Jasmine's Story

Jasmine is an african grey parrot. She lived with us for 18 months. We met her in the pet section of a garden center, where she had been for over 6 months. My husband was looking for pots for his cacti. We ended up going to the garden center several times over a time period of about a month. While Tony was looking for pots I wandered into the pet section and saw Jazzy. Every time we went to the center I went to say hello to her and we ended up friends. She loved having her head scratched and whistled after me if I walked away from her cage. It didn’t take long before I couldn’t stop thinking about her, and of course the inevitable happened: we invited her to live with us.

She was scared of almost everything when she first came to live with us. She scratched all the time behind her neck and her feathers were very sparse in that region. She didn’t want any hand contact and absolutely didn’t want to come out of her cage. Gradually over the next weeks, by giving her loads of attention and treating her with a lot of respect, she relaxed. She turned out to be a very brave, incredibly sweet and extremely adventurous, outgoing character with tremendous intelligence.

Living with Jasmine was a real privilege. She taught us much more the meaning of respect and the art of communication. But most of all she showed us how to live each moment for itself, enjoying life to the full (and banana) and how to give a great deal of love. You can read about her antics and adventures in the posts shown below.

Jazzy continued to scratch behind her neck, but she improved greatly during the first 6 months or so that she lived with us. She gained weight, her feathers turned glossy, she became well-muscled from flying around the house, the pink colors in her tummy feathers became brighter and the red in her tail became brilliant.

We lived in an apartment and circumstances around us changed over time. Laundry detergents and fabric softeners have become increasingly perfumed, more antibacterial products are being used everywhere and in higher concentrations. Our apartment shared airflow with at least 8-15 other apartments, and these cleaning products became mixed creating even further toxic substances. Birds are much more sensitive to perfumes, cleaning agents and pollution.

Jazzy was already very compromised when we got her from the garden center, where they admitted using very strong chemicals to clean the other animal’s living quarters. She was placed close to very strong insecticides that were displayed for sale and many of the visitors to the center wear strong perfumes.

When the air quality in our apartment noticeably became worse, Jasmine started to scratch much more frequently. We bought 5 large air filters and a smaller more portable one that could be lifted off the ground. Jasmine improved dramatically when we got these.

During the summer, the problem became even worse as fumes came out of other people’s apartment windows and directly into our apartment. The shared hallway stairs were cleaned three times a week with highly concentrated perfumed antibacterial detergent; the stairwell had no proper ventilation because the windows were kept closed. We wanted to move, but were financially committed to staying where we were at the time.

Jazzy and I spent the entire summer up in the Jura foothills. She had a backpack cage and we walked miles and miles last summer so that she would get fresh air as much as possible. As the summer progressed, Jazzy grew worse and worse with scratching, until finally she started to pull out feathers and then eventually create sores on her skin with scratching.

We did all sorts of things to try to help Jasmine. She was taking medication during the last part of summer to help with the irritation. She had a full check-up and blood work and the results showed her to be a very healthy, fit young girl. The vet was quite clear that she was allergic to perfumes and cleaning agents.

We finally managed to find a place that would provide a better environment and we moved in during the last few days of September 2008. By this time it was practically impossible to distract from her scratching and picking, and the only relief we could give her was in the shower. Her skin was raw and extremely sore. She was in a lot of pain and her misery during the last couple of days she was alive prevented her from enjoying life.

It’s a very long rehabilitation for a bird who has picked its feathers and skin to that extent. The standard practice is to give the bird medicine and put a neck collar on so that the bird can’t pick. This is like putting a human in a straight jacket. And if the skin still itches, the torment would remain, even if the bird couldn’t reach those places to scratch. This discomfort would be reasonable in order to get past the feather picking, but unless the source of the problem could also be removed the scratching and feather pulling would simply resume.

Our new residence is a huge improvement in air quality from where we were, but we still connect to other living spaces in a converted farmhouse. There is a laundry room in the basement with washing machines and a dryer. The dryer releases incredibly strong fumes of fabric softener and perfumes from the laundry detergent; unfortunately these come up through our shared vents and our front door opens into a set of outdoor stairs that lead down to the laundry room. As it turns out we couldn’t have provided Jazzy with a safe living space even here.

We considered giving her to someone else, but we don’t know anyone who doesn’t use perfumes and standard cleaning agents. We tried to arrange for her to go to the United States to a friend who we knew would take care of her, but she didn’t have the correct CITES papers, and the U.S. is not accepting birds from our area of France because of the implications of bird flu. Even if we could have arranged a room in isolation with a good environment for Jazzy with someone else - well, Jazzy was all about interaction, that was life to her. She loved people and she loved being with them. To isolate her would have been cruel.

Enjoying life was what Jazzy was all about, and we couldn’t bear to watch her suffer. When she deteriorated so much that it was clear she was suffering more than she was enjoying, we decided to let her go free. It hurt, and still hurts, more than anything else in life has ever hurt, but now she flies free.

She’s still a very important part of our lives; we talk about her every day, she’s part of our banter, we’re always including snippets of things the way she said them. She still makes us laugh and smile.

I tell her story here so that those who have parrots can perhaps be more aware of possible causes if their parrot displays scratching, feather picking or even loud irritable behavior. Birds are smaller, and therefore much more sensitive than we are to these things, but we too are affected by them, and it’s worth assessing what products are routinely used in the home and the effects they may have on ourselves and those we love.

Jasmine would have been three years old in November. She passed away on October 3rd, 2008. Her life was packed with fun and joy, though she should have lived to be somewhere between 60 to a 100 years old.

She spread a lot of joy to those she met, and she met loads of people during her short life. I hope that her story can be told as much as possible so that it may spread more goodness in a world that really needs it.

Jasmine was, and still is, mascot to DweezelJazz Art.

All the articles about Jazzy and her fun times are accessible by scrolling down this page. The article titles are also shown in the list below, so if you want to look at one of them in particular, click on the article name to go right to it.

1. Experimentation
2. DIY Bird
3. Jasmine Hamming Around
4. Jasmine Plays Football
5. Jasmine On Her Play Station
6. Jasmine Loves To Fly
7. Jasmine and What She Does In Her Cage Part I
8. Jasmine and What She Does In Her Cage Part II
9. Jasmine’s Silver Bowl and Other Toys
10. Jasmine Goes To The Market
11. Jasmine’s Daily Grooming
12. Jasmine Goes Backpacking
13. Jasmine Goes Out For A Drink
14. Do What You Like To Achieve Success
    
15. Jasmine and What’s A Cage Door For?
16. Jasmine Loves Attention
17. Jasmine’s Model Pose
18. Sugar Cube Cartoon
19. Jasmine Silliness
20. Jasmine’s Musical Chairs
21. Jasmine Goes To Market In Her Winter Travel Cage
22. Jasmine and Her Tousle With Poor Air Quality
23. Jasmine’s Fancy Footwork
24. Jasmine Sees Snow
25. Jasmine Takes A Bath
26. Sugar Cube Art
27. Rain Rain Rain and More Rain in the Pays de Gex, France
28. Jasmine Asks To Go For A Walk and To Take A Shower
29. An Evening Walk At La Col de la Faucille, Jura, France
30. Jasmine and Her Continuing Tousle With Air Quality
31. Jasmine Chomping Veggies in the Kitchen
32. Portrait of a Horse in Egg Tempera
    
33. Our Sweet Jasmine
34. Song For Jasmine
35. Fly Free, Jazzy!

If you prefer to see all of the above posts on the same page, click the following link. The articles appear on the page in reverse time order, as is usual for blogs:

All of Jasmine's Adventures (ie. all of the above posts displayed on one page in reverse order)

Song for Jasmine

On Friday October 3rd at 16:40 CEST, our little Jasmine left her suffering behind. Although her body has gone, she has not left our lives, so I will not speak of her in the past tense.

Jasmine is our African Grey, 'Psittacus Erithacus' to give her latin name. Jasmine doesn't speak latin, she speaks French and English. Her names, to her, are Jasmine, Jazzy-roo, and Jazzy-rooster-roo. Somehow her name just kept getting longer when we called to her, but she knows them all.

