Bath Time!! (waterless edition)

This was just too funny to miss, and since I did actually catch it on "tape", I decided it was time to post my first video, dark and of poor quality though it may be. It was a cloudy winter day, after all.

I was vacuuming the room, which I usually do with all the birds locked up, just to make it easier. However, this time, Claudia and Chester were out. When they are inside their cage, they always take a bath in their water bowl during the "thunder storm". As they did not have a water bowl on their playgym, they had to make do without, and I think they did quite well, don't you?

If you notice, Claudia spends quite a bit of time with her head or tail on a wooden bucket. I believe she is imagining that it contains water, but it is actually her foraging bucket, and the most that could have been in there was a few treat remnants and some small foot toys deemed unworthy for play.

After I was done vacuuming, and videoing, of course, I did give them a nice spray bath, which they appreciated. And since my video was unable to show you Claudia's beautiful feathers, and the ever improving feathers of Chester (Please tell me you noticed he had an entire tail, and most of his wing feathers!!) I did take two pics of that.

And since neither the video or the pics (Claudia, you are a real camera hog!) were able to show you Chester's improving feathers, I have a few shots to show here. I would love to show you some from when I got him, for comparison, but he was NOT fond of people, and cameras were placed under the people, or odd people appendages, category. So, it will have to suffice to say that his feathers looked much worse then, all but his head feathers, which were very dark and ratty, being very, very dark green, yellow, brown, or black. Or at least, that was the colors of the feathers he had. He did not have most of his wing feathers, or anything but a few (three) completely stripped tail feathers.He did not have most of his chest feathers, only grey fuzz, and did not have leg feathers. I am not sure he was really plucking his back as well, but due to the poor quality of feathers, he did not have very many at all there, either.

In the photos, please note his beautiful tail, and that he has some lovely new feathers on his back, which have really improved his overall appearance! His head has actually been through a complete molt, and is looking much better.

The last picture is simply to show you what color I hope his feathers will someday be. As feathers are very reflective, they come out much brighter on the camera than they look in person, even in direct sunlight. So, when I take a picture of his head, it often looks very bright green! I was unable to get a pic of his chest, but he does have some new feathers there, which you can almost see in the last pic, as well.