bring out several boxes and containers of toy making
parts. This includes treats, paper items such as dixie cups, coin rolls, stuff from the dollar store like fingercuffs, bird safe balls, a roll of hemp twine, a roll of cotton twine, thicker rope, wood that I sawed off of
untreated blocks I bought on the cheap, vine balls, tongue depressors, toilet paper rolls, index cards, straws, half destroyed toy parts or toy parts that were on a toy they didn't go for, and all sorts of other stuff.
And I just sit and make toys while watching a movie. I try to make half of them foraging toys or have some foraging aspect to them, a fourth of them destructable toys, and the other fourth other random toys. Most of the toys are simple and take me a minute or two to make- tops. Bigger/more complicated toys take a little longer. My birds get kind of freaked out by large toys anyways, so most of my toys are super simple and
unintimidating. But you can go as simple or as creative as you want. The advantage to making your own toys is that 1.) You're not spending 10-20 bucks on a toy they may or may not even like 2.) You can put things onthat you KNOW your bird will go for 3.) Most of them are free or very very cheap . Google "Parrot Enrichment" for some great DIY toy making ideas!

Then I try to rotate the toys daily. Now, sometimes if I've seen that they obviously haven't touched a toy, I may leave that one in for a couple days. Sometimes they just need a couple days to decide that it holds interest for them. Some toys just got the birdy thumbs down, so I put their parts back into the parts box for recycling into another toy the next month. Because alot of the time, they just didn't like that toy, but may be interseted in those parts if on different toy. However, you need to clean these. I either soak them or scrub them with 50/50 Vinegar Water depending on what it's made of. This is the only disinfectant that I feel safe using and confident that it will do the job. I know that other people also
use GSE, but I'm old fashioned and like my vinegar!

Toy Making Supplies

EASY ACCESS TO FORAGING SUPPLIES

I start with what I call my "Foraging Filler Tub"- During toy making day, I fill a tub full of different foraging fillers appropriate for their species' size (paper, twine, broken off toy pieces that couldn't really go onto a toy, buttons, river rocks (large enough there's no risk of choking), twigs, larger beads, cotton rope pieces, balls, caps from water bottles, pieces of finger cuffs, etc.) So every day, I can just reach in, grab a handful or two, and throw it on top of some pellets (luckily, they both seem to think that pellets are treats as good as sunflower seeds (YES!!!), so about 5-10% of thier diet ends up being pellets, which is good for Vitamin D supplementation during the winter when I can't get them any sun, and random treats in a tray. Literally takes 5 seconds. Gus LOVES it. I also change the tray type a few times a week to make it interesting. Sid doesn't like foraging trays much, no matter what I put in there. But Gus will visit his over and over throughout the day, as he LOVES ground foraging (which also means I had to drop his cage bottom so he wouldn't forage in his poopy catcher, looking for whatever he's dropped and which also means I a have to be very deliegent about keeping him off of our floors since I never know what the little bugger will find, no matter how clean).

I also make easy destructable foragers ahead of time and put them in a container, filled with fillers from the filler tub and various treats and throw one of those in the cage daily. Dixie cup foragers I put in a variety of locations to increase the challenge (hanging from a perch where so he has to lift with their foot to get it, putting cup inside a foraging cage, doubling or tripling the cups to make it harder, hanging from outside of the cage when I'm gone so they have to really work to get it all out, etc. Another destructiable forager I keep a stock of is that I put half a millet spray through a paper coin holder roll. These are a huge hit with Sid. I also stick other things in there and tie the ends. Another thing is Bird Bagels- I stuff one end with scrinkled gift paper, throw some random treats in the middle, stuff the other side with more paper to hold the treats in.

The third foraging staple I keep in stock is coffee filters. I use the non Bleached ones, throw a bunch of stuff in it, tie it and voila! I also sometimes just fill them random things and non food items like buttons or  maybe just a foot toy. It's like a slot machine. People get addicted because they don't know the outcome. Keep em guessing!!!

HANGING TOY ROTATION

 I have a 30 pocket over the door shoe holder. You can get them at Target for about 7 bucks. You can also use a tie hanger rack, or you can just put a bunch of toys in a container or box or whatever you have sitting around. Whatever works for you. I like my shoe hanger because I can easily grab a new toy, I can see the toy through the clear plastic, and I basically use the 30 pockets to represent 30 days of the month. So I just work through each pocket- row by row until I get to the end and then it's toy making day again! I also can easily put in two toys, specifically if I know Guswill not like a particular toy, I'll put a second one in that might hold more interest for him.