Shannon, of Chippers Alley, has already penned a beautiful tribute to Jasmine. Thank you Shannon, we couldn't have put it better. Jasmine loves Shannon as much as she loves us, and always looked forward to her visits. Between visits, Jasmine enjoys talking to Shannon on the phone, and calls to her by name.

Jasmine calls 'Snuggles' (a.k.a. Dweezeljazz) by name too, often just for the fun of laughing when she gets her reply. The only other person she calls by name is me, but she thinks my name is 'hell-OOO-ooo!'. It can be difficult to get my attention when I'm engrossed in something, you often need to shout. Jasmine also knows that when Dweezeljazz calls for 'Snoopers!', the correct response is 'uh-huh?'. Oh well, that about sums me up.

Shannon and Nat both have a lot of experience at handling birds, so Jasmine enjoys playing 'gotchas' and receiving headrubs from them. She also loves having her tummy tickled, as you can see.

I haven't got the hang of that, but I have learned to sing to her. I have lots of little songs for all occasions. They're all silly and stupid, and the words change from time to time because I forget them, but for all my off-key efforts, Jasmine loves them.

I have a little song for the morning, to let her know that it's time to wake up, so she won't be startled when I lift the covers from her night-cage.

I have a song for when we play 'flicksies' in the shower, when I flick water over her while she leans down from the shower-curtain rail to catch the drops.

Then there's the 'hupsy-daisy' song for the end of the shower, when she hops over the shower-curtain rings as I draw it back to step out. She has to hop over the rings before I finish the song, and she always wins.

Another special song is 'birdie-birdie bed-time', when we tuck her in to sleep at night. She always gives us a good-night kiss after that one.

The liveliest of all, however, has to be 'it's the wEEkend!'. She often dances to that one, and always gets very excited.

At other times, any excuse will do to make up a song. In her cage, on her playstation, on my knee, or in a cafe in town, she's a willing listener. Provided it isn't too long, vaguely rhymes, and has her names in it somewhere, she loves it. With that many names to choose from, it's not difficult to come up with something.

I'm still singing to her now, and I always will. She put those songs in my heart and that's where they belong. Thank you, Jazzy-roo.

Our Sweet Jasmine

It has been one week now. Our little Jasmine was beginning to suffer too much and we had to let her go. My friend Shannon knew Jasmine well and she has written a beautiful tribute to Jasmine in a way that I cannot find words to do. If you have time please read Shannon's tribute: Fly Free, Jazzy!.

We were unable to provide a clean enough air environment - it was filled with home cleaning products entering our air space from neighboring apartments. She was a healthy, robust girl - but she couldn't breathe the contaminated air we're making around us. I'm angry, I'm sad, I could rant about how stupid we human beings are. But at the same time, I feel sorry for all the pain and sorrow that will come to us from our lack of awareness. Most of all, it's the hollow of grief left from the loss of a very loving being who is no longer physically in our midst - and for a very pointless reason.

Jasmine was a vibrant, fun-loving little girl. She had her own mind and knew what she liked and she went at life wholeheartedly, enjoying every moment of it. She spread joy and love to just about everyone she met, and meeting people was the absolute highlight of her life (along with banana, of course).

We went to the market last Saturday and she was missed. A little boy in the cafe came running up looking to say hello to her; her friends at the roast chicken stall always enjoyed seeing her each week...

She would always listen and look up adoringly as Tony spoke to her, absorbing each word he said.

She joined in on any activity...
and helped things along in whatever way she thought would be fun...
and she loved to play.
She asked to go out: for a walk or to go shopping. Every time we would go to the bio store for our weekly shopping, if we occasionally had to leave Jazzy at home, everyone would ask where she was. We haven't gone this week...we'd rather make do with the food we have left this week than face feeling the pain of not having her with us there.

She loved loafing around on her playstation, being silly, having fun, playing......watching to see what new toy configurations we would think up for her to play with next.She loved being mischievous to get our attention, that's what she wanted most, our attention to play and have fun.
She always had loads of fun when we were out, and so did we. And she was ever eager to try new things.



She made us laugh so easily, and so often - she spread her joy, that was what she did best.





Enthusiasm is also a good word to describe Jazzy. Zest for life.

And of course, beauty.
Jasmine would have turned three at the beginning of this November, in just a couple of weeks' time. She already had a huge vocabulary. I've been writing down all the things she said. She made up her own sentences and they made sense. She spoke her own mind, she didn't just copy or imitate, though she did enjoy doing that too, in its place. She had a personality plus.

We miss her, always there, always full of cheer. And when we think of her now, we try to hold that cheer and love and joy that she gave us. Hopefully time will help us with our feelings of loss.

As she said herself: "Beautiful Jasmine!"

Portrait of a Horse In Egg Tempera

On our many walks this summer Jasmine (our African Grey parrot) and I met a very nice horse. At the beginning of summer she was out in a field close to the road and that's when we met. I took a photo and it resulted in this 12 x 16 " portrait egg tempera painting.
During the heat of the summer the horse literally had a house all to herself so far as I could tell. In this photo she's standing in the doorway, but could retreat inside to stay cool and away from the flies. Jazzy and I would call and whistle from the road just to say hello as we walked by.A couple of weeks ago, when it got cooler, our friend was back out in the field near the road. She rushed over to say hello and be petted. It was so nice finally to be able to say hello properly. And of course, another photo session was in order.
Even Jazzy liked her and was saying hello and chatting. When the horse turned away for a moment Jazzy did her hawk call imperso- nation (for the first time outdoors). Hearing this, the horse jerked up her head and looked round, not suspecting that it could be that little prankster Jasmine.

She's absolutely beautiful, and huge!
But even though the horse towers over me, she's extremely gentle and very sweet. This delicacy and sweetness is so striking that I think of her as 'Daisy'.

Jasmine Chomping Vegies In The Kitchen

The weekend before last Jasmine decided to help herself to the cucumber that was sitting on the counter. She often gets cucumber in her 'vegie bowl' in her cage and she likes it very much. But she decided she'd like to chomp right into the whole thing.
So then we gave her a large piece of fennel to chew on. She likes fennel very much too and so this was great fun for her.
















I took a number of shots to show Jazzy holding the fennel in her hand, but every time I took the photo she had put it down again.








The photos that came out look almost like Jazzy's having a yoga stretching session or something.


















Here she is holding the fennel up.


And now she looks like she's waiting for a bus, just leaning over, but as you can see she has fennel in her beak.
Jazzy also loves carrot, she especially likes cooked carrot that's still slightly crisp to the bite. This however, is raw carrot, which she also gets regularly in her vegie bowl.
And now, well, who knows what she was up to... perhaps she was thinking: 'Anyone fancy some chips?' (This is a famous line in our family. It's from the movie "Calendar Girls" - one of the girls during an exercising stretching session says this in perfect timing and everyone immediately abandons the stretching to go get some chips. If you haven't seen this movie I thoroughly recommend it for a really good laugh and good time - based on a true story.)
Oh yes, Jazzy does watch movies and she has seen this one!

Jasmine and Her Continuing Tousle With Air Quality

I'm spending much of many of my days up our local mountains carrying Jasmine, our African Grey parrot, in her backpack travel cage. As the temperature increases here during the summer, the air quality in the local environment of our apartment and its surrounds continues to worsen.When we got Jazzy at the local pet store she already frequently scratched herself around her neck, resulting in patches where feathers were removed by her scratching. She improved enormously when she first came to live with us. Since then we moved to another apartment and our environment has become increasingly filled with strongly perfumed cleaning agents, laundry detergents, fabric softeners, aerosol spray products, insecticides, cosmetics and perfumes that are universally used. We're unable to keep these out of our apartment and even the apartment block grounds smell strongly of a mixture of the many products emanating from people's apartments.

