Parrotville.com - Treasure Photos

Whew! What a hot summer! Luckily, we have air conditioning so everyone has kept their “cool” here.

Our big boy is doing very well. It’s hard to believe that today is our second anniversary with Treasure! It seems like we have had him longer than that but the calendar says otherwise. He is so, so wonderful and we enjoy him tremendously. Treasure is talking up a storm lately. One day he asked Bobby, “Where are you going?” He will tell Bobby to “Come here!” or “Come BACK here!”. He says “step up” and “come on” when he wants us to take him somewhere. He will laugh or chuckle when we laugh. He says “Pepper” and “Cara” but hasn’t said “Lily” yet. He says “Oh oh” because Cara says it. He still says “How are you” or “How ARE you”?? And, the other day, I heard him ask, “Remember me?”

We talked earlier about changing his name to Remington (Remy for short) but he knows “Treasure” and will say, “Hi Treasure”. I sometimes call him “my Remy Treasure”. But, he is our absolute Treasure, for sure!

He still adores Bobby and Bobby loves to be his “special” person. It is so touching to see him rest his head against Bobby’s shoulder or face. Almost brings tears to Bobby’s eyes to think how much this wild creature loves him. The two of them sit on the sofa every night and cuddle. Treasure starts off sitting on Bobby’s lap, then he gets too warm and moves to the space between us; BUT, he has to snuggle into Bobby’s hand. That seems to be his security blanket.

Treasure is a great eater as I’ve mentioned before. He loves his piece of breakfast muffin, fruit & Mac nuts in the morning. I make the muffins with applesauce instead of oil, unsweetened fruit juice and then mix in the usual dry ingredients and add dried fruit, oatmeal, pine nuts, eggs (no shell), and whatever else might make a nice muffin. They eat those pretty well. We found some dried cherries and blueberries that are all natural without sulfides or sugar or preservatives—nothing but dried fruit. All of the birds love them but you know the big guy—he loves those cherries! He also eats dried banana chips but I can’t get him to try fresh bananas at all. Their supper is a cooked mash of whole wheat pasta, mixed beans, veggies, low sodium chicken broth and a few almonds. The big guy seems to really look forward to supper! We always have Roudybush pellets available all day and then a snack of nuts for everyone at bedtime. Of course, there are special treats, too. But they all eat pretty healthy. Treasure isn’t a huge fan of veggies but I sneak them into suppers.

His weight is good; he weighed 1420 on Sunday. So, he looks & feels good. He is in perfect feather and has a beautiful, long tail. He recently lost one of the two longest tail feathers—all the birds are molting a bit right now. His beak is shiny and looks great. The other night he actually filed his beak with a file Bobby gave him. It was so comical to watch. He took the file in his foot, grabbed a wooden ball in his upper beak, set the file against the wood ball and proceeded to file his lower beak against the file! He would turn his head to get all sides of his lower beak. We were utterly amazed at the use of two tools! He’d adjust and do it again and again!

We were giving baths outdoors over the weekend with our handheld mister and Treasure was really enjoying it. I picked up the garden hose to refill the birdbath for the wild birds. Our big boy saw the big spray from the hose and started jumping up & down. Bobby said, “I think he wants a big spray. Try spraying up in the air over him.” So, I did and Remy LOVED it! He spread his beautiful wings and jumped up & down over & over and got real excited. We were laughing at his antics. He had such a good time. After we stopped to let him dry off, we were sitting around enjoying the heat in our damp clothes, when a few drops of rain fell. They were small droplets really and spaced far apart but Treasure looked quite concerned. He looked up at the sky and then snuggled closer to Bobby! We laughed at what a big baby he was—sometimes he’s so rough & tough but at other times, he’s just a baby! What a guy!

Well, I wanted to give you an update on him on our “anniversary”. Treasure is the best and we love him so very much! It’s sometimes difficult for other people to realize how special he is to us. We plan so many things around our birds and their comfort and needs. I suppose some might think we’re a little nuts but from what I’ve read on parrot blogs or forums, parrot owners seem to be this way! We wouldn’t have it any other way, either!!

Take care and keep cool this summer.

Love from all of us,

Denise, Bobby, Treasure, Lily, Cara and Pepper (TLCP—which, to me, means how to keep your parrots with Tender, Loving, Care & Patience!)