Keeping your bird busy is like keeping a young kid busy- it makes them smarter, better excercised, and alot better behaved all around. Remember, a busy bird is a quiet(er) bird! Enrich your birds life and do it in a way
that doesn't inconvenience your own life- the easier you make things on yourself, the more consistent you'll be in keeping things exciting for your feathered babies. And the less time you fiddle around with stuff daily, the more one and one time you can give them! And don't forget, use toy making time as fun time for your bird too! Let them "help"- yes, it may take you more time but it will likely be great fun! If your bird is a little flightly around new things, put them a few feet away so they can see you making the toys and make it seem like the most fun thing you've ever done.

Ebay Wins=Birdy Wins!

Look what I won on Ebay today!!!!

Balsa Blocks!!

Won 12 block pieces for 9.50 plus shipping! This will last Sid several weeks after I saw them into pieces. I plan to make some foraging hanging toys and some foot toys!!!!! YES!! I'm getting like 10X the balsa wood that what I'd pay for locally at pet stores. I'm hoping to talk Gus into gnawing on some balsa wood, even though he's kinda "anti-wood"

20 Natural Vine Balls
Won these for 9.50 plus shipping! Cheaper than everywhere I found locally. I don't know that Sid will like these, but I'm almost 90 percent sure they'll be a hit if I throw an almond in there. I can tell you now Gus will want nothing to do with these and will quickly throw this off his cage with much gusto and rage.

Sid's Adventures in Foraging

*I plan on doing full features in the future with pictures, etc to help give people some ideas and what worked for us*

Well recently I started my full on efforts to teach Sid foraging. According to his previous owner, he really had never foraged. According to her, he hated all toys except his one rope toy. And he did just have a
dish of seed that he just ate from. And he chewed on his perches that were made of apple wood. That was it. Since he came to live with us, he's barely touched that rope toy, by the way, but once or twice. I've offered him a variety of toys, some not "official" toys, but he's been very receptive to new things, sometimes it just takes him a few days but he evntually figures it out. But most of the time, he'll go right to a new toy to inspect. Since he's a little piggy, I've noticed that if I can integrate food into it at first, he'll continue to play with that particular item later even if there is no more food. Here are the foragers I've tried this week.

Balsa Wood Pieces- This had been a bird kabob toy. He acted scared of them for a week or two. Then I took the pieces off of the toy, pushed some sunflower seeds and almonds into it a piece of it. It only took him a day to finally figure out to tear it up to get the seeds. He his now tearing up the wood pieces, even without the treats, with vigor, which is awesome to watch him make a glorious mess! He's now eaten all 6 pieces!  I'm in a panic to find more balsa wood quick! So I bud on some on ebay! I'm also planning to make a few bird kabobs for his cage.

Foot toy wood pieces- His own gave me a bag of toy parts that she never used. I put an almond in one of the wood pieces and he went right for it. So I've made a variety of these so that he can have a new one daily or whe never, and they're ready to go.

Plastic Chain/Coffee Filters- This one he went right for the first time I put it in. It's the first foraging toy I offered and it was a hit. I put one filter full of buttons, one of flax seeds, one of almonds. I also
switch it up and put some pellets, or whatever else I can find. I put this in a location that he had to go onto the boing. He's not been scared of the boing, as he'll go on it in a training session, but I haven't really
seen him hanging out on it. Gus loves his but it did take him a long time to get to that point.

Foraging cage- He was initially scared of this, so it's been slowly moving closer to his cage to get him used to it. I put some coffee filter balls full of pellets in it as well as some index card strips. It took him another 3 days after being in his cage for him to touch anything inside, but he likes it now.

Foraging Tray- This was semi successful. For the first round, I put in toilet paper strips, paper, string, sunflower seeds, almonds inside of finger hancuffs, sticks, and buttons. I know that he got a few almonds out
of there but everything else seemed in place, including the sunflower seeds. He's not at fan but I'll keep trying.

Paper fold up toy- I stuck pellets and sunflower seed pieces in this and it took a few days, but he ate huge chunks of this one day. yay!

Shreddable hanging toy- He's not really been interested in this one yet so I put some seeds in this one also. I'll give it a few days and watch.

Small bird nest- These were like a $1.50. He took some stuff out of it but hasn't found the stuff inside yet but he'll figure it out.

Future Plans:

I'd like to get some acrylic and plastic foraging puzzle toys because I
have a feeling he'd be good at them. But I'm stocking up on the things
that have been successful first! Then we'll move on to new things.

His previous owner gave me a huge bag of Birdie Bagels. I want to find
stuff I can stick in there. I have nutriberries but he's not liking those yet.

I am going to buy a bag of shelled nuts, drill a hole in them, and see if
he'll go for them. They're cheap enough and I think they could keep him
occupied.