When at home: my eyes sting, skin itches, it's hard to breathe, and many other things too boring to list here. I watch myself losing a battle to keep ahead of these symptoms. I watch my husband developing increasing 'allergy' symptoms when he's around strongly scented products. Almost everyone we meet claims they have, or someone in their family has, allergies, asthma, headaches, rashes. But most heart-wrenching of all, I watch our little Jasmine, scratching, and since some weeks now, actually pulling out her feathers.

When we got Jasmine I had no idea that we would encounter such problems with her, especially since, due to chemical injury as a child, I'm unable to use strong chemical agents and so we have none used or directly present in our home. It turns out that she has become the 'canary' in our apartment 'coal mine'.
She still sings, chats, laughs, plays and is happy, but her skin is irritated. When I take her out to the fresh air in the mountains all this scratching and fussing stops. But if we meet someone who smells of fabric softener in their clothes, or who is wearing perfume, or uses strongly scented cosmetics, she immediately starts scratching furiously.

We're unable to move from where we live right now. We've bought more large, powerful air filters designed to remove chemicals from the air. They certainly help, and without them Jasmine cries, screeches in discomfort, and becomes worse with the scratching and even becomes lethargic. Around the apartment, where Jasmine goes, there go the filters with her. In March we added a second air filter and we have both filters running continuously in whatever room Jasmine is in. Last week we added two more and this week we'll be receiving another one.

These air filters are helping but unfortunately they're not able to deal with the concentrations that are coming into our living space. It seems that with each passing month stronger concentrations and larger amounts are being used. Floor polish is used on the apartment block hallway floors two to three times a week. There is no ventilation in the stairwells and so this brings fumes from the polish into our home for many hours. The concentration of fabric softeners and scent used in laundry products makes the laundry drying on people's balconies incredibly strong. These two factors alone have a big effect on Jasmine.

If I knew someone who could take care of Jasmine in a relatively toxin-free environment I would gladly give her to them in order to keep her well and safe. I've discovered that the papers we were given when we bought her do not correspond to her identity given on her leg band, so we don't have her papers of origin. We're currently looking into this, but without papers of origin it's not possible to take an African Grey out of the country, which means I can't send her to someone I know who could take care of her in a good environment.

Even when Jazzy is uncomfortable she sings and gives kisses and lots of love and is a very good sport. When she complains by being noisy, if I can change something to improve the air conditions she invariably stops making noise and resumes playing normally very soon after.

Birds always try instinctively to show a good face even if they don't feel well because a flock will shun a bird that is unwell. This is why a bird can appear well and then seemingly all of a sudden become very unwell and even die.

It's devastating to witness the havoc we're creating on our planet. My own suffering or that of other humans is so much easier to accept: we're creating it after all, and what we get to some extent, just by being a part of society, we are a part of reaping in some way. But innocent creatures such as birds, frogs, bees, fish, turtles,.... They suffer more than we do (at least so far), without having contributed to this destruction.
















Living, watching this incredibly beautiful, vital and brave creature who lives with us, pull out one feather after another in irritated distress, slipping slowly, but gradually each day, as a result of our ignorant actions is enough to break a heart.

So I continue to take Jazzy to spend as much of our days in fresh air as I can manage until we're able to move somewhere more independent of others' personal use of the myriad products available today.

This means that I have much less energy and time available to write blog posts and to paint. There are still many beautiful sights and lovely days and moments in our lives. But I sure hope that we all in society can find a way to live that allows human kind and the earth to thrive into the future.

Thank you to everyone who takes the time to read this blog. It's very rewarding and is a fun experience thanks to you. Please forgive the more emotional nature of this post; I've tried hard in the past to present data uncluttered by personal emotion in previous posts about toxic chemicals in our society. But the heartache of watching a beloved and innocent parrot suffer, pushes me to plead with anyone who can relate to what we're doing to ourselves and our loved ones.
We're playing with a very dangerous path into the future, and if individuals do not educate themselves and wake up to these dangers soon, we will be driven by a consumer capitalist economy to destruction, taking all that we value down with us. It's a huge problem, one bigger than I can possibly understand and one which I know that I'm equally a part of the problem.

But one thing is for sure: if we could each, as individuals, stop buying these products that are creating these toxic effects it would slow down their use and their production and this would at least be a start to helping improve our and our planet's future.

An Evening Walk At Le Col De La Faucille, Jura, France

It has been very hot this last week so we drove up the Jura mountains yesterday evening and went for a walk at Le Col De La Faucille. It was amazingly fresh and cool. There was a pleasant breeze.




The trees are tall here and smell strongly of pine resin.











Looking out over the valleys toward the West huge stretches of sky can be seen. (As usual, click on photos to enlarge.)





At the edge of the path is an incredibly steep drop all the way to the bottom of the first valley.





We saw a very odd tree stump...



...that looked like something had melted it into some sort of wax figure or piece of coral.


There were flowers everywhere, even the dandelions had only just gone to seed up here.





There were lots of wild roses.






There were yellow, white, and lots of purple flowers.


Among the vegetation there is often a huge boulder or two here and there.








The rock formations on the Jura are very interesting.












The rock looks squished together from lots of smaller rocks and there are fissures all throughout. The color is exquisite, mixing blues and greys with reds and rusts.




We walked further along the mountain for nearly an hour when we realized it was getting rather late and we did have to walk back! The sunset was gorgeous.



The light reflecting from the tree trunks glowed pink red.


















As we walked back at a quick pace to avoid being eaten by all the insects that were gathering. I guess we looked like a great feast, and whenever we stopped we were instantly surrounded.Yes, Jazzy did come along, though she was most surprised at our late departure from home for such an outing. She's usually in bed at about this time. Here she is, with one of the flaps on her backpack cage down to keep her protected from the breeze as the sun receded.


The sky grew luminous after the sun had set.










The light reflected off a long expanse of cloud further north up the same valley.










Looking North towards the Geneva valley side of the Jura there was a huge set of clouds building up to storm proportions. During the drive back down we saw lightning flashes from this foaming mass.






As we came to the end of our walk and arrived back at our starting point, Jazzy was sleepy. You might be able to detect her phasing in and out here, it even showed up on the camera!One last glimpse back before driving back down to the other side of the Jura. We arrived home, refreshed, contented and well exercised.

Jasmine Asks To Go For A Walk And To Take A Shower

Yesterday afternoon I came home to a bird, Jasmine of course, who asked to go for a walk. Jazzy said: "We're going for a walk", and she repeated this insistently. I had intended to take her for a walk that morning, but unexpectedly I had to go into town instead. It was rather late in the day, and laziness almost got the better of me, especially since it looked like it was going to rain. But Jazzy kept saying, "Do you want to go for a walk?", "We're going for a walk", "I'm going to go for a walk" until finally I knew we had to go or Jazzy would bust.

As soon as I went out of the room and came back into the living room with her travel cage and I said to her, "Ok, we'll go for a walk" Jazzy immediately replied: "Thank you!" Well! What could I say? Sometimes she blows me away with her appropriate conversation, so I said, "You're welcome." She was so excited and happy once I'd agreed.

As soon as we got outside it did start to rain. But we were going for a walk no matter what; and we kept going. Jazzy was happily saying, "We're going for a walk." While we were out we even had lightning and thunder, but this didn't phase Jazzy at all. We sat on a rock under a tree while Jazzy contentedly munched on banana and apple. She had also mentioned "some apple" before we went out - so it was clear what that meant!

When we got back home, Jasmine then said: "Do you want to go for a shower?" "I'm going to take a shower." It might be hard to believe, but she was actually asking to have a shower. She always takes a shower in the morning - this has been routine for quite some time. But recently Tony has been taking a shower when he gets back from work in the evening, and Jazzy has been accompanying him. This has evolved into her wanting to take another shower in the evening, and now, very often in the late afternoon as she waits for him to come home, she says she's going to take a shower.

So, yes, she did get to go for a shower. There would have been little peace in the house otherwise - she would have kept saying it quite emphatically. And who can resist such an amazing little being when you know she really does want to do something. Whenever possible and appropriate I try to respond if she clearly wants something and it's not bad for her.

