I'm tired of chewing the toy on my swing. That big rope looks a whole lot tastier!

Look what I did to my big rope! I absolutely went nuts!

Mommy thought it was quite funny that I had managed to literally destroy one end of my rope in such a short period of time. After all, the rope had been in my cage since August 2006, almost a whole year. Mommy could remove that part that I had chewed, but my trying to perch on the skinny wire that was all that was left, just wouldn't do.


Instead of making a quick call to Cages By Design to order me a new one, Mommy and Daddy put me on my outside tree, then proceeded to flip my rope, so that the bad end was way over on the side of my cage that I don't spend too much time in.


Ha! I'll show them! I headed right over there, traveling upside-down, by way of the roof of my cage. I stood on the skinny wire, poked around a bit, and got bored. Returning to my favorite side of the cage, I decided to attempt to break my previous record of 'destroying a rope in less than 24 hours'. I chewed and gnawed and ripped and tore.


This time, Mommy didn't laugh. She made me 'step-up', and gave me a little shove, indicating that I should fly to my outside tree. She came out of the kitchen with a long shiny toy, and started removing some of the threads that I had ripped from the skinny wire. She attempted to get me to stop this bad habit, which I continued to repeat each time that I was in my cage, but every time she said 'NO', I chewed more. You know how it goes with us Greys ;)


Having given up on the notion that I was about to listen to her, Mommy decided to catch up on her email. It seems that Chet over at BirdTricks.com had sent her an email with the subject "41 ways parrots have been accidently killed", with a link to a parrot site owned by Vera Appleyard. Mommy got noticeably upset when she read about some birdies dying from eating string. Even though my cage doesn't contain one of those toys they mentioned, Mommy ran over, whisked me to my outside tree, and feverishly unscrewed the toys that held my rope in place. Daddy had gone out, and Mommy's arms weren't long enough to hold up the rope with one, and unscrew with the other, so BAM! My rope fell to the floor of my cage, I flew to the window near the ceiling, and Mommy yelled one of those nasty words, that someday, I may just repeat.


Remembering that she had only placed 2 of the 3 large limbs that came with my cage inside, she fetched the third and placed it high in my cage, where the rope used to hang. She knew it would take me a little time, and placed me on my tiny perch in front of my food dish. I sat there with my head cocked, peering up at this new 'thing' that invaded my space in my cage. Mommy touched it, said it was a 'good tree', and repeatedly said 'It's good!'


Once she saw that I was getting a bit more comfortable, Mommy placed me on that new 'good tree'. I immediately climbed down. What used to take days, however, only took a few hours, and I was happy with my new tree inside of my cage. I can now travel side to side 'by way of my tree', but still prefer to go 'by way of the roof, upside-down'.


Mommy thanks Chet for providing the link to Vera Appleyard's site and Cages By Design, whose tree branch kept her from being out on a limb ;)