Hi everyone!
I’m Jessi, and this is Steve.
He’s a cockatiel, and he’s just one of the many birds that live at Animal Wonders.
I’ve had quite a lot of interest in an update on the birds, specifically for a room tour
or an update on the macaw jungle gym.
Now I’d really like to do a bird room tour, but it’s just way too loud in there to even
try and talk while we’re filming.
But I would like to show off the parrots and give an update on the macaw room as well,
so let’s head on over there.
[JESSI WHISTLING TO THE TUNE OF "CHARGE"]
[STEVE SINGING TO THE TUNE OF "CHARGE"]
Yeah! That was a good one!
[CHEERY INTRO MUSIC]
Our bird room is right down the hallway, next to the reptile room, which is why you can
always hear the birds talking when I’m filming in the reptile room.
Okay Steve, let’s go say hi to all the birds!
So the first room we’re going into is the original bird room, and it houses
temperature sensitive parrot type birds.
Zapper the Alexandrine parakeet is to the immediate left, bobbing his head like a little maniac.
Zoe and Chongo the Amazon parrots are next on the left.
And to the immediate right we have Chopsticks the quaker parrot on top, and down a bit is
Ginger and Maui the green cheek conures.
Also on the right side we have Agent Peri the budgerigar, and Steve the cockatiel lives with her.
And down a bit from them is Ecuador and Loulou the jenday and halfmoon conures.
And at the very back of the bird room, we built a whole new expansion.
This gave us a new room and allowed us to take in Scarlet the green wing macaw and join
Joy the blue and gold macaw in an open space with hanging perches.
Alright, I’m gonna close this door so you can actually hear me talk.
No one can get a word in when Ecuador and Chopsticks get going, and then Zoe and Chongo,
they get going, too, and it’s chaos.
Okay, originally when we built this room, we didn’t know what was going to need the space.
But once we made the decision to take in Scarlet the green wing macaw,
we knew that both of these guys would be moving in.
We’ve had Scarlet for just over a year, and her and Joy have been sharing this space for
quite a few months now.
While these two do give each other companionship, they have not formed a bond with each other.
Instead they have both chosen one of us humans as their partners.
Joy is bonded to me and Scarlet has bonded to Taylor, and they have been making huge progress together.
When we moved Scarlet out of her barred enclosure and onto the hanging perches here, she was
really nervous and had a hard time maneuvering.
She was so used to hanging from the bars of a cage, she would just hook her nails on the
top bars and then hang, so she didn’t have strong muscles in her legs and toes to grip the perches.
She also wasn’t used to the movement of the perches as they swayed under her weight.
At first Joy was nervous of the new space too, but she’s really gotten the hang of it and she has been
working on mastering every new perch that we put in here.
Her favorite perch of all of this is that hanging circle swinging perch over there. She loves it!
And when the weather is nice, both Scarlet and Joy get to spend time outside in the sun
in our new outdoor area!
I’m absolutely loving getting them all outside more often. It’s been a huge improvement
for all of the birds' wellbeing.
As with everything, the macaws were nervous going outside at first, but they quickly got used
to hanging out and feeling comfortable without a roof over their head.
So, I’ve been pretty busy making the outdoor space safe and making other improvements,
and I haven’t added another perch in here for a little bit.
So I’d like to do that now, and then together we can see what they think of it.
While I work on this, I should probably also talk about the rest of the lower room since
we’ve made a few other changes in here, too.
Sydney the brush-tailed bettong is in the far end of the room.
She adores her little alligator pouch.
She’s nocturnal, so she squeezes into it every morning and is just super cozy sleeping all day.
Earl Grey and Hazel the dwarf rabbits are hanging out to the side of the door.
They got a fancy baby gate installed because they can’t be in the same space as the macaws.
They’ve been enjoying the fresh kale we’re growing in the garden, and they both had full
schedules doing public presentations this summer.
We’re having a pleasantly slow few weeks, so they’re getting to just hang out and
enjoy life in the slow lane for a bit.
And this big enclosure taking up a large portion of the room is Kizmit the porcupine’s day quarters
where she sleeps since she’s also nocturnal.
She also gets access to the large dirt floored Romping Room during the night.
Alright, I’ve installed boards on the ceiling secured into the studs, and now I can safely
hang some more perching.
Joy really enjoyed this swing perch, but I haven’t had a place to put it since
the macaws moved out of their barred enclosures.
I bet she’s going to love having it back.
And I’d like to give them a few other places where I can hang toys and give them foraging opportunities.
So I’m going to put a few more of these places to hang things along the boards.
Awesome! That’s looking good.
And it’ll be easy to change things up and add more when I can.
Alright! Let's go check back in with the rest of the birds.
[CHEERY MUSIC]
Here we go! [BIRDS SCREECHING]
Parrots are so loud, and I love them just for who they are.
I hope you liked this update on the bird room and seeing what’s going on with the macaw jungle gym.
I thought by now we’d have a whole forest in there, but it’s taken them a while to
get used to it all so I’ve taken it at their pace.
Let me know if you’d like to see any of these feathered little cuties
featured in future episodes.
And if you’d like to send toys or new perches for any of the birds, you can find their favorites
on our Amazon wishlist. The link is below!
If you don’t find what you’re looking for on the wishlist, but you want to give them
something anyway, you can mail it to PO Box 7833, Missoula, MT 59807.
And a big special thanks to all of our Patreon patrons who support us every month and help us improve
the animals' lives and keep sharing them with the world.
Thank you!
And I will see you next week for another animal adventure.
Bye!