Kermit, my Senegal Parrot, the only angel left in the family, had some changes in his behaviors. He’s really quiet most of the time and less active. Probably, he realized that Kiki was no longer there to bug him. Kermit is not the only experiencing the change, including me and my family members were still missing all the fun and laughter brought over by Kiki.

Life is indeed monotonous without Kiki now. I’ve to admit the blog started to be a little less exciting without the presence and updates of Kiki.

Lately, I tried to dig out some unrevealed videos and pictures of Kiki to share with everyone. Here’s another video captured on 23rd May this year, featuring Kiki with Kermit on the playstand:

These was the closest they can get. Kiki was expecting a share of the food with Kermit, but Kermit seemed couldn’t be bothered by Kiki’s reaction. Probably Kermit was still living in his own world at that stage!

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Kiki MIA

After 2 weeks of training, with a 5 minutes short training session daily, I managed to get Kermit to perform the Basketball Trick. I’m really glad that Kermit finally made it, despite he took a long while to understand and meeting the objective.

I’ve edited a short clip of the performance and uploaded to YouTube, hope everyone will enjoy the video:

Months back, I stopped all Kermit’s training routines due to health issues and facing some minor behavioral problems. I wanted to resolve all the outstanding issues first, and also not to stress Kermit further.

Just weeks ago when Kermit received a clean bill from his medical review, it’s when I decided to resume with the trick training session for Kermit.

It wasn’t easy to train Kermit to perform any tricks. He is a slow learner and a reluctant performer. Kermit, a Senegal Parrot is totally different from any other outgoing and bold species like Caique, Conures and Lovebirds. The training methods and training pace that was once used on Kiki can never be enforced on Kermit.

I need to be extremely patience and be extra sensitive when dealing the training on Kermit. Any wrong move can affect training progress, even worst causing frustration resulting in aggression.Thus, I had to be extremely careful on how I execute the training.

With lots of patience, consistency in training and determination, nothing is impossible!

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Kermit’s Medical Review - Clean Bill of Health
Kermit’s Visit to the Vet

I brought Kermit back to Dr Kenneth’s clinic for medical review. I was glad that Dr Kenneth told me that Kermit’s discharge within the beak was all cleared. Kermit passed his poop test, all the physical examinations. It was great to get a clean bill of Kermit’s health.

Before leaving the clinic, I requested Dr Kenneth to conduct a round de-worming session for Kermit as a precautionary measure. Doing once and for all!

I’m sure Kermit is now the fittest and in pink of health!

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Kermit’s Visit to the Vet

I’ve to admit Kermit’s vocabulary is increasing day by day.  What I can really say about Senegal Parrots, they pretty talented talkers. So far I had already recorded Kermit saying word like “Peek-a-Boo” and mimic funny sound like the human laughter and the baby-like mumbling.

To be honest, he knows other words but I lacked the chance in capturing them. This morning when I was preparing breakfast for Kermit and Kiki, Kermit replied with his own name “Kermit”. The word “Kermit” was clear and distinctive. Below is the short sound clip that I recorded:

Sound Clip of Kermit saying his own name

It’s great to see that Kermit has learned his own name. I am really hope that one day he will learn to call my name, Bryan.

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Kermit’s Mimicry: Peek-a-Boo

Kermit may not be the best talker compared to any African Greys or Amazons, but he has his own great talents of mimicking sounds. Lately, Kermit managed to pick up mimicking laughter from me. Do take note the first and third laughs were from me, whereas the second, fourth and fifth laughs belong to Kermit.

Sound Clip of Kermit’s Laughter

I’ve to admit that his laughter sounds abit fake and rather low in pitch. I’m very certain that Kermit already did his very best. Furthermore, Senegal Parrots are not known for their mimic abilities.

Many must have read about Kermit’s visit to the vet last Saturday. Thanks to everyone for your concerns about Kermit’s condition. He’s doing perfectly well and I’m confident that his current condition will improve.

Although Kermit is still undergoing medication, he still remain active and positive. Everyday seems like a new day of adventure and he is full of surprises.

Indeed, he did surprise me again yesterday with his new mischievous act.

Notice the blue and yellow colored rings on the playstand in the picture (By the way can you spot Kiki in the picture?) on the left?

Those are actually meant to be foot toys for Kermit and Kiki. Apparently, Kermit had devised a new way of playing them. I truly adore his innovation of “Play Hard 101″. So for now, let me unveil Kermit’s new innovating way of playing the toys rings - “Splash-O-Slam Dunk”.

It’s Kermit’s own verse of Slam Dunk - removing the rings and dunk them in the water bowl. It’s fun watching him doing it and he enjoys doing it, but hard on me! He created a whole lot mess and splashes around the playstand!

Today I brought Kermit over to the vet for consultation. Don’t worry folks, Kermit is alright and he is not seriously ill.

Just that I noticed some slight symptoms on Kermit which I found disturbing, thus I decided not to wait and bring him over to the vet immediately.

Kermit seems to be having bad breathes lately and having protruding breast bone. I can feel the keel is sharp. These are not good signs.