In the morning, just after she gets up she jumps into her shower routine. Often this involves standing in the hallway for a few minutes while clothes and towels are being gathered. We have two shower curtain poles stretching across the hallway and Jazzy stands on these.

In the bathroom she stands on the shower curtain rail. While I'm taking my shower she chats and runs through much of her vocabulary. It's a time to be totally silly, sing, dance and say whatever comes to mind, whether it makes any sense or not. There is also a plastic hanger arranged in different ways for her amusement. She works it free and then tosses it either into the bath or onto the floor.









When I'm done showering Jazzy takes hers. These few photos are taken with flash. I don't like to do that at all because I read in a camera manual that it can hurt pets eyes to use the flash on them. You'll see me in some of the shots almost involuntarily putting my hand in front of her face to shield her from the light.

I tell her it's her turn to take a shower and ask her to turn around on the pole and then tell her to 'up up' onto my hand. Before I put her under the water I say: "ok, are you ready, here we go", so that she knows when to expect to get wet. She really prefers that bit of notice.

After she gets her feet wet, I say: "Roll over" and she leans over knowing that I'll have my hand under her supporting her weight. She holds onto my hand with her feet, but that's a bit slippery. Then she gets a good soaking on her tummy and sides and tail.

I tell her when we're going back upright and she gets her back done more thoroughly. She allows me to move her wings very very gently and I tell her each thing I'm going to do before I do it so she knows exactly what to expect. Then she stays as long as she's happy there, getting her back soaked and the top of her head. Then when she makes moves wanting to leave, I put her back up on the railing.

Then we have a conversation about that was a "good shower" and that "Jazzy's a good girl" and such like.

After all the showering is done she goes into her living room cage to dry off a bit and to get some veggies and pellets before we all have breakfast together.

Rain Rain Rain and More Rain in the Pays de Gex, France

We've had a tremendous amount of rain these last weeks. It rains almost every day and the sun shines infrequently. This is great for air quality, but we're beginning to wonder if we'll all evolve into fish soon! The land is green, very green.





The skies are often a dull grey, floating by in an amorphous mass. But sometimes the clouds transform into masses of shapes and shades.
Every once in a while it looks as though it'll clear up and let some light comes through.


Occasionally the sky is filled with brilliant hues of pinks, purples and blues. I had never seen a sky quite like this one with such a variation in greys along with this vibrant, almost cornflower blue.

This orange-hued sky is totally dramatic, looking like a dust storm is whirling its way forward at high speed.

















This morning Jasmine and I went for a walk. Well, Jazzy was in her travel cage scrambling around the bars while I did the actual walking.

She announced every few minutes: "I'm going for a walk" a phrase she invented as I've never said to her "I'm" going for a walk, because "walks" are something we always do together. So she's always heard me say "We're going for a walk."

We have code names for different activities so Jazzy gains an awareness of how long we'll be away and if she's joining us or not. And I've often said "I'm going out" or "I'm going jogging" (which really means I'm going for a walk on my own for about an hour or so) and other things. She must have decided that saying "I'm going for a walk." was a good thing to say. And she's right!

While we were out it was sprinkling gently and the air was clean and fresh, even a bit chilly. The clouds were covering the mountains and creeping down the foothills.


Jazzy entertained herself by trying to remove the press stud on the cage backpack window flap that I'd put down in order to protect her from the breeze and getting cold.

The countryside looks a bit tropical, or at least that's what pops into my imagination.












Here and there are flower buds waiting for a bit of sun to shine before they burst out.










These cows looked perfectly posed for a group shot.

The dashing apparel of this Iris can't be subdued by the rain.
And even the puddles have interesting features and colors in them.
Jazzy also had a great time on her 'walk', and to enhance her trip she ate some of her favorite food: banana. So, while we long for some sunshine brightness, there's still a lot to enjoy when going out and about.

Sugar Cube Art

The weather has been warm enough for us to sit outside the market cafe again.

We noticed that the sugar cubes have changed. You can see the cute cartoon wrappers from last year in 'Sugar Cube Cartoon'.

I was delighted to find that the wrappers now show portions of the Bayeaux Tapestry. The Bayeaux Tapestry is a 20 inch by 230 ft long embroidered cloth depicting in pictures the events leading up to the Norman Invasion of England in 1066. It also includes comments in latin around the illustrations. (As usual, click on photos to see larger image).The tapestry is embroidered in wool yarn on a woven linen cloth. It's a fascinating work of art, and illustration of history.
Of course, Jazzy was at the market too, looking a little cowboyish (a new slant on Dr. Seuss's 'Cat in the Hat'). She was still wondering why she has a hat over her cage, but soon came to appreciate the shade and continued eating.




If you've seen any interesting sugar cube designs I'd love to hear about them, and if you'd like to send a photo, it'd be fun to post more fancy sugar cubes on DweezelJazz blog.

Jasmine Takes A Bath

These days Jasmine takes a shower every morning - a proper shower in the bathroom, but that will be the topic of another post coming up soon. She occasionally also likes to take a bath.
Sometimes she splashes around in her water bowl, and even though this is far too small for her to fit into she can get herself and, most especially, her surrounds impressively wet. This is the signal that she wants a bath and to fill up her bathing bowl with water.

Jazzy's bathing bowl is a large stainless steel bowl which sits inside a metal ring in her cage. This bowl is available for $11.45 from 'The Bird Safe Store' and is called is called "The Stainless Steel Coop Cup, 64 oz".


She spreads her wings to get them wet, and flaps and turns to fit herself in the bowl somehow.





She tests the water with her beak...


puffs her feathers out in preparation to get wet...





...comes in at different angles...


...feet all the way in...








...and comes up the other side.
















Then she spreads herself, wings fully stretched out, over the bowl.




She twists and turns and manages to get her tail submerged.






She's all motion. It's a little difficult to figure out where her head is in this photo: but it's right up front with her beak against the edge of the rim of the bowl.



You can see she has managed to get her tail fairly wet.










After another tail immersion she clambers up the bars, tail feathers still spread out.
Jazzy is quite a blur of movement when she's taking a bath, but this gives an idea what it's like to see her splash around.



At the end she sits regrouping for a moment, taking stock of her state.



Most of the time Jazzy's 'swimming pool' isn't filled with water - instead, it's filled to the brim with toys, and it becomes what she calls her 'toy bowl'. Jazzy loves to sit on the edge of it, selecting foot toys. She plays there for hours every day, choosing one toy after another to chew on, submerge in her water bowl, toss into her pellet bowl, or simply drop to the bottom of the cage to see how it falls, and to hear the sound it makes.

Jasmine Sees Snow

Jazzy has seen it snow before, but last weekend she saw it snow heavily.

The flakes were so thick and sometimes large that it wasn't possible to see more than a block or two away.



















Jazzy took this all in her stride.

(She looks rather pterodactyl or tyrannosaur-like in this profile shot, doesn't she!?)








She was curious to see the flakes and to see the white 'stuff' building up on the balcony.

Later, I brought in a handful of snow from the balcony and made it into a fairly large snowball. I showed it to her, saying it was 'fun', which is our keyword for knowing something is safe. She showed immediate interest and started playing with it, chomping holes out of it with her beak.

She's quite fearless when it comes to most new things. She seems to enjoy the excitement of something new and challenging, so long as she knows you're there to keep her safe at the same time.

Flying and fun indoors continued as normal...




...as she comes into a landing at her play station...



(To see more about Jazzy's play station you can go to a previous post: "Jasmine On Her Play Station".)





...and settles herself...










...for another good look at it snowing.

Jasmine's Fancy Footwork

Jazzy has amazing feet. Sometimes they look very compact and cute.

At other times they look particularly prehistoric. She also has strong legs.

She's able to do all sorts of quick manoeuvres to get around places.













And she has a very wide stretch between her legs so she can reach across quite long distances.








They hold her steady during otherwise engrossing activities, such as eating.







