Haven’t had a chance to update the blog with the big news: I got a second bird! Mika is a two-year old white capped pionus — a total sweetheart of a parrot.

She joined Stewie and me last weekend.

Mika, the white capped pionus, reading a Washington Post
story about the rising cost of vet care.

I got her from a woman (via Craig’s List) who had to rehome her due to frequent overseas travel. Mika was clearly well loved. She steps up without hesitation and has only bitten me once, even though I’m a complete stranger to her and I’ve been having to towel her to give her medication.

Her integration into my household, I have to admit, has been a little rougher on Stewie (and me) than I was expecting. I was prepared for them not being best buddies right off the bat, but Stewie is having a tough time adjusting to the “interloper” in the house and he’s downright aggressive towards her.

Despite my efforts to keep him away from her, he flew to her cage on Wednesday, while she was inside, and bit her toe.

I freaked out, as you can imagine. I took Mika to my avian vet where they cleaned her up and prescribed some antibiotics, just to be safe. Poor girl — not only has she had to move into a new home where everything is unfamiliar, and she has to share her home with a little orange demon bird, but she has to be deal with me forcing medication into her twice a day. 🙁

Not to worry, she’s fine – the vet said it was minor. She’s being a total trooper about it; and like I said, I think I’m more stressed out than she is — she’s being very cooperative.

Mika playing with a foot toy.

Right now she and Stewie obviously have to be kept completely separated. For now, when he’s out of his cage, I have to erect a shoji screen around her cage so he doesn’t fly onto it. I’ll be bringing him to the vet to have his wings trimmed again. It’s a tough decision, since I do so enjoy having him flighted, but his little aerial attack is going to cost him his flying privileges — at least temporarily while they take more time to get used to each other.

It’ll probably take a few months before I can count on them being civil to each other (or rather, for Stewie to be civil to Mika, since she’s already a perfect lady) — so I’ll need to continue to enforce completely separate out of cage/play schedules for the two of them. In the mean time, all three of us are going to have to learn to adjust to the new routine and the new order of things.

Stay tuned for more details (and photos) about Mika and how the transition is going.