I really want to invest in a dehydrator. Right now I'm using seeds and
nuts to get him to forage. But if I could get him to eat dehyrdated
veggies and fruit, that would be SO much better for the little porker.

Mash foraging- right now the only foraging opp I have for him with his
mash is the coffee filter or paper on the dish. The problem with mash is
that it's obviously wet, so you're limited in what you can use without the
item getting soaked, or moldy, or even just staying put where you insert
it. There has to be better stuff. Some ideas I have heard: put mash in a
cooked or uncooked whole grain shell (jumbo shells or manicotti or
something), wrap a lettuce or similar leaf around it and tie it, put
things on top of the mash like twigs, rocks, buttons, or beads that he'd
have to throw out to get to his mash, tiny craft flower pots hanging,
stainless steel hanging buckets, and I think that's all I can remember at
the moment.

Kabobs- I want to see if he'll eat some veggies or fruit from a kabob. I'm
going to start offering one and see what happens.

Origami- I told April to relearn some origami so that I can make some
paper foraging toys, since he loves tearing up paper and/or cardstock. I'd
like to make some hanging toys and some foot toys with this method.

Changes I've seen in Sid already-

He's been coming out of his cage in the morning and immediately starts
chewing on stuff and playing. He was previously a little devil in the
morning and it took him an hour or two to even start moving in his cage.
Now, I turn the lights on, uncover gus (not covering Sid yet), open the
cage doors, and he's out getting into stuff!

He leaves no part of his cage or above his cage unexplored throughout the
day, which is GREAT!

He seems to be getting out much more energy and seems alot less moody to
me already. He's still typical bird moody but it seems like he's quicker
to go into a sweet mode, and he seems to be stepping up more readily for
me. He's even started making a few noises for me that he usually only
makes for April!

His beak is starting to look very nice. Before it was all flaky and gross
and really needed a dremel job, bad. But now he's chewing and rubbing his
beak on stuff so it's cleaning up quite nicely!

Urban Homesteading

So I've been slowly integrating various green concepts into my life- vermicomposting, getting rid of wasteful things like paper towels, using the Diva Cup during periods, using only earth friendly cleaning supplies, trying to use and buy less, carpooling, trying to rid myself of water bottle usage, etc. Most things have been surprisingly very easy.

I have recently become interested in Urban Homesteading. That is, trying to distance myself from the dependency on others, specifically corporations, big business, and such. I love the idea of moving towards self sufficiency and it really horrified me how far I am in similarity to the lifestyles my grandparents once lived.

So now I am looking for a place where I can start my own little Urban Homestead when I get to St. Louis. I have to find a place with a fenced yard and some green space!

I stumbled across Square Foot Gardening. Basically you build boxes to plant your crop in. So we can do this. My problem is that I have no green thumb. But I was thinking that maybe I could get involved with one of the community gardens to learn. Also I heard the Missouri Botanical Garden holds all sorts of classes.

Food that I would like the grow (note: I've not done any research on the viability of any of these, so they might not all be feasible):

Broccoli, Cauliflower, Carrots, Squash, Zucchini, Onion, Garlic, Pepper, Tomato (for April... I hate tomato), Potato, Sweet Potato, Soy beans, Green Beans, Lettuce, and Spinach. Then I'd also like to grow some basic herbs- Basil, Oregano, Rosemary, etc.

Luckily in St Louis there are various Farmers Markets that I can't wait to visit. Old North city has one and Tower Grove has one. Tower Grove even does yoga on the lawn on Saturday mornings. I'm totally doing that once I get settled in STL. But yeah, if I can buy most of my stuff locally, that would be a huge help too!

So, of course, thinking about doing these things and actually doing them, is a whole nother concept all together. I think that if I take it slow and learn as I go, a year from now I'll be that much closer to significantly lessening my footprint!

Also, in other Green news, I want to build a Doggy Poo Composter. Obviously you wouldn't want to but this compost on garden goodies that you eat, but it can go on ornamentals and such. What a great solution to wasting more bags and landfill space!

Once I get to St Louis I will also be making a much larger vermicomposting bin because the smaller one I have now is just too hard to bury the food in different sections. I have to redo the box anyway because I'm having a little fruit fly headache.

So now that I'm... a.) Going to a cold climate and b.) Not running a roller derby league, I'm getting back to my craftiness. I hadn't knitted or embroidered in FOREVER it seemed. I actually got rid of my entire stash of yarn in my last move since I hadn't touched any of it in about a year and a half. Of course, once I rid myself of something, I decide to get back into it. But whatever.

So I knitted myself a seed stitch scarf with the only ball of yarn I did save from the move. I did this mostly just to get my knitting rhythm back and figure out what the hell I was doing.

