Smackers Fruit Cockatiel Weekender Bar

There is good news and bad news ... The good news first - the bird brains have a £103 worth of treats, toys and food! The bad news? My credit card hates loves me.

It is a big haul and of course I want to cover it in detail - well, as much as possible, so it's probably going to take me some time - so please hang in there Reader.

I bought it from Scarletts Parrot Essentials for £1.00 for a 45g bar that according to the picture contains wheat, millet, some kind of red flower, a grass of some kind, coconut, apple, nectarine, strawberry, orange, cranberry and more. The ingredients list isn't all that great, it just gives you a percentage (grains 32%, bakery products 23%, etc) which I hate as you can't tell whether there is peanut in it without opening it up but there doesn't seem to be any there.

How beautiful does that look!

As usual I was skeptical, especially when I saw how colourful it was and no info on how such fantastic colours were achieved - but ...

They loved it ... It was all gone in less than 2 hours and then they flew down to the floor to eat the ones that had fallen. I guess the proof really is in the pudding!

So I will have to give in every now and then and buy them some of these.

  

In Sickness And In ...

Health. I wish I had it. Since a little after Christmas everybody in my immediate family have been ill - one after another. A week or so ago it was my turn and today and two in the morning my sister had to be driven home from Uni as she has come down with something. Now what I had seemed fairly human - what she has most definitely isn't. She's making the same whimpering noises that people on telly do - you know, the slimy people that get beat up for information.

Whatever it is I want none of it.

The bird brains have been doing well though, although we probably haven't cleaned their cages as much as we should have and Japh has been giving me these put upon sidelong glances that tell me that he is not too happy with how much time I've spent with him - but he forgives easily. Thank god.

Another incident ... Japh has a tendency to land in my hair, his flying skills aren't too hot, and I swear to god sometimes he forgets he can fly, and about two days ago he landed in it and his feet got tangled big time. I'm talking wound up in there and not going anywhere. And despite being Asian my hair is almost afro curly - as in it carries on tangling AS I brush it.

So now I've lost a hank of hair - I don't think it's too noticeable and he still hasn't learned his lesson so I've taken to carrying a hair-tie around with me.

 Christmas went well, it started snowing again here in London, so we've all still got the January blues, and since money was tight the bird brains only got a couple of things to tide them over.

The Christmas Willow Decoration I bought them from PetsAtHome was a big bust.

Every now and then they nibble at it but the fact that it is still in one piece tells me that it wasn't such a big hit. I've even strung up beads all over it to entice them but no ...

Another thing I bought them was a Woodlands Willow Tipi, also from PetsAtHome:

From: http://www.petsathome.com/shop/woodlands-willow-tipi-95311

Which I still haven't used yet but I'm hoping to hang it upside down from the roof of their cage with treats stuffed inside. Fingers crossed.

And I also bought them a pack of the Woodlands Wood Nibble Sticks:

From: http://www.petsathome.com/shop/woodlands-wood-nibble-stick-95401?freeText=nibble+sticks&msg=MSG_SEARCH_ONE_MATCHING_PRODUCT

I'm quite happy with these. They come in a pack of six with a little strip of bark that peels of quite easy but the wood itself is a little on the tough side - at least, for a cockatiel - so the bird brains have to chip away at it for days to do enough damage. They've already gone through one piece and left it looking like kindling. So yep, very happy.