Cocoa's Daily Blog

2008-12-25T09:34:00.001-08:00

As of about a month ago, Cocoa was moved to another foster home. She will be missed! Good luck in finding a loving, forever home, Cocoa! Pico misses you!

2008-10-23T15:55:00.000-07:00

cocoa is a bird that does her own thing. she is not much of a cuddle-bug but she loves attention. any attention she can get, she'll take. she is also interactive in the fact that she is a big talker. she can even place inflections in her words. she is the bird that makes me truely believe that birds understand a LOT more humanspeak than we could ever imagine. she'll just say something or laugh at correct moments. this is indeed an amazing bird.

2008-09-05T13:29:00.001-07:00

You think owning a parrot (or two) is for you? Have you ever thought about whether you would be able to take the chatty "contact calls" that happen every morning and every evening? Play the following movie with your sound up all the way. This is in a house with 8 parrots, just after breakfast. (We cover the ground with towels to catch the poop.) Enjoy!

PS: I look forward to these conversations...:-)

2008-09-05T09:25:00.001-07:00

2008-09-04T11:16:00.000-07:00

cocoa showing her fun side while playing "fetch the papertowel roll" with my husband...(meaning my husband should fetch the roll...which he does. lol)

2008-08-25T11:58:00.000-07:00

cocoa is one of those birds that i will never really know how truely intelligent she is. all parrots are intelligent, without a doubt. but cocoa - her intelligence with humans and speech/vocalizations is almost uncanny. she really does say/vocalize things that fit to a particular situation...when she wants to of course.

this weekend, i was talking to my husband about something, not really funny but it was an ironic topic and she starts laughing - no one laughed to spur on her own laughter which was freaky, in a way. then i just started asking her (cocoa) questions after that...3 questions. of all the things she could say, she answered e-a-c-h one in a way that could definitely be understood as answering the question. i wish i could recount those questions and her answers, but it has been a whirlwind of a weekend. my husband and i just stared at her in amazement.

i truely think she can understand much more about human speech than i ever can imagine. and i don't really know what makes her decide when to show her talents and when to just ignore us.

she is starting to enjoy taking showers, ever since she started taking showers with our own amazon, who she adores. cocoa used to just sit there and take the shower and hope it is done soon. now, she does the amazon silly shower dance with our amazon that does this. now they truely enjoy taking showers together. cute!

2008-08-09T17:13:00.000-07:00

did i mention cocoa is a diva bird? oh, well, she is. but she has learned that our own amazon, pico, is king. she now allows him first pick on treats on the playstand, and allows him to stand up for her when i get too close.

i have been hiding some pumpkin seeds in her cage in various areas and it seems that she has been catching on to this. whenever i go to clean her cage at night, i find that the seeds i previous hid the night before are gone. i so continue to hide a couple in different areas. i think its great! i should put in more baskets (untreated, of course) and foraging toys in her cage to encourage her to move around more.

2008-07-22T10:51:00.000-07:00

cocoa continues to live up to her name as "diva". she is usually the first to do her contact calls in the morning, as well as encourage it from her roommates for a few minutes, she expects to be given the first treat on the playstand, and she likes to walk home on her own two feet.

the part about her wanting to get the first treat on the playstand is changing a bit. our own macho amazon has been teaching her lessons of hierarchy in the house. he tells her that HE should get the first bit of treat, and then she is allowed to take hers...well, we are being a bit sneaky - we are giving a smaller treat for the first one and a larger bit for the second...should be interesting if the macho guy catches on!

during the morning and evening - when contact calls commences - is the time where cocoa is more apt to start speaking, whistling and singing. other times include taking her macho amazon guy friend away from where she can see him. im sure she can be on her own, but it seems that she likes to hang around with other amazons, especially those that are the same species as her - the yellow naped species.

i have been hiding pumpkin seeds around her cage in various places and i think she has been enjoying this, since i find those seeds missing when i clean her cage at night. foraging is ALWAYS a good thing to add to an amazon's (or any parrot for that matter) daily activites to promote brain stimulation and exercise.

2008-07-09T23:23:00.000-07:00

cocoa in the back, pico closest to the camera

2008-07-09T23:11:00.000-07:00

i guess cocoa is not moving out of the bird room just yet...we have run into some circumstances where this will not be possible for at least a few more weeks. but she is definitely enjoying her companionship with our yellow naped amazon. she continues to love talking, singing and whistling when the mood strikes her (although this usually doesn't occur when strangers are in the room).

we giver her some exercise by "asking" her to walk back to the bird room on her own. we just put her on the ground and she knows exactly where home (and her friend) is located.

2008-06-20T15:35:00.000-07:00

the lovely diva, cocoa with a-hunk-of-an-amazon, pico living life to its fullest...

through preening...

and playing...

