05/10/06 : Boris has adapted very well to his new environnement. I can now take him upstairs when I have to work at my desk, he takes his showers in the bathroom, and he stays several hours outside of his cage when I'm at home. By the way he hardly bites anymore, only when I'm "looking for it", when I tease him too much. He's really making lots of progress... To think that he was still wild just a year ago!

Here are some funny photos :

I think there's a scary monster between those packets of cereal... Maybe I can scare him away if I blow my feathers up!!

Hey children!!! Look what happens when you play for too long on the computer : you lose your mind!!!!

Yummmmy grapes!!!

 22/10/06 : Boris loves taking showers!!! Before we moved into our new flat I gave him his shower on his outside perch but everything always got very wet after. Now I've managed to convince him to take his shower in the bathroom like a proper room mate!! He perches on the tap and then I spray him. He gets all excited, flaps his wings, sqwarks and sometimes almost falls off the tap in the excitement! It's so funny... Here are a few photos (none of when he's excited though because my boyfriend's presence tends to diminish his excitement!) :

18/12/06 : Here is a photo of Boris on the bathroom mirror. When he's outside of his cage, every now and then he flies into the bathroom to perch on the mirror and for about 10 mins he just says there looking at himself in the mirror. I think he really needs a little friend... but unfortunately right now my boyfriend doesn't want another Boris...

02/01/2007 : Another new year on Boris' homepage !! Let's hope 2007 brings me as much joy with Boris as 2006 did, with as much progress !! Who knows, maybe I'll be able to cuddle him one day??

Here's a photo of a shower/window perch I bought on Ebay. I was looking for one but I couldn't find any in France... This one comes from the US and was quite cheap ! Boris adopted it in no time... We'll have to try it in the shower next !

14/01/07 : Here are a few new photos!

In the morning, when we make our fresh orange juice, Boris likes to eat some of the pulp! He looks so cute on these photos!

And here, he's playing with his new toy I got him for Xmas. He loves bells, so with such a big bell he's really happy!!

23/01/2007 : Hurray!!!!! Boris is a BOY ! I sent a few feathers to have him sexed and the results just arrived!! I would have been so annoyed if he's been a she!! I am so relieved...

Last week I started to teach him some simple tricks and I as really surprised to see how fast he understood what I was asking him to do. In about 20 mins he was doing "turn around" and "wave", and then he mastered "shake hands". I've bought Tani Robar's book and as soon as I recieve it I'll try other things. I've tried to teach him to bring an object to me, and he picks it up on command but then throws it away instead of dropping it, so it's virtually impossible for me to put my hand under to catch it??!!! Maybe the book will help me out with that one.                                                         

30/01/2007 : Boris can drop the object in my hand now but I still have to put it directly under. I can't wait to get the book on tricks :)

Today I've had very sad news about Minette, my cat. It turns out she has a tumor in the eye and she will have to be operated on to take her left eye out. It's very sad as she's never had any kind of problem before in the ten years we've had her... And she has such pretty eyes...

22/02/07 : Boris is making so much progress in his trick learning!! He can now do lots of things such as putting a ring on a peg, putting an object in my hand or in a little container, passing through a tunnel, and now he's learning to pull a little cart! I'm also trying to teach him to nod "yes" but he's finding it hard to understand what I want from him.

He's really impressed me and my relatives, he's so clever! He learned to put a ring on a peg in only half an hour! I'm so proud of him, and some of my friends have even come just to see him do his "show"!

28/03/07 : This evening Boris learned to put a coin in a piggy bank! It only took him a couple to tries to understand what I was asking him. He is definitely learning faster and faster. And he's really starting to enjoy performing : sometimes if I leave a prop on the table he does the trick again and again to get my attention! He can also pull a wooden car and a toy cart now. I'll make a new video of him soon.

Tani Robar's book has really helped me with these new tricks. And quite by chance when browsing on Internet to find new toys for Boris I found a website selling the same props as in the book! In fact the person who owns this site has made most of the props featured in Tani Robar's book. I was so glad to find this site, as it's quite difficult to find props for training a parrot, especially a small sized parrot! Here's the link for anyone interested : www.parrotprops.com

By the way, great news from Europe! Since January wild bird importation into the EU is definitely banned! I'm really glad as I feel very guilty about having bought a wild-caught parrot. This ban will make sure that no wild-caughts will be sold anymore (at least not legally).

