Possibly the Cutest Picture to Date

Wouldn't you agree?

Bottlebrush Trees

I dug up a photo that was taken a few months ago. Snoball has Bottlebrush wood in his cage and he loves it, but what he loves more is climbing and playing in the real thing outside. :)

My ear is healing just fine

The scabs fell off my ear the other night, so it is healing pretty quickly. It is still sensitive if I lay on it, or try to wedge the phone between my ear and my shoulder. But otherwise I can touch it without pain. (That's one of my cockatiels behind my ear in the picture.)

Snoball is fussing because it's raining. He wants to go outside for his nightly walk, but he doesn't want it to rain. When it slowed to just a drizzle I tried to take him out but he didn't like the droplets hitting him and we came back in. He doesn't understand that mom can't control the weather ... Sorry, Snoball. :(

A photo for you!

I love when he sits this way. He looks so pompous, as if he's saying, "I do declare that tis time for tea!"

Dealing with Hormonal Aggression

Oh the joys of owning an Umbrella Cockatoo! Oh the pleasures that come from the biting, the screaming, the overwhelming destruction! ... OH THE HUMANITY!!

But seriously, guys - if you're thinking of getting a cute and cuddly baby Umbrella Cockatoo ... don't. The longer I have Snoball, the more I realize that these animals never should have been domesticated. That's not to say that I don't love him; I do. I adore Snoball and would do anything for him. But I have come to realize that owning an Umbrella Cockatoo is akin to having a child going through those terrible two's that will NEVER grow up, who is ALWAYS in a destructive mood, who knows how to get past every child-proof known to man, and who NEVER listens to the word "no." To put it nicely, they are not for everyone...

And, Snoball is extra special because he is one of those large males that would be a prime candidate for flock leader had he been born into the wild. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't. So now he is trying to steal the role of flock leader from David and myself. I have been doing a lot of research on the subject which was prompted by a particularly nasty bite from Snoball. He was in a situation that he was uncomfortable with, and although I recognized this and tried to remove him from it, someone interfered. That small delay was enough time for him to run up my arm and latch on to my ear, biting through the thickest part of the cartilage with a sickening CRUNCH. Not pretty... I was able to take a picture of the damage, but it is not for the faint of heart. Click here to see.

He was acting strangely again tonight, and I think I narrowly escaped another bite just before bed time, though I'm not 100% sure that's what he was trying to do. So I sat down and started doing some research. I came across this article, which was very helpful. It is somewhat long but really worth the time. There are a few tips in there that I will be taking to heart over the next year or two. Hopefully, after that much time has passed, he will have settled down into a normal bird again. (Cockatoos go through puberty between the ages of 3 and 6. Snoball just turned 5.) I will be so proud of both Snoball and myself if we can both get through the next few years alive and (mostly) in one piece...

I bought a few new toys for him, hoping it would enable him to take out some of that pent up aggression he's dealing with. While he's never been big on wood toys, I bought him a small non-intimidating one that will be easily broken. It is even cut at just the right angle to allow it to break apart in chips, rather than splintering. Hopefully he will see how much destruction he can cause and will start to enjoy wood. I added some leather strips to the toy to get his attention. (Snoball loves leather.) I also found this dog toy that was perfect for him. It looks like a tiny rubber tire. It is made of non-toxic natural rubber, has lots of grooves and textures around the edge the way real tires do, and is hollow on the inside like a real tire. Best of all, it is made for dogs so the rubber is REALLY tough. He seems to enjoy it so far. He was playing with it in the store, trying to pull the textures off. I am thinking I can hide treats in the hollowed-out part. Snoball's favorite thing to chew is rubber or plastic - anything squishy and chewy - so this should be right up his alley.