When she stands on flat surfaces they stretch out spindly and long.
Having two toes forward and two back give her incredible dexterity and flexibility.She has a scaly pattern on her feet and they're soft and warm to the touch, unless she's cold.



Her nails allow her to keep a firm grip. Often she allows herself to hang from just one nail, and she's a heavy girl!



She can pick up all sorts of things: toys, food... And when she does that, her feet become more like hands. She can be amazingly strong with them and has an incredibly tight grip and she can also choose to be incredibly gentle and delicate with them.



She hangs and swings, and it's amazing to watch how quickly she can move along using her feet and her beak to make contact with whatever she's working her way across.












She uses the crook in her leg, which is a bit like a heel or an ankle to lean on when she's balancing or even when she's sitting one- legged on a perch.










She can swing, hang out and do all sorts of silly things.

And then she can look totally serious, as if to say, whatever you might think about my feet, they're pretty handy.

Jasmine And Her Tousle With Poor Air Quality

Jasmine loves to take showers these days. She goes into the bathroom and takes a proper shower, and if she doesn't get a chance to do that, she splashes in her water bowl. Here she is with her tummy still wet from having taken a shower earlier in the morning.



She likes to hang out on her play station and play with her toys.







Well, she does for a short while and then she starts flying...



























...from chair to chair (and even to lamps, even though lamps aren't 'allowed').




But she never stays in one place for long...













Back to the play station...













On to the top of the air filter (this too is forbidden territory because she could reach the electrical cable and chomp on it - not a good idea!)

The air filter has always been placed three or four feet from Jazzy's cage and we thought this should work for the entire room.

But we live in an apartment block near a major road and the air quality is often poor. Neighbors use strong cleaning agents, laundry detergents and fabric softeners so that regularly throughout the day some chemical agent enters the apartment. Pesticides are used on the nearby fields to safeguard the crops. There are also at least three building sites for new apartment building complexes within one to two blocks of our place. Several times a day there is a constant stream of cars and buses going to and from the school at the end of our road. To sum it all up: that's a fair amount of pollution.

African Greys are known to have allergies and be sensitive to air quality. Jazzy already had allergies before she came to live with us. She scratches at the back of her neck, and I've noticed that this regularly coincides with when I'm experiencing difficulties with the air myself.

Recently Jazzy had become constantly very very loud and even aggressive. She has also been scratching tonnes more and, as a result, has lost even more of the little feathers on her neck, leaving soft down exposed. No matter how many toys I gave her or how much I tried to entertain her it didn't solve her dissatisfaction.

The air quality around here has become noticeably worse in the last month or so and in desperation, after weeks of enduring Jazzy's very loud and poor behavior, I put the air filter a foot away from her cage and pointed the vents under it. It's absolutely incredible how changed she is since then: she's extremely gentle, she chats but doesn't heckle, she's playing with her toys like never before. Her aggression is totally gone. She's bright and sparky again - a happy bird!

With such a dramatic change in her behavior from being so consistently difficult to transforming into just about angelic with the filter close to her, I wonder how many other pet birds there are who are having difficulties with the air quality around them? For more information about the air filter see previous post: "Air Filters For Asthma, Allergies and Chemical Sensitivity". I'm so pleased to see her happy again. She plays with her beads...




...chomps on her straw toys...










...stops to take a breather...















...and of course, does silly things for fun and to make us all laugh.

Jasmine Goes To Market In Her Winter Travel Cage

Just over a week ago, Jasmine went to the market in her winter cage: the Wingabago travel cage. To see her summer travel cage see previous posts: Jasmine Goes Backpacking and Jasmine Goes To The Market.






Despite the cooler weather, the market was out in full.







We raced to get roast chickens before they sold out. The owner of the stall jokes with us about Jazzy. Fortunately, Jazzy is completely ignorant of our dubious behavior with regard to these meals.Jazzy loves to come to the market because she's adored and admired from beginning to end of the outing. She has many fans and just soaks it all up. If we don't take her out as expected, she lets us know at home that we should be going somewhere!

One time we were in a hurry and couldn't stay long; we rushed in got a chicken and rushed home. We took Jazzy even though it was a short outing. For the rest of the day she was most put out by not having stopped to say hello to her friends.



We headed up the street looking at all the stalls, laden with interesting and enticing food.














There are more cheeses here than it's possible to count.













We usually only go a few paces and Jazzy meets someone new.











We passed the colorful flower stall, working our way up to the cafe.













This time there were three cups because we were lucky still to have our friend with us.


More friends come to say hi to Jazzy.

She was getting a little chilly so I had put my scarf on the top of her cage.It's loads of fun watching everyone enjoy Jazzy. Some feed her apple and banana from a container we bring with us. Jazzy loves apple and banana and we never go out without them. It's very clear that she feels no trip is complete without them.








On the way home she cozied up to Tony because he's always warm and he wrapped her cage in his coat.

Jasmine's Musical Chairs

Jasmine has two large cages to hang out in, and she likes both.But she also loves to be out and about round the house. She has places where she's 'officially' allowed to go (and of course places where she's not, but often goes anyway). One of her places is the tops of chairs.
We arrange them throughout the house so she can come and go as she pleases in either short hops or long flights.


Sometimes she tests her wings and flaps, with no intention at that precise moment to leave her post.




After a few test tries on her wings she'll then poise herself ready for takeoff.
















Then comes lift-off.Although this photo isn't clear, I just love the way it looks. A fantastic blur of Jazzy in the air, red tail brilliantly bright.



At other times it's nice to sit in the kitchen basking in the afternoon sun.
















Sometimes she likes to be sought after and picked up.












The tops of chairs are also a great place for having a snack.
But then, for Jazzy almost any worthwhile activity is best savored with a delectable tidbit.





And of course, the top of a chair is a great place to sit and chat and share a beer...well, Jazzy doesn't drink beer, but she sure enjoys the camaraderie.

Jasmine Silliness

Jazzy and I were being rather silly, as we're often apt to being. I got close up with the camera and she continued to chatter about something, which, at the time, must have seemed very important. And this is the result:
It just doesn't seem right to have the DweezelJazz blog page without an entry with Jazzy starring in it (it seems I overlooked this fact in publishing the recent posts). And so, this is just a little tidbit for the fun of it.

Sugar Cube Cartoon

As usual on Saturday, we went to the market today. Of course, Jazzy went too. She very much enjoys meeting and being admired by her many friends there.


On the way, we saw this huge mushroom growing out of the side of a tree.











The patterns on its underside are interesting.

















Autumn is coming and the conkers are beautiful and ready to drop.

We stopped at the cafe in the center of the market. And today I noticed the drawing on the paper wrapper on the sugar cubes. I never use the sugar, and so hadn't noticed before. I didn't know what I was missing! Each set has a different drawing on it. I just loved this one.

Jasmine's Model Pose

Sometimes when Jazzy is on my hand, she just swings herself backwards. When she does this I know to take a slightly stronger hold on her feet so she doesn't slip. We call these "upside downs".

Usually she likes me to gently lower my hand to the floor until she can touch it with her beak and then I bring my arm up gently but with some building momentum until she's up at my head height, by which time she rights herself again.

Sometimes when we're playing like this I just put her down gently on the top of her cage.

At other times, when she's perched on the top bar of her cage, she'll roll herself under it, squishing herself between it and the cage and then lay flat on her back. She doesn't seem to mind the consequences to her wings or feathers.


You can see here where she's still holding on to the bar with her feet.

Getting up out of this position can be somewhat challenging. Here she has reached over so, that with her beak gripping the bar on the left hand side of the photo, she can begin to pull herself upright.



The rest is sheer muscle work, pulling herself up and out.








Her cutest pose of all is this one below, where she puts her foot up behind her head near her eye.

She does this sometimes also on the side of her cage, holding onto the cage with one leg while she rolls tummy up. Then she puts her free leg up around the back of her head just like this.

Jasmine Loves Attention

Jazzy loves to get head rubs.

If you ask if she wants a head rub, she'll put her head down to indicate she does. There are times when she's too busy and doesn't want to stop for one. But usually she's eager.