05/04/07 : Here are a few photos of Boris' tricks ! (I have also downloaded videos, they are on another page, you can find them by clicking on the link at the top of this page). I am now waiting to recieve his new toys from parrotprops.com!

Ring on a peg and pulling a toy car

Coin in a piggy bank and pulling a toy wagon

Hanging on a stick and stepping up from one finger to another

Putting an object in a box

15/04/07 : A few days ago I recieved Boris' new training toys !!! They are great and Boris can already play basketball and loves the stacking cups even if he can't get it quite right on his own yet! Teaching colours will probably take quite a while. As for the puzzle, I'll wait a bit before getting started.

I also got a small table perch that's useful for when Boris sits with us at the table. It's too tall for him to climb off easily and small enough to be handy!

Here's a photo of his new toys :

26/08/07 : It's been a long time since I last updated Boris' homepage. I've been very busy with my new work, but I still find time to work on new tricks for Boris. He can now do the stacking cups, and I'm also working on rings on pegs by colour and the puzzle, but that's still a bit hard for him.

And another trick I'm working on is the forward flip on my finger. That way I hope to get him used to touching my finger with his beak without biting. I still can't touch Boris, so I would like to use trick teaching to increase his "tameness".

Here's a list of all the tricks Boris can do for the moment :

1. Wave hello
2. Turn around
3. Shake hands
4. Ring on the peg
5. Playing basket ball
6. Putting a coin in the piggy bank
7. Going through a tunnel
8. Hanging on a stick
9. Pulling a wagon or a little car
10. Forward flip
11. Ringing the bell
12. Stacking cups
13. The puzzle (still not perfect...)
14. Ring on the peg by colours (far from perfect!!)

Not bad, heh?! :)

11/11/07 : A great recent development with Boris !!! I can now scratch him on the neck and head... I've been waiting for this to happen for AGES! Here is how it went : I started off scratching his feathers with his little bell that I would hold between my fingers. Then, still holding the bell with two fingers, I started to scratch him with my middle finger. Little by little I would hold the bell further away so that he started to understand that it was in fact my finger touching him and giving him that nice feeling! And at last last week I moved the bell to my other hand, still holding it close to his beak to distract him just in case. And with my other hand I could scratch and cuddle him from the top of his back all the way to the top of his head!!! It's so soft and warm... It's a lovely feeling, at last being able to touch him, especially as he really seems to enjoy it.

He is such a fun little parrot! Who would have thought that we would go so far together and that he would be so confident with me??! 

09/12/08 : I can't believe it's been a year since I last updated Boris' homepage !!!! I worked full-time, so although I still spent a lot of time with Boris, I couldn't find enough time to update his page.

He made lots of progress with the puzzle and the colour rings, he was starting to understand the colour concept when we had to stop trick training for a while : we decided to move to Germany (Hamburg), but before that I spent 3 months at my parents' place. Boris' toys were all in Germany already, so he couldn't practice his tricks. In any case, he was a bit nervous at my parents' place and wouldn't have been able to concentrate long enough to do his tricks.

We've been in Hamburg for 2 months now, and Boris adapted quickly to our new flat as it's very big and he can fly around a lot. The ceiling is very high so he really enjoys flying all over the place !

On this photo he's taking a look at the birds on my clock !

And here he's going on a discovery adventure (behind the fence is the heating !)

With our new flat we have a balcony, and lots of birds come to feed on the food I leave for them. One of my favourites is the Bullfinch. Here are some photos :

30/01/09 : I have decided to look for a girlfriend for Boris, because we have enough room in this flat for 2 cages. Last week I visited a breeder who has 2 baby Senegals right now, they are being hand-fed because the parents weren't looking after them properly. One was 7 weeks old, but the breeder thinks it's a male, and the second one was 5 weeks old, and she thinks she might be a girl ! The feathers have been sent for DNA testing, and now we are (anxiously !) waiting for the results !

Here are some photos :

 Here's the one who might be a female... she's sooooooooooo cute !

