Vinny is alive and kicking!

Alright alright, we haven't posted much since ... a long time ago!

We have been somewhat active on Facebook though. Vinny's page now has 1935 followers. It's been crazy! Maybe we should have a t-shirt printed with Vinny on it (one of a kind!) and send it out to follower number 2500 or so.

Anyway, since we've been posting some photos on Vinny's Facebook Page and not here, it's kind of unfair, don't you think? So without wasting any more time on words, please enjoy these lovely pictures of our little cute green fellah!

An old pic of Vinny enjoying a shower!

You want to play with this plastic thingie too? Here you go ...

Fluffing up can mean so many things .. in this case 100% happiness!

It's MY favorite toy, not yours! Try and take it from me, and you will regret it!

If you give me an almond, I can put this in a cup, take it out, put it back. I swear!

And I can also hold things sideways. Aren't I super intelligent? Now give me that almond!

I love fresh strawberries!

You can tell that I like something very much. I will hold it without dropping!

I'm sooooooo happy!

Vinny got Paged on Facebook!

Now that the dust has settled around Vinny and his Facebook account, let's put into words what actually happened and how we're dealing with this.

What happened last weekend, was that Vinny was logging in to Facebook, checking up on his bird-friends and family, ready to click some like buttons, and possibly even post a selfie. Upon logging in, Facebook popped up with the message that Vinny is not a real person and that his account was converted into a Facebook Page.

Alright, in hindsight I can understand the 'not real' statement. We knew this was going to happen. It's not Vinny's website, it's Mark Zuckerberg's, so he sets the rules. And if he says that parrots and other pets can be on Facebook, but not with a full account, then so be it. I guess it was inevitable that Mark stumbled upon Vinny's account and said "NO MORE, VINNY!". So now Vinny has a fan page instead of a full account.

In reality, this means that Vinny's friends got converted to profile-likes and followers of the page. Vinny won't be able to see other people's posts on his own timeline anymore, but we'll see how we can work around that later. Another effect is that Vinny's own timeline content (photo's, video's and other posts) got lost in the conversion. They were simply not there anymore. All the fun comments are gone, the likes, the links, you name it. I'm sure it was just a technical issue or someone at Facebook HQ being in dire need of a nap, but it added up to the anger we felt last week. Blurry images of wrecking balls came to mind.

Of course we can get mad at Facebook for doing this without warning, we can discuss how Facebook should be more pet-friendly, we can try to claim that parrots are very smart beings, that many parrots get as old as humans or sometimes even outlive them, that parrots are often treated as a full member of the family, and that Facebook sucks, but what's the point?

The thing is: Vinny's Facebook Page has been 'empty' for a week now. Nothing on the timeline other than the fact that he hatched on January 1st, 2012, plus of course the banner and profile picture. And still his page got 30 more likes just for being there.

Vinny's profile picture on Facebook

So we figured: what happened happened and let's just deal with it. If his page can get likes just for being there, maybe actually having content on there might have a positive effect.

This whole thing started with Vinny's parronts wanting to share their experiences as first-time parrot owners with the world. Put their mishaps and tips into words, and maybe even let them be of some benefit to others. And connect to other parrot owners.

If Vinny's 'new' fan page helps in any way, then kudos to Facebook for that. This blog will always be the basis of operations when it comes to Vinny's online presence, but who knows, maybe Mark will lend a hand.

So without further ado, I present to you:

Vinny's Facebook Page!

Ps. Don't forget that Vinny can also be found on Youtube, Twitter, DailyMotion, Vine, Google+ and some other sites.

Vinny has the Winter Blues

It's early March. Vinny turned Two not long ago. And Vinny has the Winter Blues.

A while ago he was still fine. He was talking, chatting, showing many many signs of happiness, playing, learning, he just picked up the awesome skill of whistling, and did I mention talking and chatting?

He would just sit there at the top of his cage, especially around sunset, he would just talk away, go through his whole vocabulary in all directions and especially when stimulated, he would whistle. We had this thing where I would do a simple 2-tone whistle (high-low) and he would repeat it. Sometimes this went back and forth over 10 times. Always followed by laughter from both Vinny and me.

During our morning showers, we would have complete discussions about anything that fits his vocabulary.

But now?

It's gone. He lost his mojo. He still does all the same things, being cute, showing signs of happiness, playing, communicating, but sans the talking and whistling. One day, about 3 weeks ago, he just stopped.

All he does now, is make short sounds. Like humming, but a bit higher pitched. Sometimes he does it in an asking way, sometimes just to give confirmation. Like someone just saying 'uh-huh' instead of 'I agree'.

Actually, come to think of it, it stopped around the time when we were giving our bathroom a big overhaul. We used a lot of chemicals and the bathroom had a very strong swimming pool odor, so obviously the bathroom was not a very healthy place for a parrot. We had to put showers on a hold for a little while.

After the smell went away, we gave it a few more days and an extra, very thorough, hose-down. And this week we have resumed giving Vinny showers in the morning. Yesterday he uttered a half-baked '.. come out' or something, but today he's back to uh-huh and uuuumm.

Of course we did our usual Google sessions, where we tried to figure out if other people have dealt with this before. And people have. Apparently it's a pretty common thing for a bird to stop talking, and we read a million and one reasons for why it could happen. But you know... everyone's just guessing, no final answers or studies on this behavior.

