Note: If you prefer video blogs, just watch the video. If you like to read and see pictures, that’s what the text and photos are here for. Your choice on how you receive this blog post’s information!

Here in New York, I’ve had a really hard time getting around without it taking all day… and there’s a Petco super close to us that is convenient but has a terrible selection.

So on my last trip there for the summer, I decided to get a little creative. I remembered my friend Patty (who also blogs here) said something about how she almost bought some small animal toys for her birds because the selection was so bad at a store she went to. I thought about this hard, and decided to go look at the selection for animals like rabbits, ferrets, guinea pigs and other small creatures.

To my surprise, I found some things that would work for my birds as well! And I happily got them. I wanted to share them with you, so that if you’re in the same situation as me, your birds can go on enjoying new and exciting toys nonetheless!

The first toys I found were the ones pictured above, they have one walnut in the center of each of them. Perfectly fine for birds.

Other things I found were mats like this one where the birds can use it as a preening toy, and just more or less take it apart like Cash, our military macaw, is starting to do in this picture.

The one that most excited me though, was the organic (USDA certified) wheat grass in the stores that was already grown and freshly green! I’ve gotten bird ones before, and posted videos of which, but this one was for cats. I read and looked closer, and it was labeled good for birds and other small animals as well and isn’t treated with anything at all. I was so excited I bought one for each of my smaller birds who dug right in.

Check out the video at the top of this post to see more toys I found that work as bird toys!

While we’re in Coney Island, New York for the summer (until September 6th) we are having an “Animal Open House” an hour and a half before the show begins. This is a half hour before the All Access Preshow starts, so there’s plenty of time to catch the action of both!

The Animal Open House showcases the animal compound where the animals (and their trainers) live, work and play. This one features our four beautiful horses, three stunning Asian elephants, seven extraordinary lions and our eight exotic parrots. If you come right on time, you will get to see all eight of our parrots… if you’re a bit late, you will probably miss any “show birds” that end up getting moved backstage so they’re ready for showtime. But there’s still plenty outside to see!

Here are the birds you have the chance to meet at our Animal Open House…

Jinx “Blue Throated Macaw”

Jinx is our 3 year old blue throated macaw. Blue throats come from Boliva and are extremely endangered in the wild with only between 150-300 left. However, in captivity they are a thriving species. Often I will be walking around with Jinx, and you can sometimes catch him for a bit in the All Access Preshow where you have the chance to hold him and get your picture taken. He also makes an appearance and flight in the main show of Illuscination.

Comet “Camelot Macaw”

Comet is a yellow/gold dominant Camelot Macaw (two part Scarlet Macaw, one part Blue and Gold). Hybrids like this are not normally found in the wild, Comet was bred in a freeflight facility in Florida by Mirror Lake Exotics where the birds there are free to choose their mates and fly freely outdoors.

He proudly opens the show of Illuscination by appearing with the Illuscinator and flying to me in the very beginning during the great line of, “The Greatest Show on Earth!” you may also notice him with his brother (below) during the finale.

Tusa “Camelot Macaw”

Tusa is Comet’s younger brother by about 3 days, they are from the same clutch and each baby (there were 3) came out with different dominant coloring. Tusa inhibits more blues and greens, while Comet is gold and yellow and their other brother is dominant red.

Tusa does a beautiful lighted flight in the finale of Illuscination to his brother, Comet. He flies over the performers in the ring and lands on Dave’s hand on the ring curb.

Cash “Military Macaw”

Cash was in our show in Saipan, Mariana Islands but is a back up for Illuscination, not currently in the show. However, he will be out every day for the open house for you to enjoy and talk to! Let him show off some of his words and phrases he learned from living with Tiko, his blue and gold macaw friend.

Bandit, Bondi & Ace “Galahs”

We have three galahs/rose breasted cockatoos that you will see in the Animal Open House. They’re very playful and talkative and they love to show off for the crowds so be sure not to miss them!

Keep your ears open to hear them say phrases like, “Come here”, “Thank you”, “I love you”, “Hey Cutie!” and more.

Cressi “Congo African Grey”

Cressi is the “Where’s Waldo?” part of the Animal Open House. Normally the kids point out there’s a “grey one in there” and the parents say, “No, no, they’re all pink…” but there is actually an all grey one in there with those crazy pink ones! It’s Cressi, and she and Bondi are the best of friends. Cressi likes to make whistling noises she learns from you visiting and kissing noises. But most of the time you will find her upside down yelling about how great life is.