 Here's the (probably) little boy ! You can tell he's older than the other one !

Here's me with the (probably/hopefully) baby girl :

So let's cross our fingers very hard and hope she's a girl !!!!

07/02/09 : We finally recieved the DNA sexing results, and it turns out the bigger one is a girl, and the smaller one a boy ;). So we will be taking the older one home in a few weeks !!! I can't wait :) She's called Lola now : "Boris and Lola" sounds cute, don't you think ?

I visit the breeder every weekend, as I don't want to miss out on these "baby" days ! Each time I see them they have grown a little more, and are more lively and cheeky. They are now in a proper cage and Lola has already learnt how to fly !

Here are a few photos of them that we took today :

  Here's Lola looking cute. She's a red-bellied Senegal parrot (versteri sub-species). She has a few yellow feathers on her head, but the breeder said that they could be permanent or just disappear after a while. But I think she's rather cute like that !

 Here they were preening each other... They look so cute with their little pinkish beaks and their big black eyes !!

  Here they're messing around... Do you notice the difference in color between both the chicks' bellies ?

   Just looking cute again !

The breeder said she would be ready to come to our home in one or two weeks, because she's started to nibble at little bits of fruit... I just can't wait to see how Boris will react when he'll see her !!

27/02/09 : Lola arrived on the 15th, so she's been here for around 2 weeks now. During the first day, Lola's cage was on the opposite side of the room from Boris' cage. Boris was so excited and kept on sqwarking and running around in his cage. When I let him out, he went straight away for Lola's cage and they touched beaks through the bars. I wasn't very reassured though because Boris was so excited, so I took him away.

After that he bit me very hard next day and wouldn't let go, he's ever done that so hard before. I had just given both of them a piece of apple, and he had dropped his. When I picked it up for him he lunged at my hand. I was quite upset, and it really hurt ! It was an obvious sign of very strong excitement, and even maybe jealousy...

When the breeder called next day to hear about Lola, she told me to bring both cages next to each other so that they could see each other properly.

Once I had done that, Boris reacted very well !! He came as close as possible to Lola's cage and wouldn't stop staring at her ! He didn't even want to come out of his cage anymore :) Since then he hasn't shown any obvious signs of serious jealousy. Every time I want to take them out, I start with Boris, then he goes back in and out comes Lola. After that Boris comes out again if he wants too. And when I'm taking care of Lola I always pay attention to Boris too : I give him little bits of fruit, seeds, etc.

When Boris is out, I cover the top of Lola's cage so that he can't come on the cage from the top. He's allowed to come on the side of the cage under very strong supervision ! Sometimes he ignores her and just takes a look at all the toys in her cage (Lola's cage used to be Boris' "holiday" cage, and he spent 3 months in it during the summer, so it rings a bell...), sometimes they just touch beaks sideways, as if they were feeding each other, and sometimes they get quite bickery. One or twice Boris has even pulled a head feather from Lola !!! So I have to be very careful, and I will probably have to wait a couple of months before they can go out together.

On the other hand I believe this "safe cage-through contact" is necessary so that they can learn to know each other. And bickering is part of animal bonding. This also helps Lola understand that she has to be careful about Boris : she tends to be too trusting towards him.

Lola is gaining more and more confidence, she now accepts to climb onto my finger without any problem, and I can gently stroke her head and the back of her neck, and cover her back with my hand. She is so different to Boris, due to the huge confidence she has in us.

She is also getting more and more inquisitive. She loves to run around the top of her cage (I'm not sure why !) and I'm planning to build a little play area for her up there, as I'm not sure Boris would agree with her coming onto his play area. She flies more and more often, and is starting to understand that she can fly back to her cage when she wants to feel safe.

She does lots of cute peep-sqweek-tweet noises, and hasn't starting making horribly loud and ear-piercing noises like the ones Boris does sometimes. But I trust he'll teach her soon enough !...