2008-06-20T08:21:00.000-07:00

the diva, cocoa...

2008-06-18T13:33:00.000-07:00

cocoa has started to really "play" with our own yellow naped amazon. they just turn into 2 clowns sometimes. this past weekend, while on one of the perches on the playstand in the living room, they were picking at eachother feet, then they started to "feet fight" by holding eachother's foot...then all of a sudden, they BOTH flip under the perch (each having one foot holding onto the perch and one foot holding the foot of the other) and just hanging there and playing. its better than watching tv! i do have to get that on camera!

2008-06-13T11:31:00.000-07:00

cocoa is the show-stealer...at least when she is in the mood to talk. most time she just clams up when put on the spotlight, but once she sees our hunky amazon, she goes crazy - paces back and forth, lowers her body, and starts talking to get his attention.

with our own amazon has the subject of her affections, she has started to dislike my husband and myself as companions. for this reason, as soon as one of our other foster amazons comes out of quarantine, we will move her out of the bird room and keep her company with the quarantined bird. maybe this will calm cocoa down a bit. id rather not have them be so close to eachother. (sorry love bugs!)

2008-05-16T11:34:00.000-07:00

due to another foster bird coming into our home (therefore needing quarantine space), we had to move cocoa in with the other birds in the main bird room. i didn't want to do this because cocoa is just so fixated on our own amazon (who is in that room) that she becomes very aggressive towards both my husband and myself if we move either her or our amazon out of the room. i think as soon as the new bird is out of quarantine, we will place her back into our bedroom.

other than being head over heels about our amazon and the aggressive body language and gestures she shows my husband and i, cocoa is actually a good bird. She doesn't fly at us or jump-attack us if we walk near her on her play stand. its just trying to have her step up (onto a stick) which gets to be an ordeal sometimes and she does try to walk up to our hands to bite. but if you keep her distracted and on the other end of the stick (away from your hands), she is okay.

i have been taking her out in our backyard to keep me company as i check on my veggie/herb/flower garden and she likes to talk and say "hello" and "whatcha doin?". The last time i took her out, she caught the attention of one of my neighbors and i heard a woman say "hello" back to cocoa after cocoa said "hello". it was cute.

2008-05-02T12:25:00.000-07:00

It is spring time and the hormones are a-raging....One thing we learned after Cococa came out of quarantine is that she knows that she is an amazon parrot and she fully knows she is a YELLOW NAPE. how do we know? well, put her in front of our conures (small little green cheeky ones) she wouldn't even give them the time of day....barely a first glance. put her in front of a blue front amazon and she will look at him inquisitively for a moment, but she will go searching for our own yellow naped amazon (which we think is male). she will try to go to him with every chance she gets.

we had put them together on a large playstand (always supervised of course!) and they would chatter and roam around the playstand together. they don't really touch each other other than the beak-touch recognition.

when i try to them separate one from the other, one will either try to bite the one i am trying to step up (on to a stick! hands at this point would be a bitten rag, no matter how much i would be close to either of them) to tell the other "don't go to that human! she just wants to take you away!" or one or both would try to attack me. well, it is to be expected so i have been watching my hands and their posturing.

i have decided, though, that they should not see a lot of each other until at least the spring season passes (although this could be a continual situation). Cocoa did get me good around the thumb as i brought her back to her cage. i have learned to take those (sort of) in stride...i mean, they are only acting like how an amazon would in the wild - high level of hormones, spring "breeding" season, elevated excitement (due to hanging out with our other amazon). i just have to be more careful. i will probably start holding a kabob or some other toy that would be good for me to use to remove their aggression from me and take it out on the shreddable toy.

other than that, cocoa continues to be her chatty, singer, whistler self.

2008-04-28T10:57:00.001-07:00

Cocoa running to her room...getting her daily exercise

2008-03-28T15:42:00.000-07:00

Cocoa has made amazing progress...the first two days, she had the targetting down very well. I had her running all around her cage to touch the target and she goes for it without hesitation (her favorite treat i use is pieces of wheat bread). i have progressed her to using a prop - a wooden ring.

the first day, she was grabbing with her beak and touching it wonderfully. then i think i pushed her a bit too much and she got frustrated...i hoped to have her HOLD onto the ring in her beak, but when she attempted it, she immediately dropped it and i didnt praise or reward her for it. then she just sat there and looked at me like "where's the reward, lady?!". i even put the ring back up infront of her and she didn't move...

i moved to another area of her cage, she followed and i presented her the ring again...she grabbed it and immediately dropped it. i didn't reward her. she probably started getting a little frustrated, wondering why i wasn't giving her, her bread. so i went back to targetting the stick again so that i could reward her, and she did that great.

i started the ring thing again the next day and she held it the first attempt! i praised her HIGHLY and gave her TWO pieces of bread. i stopped for a bit and tried again...she held it a bit longer than immediately dropping it (just a bit, though) and i praised her AS she was holding the ring, so maybe she is slowly getting the picture. my husband attempted having her hold the ring while i was out of the room and doing something else and she HELD IT...i mean HELD IT for a loooonnnnnnggggg time. the only bad thing? my husband praised her the WRONG time. he praised her after she dropped it. i told him this and he realized his mistake so he tried again and she held it again! and this time he praised her the right time. :-) so i think we are making progress on this part. i will continue this for another 2 - 3 days, depending on Cocoa's patience and actions. after this, i will see if i can have her PLACE the ring into something like a bowl or over a peg.

