Serious Cacooning & A Hard Parrot Lesson

We have been in Switzerland for almost 6 full days now and other than going to the grocery store, we have not been out.  We have been very much enjoying the cacooning but I think we may actually brave the outside world and head into Zurich tomorrow to walk around and see the sights.

The only major thing to happen was that we learnt a very important lesson about parrots.  They are like little kids when over tired at bedtime. 

Our first night alone with the birds, we let Houston and Rico out of their cage (African Greys).  Now, the parakeets had come out and gone back into their cage without incident so we were expecting the Greys to be no problem as well.

Unfortunately, Houston and Rico did not see us as the alphas of the house so even though we did everything in the instructions:

1. Tell them it's bedtime in 5 minutes with your open hand so they can see it.
2. If they don't listen to you when it's time to go to bed, bring out the water bottle and that alone should motivate them to go in the cage.
3. Use the water bottle to spray them.
4. Bribe them with peanuts to get back in.

They did not get back into the cage.  As well, they were both on the floor and Houston doesn't know how to fly upwards (both can climb the cage though) so they were not in the greatest spot.

To make a long story short, 2.5 hours after starting the process to get them into the cage, they finally got back in.  They were stressed, we were stressed and both Michel and I had been bit quite a few times on the fingers (Rico drew blood on Michel) and had our toes chased.  The days since have been an exercise in rebuilding trust.

I am happy to say that Houston came around quite easy and today, Rico actually let me stroke his beak (very personal space) so we are getting back to where we need to be!!!!!!!

However, I don't think we will let them out again as I just don't want to chance putting them through that stress again.

On the plus side, I have been "singing" to the Greys with clicking sounds and Rico has started to imitate me!!!  And Houston has trained me to sing "Ring My Bell" when she rings the bell in her cage!

The parakeets are not really all that interesting but they are green and cute!!!