Puddle Jumping in DC

On small children and very small parrots

Bug loves, loves, loves peanuts.  The sound of the jar being opened elicits excited chirps and happy dances followed by frantic chirps and pacing if a peanut does not materialize quickly enough.  If Bug is out of her cage, do not expect to open a peanut jar in peace.

This is something she and Maya have in common.  Mac never read the increasingly common advice not to give children peanuts until they are three.  And since Daddy likes to snack on peanuts, Maya has been eating them since early in her 2nd year.

Consequently, both toddler and parrotlet answer the call of the peanut jar:

"chirp, chirp"

"Want some."

 
Maya solicits a cookie from Amanda during our trip to London. 

Still Kicking

. . . and kicking, and kicking.

Working too much.
Doing too much.
Bug is not pleased.
Looking forward to a week in Mexico City.
Bug will be even less pleased.

Did you miss Mac's profile in the Washington Post?

Bug Also Eats

The day I took the food photos was a particularly gray January day here in the district.  I stuck Bug's food in the window to document it (left).

Bug is highly interested in food, especially if it belongs to someone else. 

We've been so busy we worry the Bugness isn't getting enough attention but we've started a fun new ritual where we eat breakfast together. (Mac started it actually.)

To the right, you have Bug flicking her breakfast onto her very own tablecloth.

I love photographs like this -- blurry and full of action -- how you actually experience Bug.

I think she enjoys our little ritual, but she's no fool.  She won't eat out of her bowl until she's sees us put a little bit of our breakfast into it.

Even then, she has to be repeatedly reminded to eat off her plate, not ours.

Happy, Happy Bird

While we're pretty confident Bug prefers traveling to being left behind, that's a far cry from liking to travel.  We get her home and she just cheeps with joy at the sight of her cage.  It would be hard to overstate how happy Bug is to be home -- even though someone* inadvertently flipped the power off to the fridge before we left town.  As far as Bug is concerned, food comes in stainless steel cups and out of our bowls.

Here she is sharing a piece of my lame (but sweetly prepared) dinner of pasta with canned peas and not enough sauce: 
Food shopping hasn't quite happened yet.

Still, leftover graham cracker house construction materials just might make good s'moors. I got plans, man.

 

Ed Note 01/03/06: Microwave s'moors are pretty easy.  However, the fancy dark chocolate just didn't seem quite right.

*That would be me.

A Social Issue Has Attained Mainstream Status When . . .

It's featured on the cover of BirdTalk Magazine.

Seriously.  While the magazine itself is pretty far from mainstream, they don't do social issues. They do birds.

However, the January 2007 issue contains a feature story titled "Global Warming: What It Means to You, Your Bird, and Its Wild Cousin".  Whoa.

Oh, and a nice long story about a soap opera star and his parrots. 

The Master of the Universe is Ill

Peanut, a very little parrot in central Michigan, has been feeling poorly. Bug doesn't know how much significance this little Greenrump Parrotlet has - he was among the many factors in the decision to bring Bug home instead of continuing my search for a good parakeet breeder.

The internet forum equivalent of well wishes is something called , at least in parrot circles. That hardly seems adequate in Peanut's case. This bird is too important for little gif images; I want to send actual medicine!

Here's hoping Peanut is up and flying again soon.

I'm still amazed that his person got got the above photograph. Bug goes by too fast to be photographed.

Editors Note, 9/6/06: Peanut didn't make it.  I don't know what this  means for the universe but Pamela, Peanut's person, could use your poofs now.

Big Questions

I think it might be time to rebrand the blog. I've struggled with the Why blog? question off and on - burning desire to post cute pictures? share my witty remarks? express outrage? habit?

When I first started this, I had just adopted Little Miss Cuteness (a.k.a. Bug, left) and was an avid reader of the Finster F-log. In the beginning, most of the entries were about Bug. However, there's a major flaw in a blog about Bug - she has a pretty simple life and doesn't say much that's quotable (there are peeps of happiness, peeps of contentedness, peeps of eating euphoria, peeps of irritation, peeps of "yer not skritching the right spot", peeps of "hey, where'd you go?", and peeps of "let me out", there are also some grunts that have similar meanings).

The F-log has bunches of finches and the Master of the Universe (a.k.a. Peanut). I, on the other hand, have political and issue content, the occasional home renovation, and miscellaneous life observations . . and, apparently, and identity crisis. So, out of 192 entries, only 58 of them are about Bug (I didn't count, the script counts entries by category).

So, if Bug Blog doesn't really reflect the blog, what does? Discuss.

A Little Bit Famous

This picture: of Bug chasing my pen and generally being adorable is the #2 search result for "parrotlet" on Yahoo Image Search. Cool. Her rank isn't moving up at all on the Google image search though. What's up with that? If you search for "parrotlet, Bug", she's all over the place, but that seems like cheating.

Given that this picture: is #21 when searching Google for Jen Mueller and there's no chance you'ld get me at all if instead of my name you searched for "woman" or "human", Bug's fame on species search is that much more impressive.  Oh well, she's definitely cuter.