She's extremely cute when getting a head rub because she goes all quiet and fluffed up.
Jazzy gives kisses. She reaches out with her beak to your hand or arm or face and makes the sound of a kiss. She makes the sound often, blowing kisses from the distance, but it's heart-melting when she actually reaches out and gently takes hold of a finger, pulls it towards her, and then gives a kiss sound.


Jasmine loves receiving kisses too.

She's happy to be alive, has a huge loving heart and gives loads of love and joy (especially if she's not being really noisy).

Jasmine And What's A Cage Door For?

Jasmine makes great use of her cage door. She has many answers to that question. You might at first think that a cage door is a rather mundane object. But Jazzy does many things with it. She thinks it's a great place to...

...hang out...



...swing...








...stretch those muscles...











...ham around...



...do pull ups...












...rearrange a few feathers...











...look at what's on the floor (usually it's what she's put there!)...

...scratch an itch under the chin...














...play at being behind bars...


...do a bit of hatha yoga...




















...act cool...







The top of the cage door is her favorite place to perch when she's out. It's her place of choice to...

...sit and think,

and sometimes these thoughts move into the evil realm of plotting how to get to the avocado plant in the corner (she actually succeeded yesterday in chomping one of his leaves!)...






...chat...




...do some personal grooming...
















...look totally angelic...






And finally, when she's had enough of being out and about, she closes it so she can settle back into her cozy home inside.

Do What You Like To Achieve Success

If you really want to be successful: do what you like. It's that simple. If we really enjoy something and do it often, we become better and better at it. It's a very nice thing to say, but can this approach really make us successful?

The real question to answer here is: What is success? Success is relative; it very much depends on the context. If we're talking about a hobby, success can be completing a project. If we're talking about work, it can mean bringing in enough money to sustain a family. To one person it may mean becoming rich. For another it may just be the satisfaction of accomplishment regardless of monetary return.

At whatever level we choose our success, doing what we like is a much better strategy than doing what someone else likes. It's extremely difficult to know what will please other people. And what pleases one person may displease another. If what we like to do is please other people, then this approach is perfectly suited. But, otherwise, measuring our success in relation to doing anything just to please others doesn't make much sense. It's difficult to be fully motivated when the going gets tough if we don't like what we're doing in the first place.

There are always things we're obliged to do that we may not like so much. There's a time for doing what we like. We may have obligations that require us to dedicate much of our time doing something we don't enjoy. But if we find ways to pursue whatever it is we do like, as much as possible in our spare time, we may find that an opportunity opens up in time. In the future it may become possible to more fully integrate what we like doing with our own goal of success.

I have some t-shirts that are super comfortable (which is something I like) and that I love to wear because of what they say. I discovered these a few years ago and have several different colors and designs. They're from a company called Life Is Good.There's a story about the two brothers who started this company. At first they tried to sell, door-to-door in college dormitories, t-shirts they had designed. It didn't go so well in the first years: they lived on peanut butter and jelly and slept in their van. It wasn't until they included a little character they had created with a super grin, that their t-shirts started to really sell. Jake expressed everything they believed in with his message of optimism. And this idea and passion for what they held dear struck a chord in many others. Now they have hats and shorts, shoes and all sorts of things for sale with Jake and the Life Is Good motto. Following their dream eventually made them successful, even if at first it seemed it wouldn't be so.On the front at the bottom of the t-shirt is a small patch sewn on which says: "Do what you like. Like what you do." This cheers me on every time I see it. I also have a yellow Life Is Good baseball cap.

You may remember from the Jasmine posts on DweezelJazz blog, that Jazzy chooses a lot of things she does. In fact she expresses her opinion about everything she does or is asked to do. Whenever it isn't imperative that she do something - which is most of the time - she's allowed to say no. Quite a while ago, I asked her if she wanted to do something and she clearly didn't want to. I said to her then, "Ok, Jazzy, do what you like." I didn't consciously make the connection with the t-shirts or anything else, but was just allowing her the respect she deserves.

I hadn't said it often, but it seems it meant quite a bit to the little girl, because she worked on it, practicing it herself, long before I knew what she was trying to say. Now it's her motto; it's one of the things she says most often (apart from 'shower' and the fact that she's a 'good girl'). She says it at least once a day, usually in the morning: "Jasmine, do what you like." And she says it in context and clearly knows what it means.


In my book, Jazzy's a successful character: she's happy. She gives those around her a tremendous amount by doing what she likes and being who she is.

Jasmine Goes Out For A Drink

Jazzy lets us know if she wants to come out with us. When we ask her out we tell her if we're going for a walk, or a hike or a ride (in the car) and of course all of the above involve a picnic, at least for Jazz. We then tell her to get on her wooden perch, which is where she always gets on our hand with an 'up-up' from us. She often joins in saying 'up-up' too and then adds 'You're a good girl!' for good measure. If she happens to be on the wooden perch when we ask, she'll actually get off it if she doesn't want to come. Often, if we've all gone out in the morning, Jazzy doesn't choose to join us in the afternoon. But last Saturday she did.

In the morning we had gone out around town, which you can see in "Jasmine Goes Backpacking". We came home had lunch and then decided to go out for an afternoon jaunt.

We went for a short drive around the countryside and stopped at a cafe for a drink. The sun was shining and it was very warm. Jazzy was feeling the heat a bit. Even though she has water in her bowl in the travel cage she was giving the glass of a water a long interested look.







She needed a drink, so she joined in and had some.
And she guzzled...











And guzzled...


And, well...

(even if they were small droplets)


...guzzled some more.







After she wet her whistle, she felt loads better.


Then we set off into the hills on a short hike.






Jazzy was clambering around as usual.
















After we had gone a ways on the trail, we stopped to feel the cool breeze and listen to the sounds coming from the woods.




It was a gentle, mellow moment.

Jasmine Goes Backpacking

Jazzy agreed to go in her new travel cage with the backpack part on it today! This is the same travel cage, Adventure Pack Bird Carrier, that Jazzy only recently just agreed to go out in at all; for more about that you can see a previous post: "Jasmine Goes to the Market".




Before this Jazzy didn't like to be covered, especially by something dark colored. We've been doing laundry together, she's a great little helper, and gradually she's been getting used to all sorts of materials and colors.

Recently it has rained so much that we haven't been going out as much as usual. Today the sun shone bright and the sky was clear and nothing could stop us going out in it! Not even dark covered travel cages.

Jazzy experimented climbing around before we went out.


We were all eager and happy to be going out. Although some of us had to work on getting right side up before we could leave home.









We went to the market again, and after buying a couple of things, we stopped at the cafe. Walking there, Jazzy was chattering away. This is novel because very often when we're out she's rather quiet (which I can assure you is not her usual state as she is a chatty little girl all day at home!). It seems she felt more secure with her backpack covering.

It's a very secure cage with the backpack on, and it's very nice to use. Another great advantage of the backpack is that it protects Jazzy from the direct sun.




We like the cafe very much because they're always happy to see Jazzy and they have really cheerful cups and saucers. Every time we go they have different color combinations.

Jazzy enjoyed munching on banana and apple. She loves both, but usually when we're out she requests the banana be served first.
Once all the banana is gone, she'll eat the apple very gladly. She has us extremely well trained in most things!

We had a really great time and made a lot of new friends at the market because they wanted to meet Jazzy. After our jaunt we returned home for lunch and then invited Jazzy out again for an outing in the afternoon. Sometimes Jazzers doesn't want to join us and we leave her at home. But today she decided to come. Stay tuned for the next post to find out what we did!

Jasmine's Daily Grooming

Feathers require a lot of maintenance. It is said that the average bird has more than 2000 feathers, but it depends on the size of the bird and where and how it lives. A swan can have as many as 25,000 feathers during winter. Whatever the number, Jazzy certainly has a lot of them!







The feathers must be kept in good condition so that the bird stays warm, and can fly at all times. It's a time-consuming business. And to that end, Jazzy preens at different times throughout the day.





