Comfy

Angry grape

BOTD: Mexican Parrotlet

Photo: fabrice82

"Tiny, social, and excited-sounding parrot of tropical lowlands endemic to west Mexico. Found in forests, plantations, and semiopen areas with tall trees, including towns and villages. Rarely seen far from fruiting fig trees, in which birds can be very difficult to see, because they are the size and color of fig leaves. Usually seen in flocks of 10–100 birds that move in fast, slightly bounding flight, flashing green and turquoise."

- eBird

I finished my lovebirds today 🥰. Acryic paint isn't my favourite medium, but I love how vibrant these little guys turned out to be.

What do you think?

BEEPUS

(from Parrots of the Wild, Catherine Ann Toft and Timothy F. Wright)

Lil' Peep 🐤

My boy 😊🥰

I’ve been Going Through It* recently,

and the current ongoing “It” is my (obviously poorly genetic’d**) parrotlet that my old boss gave me to take care of (she was a surrender at the parrot rescue I worked for) is trying to lay an egg. She had a weird thing where she seemed to form egg(s?), then partially absorb it, then form one again...? I’ve never seen a parrot look gravid for this long, and she seems to finally be ready to pass it in the next day or so... I’m just really worried she’ll get eggbound... (I lost my first parakeet to her getting eggbound after her mate died...) I’ve put coconut oil on her bum, bathed her in warm Epsom salt water (unscented), gave her extra calcium from human calcium pills, and fed her hard-boiled egg. Just... ugh... I feel like the most informed inadequate person alive. This is a thing in a long line of events that have happened over the last 2-3 weeks, and I NEED her to live. *A close family friend had a couple strokes, my little sister seems to be having random neurological events that kinda look like strokes but aren’t, my doves got eaten by raccoons, I failed to save a fledgling someone brought to me in trust, I had a bad lower back sunburn, I dropped my phone’s face on rocks and fractured the shit outta the bottom half of the screen, and, the worst fking thing of all, my last childhood pet Ebony (The Best Pupper) was put to sleep on Friday.

**She’s a turquoise mutation pacific parrotlet with oddly shaped eyes that make me suspect she might be a little too inbred... I always stick with green p’lets, usually male, because I want to deal with as few health issues in small birds as possible, since vet intervention is usually a coin toss for anything smaller than a cockatiel...

How to identify different types of birds: If you'd like to learn how to draw and color these birds, you can pre-order my book! Out May 7th

Feeding a parrotlet in Germany is ridiculous and more people should know about this.

The recommended intake of fats for parrotlets is around 6%.

There are three vendors for parrotlet seed mixes in all of Germany (one of them being amazon, two of them being privately owned businesses with like 3 employers from what I could gleam). You need to order that stuff. And in the best one I've found so far, there's 30% fat. In the worst one, it's 50%.

There are no pellets. (Pellets are usually recommended in other countries because that way you can control that your parrotlet doesn't only eat the fat seeds and leave the others in the bowl; however they aren't without controversy of course.)

The only thing you can do, is make your own seed mixes, which requires a lot of research and is SO. EXPENSIVE. For premade seed mixes for parrotlets, I'd pay around 4€ per kg. If I make it myself, I pay about 12€ per kg.

Parrotlet Plush are LIVE!!! Click here to get yours :) 

slee,b,,y

Afternoon nap

Cobalt-Rumped Parrotlet (Forpus xanthopterygius)

Geronimooo!, 2023

Trade with @corviforms of their gryphon taking a flying leap into a pile of crisp autumn leaves. Check out Corviforms' excellent pins and other bird merch over at their store!

Green-rumped Parrotlet