Barney is a great, perfect bird for me. he lets me grab him without a fuss if he gets into "bad" areas, he won't fuss when i take him outside with me and keep me company as i do my garden work, and he doesn't beg for food like the other birds do in our house (thank the hubby for that!).

it has been 6 weeks since we welcomed him into our home as a member of the family, so he is technically out of quarantine. my schedule has been so busy lately i have not been able to set a vet date for his wellness checkup, but he is now set for one - september 4th at 3pm with the vet that we really like (and who we use with our own parrots).

we are not sure about whether he plays well with other parrots, but we do know now that he doesn't really care for another blue front amazon that we are currently fostering. he got into a little skirmish with the other guy (barney actually started this). luckily no one was hurt. just a little lunging and feet going up.

we will probably try to introduce the other amazons in this house to him, one at a time - strictly supervised - but slowly. i will let barney just hang out on my shoulder while sitting in the living room with the other parrots on their own play areas....just for him to get used to seeing them from afar.

barney doesn't really care for the showers we take, but he takes it. he loves tomatoes, jalapenos, pasta, wheat thins...OH, and a BIG change has happened! barney is now COMPLETELY converted to pellets! YEP! okay, not the best kind of pellets - he is eating the zupreem fruit blend pellets (he loves the yellow ones) - but better than an all-seed diet! he gets a few seeds as a treat and if he feels like foraging in certain areas of his cage (i hide them) but none in his main food dish. i've noticed that his poop is a lot better formed since the conversion.

anyways, that is what's new with barney. i will be sure to post some new pics of him soon!

barney enjoying the outdoors with me...

Barney hanging out with me in the garden