Because She's Ultra Cute

This photo of Bug won her a gift certificate in a wet bird contest to Greyfeathertoys.com and now we will buy her this: Whoa.

Gratuitous Bug Shot

Awww

Is Bug in Hiding?

It's been so long since Bug made an appearance on the Blog that she wasn't even on the main page anymore -- the injustice -- the indignity -- the outrage.

Well, there's not much going on in Bug's life and too much going on in Mac & Jen's. It is self evident that Bug's people spend way to much time staring at computers and muttering about schoolwork and no where near enough time playing with her. She gets out regularly and wreaks little green havoc wherever she can, but still no blog entries. She might worry that her public misses her (probably not, but you might miss her anyway). This isn't even really a Bug entry, but it will have to tide you over.

Remember Spike II? (little red fish on the left)

Well, Spike's habitat hadn't been looking so sparkely lately. So, back when I did that big fish tank clean (last Friday), I gave Spike's tank a good cleaning too. A couple days later, he got a technology upgrade.

Here's Bug checking it out:

 

 

How long do you think that nice, blue silicone hose is going to last? The bubbles are fascinating too, by the way.

 

(click on the picture for a zoomed out view if you need more context)

 

 

 

There's Something In There

I'm really not sure what's gotten into her today.

She stayed there for quite a while. Occasionally, as my hair failed to hold her 1oz weight, she'd slide down and then have to climb back up. Very strange feeling.

But, at least she's not chewing on the keyboard.

 

 

Sorry abou the picture quality. It's difficult to photograph the back of your head without waking up the parrotlet hiding there.

Why Right Here?

Packages, Packages, Packages

It's back to school time so folks are buying my used books. Bug thinks that paper and tape are very interesting.

Of Vomit and Vets and Visa Bills . . .

The Wiggle-Neck Dance, or regurgitating to the object of ones affection, is a known phenomenon among parrotlet owners.

Bug occasionally regurgitates to people she likes. Tuesday evening, however, she tossed her cookies. That's weird. When she didn't seem right on Wednesday morning, it was off to the vet.

The long and short of the poking, prodding, needles and discussions was that Bug spent three days at the vet's in the little carrier. She got something called a crop wash - bet that was fun.

Several doses of antibiotics and laxatives (to flush things out) later, she's back home with no definitive cause of the vomiting. She doesn't seem worse for wear but is a little clingy.

My next adventure is to reconcile the visa statement. Bug is insured and some of our expenses this week should be covered (phew). Full analysis pending.

Sometimes She Makes Things Difficult.

She Weighs 1 Oz and Has 4 Pounds of Luggage

Bug has come along on our summer family visiting tour.

Isn't she cute. She travels rather well but not particularly lightly.

In addition to a cage, she has a basket of food and toys. Doubtless she over packed, but she's young yet.

It was quite hot which means that Mac and I had to take turns visiting rest-stops. A few minutes in a closed up car on a mid-July afternoon wouldn't be particularly good for little Miss. Bugness. Other than that, the drive was uneventful.

The First of the Summer Vegetables Have Arrived

We subscribe to a CSA, a community-supported agriculture project. Ours Bull Run Farm originally because Leigh delivers in front of the PIRG office. Every week, he brings vegetables. You basically get whatever is in season and Leigh grows a wide variety of stuff. Early in the season, there's greens and herbs and, from July to October, there's lots of squash and peppers. Peppers are easy, but Mac hates squash. I like squash ok and Bug's really into it (especially slivered and offered by hand). How much do you think she can eat?

Procrastinating on a Saturday

I think I enjoyed the Ebo movies more than Bug. Ebo is a cockatiel who's favorite phrases include "Good, Ebo", "Ebo", and "Boo". I especially enjoyed the "Ebo Ebo Ebo" song and "Ebo's interview as a presidential candidate". Bug felt the need to lunge at the screen a few times.

Does It Get Any Better Than This?

Probably not . . . . and when he stops scritching your head, you can go back to preening his leg hairs.

The fun just never stops.

Baking for Birdie

Somewhere on this blog, I've mentioned that I feed Bug something called "pellet cookies". It's basically ground up parrot food, nuts, flour, egg, and juice baked into cookies. Bug loves them but we're all out.

I'm planning to make more tonight but we're also trying something new. It's a prepared birdie bread mix called Pro Grow. It has quite a fan club of parrot owners who think the stuff is much better than pellets. There's a whole big controversy about pellets where some parrot breeders/owners think pellets are terrible and the pellet companies think they are perfect nutrition. I'm not convinced either way.

Pellet companies are out to make money, yes, but several of them were started by vets saddened to see parrots dying of malnutrition, or that's the story anyway. And, a number of the people trashing pellets are pushing their own products, granted, unlike pellets, few alternative products claim to be a complete diet. One guy from England who prefers seed/table food+supplements makes an interesting argument that half the problem is that they do have to be 90% of the diet or the parrot won't get the necessary vitamins and most breeders in the U.S. don't do that. The person who makes Itty Bitty Birdie Bites has a nice list of links trashing pellets here.