The acrylic toy in the back is a clear tube with a ball that rolls back and forth. I can put treats inside and he has to move the ball to get to them. It hangs mobile-style with a key on one side and a plastic ring on the other. One of the girls I work with gave it to him as a gift and he seems to really like it. :)

So, in addition to trying new toys, I am going to give the vet a call on Monday and see if he doesn't have anything homeopathic that I can give Snoball to help calm him down a tad. If not, well, I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, aye? Have a good night, guys.

The post that has no title

I haven't been updating this blog lately because Snoball and I have been posting updates on Facebook. There's a nifty little thing called "Birdbook" which is like Facebook, but for birds! The majority of Snoball's updates have been going there. However, Snoball reminded me tonight that not all of his fans are on Facebook, and asked if he could post an update on his blog. I told him he could, so I'll let him take it from here. ;)

~

Hello!

Mom hasn't been posting on here so I told her I would do it. And I asked her to post the picture of me at the top. I was eating beef stroganoff, but Mom said there was no real beef in it. She said it was "vegetarian." I don't know what that means, but it was really good! I ate all of my noodles and some of hers, too. And I ate the meatballs and green beans. I have red pepper on my face in the picture. Its kind of embarrassing. Mom always has to clean my feet and my face after I eat. She puts my feet in the sink and gets them all wet. It feels weird. And she is always wiping my face off. I tell her she embarrasses me, but I don't think she cares.

Yesterday we had tofu for dinner. Mom let me share off her plate and it was really good! She made rice too and that was my favorite part, especially since it had some sauce stuff on it that tasted really yummy.

Mom lets me cuddle with her at night, and when she comes home. She is always working on the computer, and I don't like that so I sit with her and try to get her attention. Usually when I hold her hand she pays attention. And then I get petted and rubbed. I like that. :) If I am good I can sit with her while she works, but that gets boring. And when I try to play with the computer keys she gets mad. I dont think it's fair that she gets to play with them and I don't.

Sometimes Mom and I make a tent and play in it. I want her to post a picture. I will get her to put one here.

(Sorry to interrupt, guys - here's the photo Snoball was talking about:)

Yeah, that's the picture. See? Mom is bigger than me, so when she's in the tent it makes lots of room for me. I like when we cuddle in our tent. Nobody can see us and then nobody bugs us.

I have lots to talk about but Mom says you guys won't want to hear about everything we do every day. So can I just tell you a few things? Real quick? Ok. Um, we went for a walk today and Mom took me down by this thingy that she said is where the ocean meets a big lake. And she said when the ocean gets too big, it can go through this thingy and go into the lake. Or maybe that is backwards. Maybe when the lake gets too big it goes in the ocean? I don't know what a lake is, but the ocean is lots and LOTS of water so I bet it gets too big a lot. And there were other birds there too! David said they were catching fish. Mom has lots of fish but I dont want to catch them. Sometimes I watch them, but they are boring. So I dont know why those other birds would want to catch the fish. And these two ladies came and said hi to me! They called me a "parroquet" and Mom said that's because they were French. But they told me I was handsome and I like that so I guess I like French.

Mom said she would post more pictures now. I will let her. Goodnight! I love you!

 - Snoball

Ok guys, here's some new(ish) photos of Snoball. :)

Sleepy Snoball... <3

Biiiiig stretch!

Living the South Florida lifestyle 8-)

Tomorrow is going to be a picture day for me, so perhaps I'll get some more good pictures of Snoball. Does he ever take a bad one?! -lol- Goodnight, guys.

Yay! New toys!

Christmas came a little early for Snoball. Well, he'll still be getting something for christmas with the other birds, but he got all this in addition:



That's a massive photo so you might have to open it in a separate window. There were a lot of toys to get into the picture. I also took this one (because I luffs his foots):



I'm going to hunt down a big wicker basket to keep them all in. I already have a small basket that sits on his tree stand and holds his little toys. The blocks came in a big plastic bag but the zipper was broken and it was covered in sticky stuff. I threw that away as quickly as possible... So now I want a big wicker basket that can sit on the floor beside his cage and hold all his blocks. :)