It's been really interesting having the pair-a-tweeters in the dining room of the new house. They really like their new location, since my mom left all of her plants there, and so now pair-a-tweeter manor is set among much hanging greenery. None of it is close enough for them to pull it into their cage - I have to make sure that none of the plants could be harmful to them. When I set the cage there both birds sat on their perch quietly for a minute. Then I saw them both start to look up and look around. They went from one side of the cage to the other, chirping.

Parakeets have a distinct call when they see something that interests them. It's like they're saying, "Hey! Look at this!" and that's what they did, pointing out the new levels of greenery to each other. Actually I have Donna to thank for the inspiration of putting them under the plants like that, because she got me a Bird Talk magazine for Christmas....

...and one of the articles was about how most pet birds view their environment. Since parakeets are prey birds ( they get eaten) they feel safest when they have some cover. I guess that's why Blondie (when she was Buckbeak) used to go hang out in the ficus tree each time we let her out.

Also, their new location is brighter, and probably a little warmer than the office of the old house.

The thing is, they like their new home so much that, in almost no time, serious courtship behaviour started up once again. This time, I have a better idea what I'm looking for. And Blondie and Dagwood, after inspecting their new location, have definately deemed it a nice place to raise a family.

"I guess they really are in love. They haven't been more than an inch away from each other all day." The Hub reported. He had some kind of flu or something. Naturally, as soon as he took some time off to do some work on OUR house he got so sick it was all he could do to stand up. But, at least he had the parakeets and the dog for company. "I guess we'll get eggs again any time."

Yesterday morning I noticed there was a mating dance going on in there. They were both really getting into it, ducking and bobbing, cheaping and chirping and then....Dagwood fell asleep. I'm not kidding! He just nodded off, right in the middle of their courtship routine leaving Blondie looking......well, kinda confused.

"Hunh. I guess he figures he hasn't got any competition in there, so he doesn't have to try too hard."The Hub opined.

I gave him a sharp look. "Is that what men think?"

"Huh? Who me?" he asked, looked around wildly. "I AM talking about the parakeets" he said. However his ears were red. Hmmm.

The vet said there was really no way to tell how old Dagwood is. I know that Blondie is really very young - so young that she has grown bigger since we got her. I wonder if age differences are a big deal in parakeet relationships. Well, I mean, besides that Dagwood keeps falling asleep.

They're a lot of fun to watch. For instance, I couldn't figure out why Blondie was so attached to the food dish on the side of the cage. Because we have two parakeets and it's said they feel better if they don't have to compete in any way for resources, I also have two feeding dishes. One, on the side,has a "seed guard." It's like a top that fits over the dish to minamize the amount of hulls that get thrown out of the cage. The water dish and the other dish on the front of the cage originally had them too, but the parakeets didn't like them and kept taking them off. I kept putting them back on, until finally I realized that I was in an argument with two birds who had nothing better to do all day than get those tops off. They weren't going to give up, so I did. I'm not sure what's worse: getting in a fight with parakeets or losing the fight to the parakeets!

However - there is a point to this story - trust me, it's coming up: I noticed that Blondie really likes the colored cereal part of her bird food. It's seed mixed with cereal and the kind of proteins that parakeets would otherwise get in a wild setting. But these pieces of cereal are a little too big for her to handle all at one time. So, what she does, is she picks up a colored cereal nugget out of the seed dish and holds it in her beak over the top of the seed guard. She tries to break it in half with her beak. If she can, one half falls and rests on top of the seed guard where she can pick it up easily. If she can't break it with her beak, or if the part that falls is still too big for her to handle she pulverizes the cereal against the top of the seed guard with her beak, causing it to break into many small peices which she then happily snaps up. Sometimes the part that breaks off bounces off the seed guard and falls out of the cage. Sometimes when she tries to pulverize it she knocks it off by accident. But she is not easily discouraged. I watched her do this over and over and over again.

It amazed me. I wonder: is that instinctive behaviour? If so, it's quite an instinct! Lets face it, I don't think there are too many plexiglass seed guards in the forest of Australia. Could it be a learned behaviour? If so, who taught it to her? Other parakeets at the pet store, maybe? Or could it really be problem solving? Could a creature that small solve that kind of problem? It sure looks like it to me - but I am inclined to think animals know more than people give them credit for in the first place.

One thing about them - their eyesight is certainly sharp! No sooner did The Hub wrestle that ficus tree in the door to the kitchen then they began to call out "Look at that! Look at that!" and hop around excitedly in their cage.

The question is, are they smart enough not to land on the wood stove if I let them out? I don' t think I'll chance that! I'd rather wait for a warm day then take another trip to the vet!