My take on it is that Bug eating only pellets would be comparable to me eating only grapenuts (visually, too). I could subsist on grapenuts. I might even get all the recommended daily allowances for the major vitamins. But, I'd be bored silly and would be missing out on nutrients only available from fresh food. However, I do eat a lot of grapenuts, practically a bowl every day. So, Bug gets pellets and fresh food and seeds and sprouts and baked goods . . . . I try to mix it up to keep her flexible.

Back to the Pro-Grow: This stuff is kind of weird. You can't really see from the picture, but it's greenish. That's probably the spirolina.The little red dots are a pellet I added (Can you hear the anti pellet people gasp?) for texture variety. I had intended to make two batches, one with peas and one with strawberries. But, I figured that by the time the peas/strawberries, which start out frozen, get baked for 90 minutes at 350 degrees, get frozen again because it will take Bug six months to eat a whole loaf, and then get re-thawed when I'm ready for it, it's probably not much of a nutritional supplement. Plus, adding a few cups of the fruity pellets was just really easy.

Man, I hope Bug likes it because the smallest package, 2lbs, makes a heck of a lot of birdie bread. I'll keep you posted.

Finders Keepers?

Okay, I had to share this next picture because it happened while I was typing the entry. This morning, I left the bird food sitting onto the china cabinet instead of putting it inside. As I typed a blog entry about bird food, Bug flew over to the china cabinet to investigate. When she couldn't break into the container holding the "Just Fruit", of which she distinctly prefers the small berries, she tried to stare her way into the jar holding the oat groats.

It worked! I opened them up and gave her a few. . . . . . after I took the picture. (Later, I even gave her a berry.) Click on the picture for a close up a Bug.

Little Stinker

We knew it was only a matter of time before Bug out-smarted us.

Today she really wanted what Paul was eating . . . . in the kitchen. So, she hopped to a chair and considered her options. Then, she flew under the curtain that we use to separate the kitchen from the dining room.

hmmm.

It's a good thing she's cute. Unfortunately, that's not going to help her as she gives us imploring looks from inside the cage whenever anyone is cooking anything and, with four adults in the house, that can be often.

We haven't been all that careful about putting Bug into her cage when folks do little things in the kitchen, like make tea, as long as someone is watching Bug. Guess that's gotta' change. (BTW- there's always someone watching Bug or she is in her cage.)

On another note, we discovered that the only thing necessary to make this basket interesting (It's been ignored for well over a month.) is to put hundreds of little hole-punch holes in it. Suddenly, not only are the holes interesting, it's got all these cool colorful dangly things (shh - they were there before).

Confession: I don't celebrate my pet's birthday.

On web sites like Parrot Strut, there are frequent posts about birds reaching hatchday milestones and occasionally photos of parrots in party hats. This raises a number of questions:

Do parrots tell time? They are very in tune to light-dark cycles and seasons but do they perceive an annual calendar.

Can they tell the difference between a new toy and a birthday toy especially since, as far as I can tell, everything around them belongs to them anyway?

Are there even party hats in Bug's size?

Am I a bad birdie slave because I don't think this little green parrotlet needs a party?

What do you think Bug?

'Nuf said.

Does this need an explaination?

Bug is still quite into Tom.

Bug Has a Crush on Tom.

It's spring. She's a year old next week. Tom lets her chew on his hair and pets her through the cage bars. He's really cool and is the current object of Bug's infatuation.

All I get is snarky teenage parrotlet. "Go away, Mom. You're so embarassing."

Bug made a new friend.

This is Tom. He's one of our housemates. Until very recently, he was evil. That seems to have changed. Let's take a closer look.

Guess he's not so evil afterall.

The New Guy

Oh that "never the two shall meet" . . .

His name is Spike II (We already had a betta named Spike but it is a good name and I wasn't feeling particularly creative the day a got Spike II.) Bug is very interested in his tank. Spike is very interested in Bug. When she wanders around his tank, he struts his stuff and flairs his fins. This is as close as they should ever get.

If only dishes were this exciting for the rest of us

Click for a Bug closeup.

Doesn't really need words but aren't they cute?

The Quest to Entertain a Parrotlet

Bug has many toys. Unfortunately, I think some of her toys are mine.

We had a conflict over this pen which bug felt should be shaken to bits and I felt should be used to make macro-economics notes.

And when she wasn't satisfied being cute on the play stand

I did something I do every few days . . . I made her more toys.

In the wild, parrots would spend a lot of time foraging for food. In my house, Bug's food is served in stainless steel dishes so I make her foraging toys to spice things up.

Under Bug's watchful eye,

I put a few sunflower seeds in a treat cup, covered them with pistachio shells (washed and dried, of course). I put a few hot peppers in another, and covered them with scraps of paper. Then, I put a nutraberries treat in a third cup.

Then I hid the treats under strips of paper (tape on the back, out of the way of beak). Ta DAH! A toy with food inside!

But then . . . the mail came with a package of food and toys from Choppers Toys!

The jelly bracelet (w/almonds) and cellophane balls are clearly a hit. (We also got a big bag of sunflower seeds but I hid that.)

I'm not coming down . . .

until you put away the mop!