Monday was our first real day with Casper in our home. I was at work while Jen and Jamie are working from home for work and school for at least a few more weeks. Casper was mostly quiet during the day spending his time exploring the cage and staring intently at my Amazon Parrot Herbie, who was not a fan of this activity. He spent much of the day using his alert calls of "Hi Herb" or a loud beep to make sure his flock was aware there was a large strange bird in the house. Bo, my African grey, seemed oblivious to the newcomer and went on his merry way. Later on in the afternoon Casper started to make some sounds including the occasional loud squawk, but not all out screaming.
Casper is reportedly a very picky eater, which so far is pretty much the case. He hasn't eaten much out of his food bowl. He was on a mostly seed diet and got some Dave's Bread in the morning as a treat. I will be working hard to transition him off the seed and onto a pellet based diet with chop. He also likes pasta and rice so I will be adding some to the chop to hopefully encourage him to try it. He absolutely loves the Dave's Bread, so I am going to make some birdie bread tonight which is mostly made from ground up pellets so that might help the transition as well. I think he probably got a lot of human food in his diet also which I will use sparingly for training and treat purposes instead of for his diet.
After dinner it was time to let Casper out and learn a little more about him. Honestly I was a bit timid. Too's have big beaks, big personalities, and it can be hard to read their body language. I wasn't sure what to expect. Interacting with a strange bird the first time is always a bit risky, there is a good chance someones going to bleed and it is usually me. I opened the cage door and waited to see what kind of dinosaur walked out: velociraptor or Barney.
Casper came out slowly and on his own terms. He explored the opening a few times then retreated only to try it once again. Finally he emerged.
I put a bunch of boxes up on top of the cage because I knew he would want to head up as soon as he got out and I wanted to take that option away. Last thing I need is an angry Too way up high above my head. I let him explore for a while and then took the chance and put my hand out and made a scratching motion with my finger. The moment of truth had arrived. Barney walked over.
He was quite sweet and let all of us scratch his head.
He was reluctant to step up for a few minutes but eventually got into the spirit.
We sat down and spent some quality time with Casper. Turns out he is more puppy than dinosaur. As we sat on the couch he went from person to person begging for head scratches often making sweet contented sounds. He let Jamie spread out his wings and Jen and Jamie had a field day picking the pins on his head. He loved every minute of it.