Birds on Board
Cockatiels in their cage in Elixir's galley.
I included a picture of Tiki in my first blog post as I wrote about the beginning of the Elixir Project. It’s time to write more about these sweet, feathered friends that were a significant part of our time in the islands.
Living on the grounds of the Westin Kauai in the late 1980’s, we were exposed to the Exotic Bird Show that ran every day, and the various display birds on their perches throughout the luxurious hotel. Gavin quickly made friends with the bird handlers and followed them around, learning from them, as they cared for their charges. And of course, it wasn’t long before he was longing for birds of his own.
And yes, we ended up at the pet store and finding Tiki. They also had another very young cockatiel with a broken leg. It was not expected that she would live so we were able to buy her for a discount!
Feeding baby birds with a syringe.
It was amazing to watch the gentle care this ten-year-old showered on his feathered charges. Because Kiwi was so young she needed to be fed with a syringe, but Gavin did it multiple times a day until she grew stronger, her leg healed and soon she was flying around with Tiki. A miracle according to the bird breeders.
Bonded boy & birds.
As their feathers grew, Gavin was able to assist them in grooming. They would perch on his finger and put their heads down so he could reach their neck where the new pin feathers were emerging. He easily rubbed their keratin sheaths off and released their soft new feathers.
Hey, come on out and play!
Tiki’s favorite food was spaghetti. He’d land on the dinner table and pick an end of a spaghetti noodle up in his beak. Imagine trying to pick up spaghetti with a pair of scissors! But he’d keep trying. The chewed bits would build up around his beak creating large pasta boogers. When they got too big, he’d flick his head and they would end up on the walls or on anyone who was within flicking distance.
After seven months or so, we heard funny noises in the kitchen in between the cabinets. We couldn’t figure it out until Gavin climbed up on the counters and discovered there was a space between the cabinets and the birds were nesting down inside. Nesting, complete with Kiwi laying tiny white eggs.
And then we had to move aboard a fifty-foot boat … a much smaller space without room for them to fly. They were used to a small cage, but the door was always open and they flew in and out. Now they would be confined full time to their ‘bedroom’!
With the cabin hatch always open, it wasn’t long before we realized we would have to clip their flight feathers to prevent them from flying out of the boat. And that was hard on all of us. We were used to them freely landing on our shoulders and heads and dropping out of the air to say hello. They loved my earrings and would spend an hour just nibbling on the shiny stones in my ears and keeping me company as I sewed or cooked.
Fortuitously, a boat arrived in the slip beside ours in the marina. The couple aboard fell in love with the birds and ended up taking them home to the mainland to live with them in their large artist studio and loft. We kept in touch with this couple, and it wasn’t long before we heard back from them. After their safe arrival in San Francisco, Tiki and Kiwi flew free again, and eventually nested under an easel and had chicks!
Telephone cords and shoulders, favorite perches.
