192 - Trixie's Tricks

Trixie is our quaker parakeet, sometimes referred to as a monk parakeet. Her full name is “Miss Trixie” after a character from one of my favorite books, A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, which you really should read if you haven’t yet - but I digress.

We’ve had her for 10 years now, and for the first nine she was one of the most sedate, mellow birds I have ever had. Quiet, mild mannered and not particularly playful - she rarely engages with any of the toys in her cage. Most of the time she just sat and watched us and occasionally enjoyed a ride on one of our shoulders for a while.

She doesn’t really do any tricks either.

Lately, however, this has changed. She’s taken to making way more sounds than usual, some of them quite odd (she still doesn’t talk despite the fact that quakers are notoriously good at speaking), and she’s also become unusually aggressive, or what appears to be aggressive, running up to people that approach her cage with her beak open, squawking and threatening to bite. She even does this with me at times, especially when I’m changing her water or refilling her food bowl.

I think I’ve figured it out though. I don’t think she’s being aggressive as much as she’s trying to play by imitating Eugene whom she’s jealous of, trying to get our attention. Eugene’s the dog I’ve mentioned in several previous posts. He’s quite active, plays with us by chewing and wrestling with our hands and chasing toys which keep him constantly engaged. She sees all this and, it’s my opinion she’s trying to imitate it.

If I take one of Eugene’s toys and hold it up to her, she goes absolutely bonkers, squawking and pecking and lunging at it.

Pets are interesting.