Her neck is amazingly flexible, allowing her to reach most places on her body.
Like many birds, she has a gland near the base of the tail from which she gets an oil that she spreads on her feathers to protect them.













Jazzy is molting right now so we have a chance to see a variety of her feathers up close. She has all types of feathers: fluffy, very small ones and larger ones.

The small one shown here that looks a bit like a firework is one of her down feathers and it's very small. The other one with a touch of pink in it probably comes from somewhere on her body under her wing.

The hollow tubular shaft of the feather provides strength and flexibility and is very light. The feather is made up of barbs, coming off the shaft, which have tiny hooks, barbules, all along them that latch the barbs together. These often become separated and the feather splits (as you can see in the photo). When the bird preens it runs its beak up the shaft, from the base of the feather toward the tip, realigning and reattaching the barbules along the way. When this is done, there are no longer any splits in the feather.








The down feathers don't have barbules and so the barbs splay apart, providing good insulation to keep the bird warm.









The variation in feather size and shape is quite astounding.There are even many differences in the small feathers. The smoother small feathers here are from the top of Jazzy's head, and they're very cute.







Jazzy takes great care of her feathers. And here she is making sure that her bright red tail is kept in the best trim.

Jasmine Goes To The Market

Jazzy went to the market today.








Everyone from stall-keepers to shoppers wanted to get to know her. She, like all birds, needs stimulation and it's important to take her out regularly so she can meet new people and encounter different environments.


When we came across a street-side cafe we joined another couple at a table.






She loves to go out and have a change of pace from being at home.









While we were waiting Jazzy took a munch in her food cup and checked out the scene.This is her summer travel cage: it's very light, weighing less than 5 lbs and allows air to reach her freely.

It took her a while to get used to the idea of going into it. At first she was quite happy to play on the outside, but nothing would entice her to go inside. She decided to go in one day, after it sat around the house, for over a month, where she could see it and occasionally choose to play on it. We were so thrilled when she went in, we immediately took her out for a car trip and she's been happy to go out in it ever since.

The cage comes with a back pack accessory which the cage to be put into. You can see the Adventure Pack Bird Carrier at Flying South Inc. We haven't tried the backpack part of it yet because she's accustomed to going out and about with full range of visibility.Her winter and cooler-weather, Wingabago, travel cage is totally clear perspex with interchangeable perspex and stainless steel doors. The Wingabago cage can be seen in detail with accessories at Chirp n Squawk; it's a very sturdy and totally reliable cage. Jazzy can be seen in her Wingabago travel cage in a previous post called Experimentation.

We have cable-tied together all the parts of the cage so that nothing can accidentally come apart while we're out. The cage is durable, and with the backpack on it, it's completely secure. But without the backpack it's probably safest to have it bound more securely than just the four or so clips that hold the cage stainless steel frame to the purple base. We also plan to cover the bottom of the base as a precaution. If the cage ever does get dropped and doesn't have the backpack carrier on it, we want to be sure that if the base were to shatter there would be no way Jazzy could escape or get hurt.

She loves to clamber around the bars and gets lots of exercise doing this. With the open bars she's also much more a part of her surroundings and very much enjoys it.







While we waited for the coffee to arrive she enjoyed a good head rub.






Jazzy's charm is far-reaching as she makes yet another friend. She enjoys being admired and watching all the bustle around her.






And she loves to have her photo taken.

Jasmine's SilverBowl and Other Toys

Jazzy is a bird, as you probably know by now, and birds need lots of things to do.
Jazzy has a stainless steel bowl to put many of her toys in. She likes to sit on the rim and play.












She has lots of different things to choose from. (Click on images to enlarge.)

There are untreated wooden shapes to gnaw on,...

...stainless steel metal loop bolts with pins to unscrew,...


...stainless steel straight bolts and washers to undo,...


...wooden toys threaded onto wood sticks,...







...more wooden toys threaded onto the straight bolts along with washers for challenge and interest,...






...extremely hard plastic gadget that's a nice color and sometimes fun to experiment with,...





...small unscented, untreated rawhide dog toys to chew and dismantle,...well, and yes, sometimes to soak very nicely in the water bowl to make it really soft!,...



...the before and after of the moccasin rawhide,...



...the occasional untreated wooden clothespin,...




...and interesting spiral etched wooden peg.








Jazzy also likes to play with a rawhide bone hung on the side of the cage. We drilled a hole in it and threaded it through a fastening bolt. It is also made of stainless steel, as is all of the metal Jazzy plays with. Other metals can cause metal poisoning. Of course, the fastening bolt is a definite hit for playing with too.





















When she pushes it all the way to the end of the cage she has a good stretch to reach it.














Jazzy likes to spend a bit of time with a book before retiring at night. You can see it there ready for her on the cage.









It's a very appreciated and well-used book!


And she has small cardboard boxes that she can hold in her hand and work at.




.
Here you can see her standing on her nylon cutting board platform very engrossed with her box.There are also many fantastic stainless steel toys at Birdsafe Store and nice extravagant wooden ones at Chirp n Squawk that Jazzy very much looks forward to getting in the future. Jazzy is a DIY type of bird. To see more of her in action with her toys you can go to DIY Bird.

Jasmine And What She Does In Her Cage Part II

Down in her silver bowl Jazzy, of course, loves to find her stainless steel nuts and bolts and entertains herself taking those apart.


But she also has some other hobbies and one of these is to dismantle and shred small woven baskets. These are actually sold in the pet store for small caged birds to make nests in. We take the metal fixture off them and they work perfectly for something for Jazzy to slowly crunch into tiny bits. It also makes the most satisfying sound, which is very important to Jazzers.
When she's done playing in her bowl she climbs up the front of the cage and moseys on back to the perches up above to see what's going on.


Sometimes she brings one of her carabina metal loops and pin, which you can read more about in DIY Bird, with her to undo up on the perch.

Once she has removed the pin she likes to shuffle them around in her beak, experimenting with what can be done. And when she's ready or fumbles one of them, she drops it; then she twirls the other piece for a bit. And finally she drops that one too. It makes a great clanking sound when it lands below. Fantastic toy all round. At least it seems Jazzy thinks so, because she never tires of playing with them.

She has a couple of wood toys placed on either side of her food cups, which she also likes to play with. They have the added advantage of deterring her from sitting on her cups with the wrong undercarriage position - which can otherwise often result in a sanitary mishap!

On the right in the photo the edge of Jazzy's book can just about be seen. Yes, she's a reader! Well, actually, her style of reading is a bit different. It's a children's book with thick sturdy pages, which she likes to shred. It has become a just-before-bed-time routine for her to settle down for a while to chomp on her book. She has no compunction about bending the corners of the pages.

Often we'll present her with a couple of books for her to choose the color and style she prefers at the time; she has definite preferences and it's important to give her as many choices in her life as possible.


African Greys have a tremendous number of feathers and it takes a lot of time and attention to keep those in order. So she spends some quiet time preening.
When Jazzy eats she tends to frequently flick the food off the top of her beak, sending it flying far and wide. So we constructed some very effective perspex shields with stainless steel hooks, which we place over the bars close to her food cups.



And then there are the times when it's just good to sit, look and think.





Occasionally she'll scoot along the floor to find some interesting morsel that she dropped on the floor of the cage.

And there's also exciting indoor football; for more about football you can see Jasmine Plays Football.

We place three small nylon cutting boards on the bottom of her cage to allow her space to move around without having to clamber along the bars. It's good occasionally for her to be able to have her feet spread out flat.

This does very much require that the boards be closely monitored and cleaned regularly throughout the day so that she doesn't wander around in unsavory droppings. This is very important in order to make sure she doesn't become ill as a result of uncleanliness.

The vege and fruit food cup is always a great place to be.In this photo it's possible to get a better view of her food shields, which when they're put in place we inform her "Shields up!".



This is her home and she thinks it's a great place to be. Often when she's out and about the house, she'll decide to go back into her cage and she actually pulls the door to, once she's inside.