Here's a beautiful portrait of her eating a raisin :)

 Last weekend Lola decided she wanted to take a bath in her water bowl !!! She spilled water all over the place, and looked really funny afterwards. I like to think that she'll probably enjoys showers as much as Boris does ! Once she'll be more confortable moving around on my finger I'll try giving her a shower in the bathroom, like Boris. :)

29/03/09 : Lola has been with us for 1 month and a half now, and we love her more with every day ! Whereas Boris doesn't really trust my boyfriend, Lola is fine with him, because I encourage him to take her out of her cage and take care of her at least once a day. She loves to fly around the flat and sometimes goes totally crazy : she goes round and round a few times then lands on the perch and sqwarks !

She really likes Boris' play area (a huge rope toy with lots to do, which hangs from the ceiling).

A few days ago we decided to try to take both of them out of their cages together. I was with Boris, and Gabriel, my boyfriend was with Lola. Both really LOVE pomegranate, so that was their treat. We made them sit on their respective perches and step up, fly to us, etc. They both saw each other, as they were only a few metres apart, but they showed no signs of aggression or of wanting to fly towards the other.

It only lasted about 10 minutes, and we didn't really take many risks, as both were so concentrated on the treats, but on the whole it seemed to go quite well. Once Lola flew onto Gabriel's head, and I brought her down to help him. Despite the fact that I was taking care of Lola, Boris didn't move, he stayed nicely on his perch :)

By doing that every day, they will get used to seeing each other outside the cage, and little by little we'll be able to dare more "risky" things !

Today, at one point Lola flew to Boris' hanging toy, and I thought he might fly there too to "defend" his toy. But he stayed calmly on his perch :) Then she started flying around like crazy, and that scared him so he flew back into his cage, poor Boris !!

Apart from that, well Lola has already learnt her first tricks ! She can do "turn around" and "hello". She's so sweet !

I've collected lots of big branches with which I plan to make a play area for Lola. That way both will have a cool play area to look forward to when they come out of their cages.

More great news : Gabriel and I are planning a holiday to Senegal !!!! I've been dreaming of seeing Senegal parrots in the wild for a long time, and Senegal is more generally a great place for bird watching. We are planning to go there in November. In the meanwhile, I'll do lots of research to find out which are the best areas to see Sennies in the wild :)

27/04/09 : Boris and Lola have made incredible progress ! Since Saturday, they have started to come up close when they are both outside their cages, and they have started to preen each other !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Boris was sitting on the door when Lola flew up there too. At first I was really nervous because I was sure Boris was going to attack her, but when she came up to him and started preening his head feathers, he just sat there and looked really surprised ! Then he started preening her too. I was surprised to see that although he's sometimes a bit rough, he doesn't seem to have forgotten how to do it. He even preened her eyelids ! That REALLY made me nervous !

But once they were back in their cages, and the stress and tension was gone, I started to realise what had happened, and I was so happy ! This is the proof that the whole idea of buying Lola as a companion for Boris was a good one, and that they'll probably be able to live together in a few months' time.

After that first time, they've been doing the preening business every time they come out of their cages together. Sometimes Boris gets a bit annoyed, because Lola is so enthiusiastic. And sometimes he's really rough when he's had enough, but Lola hasn't got hurt. She has to learn to be more patient and to leave Boris alone sometimes. Boris on the other hand has to learn to be less nervous and to stop reacting so rough when Lola si being too intrusive.

Here are a few cute photos :

20/07/09 : Since my last entry, almost 3 months ago, Boris and Lola continued to get to know each other better. They preen each other several times a day, and these mutual preening sessions last longer and longer. At one point, it always ended in an argument, because either Boris or Lola would start to nip lightly at the other's leg and neither of the like that, especially Lola ! She would start banging her beak at Boris and then she'd fly onto him ! I'm not sure why she was flying onto Boris, but of course he didn't like that AT ALL and would chase her away. He also chased her away when, during their preening, she would suddenly come up close and put her foot on Boris' neck ! I'm not sure what that means either.

Anyway, they have calmed down now and most of the time the preening ends just because one of them walks away.

Lola has fed Boris once or twice, by bringing up little vomit balls (yummy :s) which he took in his beak and ate.

Boris accepts Lola on more and more of "his" places, and they even preen on some of the places where he still used to chase her away only a few weeks ago.

And the latest news concerns their new cage ! When I realised that Boris wasn't going to accept Lola in his cage, I decided to get a new and bigger one for both of them.