Cocoa has been really great...she doesn't want to be scritched yet, but that's okay. she is a well-behaved bird (of course as long as you can read the body language. :-D) and I have only been bitten once. and that wasn't even that bad.

She continues to talk and when she gets really excited, she will start singing and whistling the "i left my heart in san francisco" tune. she has also started to sound like another foster bird we have. the same "voice" when saying "hello" and "hi, hi". its hard to tell them apart except for the direction in where the "voice" is coming from (two different rooms). she sometimes says "hi bob" or "hi robert"...she knows that saying "hi cocoa" will completely get my attention, so now whenever i am eating something she wants a taste of, she will say "hi cocoa!" and for some reason, that just melts me down. understand that cocoa was not the name she came with when she entered the care of mickaboo...therefore she has only known this name for - at most - 6 months! and she says it VERY well.

well, she'll either say "whatcha doing?" or "hi cocoa" to get my attention...both work equally well...for now. ;-)

2008-03-20T14:05:00.000-07:00

i have decided to go back to target training after a few month hiatus (life just got in the way). i think its important to get the brains of our birds stimulated and show them avenues where they can concentrate their energies towards and be rewarded for it.

with this decision, cocoa will be a part of it. she can be a perch potato, but during the morning and evenings she seems more energized and i will try to use those times to do some target training. i will add some of my notes on these training sessions to this blog.

other than that, Cocoa has been sweet. i have not been able to scritch her with my hand yet (my husband has only been able to do that once and she was almost sleeping), but she is definitely a great bird.

2008-03-16T20:39:00.000-07:00

Cocoa is definitely a charmer. She'll sit pretty and watch the action going around our house. In the morning she will start up the early chatter to make sure everyone is up and okay. She is still in quarantine so she stays in our bedroom but she can hear the birds in our birdroom and does everything to make sure that they hear her. she will gladly converse back and forth for a few minutes. during the day she will get some attention on and off from myself or my husband (who she likes more) and just loves to pass the time around you.

if she doesn't see you but she hears you speaking, she will try to get your attention. she doesn't seem to be afraid of people walking around her, but i'm still not sure how she is around kids. she loves attention, but in terms of interacting with young humans....not sure.

just to put it out there, Cocoa has bitten me once. It was after my husband and i came home from a very long day and she probably felt upset that she had to stay cooped up in her cage all day. I took her out on a wooden perch, and she stepped up and walked a little too quickly to my hand and she bit down. I kinda thought that was going to happen, so I did a little wobble of the perch and she stopped. i gave a quick firm "no" and i put her back in her cage. no more attention that night. it was not the worst bite i've gotten - it barely left a mark - but it does remind me that although she is a rather friendly, she does need to be respected and body language needs to be heeded, no matter what.

2008-03-09T15:09:00.000-07:00

2008-03-06T21:53:00.001-08:00

Cocoa continues be a sweetie...

She does love to just sit on your shoulder and watch over things or doze. I have been a bit hesitant about allowing her on my shoulder, but she has constantly been very calm and has posed no problems...but I do try to keep my eyes away from her beak just in case.

She has taking a liking to my husband because he spends more time with her than I do, but she has not shown any kind of aggressive territorialism against me if she is on or near my husband (knock on wood). Cocoa seems to be very comfortable around both of us, even if she stands on a table that both my husband and myself are working on.

She c-r-a-v-e-s attention. She will talk and make certain noises to let you know as well. They are not the screeching type nor the ear piercing type. It is more like "eh...Eh.....EH!" as if a irritating person is trying to get your attention with grunts that get louder and shorter to let you know she means business. We do ignore this.

During the day she can get very talkative. (That's when we got all those great movie clips of her...see below). When she wants your attention, she says "Hi...Whatcha Doing? Huh?". She also has taken to talking to the birds in the other room.

If it is late in the day and you are sitting in the same room with her but not giving her your full attention, she will start talking softly, almost like a whisper. She is currently being quarantined in our office space, so I usually work on the computer, which puts Cocoa behind me. She says (in soft tones) "hi", "pretty bird", and some cooing and other soft noises.