Bad breathes can be a sign of Yeast Infection also known as Candida, and this is what I fear most as candida is contagious and can be spread to other birds that get in contact with Kermit.

Next, the issue on protruding breast bone simply signifies that Kermit can be severely underweight. I’ve a kitchen scale and I do regularly keep weight records of Kermit. Kermit weighs an average weight of 130 grams and this indicates that Kermit is of an acceptable weight.

Based on Parrot Average Weight Chart provided on Avianweb.com, a healthy Senegal weighs around 110 -130 grams. I’m totally clueless about Kermit’s protruding breast bone when he falls in between the acceptable weight range.

I brought Kermit to Dr Kenneth Tong from Animal & Avian Veterinary Clinic located at Yishun Street 71, Singapore. It’s my first visit to the Animal & Avian Veterinary Clinic, but I’m really impressed with Dr Kenneth and his team’s friendliness and professionalism.

Back about Kermit’s check-up, Dr Kenneth did a few Q&A with me to find out more details and situation of Kermit. First, he did a weight test for Kermit, apparently Kermit weighs 130 grams. Kermit indeed seems fine from the readings on the weighing scale, but the protruding breast bone did drew Dr Kenneth’s attention. Dr Kenneth observed the feces samples, appearing that Kermit’s poops are okay without any abnormalities.

As for the issue on bad breath, Dr Kenneth did a close examination in within the beak. He noticed some mild discharge appear in within, but he added that it’s actually a small issue and not to be too worry of.

After several examinations and tests, Dr Kenneth indicated that Kermit seems to be alright and he’s also totally clueless about the protruding breast bone (weight loss) issue. He added it might be the result of stress, as Kermit is undergoing his first molting.

Kermit was provided with Multi-vitamins and Antibiotics to assist him in improving his current physical condition. In three weeks time, Kermit will be coming back for a medical review before making any diagnosis and treatment if his condition doesn’t improve.

Let’s pray and hope Kermit’s condition will gradually improve!

During this evening, I was lucky to capture a funny video of Kermit. He never fails to make people laugh at his silly acts.

Lately I just bought Kermit a toy ball. I took nearly a week for him completely get use to it and not fear of it. This evening, I was lured by ear-splitting rings from the toy ball and I decided to take a look at what Kermit was messing about.

For a moment, he was lying on his back enjoying and playing with the ball. He did look like a seal juggling with a ball at that moment. Few minutes later, I saw him tossing madly and forcing the toy ball out of his territory.

So is that Love or Hate? Perhaps you shall be the judge.

Previously I wrote about ethoxyquin found on some of the commercial seed mixes that can posed dangers to parrots’ health. Although there are some commercial seed mixes are free from ethoxyquin, naturally preserved and truly organic, but they still have one thing in common that I hated most.

Sunflower Seeds! Well not the sunflower seeds that rose the hatred but just that commercial seed mixes are flooded with too many sunflower seeds. The picture of the big pack of sunflower seeds, are actually sunflower seeds extracted from 1.5kg of quality commercial seed mixes and I stored them in Zip-lock bags as treats for future training purposes.

Reasonably amount of sunflower seeds can be healthy in providing the required vitamin E and fatty acids that are essential to parrots. Anything that are excessive or too much can be unhealthy. We all know that parrots are programmed to love seeds especially SUNFLOWER seeds. Parrots just “worship” them.

Whenever sunflower seeds are abundant, parrots have the tendency to be engrossed, enjoying sunflower seeds and ignoring other healthy grains. In fact, they will be just too full (crop totally filled up by sunflower seeds) and lazy to try other foods. This can be one reason why most parrots are overweight or malnutrition. In the long run, this can be a potential health hazard.

In fact I’m planning to prepare my own seed mixes. This way I have to the option to restrict the amount of sunflower seeds or safflower seeds, creating a healthier seed mixes. It can be lots of work, but I think it’s worth investing the time and money. It can be cost effective in a way as I won’t have to throw away the excess sunflower seeds anymore. Furthermore, I won’t have to spend time extracting out the excess sunflower seeds.

Ever thought why your parrots stoned at times? To my knowledge and experiences, parrot stoned when they were alarmed (e.g. other noise or any other threats) or even out of fear.

During the late afternoon when I was in the kitchen doing some household cleaning and leaving Kermit on his playstand. It’s an unusual afternoon, usually Kermit will established contact calls with me whenever I’m out of sight. Strangly enough he was totally quiet. I tried initiating a contact call by whistling to Kermit, he didn’t response any of my calls. I didn’t feel quite comfortable about this, thus I went to the living room to check whether Kermit was alright.

Kermit was on the play-stand but he looked really stoned. He was completely stoned with a pine nut shell in his beak and not doing anything. I observed the surroundings whether there’s any things, wild birds or insects that triggered him to going to this state. Apparently there wasn’t! This went on for nearly 15 minutes, I immediately reached for my camera phone to capture this rare moment.

I’m still wondering whether was there really things that caught his attention which resulted him to stone, or was he really indulging to the classical music that I played in the background?

I think only he has the answers to the questions.