They have had this cage for a few weeks now, and they spend a few hours each day inside, when I'm a home. Boris seems to think that the new cage is so nice that it should only be for himself, so he is quite dominant inside the cage, quite different from outside the cage. Because of this, Lola acts very dominated and always avoids Boris, whereas outside the cage she sometimes stands up to him. It's so weird, up to now they haven't done any mutual preening inside the cage, and always sit quite far away from each other. But as soon as they come out of the cage, they sit on the door and preen each other !!!

Despite Boris' dominant attitude, they get on better and better inside the cage. Most of the time they just ignore each other. Sometimes Boris wants to go where Lola is, and either she realises that and goes somewhere else, or she doesn't and that's when he gets a bit aggressive and chases her away. Then she gets frightened and runs or flies around the cage like a maniac. After a while they both calm down and settle down to preen their own feathers.

These little "fights" happen less and less often, so I think we'll get there in a few weeks.

After about 2 hours, if they are both calm, I let them out of the cage and then they preen and "kiss" each other straight away !

I'm hoping that by spending some time in this new cage, they will start acting just like outside the cage and get on well together.

Here are a few photos of them :

 Destroying a poor tissue box

 Preening...

 ...preening...

 ...more preening...

 ... and still more preening !

 Even from behind, I can tell who's who. Can you ?

Here's a cute one of Lola taking a nap on Boris' "front perch".

Answer to the behind-guessing photo : Boris has got a yellow bum (left) whereas Lola's is green (right). 

04/08/09 : Boris and Lola are officially living together since a whole week. I was able to be at home for a long time so I thought that it was a good time to make the transition between 2 separate cages and 1 common cage. Boris' dominant behaviour is still very strong, but during the day-time his stays quite calm and just chases her away once in a while. However, in the early morning and about an hour before sunset, when I put them back into their cages, he chases her a lot more. It's quite annoying, especially in the evening, because she settles down to sleep earlier than him, and then he sneaks up onto her and scares her.

If he continues to act in this way I will try something that Lola's breeder recommended : to hang branches in the middle of the cage so that both have a more "intimate" feeling. If Boris feels he is more on his own, he might leave Lola alone.

Apart from that it's going quite well, they both seemd quite relaxed when Boris is calm. They each have their favourite place and activities : Boris sits in the middle of the "main" perch and either sleeps or cleans himself, he goes to eat in his dish or Lola's and sometimes plays with a few toys. Lola sits most of the time on or near her food dish (as long as Boris doesn't come along !) and plays around with the food. She also likes to destroy the branch perches.

They don't move about much in the cage yet, I suppose they are still quite wary of each other.

The surprising thing is, that when they are outside of the cage, they still preen each other regularly... but they never even come close inside the cage. Hopefully their relationship will get better after a little time...

If you have any advice that could help me, please don't hesitate !

12/08/09 : In the end, after about 10 days of living together in the cage, I had to move Boris out again because he was getting more and more agressive, even outside the cage. Coming home after  few hours absence one day, I found about 15 green feathers on the floor, with meant Boris must have gotten Lola and bit her.

So I decided to put Boris back in his cage while I built a separation with plastic, ropes and branches. Now they are living in the new cage again but it's separated.

It's not ideal but they seem to be OK with this situation, and their behaviour is almost back to normal outside the cage (mutual preening). Inside the cage Boris doesn't try to get to Lola, so I guess he just didn't like having to share such a "small" space with her. Now that both have got their space, it seems OK. I hope that I'll be able to remove this separation one day, so that they can have more room inside the cage, but it's apparently too early still.

The important thing is that they continue to get on well outside the cage, and that no one gets hurt !! 

19/09/09 : Boris and Lola's cage is still separated in two cages, but they have gone back to lots of mutual preening outside the cage. They also have little fights regularly, but apart from banging their beaks against each other's, they don't do much : it's no serious business !! Unfortunately it doesn't seem as though Boris is going to want to share the complete cage any time soon, but that's OK for me. I know he appreciates Lola's presence anyway, because of all the cute mutual preening moments !!

