u/lisa-ookami

He is surprisingly hard to detach from the crochet hook.

(Also, I don't love posting my face, but I couldn't film it otherwise)

My pitcher (lovingly named gregory) has been doing well lately. He made 2 pitchers for the first time in two years and now is making 2 more. I went to water him today and saw this mystery green thing. Now I'm wondering if Greg has a new roommate or if he decided to procreate lol

And he got some friends, because it's too hard to order soil on a specialized carnivorous plant website and not add some to the cart. Also Greg has 4 pitchers now, incredible!

I've been helicopter parenting this sweet boy. Every single jitter or little sound has me on edge. I'm a first-time bird owner after al, and I've got a lot to learn. He has seemed a bit off since I got him, but never enough to be too alarmed.

Compared to my other boy, his fluff looks a bit rougher, he breathes a bit faster, and his tail seems more jittery? No tail bobbing or anything, just little shaky movements. Not insync with his breathing either.

Just enough plausible deniabily to chalk it up to personality or individual differences. However yesterday I think he might have wheezed? It was a split second sound and I can't get him to replicate it but I'm so stressed about it.

He eats very well, has stable weight, flies a lot, has no problem being a little menace, good poops too. I wanted to make an appointment for the vet (a general checkup wouldn't hurt anyways), but my local bird friendly vet apparently doesn't do birds any longer... I'm looking for a new one

(It's evening in the video and he's beakgrinding. That's probably why he's fluffed. He just looks so.. not smooth. My other boy is fluffy, round and soft looking)

I couldn't leave it, it reminded me of a silver plate but I'm not sure. The pictures online look much lighter and more silver. She was €25 and I have no idea if that's a fair price. But I've wanted a Calathea for a while now, so I took it.

I am super intimidated by the care for these plants. I carefully cut some damaged leaves, gave if a bit of demiwater, and sprayed it too(with demi as well).

I'll have to see if that spot is too bright. It's a frosted window facing northwest, so it might be oké.

So I've finally got them to eat pellets. Hooray, every reason to celebrate, right?

The seller only fed them seeds and more variations on seeds. He swore up and down that pellets were invented to sell you more supplies and wouldn't actually improve your birds quality of life. I disagree. I immediately started to introduce them to veggies and some fruits. I knew it would be easier to convert them if I could put pellet powder into their chop.

Now, quite some time and effort later they finally showed interest in eating the pellets (tops mini pellets). I just added pellets into their respective cages. Some in a bowl, some in toys and some in the bowl of seeds. My goal at the moment is to get them to eat about 5 gr of pellets and 1-2 grams of seeds for foraging when I'm at work. Seems doable.

I was slowly removing seeds from the bowl and kept about 10 grams of pellets in the cage for them to eat. They'd eat the seeds and pulverize the pellets, then act starving. Stealing food from each others cages and eating everything they'd get their beaks on.

So I worried that they weren't actually eating the pellets, just playing with them. So I started worrying they were underfed. NOPE, apparently they eat EVERYTHING! Both of them gained weight. Mellow (white) went from a stable 34 gr to 35 and Mars (blue) went from 32 gr to an astounding 34 grams.

I feel stupid for asking because the awnser is quite obvious, but im a bit in disbelief of the situatuin. Do I start reducing food even though they seem constantly hungry? (They weren't like this before).What can I do to help them feel more full. I don't want them to gain more. They barely get any snacks as it is. Just one sunflower seed a day and half a nutriberrie each, calculated into the seeds amount.

He doesn't look too comfy, but I'm proud of how far we've come. He wouldn't be near me, however, if it wasn't for the fact that his little brother is sleeping in my hair.

It's been a while since I just posted some cute or random pics.

The weather has me stressed af. Parrotlets (according to some websites) aren't as tropical as I thought they would be. However, they seem to be coping much better than I am, haha.

Could I put a little frozen strawberry in their cages? I've read much conflicting info on frozen treats.

(Also, as indicated in pics, I rarely get any gaming done. Mars owns al my stuff, including my hands)

He just hangs out on that side of the cage, cleaning his feet for extended periods of time. Sometimes, he plays with that toy that's on the outside. And not just in that spot under the flatperch, just on that side of the cage.

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It's not like his cage is too small, he has just been out for a few hours (I need to leave, so back in the cage they go). Maybe his cage interior needs tweeking?

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Or is he just being a parrotlet and I'm worried over nothing?

My baby boy 🥹

He loves taking those thumb grips off and throwing them on the ground. Uuhm, did he just try to put them back on? He did this consistently and after a while he just gave up. Tbf those caps are a pain to put on.

I might have to start thinking of ways to challenge my boys more. But him forming a thought is terrifying to me lol. It's like a toddler finally gaining conscience. So, any suggestions of activities are appreciated. (He knows a few very very basic tricks already)

I've had this plant for years, I've named it Gregory. It was doing amazingly for the first few years. My student room was basically an oven, great for my plants and horrible for me. This one always had beautiful pitchers as long as I lived there. Then I moved and the plant didn't get pitchers anymore. I figured my new apartment simply doesn't get enough light. However for the last 2 years it did look nice, very green and grew exponentially.

Then it started looking absolutely horrible like in the picture. Maybe the last 3 weeks? At first I wasn't worried, leaves die of sometimes. But this is getting worse. It did grow a pitcher out of nowhere, for the first time in 2 years (even a second pitcher i just noticed).

What can I do? I don't want to give up on Greg

I was so worried about Mars barbering. He seems to have grown out of it at least a little. He looks so much better!

I hope it'll stay this way. In the picture on the right he still had to go through his very first adult molt.

Are there still signs of barbering? I'm always looking out for those, just in case.

Sorry, the pics are quite blurry. I needed to be fast but not scare him off somehow.

He's never stepped up or interacted with me in this way. I cannot touch or relocate him, but he will eat and drink from my hand or lightly chew in my fingers.

I don't know what came over him.

He tried landing on me so many times in the last few evenings, but would give up and put himself to bed.

Mars sleeps in that blanket, and at one point, Mellow stood on top of him by accident lol.

He also seemed quite confused about what he was doing here. However, he waddled around for a bit and investigated my face from close by. He didn't seem scared at all! (I think)

Mellow my boy, now you have no more excuses to avoid training with me. You shall learn to step up

He looks like Mars owns him money.