Then I knitted the Everyone's Doing It Shrug with this yummy purple Debby Bliss cotton I got at Knitorious in St. Louis during my trip. I have to take a picture of it still. I'll post it on here and on Craftster when I do. I've been wearing it for 2 days. It only took me a few hours to knit up. Very basic lace pattern and it's done on 10 1/2 size in a wrosted weight, so it knit up super easy. I'm going to do a more complicated shrug for my mom's birthday in June.

I also just made up a little pattern to knit a little Bichon for my Mom, which is supposed to look like Gabby (my Mom's Bichon that I'm rehoming with me- a whole nother story in and of itself). When she's sad and missing Gabby, she can pet the Gabby dolls instead. I knit that with some fuzzy Joanne's Angel yarn.

On some little Size 2 needles I am knitting Snowflake from The Knitted Teddybear book (LOVE that book). I'm not making her with the recommedned Mohair, but just some beige Heart and Soul yarn I found at Joanne's. I was just excited to find some fine yarn because I wanted Snowflake to be tiny.

I also started making April a hat on some circular needles I have. I never learned to knit on circulars and DPNs so that's what I'm doing. Over the next month or two, I'm going to teach myself all of the skills that I was either afraid to learn or just never got around to:

1.) Cables

2.) Intarsia

3.) Lace Work

4.) Circulars

5.) DPNs

6.) Customizing a pattern

The problem is that I tend to be impatient and I'm a slow knitter. So I try not to take on any projects that will take me more than a few days to complete. Like the chances of me every knitting an adult sweater are pretty slim. But you never know....

Widdling Yarn

So now that I'm moving to a place that actually has SEASONS, I can knit again!!! Before, there wasn't much to knit, living in the tropics and such. But now there will be a winter in St Louis, so I've already started knitting stuff in preparation!

Of course, I had to kind of reteach myself to knit. And then I realized is I really never evolved from basic stitches.

So, in true Me fashion, I made a list of knitting skills I am going to learn:

1.) Lace
2.) Cable
3.) Knitting in the round (just started a hat for April on circulars!)
4.) Knitting on dpns
5.) Knitting actual wearable stuff
6.) Adapting patterns

So far in the past two weeks, I've knitted a seed stitch scarf, started on a hat for April, made a mini Gabby for my mom, and now I'm starting on the Everyone's Doing It Shrug. I'm making it for my mom for her birthday at the end of the month.

I'll post pics of my work soon.

Adventures in Vermicomposting.... The Beginning

Several weeks ago I randomly stumbled across a video where Martha Stewart was demonstrating how to set up a worm bin for Vermicomposting. Yes, that's right- not just composting- VERMIcomposting. Most people don't know what that means, so I'll explain.

They're worms people. And they eat your garbage. And it's awesome. Basically, you feed them your dicarded veggies, pastas, rice, fruit, coffee grinds, papers, newspaper, bread, cardboard, etc... they eat it... then you get gardening liquid gold... super enriched soil fertilizer. Even if you don't garden (I don't...yes), you definitely know people who would be estatic to take your compost off of your hands for you. Or you can just feed some plants in your complex.

One of the many advantages to using worms to eat your garbage is that apartment dwellers and people without a yard don't have to miss out on composting, which is a huge important step towards sustainaibility. Some majorly important reasons to compost, in any form, are: Reduce waste sent to landfill, reduce greenhouse gases, reuse organic materials, recycle natural nutrients, improve soil without chemicals, produce rich humus for plants, and you save money on chemical fertilizers.

There are all sorts of set ups that you can buy online or at your local green store. But they're a bit expensive. I went the DIY route by building my own 3 trayed vertical flow system, all for about 20 bucks total! However, you can do it even cheaper or if you have a rubbermaid bin or two sitting around, you can make it for free

I made one similar to THIS ONE, but I did it with an even smaller bin so that it could fit underneath my sink. Plus, April and I don't have alot of leftovers so I didn't want to overdo it. I do want to eventually get the Worm Inn, which just look adorable compared to my ugly bins. I just have to budget for it. It's really one of the cheaper vermicomposting retail options out there. Or you can DIY! I would, but in this case, I'd rather buy one, as I'm concerned about my sewing skills when dirt and worms are involved

Right now I'm just trying to figure out if the bait shop gave me the right kind of worms or not!!! They said that they were wigglers but they also had a red worm price (but none available there). I thought red worms were the same as wigglers!? Anyways, I'm just going to watch them and try to see if they're making any progress. And I'm planning on posting on vermicomposters.com and once I can find my camera and get some pictures of my new little buddies.