Got Ears?

[Marrie]

Green cheeks are very sweet natured, once you get over their slight dominance tendency. I'm glad you guys were able to work things out with Phoenix and the girls incomplete advice didn't hurt your relationship with her too badly. I've never known a bird to hold a grudge too long, as long as the intentions were good.

 

[Yurusumaji]

Last night I tried Level 2 on the Teach 'N Treat again to see if Michiko getting it before was a fluke. Well, it wasn't. She smelled the papaya through the little holes in the knobs and immediately started knocking them off the toy to get her treats. Lol! We'll try Level 3 tonight. If the third level is too easy I may have to rig it to make it harder!

Hubbs has been pretty sweet lately so I got out of bed at an ungodly hour this morning, showered and made him a cheese omelet for breakfast. I haven't made hubbs breakfast in months and when he realized I was cooking for him he went crazy with joy. My cheese omelets are good.

Michiko's favorite buddy might be coming by today so I have to get to cleaning pretty soon here. I've fallen a little behind.

Something I started this week is exercise. I have needed to start getting serious about correcting my weight problem for a while now and I have finally done it. My stamina is incredibly low, but I am still working hard at my exercise everyday and being more conscious about what I'm eating. No calorie-counting. Just eating less junk food, choosing low- or no-fat candy to snack on, drinking more water and less soda, things of that nature. It's not some huge overhaul that can't be maintained, just some small steps in the right direction.

Michiko likes to hang out by me and sniff me a lot when I'm exercising. It's cute. :biggrin:

 

[Yurusumaji]

I know I shouldn't post again so soon, but I have to share!

EEE! It's finally up on my wall. :hearts

We just left in the page the frame came with to use as a border around the puzzle. The puzzle is just a tad too short for the frame though and so the dimensions were showing below. I printed out a photo of a real mother black bear and her cub and put it beneath the puzzle, which actually just made the whole thing look that much more awesome. I'm so happy with it.

 

[Yurusumaji]

Wow, people. Living in BFE has never been so uncomfortable!

It's 107° where I live today. Of course we had to run out to the pet store and get some hay for Michiko and bedding for Robo. Michiko is a local superstar and one of the girls that works at the store always yells at me if I go without Michiko. Lol!

I wasn't paying attention to how hot it was, so we brought Michiko along. Omg. I am so sweaty from touting around such a big-butt bunny. Michiko does not seem to be any worse for wear and she was happy to get home where the A/C is running. I had to go twice because, as always, the girl who loves Michiko most was on her lunch break when I showed up and she would have been so mad if I hadn't come back so she could see Michiko.

I actually had a couple driving by in the parking lot stop and ask me how big Michiko is and what breed. Associates wanted to hold her, kids wanted to pet her. She did really well and pretty much took it all in stride. Once things calmed down I put her in the cart and we tied her leash up so she couldn't bail, but she never tried to so that was good.

All-in-all a successfully hot day in the world of Michiko. I got her home and she flopped down at the bottom of the stairs so I had to carry her up to her room. Poor baby. I'm going to be getting her some tile pieces from Home Depot and freezing them for her. This weather is ridiculous.

 

[jujub793]

:laugh::rofl: i loved that picture of Michiko where it looks like she pooped the broccoli....

 

[Luv Buns]

I have to say there isnt a lot that makes me literally LOL but that bunny poops broccoli pic is ROFL:laugh::blueribbon:

 

[Yurusumaji]

It has been a horribly stressful weekend. Hubbs sliced open one of his index fingers with an Xacto knife. He didn't cut the tendon and he didn't need stitches, thank goodness. However, he did bleed rather profusely and I think I was 2 seconds from a heart attack.

We got 2 tile pieces from Home Depot that I have been putting in the freezer for Michiko to help her keep cool during this wicked heatwave. She has been using them and seems to like having them to help her cool down. I have also been cooling water in the fridge overnight and giving it to the animals so they can have chilled water to help cool down as well.

We got a game called Munchkin on Saturday. Hubbs had played it before, but I hadn't. The score so far is 4-1 and I'm winning. I guess previous experience doesn't really matter. Ha ha! :biggrin:

Oh, I finally tried Level 3 of the Teach 'N Treat. Michiko figured it out right off the bat! She's too smart for me. Lol!

 

[Dragonrain]

Ick that's hot! It got up around 90ish* here last week and I was so uncomfortable. Luckily it cooled down again and is much more comfortable this week.

So sorry about your hubby's finger! I hope he heals up without any issues.

Munchkin! My fiance and I play that once in awhile. Do you guys have the card game or the board game? We have both, but we play the card game more.

 

[Yurusumaji]

It's been in the high-90's for two weeks. The first couple days it got over 100°. It's been pretty brutal, but I'll take it over the cold any day.

We got the card game, but I have seen the board game. What are the differences?

The Munchkin card game has the expansions and different versions and we'll end up getting most (if not all) of those as well. I love this game.

 

[Dragonrain]

I'm the opposite way - I grew up in a valley in New England where, even in the summer time, it never got too unbearably hot. Horrible winters there though! But I guess I got use to the cooler temperatures because I get so uncomfortable when it gets too hot...I'd much rather be cold than hot.