She eats pellets - she loves the zupreem avain fruit blend pellets. I haven't found that she has a particular liking to any one fruit pellet. I was told that she likes Harrison pellets - I have some, but I haven't tried giving her that yet. I'll try tomorrow.

Cocoa likes to eat grapes, LOVES wheat bread (especially the soft inner parts - not too much the crust), loves birdie bread that I make using cornmeal and some pureed fruits high in vitamin A. She nibbles on the cooked beans we offer her every morning and evening, along with various fruits and veggies. Cocoa loves corn too, but not much nutrition there...

Cocoa would be perfect for someone who can offer her some quality time that she loves as well as being able to let her be to play on her own in and/or around her cage. She has been chomping on a wooden toy in her cage which I hope she is learning to be fun, but I think its more that its in her way since it is hanging against one side of her cage that is near her water bowl. She does need to learn that being by herself is okay and can be fun. If she only knows of being with someone, then she will become more demanding (and possibly aggressive) if no one is there to be with her.

I don't think Cocoa will be too happy around kids - I don't think she would really bite (unless provoked a lot) but she gets a little "scared" by sudden movements around her.

Another thing about Cocoa, which I don't see as a bad thing....but, she has not shown any desire of being petted or scritched by hands and fingers. If we get too close with our fingers to her head, she ducks away and opens her beak as a threat, so we back off. She does allow us to nuzzle up to her with our head and face when she sits on our shoulder. My husband was allowed to give her kisses to the side of her body as she sat on her shoulder and she didn't look phased at all by this gesture.

That's it for now! Tune in next time!

2008-02-26T15:23:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, Cocoa just seemed to come out of her shell. I gave her a shower on Sunday, as well as a wing and nail trim. After that, she spent some time in her room with my husband just talking, singing, whistling and laughing...most of which was caught on video (see below videos).

Other words she has said so far: "Hello Cocoa", crows like a rooster and clucks like a hen, she meows like a cat...

This amazon craves attention....and when she is the center of attention, she will definitely steal the show (especially if there are conversations going on around her). she can be a bit shy in the beginning but opens up quite fast. We have also seen her start to play with her toys, which is great! hopefully she will learn to amuse herself instead of calling for attention. (we are watching that...it is very endearing at the beginning, but we don't want to turn it into a constant "begging" behavior.)

She has stepped up nicely on my husband's arm and hand so far. He has been spending more time with her than I have so far, but I do make it a point to talk to her and interact with her as much as I can. So far she has been a wonderful bird.

2008-02-26T08:26:00.000-08:00

Cocoa talking, singing, whistling! (I gave Cocoa a shower earlier and gave her a wing trim and a nail trim. I think all that activity - and being that it was rather sunny outside - made her feel more happy and comfortable during the next few movie clips...) This was actually a 6 minute continuous conversation session going on with my husband and Cocoa. I had to split it up for size considerations. Enjoy!

2008-02-26T08:24:00.000-08:00

Cocoa Singing...

2008-02-24T12:39:00.000-08:00

Introducing Cocoa

2008-02-24T12:26:00.001-08:00

Hello, this is Cocoa's first blog. We are her long-term foster home until time of adoption. She arrived early afternoon on the 16th of February. Cocoa is a beautiful yellow-naped amazon. We think she is female, but without proof of a DNA-test, we cannot be sure.

She is unlike other birds in the fact that she hasn't eaten much nuts and eggs (which is normally birdie junk food). She does love her zupreem fruit blend pellets, cooked beans, pieces of wheat bread (especially if there is pureed mango on them) and birdie bread that I make myself.

She does need a nail trim (and possibly wing trims) which we will do today after her shower.

We do think she is an older bird because of the state of her feathers, but beautiful nonetheless. (or maybe she just needs a good shower!)

After her first week with us, she has showed us that she is a bit hesitant (as to be expected), she is very careful about taking food from our fingers (both my husband and myself), she loves to be in the company of people (whether it is one-on-one attention or just ambient attention). And she is a talker. We have heard her say "hi", "hello", "pretty bird", "okay, good-bye", "whatcha doing, huh?" "bye, bye", "okay", "what's up", "huh" and some other mumblings that we have not been able to decipher yet. And she does use most of her words in correct settings when she talks to us sometimes. its uncanny! she also laughs and makes sounds similar to dripping water (mostly when its time to eat fresh food).

we haven't asked her to step up on to our arms yet, although she does well stepping up onto a stick. we just don't want to pressure her to much, especially just getting here a week ago. honeymoon period usually lasts 2 weeks, so I am interested in seeing her true colors come out. so far she has not shown too much favortism between my husband or myself.

Cocoa is currently in quarantine, away from our other birds, but she has had great conversations with the other amazons next door. 5 more weeks of quarantine, Cocoa! Then you can physically be with them.