Jasmine And What She Does In Her Cage Part I

Jazzy has a large cage (well, actually she has two large cages, but that's another story). This one stands 143 cm (4'8") tall from the floor to the top of the cage, 86 cm (2'10") wide and 61 cm (2') deep. It has a nice wide and tall door on the front.

This cage has some great features. It's easy to clean because both the grating at the bottom and the tray slide out easily. The whole cage dismantles, without any screws or bolts of any kind, into separate pieces for easy transportation. And it's easy to move for cleaning underneath it because it's on wheels. The shelf below the cage is excellent for storing toys and food pellets. And, should you need it, there are slots on the sides to allow for other cages like it to be joined alongside. I don't have the brand name, but there are similar cages at The Birdsafe Store.

Jazzy likes to sit where you see her there on her wood perch and chat about things, all sorts of things.

The top of her cage has pieces of cardboard (mainly from cereal boxes) interwoven along the bars. Jazzers likes to climb up to there from the inside of the cage to tear and pull these down. It's great fun trying to put them in place because Jazzy thinks it's the best game to get there first and see who can win at either pulling them out (J) or weaving them in (me)! But she's always gentle and so we both have lots of fun doing this.

Another game we like to play at the top of her cage is what we call 'gotchas'. She clambers along the bars upside down, and I follow her from above with my hand, gently touching her feet, sometimes her leg, sometimes her tummy and then I say 'I gotcha foot!', or whatever it is I'm touching. She loves doing this and usually ends up twisting herself double to put her head between her legs close to the bars for a head rub. And then we have a quiet moment where she enjoys a little scritch around her neck and on top of her head.

At night the cage is covered with a light sheet and she sleeps on the blue perch.



If she has been stationary for a while she always stretches before she does anything else.

As usual with Jazzy photos, you can click on the images to see them enlarged.

Sometimes she looks like she's doing tai chi.









She likes to meander over to her pellet food bowl and take a chomp at the wood toy she has nearby.Below her on the floor of the cage is her stainless steel silver bowl, which is full of toys. And at the back there's a tattered empty tissue box that she likes to chew on from time to time. She makes her way down to the bars to the bottom of the cage to her silver bowl...

...to investigate the toys she has.


She loves to spend long periods of time playing in her bowl, digging through the many things she has there.

Jasmine Loves To Fly

Jazzy, being a bird, loves to fly. When she's out she knows which places she's allowed to fly to. We have a birdie agreement that she only goes to her designated spots, because there are many places in the house that would be dangerous for her. It prevents her from doing damage to herself or anything else!

One of her regular flight paths is to and from her play station and cage. Here you can see her launching herself from the top of her cage.

Then in mid-flight.


And finally, touching down on the top of her play station.




Last weekend she was helping me do the dishes in the kitchen; well, she's great at giving moral support and encouragement.

She was perched on top of her travel cage in the open hatch between the kitchen and the living room. And once we'd finished the dishes she decided to take her first flight from there to her play station.

You can just about see her, a dark spot, there in the hatch with the white cupboards behind her.

Before she knew all the right places to go, she's flown many a time through the hatch when she wanted something. But they were always spur of the moment events. This, by strong contrast, was premeditated flight. She needed to psyche herself up a bit.

We were urging her on with excited exclamations: "Come on, you can do it, Jazzy! You can do it!"

Convinced and determined she began lift off.








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And she's off!






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She's absolutely gorgeous in full flight.





Here she comes in for the landing.






After arriving she was extremely pleased with herself.

Jasmine On Her Play Station

Jazzy has what we call a 'play station'. It is made out of a stainless steel frame for a small side table, which used to have a glass surface on it before Jazzy appropriated it for her station. Attached to the top of this frame is the ladder-perch-set that came with her cage. It used to be on the top of the cage, but this seemed a bit high for everyday use; not for Jasmine of course, but for us! This unit is then placed on a table.

She has a great time going up and down it and it gives her a really good workout.





She climbs up the ladder to the very top and onto the wooden perch. From there she can get food and drink.









Jazzy's philosophy seems to be that any activity can be enhanced by having a snack.

When she's refueled she goes off again at high speed. You can just about see the blur there in the photo as she goes down the ladder. I don't use the flash to take photos of Jasmine because it can cause damage to the eyes, so sometimes these photos are a little dark and out of focus. Clicking on a photo will show an enlargement of it.She loves to stretch herself as far as she can; she's practicing for the role of elastagirl in The Incredibles!Then she's off again doing a fireman slide down the frame.









She comes out every day for at least several hours to play around the house. Usually she is free to come and go from her cage as she wishes, and this is one of the places she likes to hang out.

Jasmine Plays Football

Jazzy loves to play football, or soccer, the name and particulars depend on which country the game is being played in, but she's not too fussy about the details. The arena is the top of her cage.She can be quite concentrated and serious about going after the ball. And it's best not to get in her way when she's trying for a touchdown.



She's very good at dribbling too.






Sometimes she stops for a sidestep to overturn a yellow food-cup that has become a toy. But it doesn't roll like the ball, so she moves on.Ooops, a foul. But this can still be fun, because she can shoot it back and forth along the back edge of the cage.
And here she is running to get the ball, and then she follows it through...












...over it goes...and then comes that most satisfying hollow click of the ball bouncing on the hardwood floor. A goal! One more to Jazzy!

Jasmine Hamming Around

Today I've spent all day setting up web hosting and re-directing the blog to the web server and tackling all the details involved with such things. And since it's so late in the day, Jazzy offered to help out by hamming it up for some photos. First, she wanted to display some fancy footwork on the top of her cage.
And then she decided to goof off in front of the camera when she was on her playstation.

And she was really clowning around in her travel cage yesterday when we went out for a drive and a walk in the fields.


Jazzy behind bars, having a great time surrounded by clear blue sky, grass and poppies.

DIY Bird

Jazzy is very mechanically minded. She loves to undo nuts and bolts and will happily spend hours doing so. She has a large, and growing, set of stainless steel nuts and bolts, washers, and loops with screw fastening pins. She has become so proficient at undoing them quickly that it has forced us to be quite imaginative about some of the configurations of these metal bits.In this setup she has a straight bolt with a nut on the end and threaded through it are two wooden stars with a loop bolt sandwiched in the middle.

In order to undo the screw pin, Jazzy first of all grips the pin in her beak and twists with some force to loosen it.

Then she uses her tongue to rotate the loosened pin until it is free.

Since she manipulates the metal parts in her mouth, it's extremely important that all of them be made of stainless steel so that she doesn't get metal poisoning over time.

After she has removed the pin, her most favorite entertainment is to rotate it and twirl it a bit like a baton in her foot, back and forth, feeling every contour and screw thread with her tongue.
And finally comes the piece de resistance: she leans over the edge of the table and drops it to the bare floor with a very satisfying clang.

Experimentation

Yesterday we took Jasmine, our African Grey parrot,on a four-hour hike with us into the mountains. This might sound somewhat surprising, but she gets just as stir crazy being indoors all the time as we do.

It's an unusual sight to see someone in hiking boots trekking out with a bird cage in their arms, and wherever we went people loved to see Jazzy in her clear perspex travel cage.

She's a very endearing little character, likes to chat and makes new friends very easily. She is the usual grey with the bright red tail of the Congo African Grey.

We all had a great time and enjoyed seeing Jazzy's antics and reactions to her surroundings. When she sees something new she often says "ooooh".

We had a picnic at the top of the climb and Jazzy's water dish had so much fruit in it that it seemed likely she would have a sangria mix soon and be punch drunk before long.

Walking through town again on the way home we didn't attract any attention at all, we were bedraggled and exhausted, and Jazzy's cage was so smeared and caked on the inside with the day's goings on, that anyone looking at it might see that something inside it was moving, but they probably wouldn't be able to recognise that it was a bird.

So we trapsed in quietly and unnoticed and as soon as we were all situated in the living room, Jazzy in her normal big cage and us on the couch next to her, we all fell happily fast asleep.