Hmm honestly I think we played the Munchkin board game all of like two times. It's fun, but I thought it was even more confusing than the card game is. We play the card game a lot more often than we do the board game.

We have some of the card expansions but not all of them yet. We'll probably get all of them eventually too

Do you guys play a lot of board games and stuff? I never use to really get into them, but my fiance really likes them so we started playing them together. We have a huge game collection now.

 

[Yurusumaji]

We do play some board games, but hubbs is more of a card game guy and I'm really just happy to play anything. The only board game he wants to play often is Stratego, but omigosh I hate that game so much. LOL. I grew up playing board games and card games with my family, so they are both things I enjoy doing.

We both play TCGs so the card game doesn't confuse me at all. I may look into the board game to see what it's like.

I grew up in Michigan and spent a whole winter walking to and from work in the freezing cold. You'd think I'd be more adept to cold, but I'm not. I would much rather be sweating than huddling.

 

[JadeIcing]

Someone gave us munchkin and we have yet to play... We have had it almost two years.

 

[Yurusumaji]

You need to play it. It's fun!

 

[tonyshuman]

My Tony and Muffin love their stone tiles, and sitting in front of the fan. We use window air conditioners here in Wisconsin, which is a real shock coming from southeastern MI for me and the deep south for my boyfriend. We can't afford window AC in both bedrooms, so the little bunnies get a window AC because we also sleep in that bedroom, and the big bunnies get a big window fan aimed right at the baby gate in their doorway.

I should get that teach and treat! I think Tony could use the challenge--he's a smart cookie and loves to get into trouble--maybe if he had that to work on he wouldn't use his energy for destruction.

 

[Yurusumaji]

We had a window A/C unit in Michiko's room, but she ended up chewing it and it sprung a leak. So now she can't have one. I'll be paying out the butt for the central air this month, though. I keep the house A/C on pretty much constantly except during the night. Keeping it 70° in the house when it's 100° outside of the house is not an easy task.

The Teach 'N Treat is a really cool toy, but Michiko doesn't have to waste any time figuring it out. It's fun to watch her get all excited when she finds the treats, though!

 

[MiniLopHop]

PA is now in a heat wave that will have tempatures in the high 90s and into 100s this week. My bunny room got so hot we put in a window ac unit last night. I fenced off under it so they wouldn't chew the cord.

Houdini is too smart for his own good. What an escape artist, he certainly lives up to his name! You would think with a whole room to run around in with his bunwife he would be content? Nope! He's happiest when he's caught being "naughty", he will binky the whole way back to his room when we point and tell him to "go home".

I was just told about a large bird one of my coworkers has that may need to be rehomed. Any advice for a potential large bird owner? I have zebra finches, but that is very different.

 

[Yurusumaji]

Well it depends on the bird, but any large bird will need someone who is home pretty often to keep it company and offer it entertainment. Large birds should have cages that dwarf their human and they're very intelligent, so you need to be sure you can continuously challenge their minds or else they'll get bored.

So long as you have the funds and the time, they're amazing pets.

 

[MiniLopHop]

Man, I already have a bun that is smarter than I am. I'm not sure I'm ready for a bird that's smarter too!

 

[Yurusumaji]

Ha ha! The biggest challenge is keeping them entertained. African Greys have the mental capacity of a 3-year-old. Kids get bored easy, large birds get bored easy. Large birds that get bored will pull out their feathers.

You need to be able to spend a few hours a day with the bird for enrichment. When you're not around just leave fun toys out for the bird to play with. Have lots of toys out at a time and switch them out each week. This will keep things interesting for the bird.

Besides that, make sure you feed a good diet (pellets with fresh fruit and veggies and some seed for treats), let the bird out everyday, make sure its perches are of several different diameters to keep the bird's feet healthy and prepare yourself for a loud, sweet animal that you'll love despite the squawking. LOL!

I also suggest against keeping the bird in the same room as the rabbits. Depending on the bird, it could be big enough to injure your rabbits and dander from small mammals can be irritating to birds so it's best to keep them separated as much as possible.

Also, do you have stainless steel cookware? If you have take the bird, you will need stainless steel cookware. No teflon-coated pots and pans! It's believed that the teflon coating doesn't fully stick to the pan even at regular cooking temperatures and this causes teflon to get into the air and kill birds.

 

[MiniLopHop]

The diet, perch diameters, and the cookware issue is the same with the finches. They never come out of their cage because they panic and could hurt themselves. I have a 6 foot long cage that they can fly from end to end in so they stay happy and healthy. They like it when I talk to them, but they are not holding birds.

I'm thinking I may point her in the direction of a rescue that may be able to post it on pet finder for her. I don't think I could tollerate the noise either. I love the beeps of the zebra finch, but....

I don't think I would have enough time to keep it properly socialised either, it would probably end up destructive. With three rabbits, two cats, two gerbils, two turtles, 8 zebra finches, and two fish tanks I think my hands are full. Thank you for helping me think through this. I'm just not the right home and the bird deserves better.