So hopefully you come out and enjoy meeting our flock of feathered friends, as they LOVE meeting new people and showing off for the cameras (so bring yours!)

Check out the show schedule for more information on when you can come see the Animal Open House featuring our parrots.

Interested in freeflight and recall training for your parrot? I know there’s always interest sparked when we show photos of us flying our birds outside and make videos of how much fun we’re having doing so.

If you want to learn more about recall training and freeflight training for outdoors with your parrot, here are some links you can explore…

1. Freeflight parrot photos. Join us on Flickr where we continue to keep our photostream updated with the newest photos of our flock. We even have an entire set dedicated to our freestyle flyers.
2. Freeflight training webisodes and videos. Check us out on YouTube where we constantly put up new freeflight videos and webisodes of the places we’re flying and who we’re flying with. You can watch the newest freestyle flyer students in action!
3. Our most used training technique. A small website on Random Rewarding, what we use with our flock.
4. Freeflight blog articles. Read a bit about what we do on our freeflight trips and how you can get started.
5. Sign up for the Freestyle Flyer’s Club and teach your bird outdoor freeflight recall today! Contact us and let us know that you’re interested and we’ll sign you up and personally coach you how to train your bird to enjoy life as a Freestyle Flyer!

We’ve been keeping “travel diaries” for ABC while on the road with the circus and our flock. We made a fun pit stop in Waynesboro, VA to freefly our birds outside with some friends who took the Freestyle Flyer’s Club Course with Dave and I. We had a great time and of course while we were there, I got to say hello to my favorite buddy Storm the blue fronted Amazon parrot.

And I decided to do a travel diary with him in it, but of course, he always has to do ALL the talking…

This new 5×8 aviary makes our… 9th Cages by Design cage we own, I believe? I’m starting to lose count, that’s for sure! We recently got this cage mainly for our smaller parrots; the cockatoos and grey. The bar spacing is more ideal and we love the look of the powder coating too. It’s just a classier looking cage which is a huge thing I love about CBD’s cages.

We are actually traveling with this aviary and setting it up and tearing it down at every location which for us, is weekly.

We found that we can keep the shorter sides of the aviary kept together during travel, making it faster to set up at every location. I also bought medium sized bird toys for it to leave more space for the birds to play, and to add less weight on the cage itself when the items are hung.

Although it was meant for the smaller birds, we keep the macaws in there sometimes too. And though it’s a bit tight for all 4 and 2 is a lot more preferable, they got along fine in there and seem to be able to make it work! The key is that they all get along

Here is our military macaw enjoying his swing inside this 5×8 aviary…

So if you’re looking for an aviary to travel with and have the space for this one, it works well for traveling. We literally just leave two sides together, as well as the door on and it takes about 20 minutes for 2-3 people to set up. We use a ladder to get the roof on and wah-lah!

To order your cage from Cages by Design, check out their website or request a free catalog.

Q:  My severe macaw won’t touch fresh fruit.  Can I give him dried fruit?

Lonia G.,   Boston, MA

A:  Dried fruits have a lot of advantages.  It lasts a long time, it is an easy snack if you are traveling and because there are no bacteria harboring juices, it works great in foraging toys and stays fresh in the cage all day. There are, however, some things you should be aware of.
When fruits are dehydrated, the process shrinks them to a fraction of their original size.  The concentration of sugar becomes very high and because they have less bulk and no water, more can be consumed leading to a very high sugar and calorie intake.
Dehydration will cause many of the fruit’s nutrients to be lost.  Vitamin C, for example, deteriorates in heat and is all but lost in the drying process.  Berries tend to lose a great deal of their nutrition.  Dried fruits do, however, maintain their fiber and iron content and many of their antioxidants.  In that regard, they are a healthy snack.
When you go to purchase dried fruits, be certain to buy only the products that state that sulfer dioxide is NOT used as a preservative. Sulfer dioxide is known to cause asthma-like symptoms in humans. Also avoid sweeteners. Often dried cranberries are sweetened because of their tartness. Be wary of packaging that target kids for that reason.
Most birds love dried fruits, and they are a perfectly safe and delicious snack when served in moderation.  But they do not offer the same benefits as fresh fruits.

Note: This blog post was written by blogger Patty but published by Jamieleigh due to technical blog difficulties.