We built them a great "parrot tree" a few days ago, they love biting the bark off the branches and playing "we are wild parrots in the wild" !

 The parrot tree !

 Lola looking cute on the parrot tree

    Close up of Lola : noticed how her yellow spots on the head are disappearing, and how her eyes are getting more yellow ?

  Isn't he handsome in the sunlight ?

Lola has learnt to do the front flip, just like Boris. It's a bit harder for her though, because she's not as strong as him ! Still she manages OK. Sadly the videos with our new camera are too big to be downloaded on my Homepage, so I put this video on YouTube. Here's the link :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TitXEgkxTw4

2/01/2010 : I can't believe it's been 3 months since my last entry ! I've been busy and haven't had much time to update Boris and Lola's homepage.

Nothing special has happened since with Boris and Lola, they still have the plastic separation in the cage to keep Lola safe, especially since Boris once bit her quite hard : he was exploring some place next to the microwave oven, and Lola came up to him, all curious. It surprised him, and as he was already quite tense, looking out for monsters behind the oven, he overreacted and bit her really hard on the beak, ripping off a small piece of hard beak skin. When I took her to the vet's, he said it was nothing serious, but we had to give her antibiotics and a special creme to make sure no infection would slow the healing. 2 months later you can hardly see a thing, the beak has grown and the missing piece has been replaced, but that little incident really spooked me, as I realised how seriously they can hurt themselves !

Here's a photo of Lola's injury. The horrible colour isn't blood, it's just the iodine cream I had to put on for her.

Apart from that incident, they are still spending a lot of time preening each other and even doing little love dances, but now and then they have little fights which show that they aren't ready to share a cage yet. I don't know if they ever will be, but at least they like being together outside the cage.

Here's the link to a brilliant video I made once when they were doing their little love dance : it's quite long but soooooooooo cute, and Boris looks so sad when Lola finally flies off at the end ! Unfortunately you can't hear the sound they were making, that's a shame because it was so sweet...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On0YBeC4Mjs

In November we were away 3 weeks, we went to Senegal on a holiday. Boris and Lola went to a breeder's, who took excellent care of them, but after a first try in the same cage, where Boris actually went to Lola to preen her, but after about 10 minutes started getting territorial again, we decided to put them in two separate cages. After our holiday, they were so glad to be together again, that every time they came out of the cage, they started straight away with a long mutual preening session ! I think not having contact with Lola for such a long time made Boris realise how nice it was being together :)

Anyway, in Senegal my main goal was of course to see Senegal parrots in the wild. It was actually one of the main reasons for choosing Senegal as our holiday place !

Although we didn't see loads of them, like cockatoos in Australia for example, we did see quite a lot of them, in little groups 10 to 12 strong. In one place we heard them every morning and every evening, as the lives really close to our camp. I just loved seeing them in the trees, flying around and crossing the large river, and being so noisy ! I was astonished at how loud they were :)

We didn't manage to do any nice photos, because they wouldn't let us come too close, not more than 30-40 metres. But some photos are OK, you can tell they are Sennies :)

Here are a couple :

 We had to hide behind some high grasses to take this one !

On this last photo they are difficult to see because it was late in the afternoon and the light wasn't any good, and we were quite far away. But they stand out pretty well in the leafless branches ! 

You can see more photos of the birds we saw during the holiday on this link : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=167727&id=657714879&l=f14bef3d04

Seeing Sennies in the wild was a beautiful experience, very moving, especially because Boris is wild caught. To think that he lived in such a beautiful place, was caught and brought to Europe in a way I prefer not to think about, and now lives locked up in a flat in Northern Germany... But at least I like to think he was probably one of the lucky ones, as many wild caught Sennies must have ended up in places where they weren't as loved and cared for as Boris !..

When I have some more time I'll post a few recent photos of Boris and Lola : Lola has changed a lot recently, and doesn't really look like a baby anymore ! Her eyes are gradually turning yellow, her beak and feet have turned grey, and she has lost most of her yellow head feathers.

She was 1 year old on the 30th of November :) I wonder how old Boris is...

7/01/2010 : Here are some recent photos of Boris and Lola : 

Preening on the hanging toy

  Here's the card I sent my relatives for Xmas this year :)