Our advice:
Don't google this particular problem. If the no talking persists and if your parrot shows other signs of trouble (depression, physical signs of illness or injury, other very strong behavior changes), just give your vet a call.

Vinny has been and is as happy as a parrot could be. He's affectionate, playful, trainable, he's been eating well, need I go on? He's also not going through a hormonal phase. No molting, no biting, etcetera. In fact, now that he just does the humming thing, he's actually more communicative. Vinny has just stopped using words.

So what is the cause, in Vinny's case?

No clue. But we suspect that it's just a case of the Winter Blues. Lack of sunshine and thus vitamin D12 deficiency, like in humans? He has been sleeping a bit more than usual.

Although the Dutch Winter of 2014 was extremely mild, we haven't had a lot of sunshine. It's been a pretty dull and grey winter. And today, this weekend, is actually the first weekend of beautiful weather. This morning Vinny had the longest shower in quite a while. He kept asking for more by fluffing up, spreading his wings, the usual. And now he's been sitting in front of the window, in the bright sunlight.

Maybe it's an instinct to look for natural light? We like to think so, and this has also confirmed another valuable lesson for us ...

Vinny Is Sunbathing After A Shower

Watch your parrot's behavior closely. Be a true bird whisperer. Just read the signs, weigh them, and draw your conclusions. Don't panic. Discover what your parrot's sad, neutral and happy sounds are. "It's elementary, my dear Watson!", as Sherlock would say.

We are not worried. We are confident that he will be his old chatting self soon enough!

Word!

Vinny goes back to basic!

Lately, and I'm talking about the last month or so, Vinny has become somewhat of a teenager. We can tell that hormones are surging through his little body and he's become more difficult to handle. Especially Mommy has gotten a few jabs, probably because she's more around than Daddy.

I guess Vinny has become a Daddy's boy, or in bird-keeper terms a 'one-person-bird'. And being Daddy's boy, he's also shown his affection towards Daddy. Especially after eating fresh fruit, he's more than happy to share this food with Daddy, bring it back up in his beak and offering it to Daddy with a load of head-bobbing and wing flapping. Daddy can deal with it, but Mommy is disgusted to say the least, especially when Vinny mistakes Mommy for Daddy and shares his food with her!

Of course we're not really too alarmed by this, all the experts say that it's just a phase. However, because we were reading up on this phenomenon, we did learn a few things that we've been doing wrong. Unwillingly and unknowingly, we've encouraged his hormonal behavior by giving him tickle sessions, playing with him, touching his beautiful candy corn beak, and the like.

The head bobbing and the regurgitating wasn't the worst. But the last 2 weeks or so he's started to become more aggressive and certainly louder. He's started short but ear-pounding screaming sessions, especially when about to be left alone or when he's been demanding some TLC.

A few days ago we drew the line.

Rule no. One: No more touching of erogenous zones, i.e. no more tickle sessions.

Rule no. Two: Change of diet. Less sugar rushes (read: less carbs), more healthy food.

Rule no. Three: Start over with training.

The first one is pretty obvious. If you play-wrestle with your bird, he might interpret that in an entirely wrong way. We're not his natural parents, he has nobody else besides us, and he doesn't have another Eclectus mate. So if we show the 'right' behavior, he'll start seeing us as his potential lover, even though it's just for short moods swings. I guess tickling areas of his body (i.e. under his wings, his belly, his beak, his neck) doesn't help. So we're done with that.

The 2nd one might seem less directly linked to his hormonal behavior, but hey, it doesn't hurt him. And the sugar rush thing makes sense, right? There was too much pasta and rice in his diet anyway, as opposed to legumes, sprouts and fresh fruits that are not too sugary.

Rule number 3 we read on various blogs. Training is fun and non-sexual attention. And attention is always good. Leave any parrot by himself too long and he'll go bonkers. A daily dosage of attention is very important.

Now, in that area Vinny had no reason to complain, but it's not just about the quantity of the attention, it's also the quality that counts. So, we've started training him again. Potty training, target training, simple commands like 'step up', etcetera.

Now, I can read your mind a little bit and I can see that you're wondering where we got all this 'wisdom'. We promise that sometime soon we'll just make a whole blog post about sources of information. For now you'll just have to believe us when we say that we get our information from various reliable sources (websites, blogs, etc) and we blend it all together.

There are as many opinions on bird-care and bird-handling as there are bird owners. But there's definitely some consensus to be discovered, when you read closely. We just go with the 'general opinion'.

The results?

Even after a few days of change we can tell that his hormonal behavior has become less. It definitely hasn't completely vanished yet, but we're on the way there. The no tickling rule and the training has helped the most so far. So really it's about the type of attention we've given Vinny.

With the training, we've also read up on what's the best way to go at it. Target training is a general type of training that will help with further more specific training later on. And simple commands like 'step up' and 'come here' should definitely be worth the effort.

One source says that you should always stop a training session before your parrot does. Try to figure out his attention span and use that info. Let's say that that's about 7 minutes, make sure you stop the training session after 6 minutes. We've noticed that this really helps. This way training doesn't get boring to Vinny and he stays eager to learn.

Usually he picks up a trick after 4 or 5 tries within one session, but we've yet to discover how many sessions it takes for him to consistently do a trick correct on the 1st try in a new session.

Anyway, as we said, we'll go into reliable sources in a separate post and give you a further update on Vinny's teenage behavior.

Do you have a bird that is or was going through a phase like this? Do you have any hints and tips on how to deal with it? Feel free to comment. Take care and till next time!