Slender-Billed Conures
by Eddie B. Horvath, Director
Castle Country Hookbills Inc.

Some words about Twiggy from Sally Blanchard of the Pet Bird Report
Quoted from an email I recived from Sally

	       "Twiggy is my only fully-flighted bird who actually flies around the
	    house - but not without very close supervision. Unless I bring her into
	    the office, I usually don't let her fly until after my mother  has gone
	    to bed because she takes the two little terriers with her.  They  don't
	    like a bird flying around the house and try to jump at her.

		Twiggy is very smart and very opinionated.  Actually  at this time,
	    she is  probably my best talker  since my African  Grey prefers to make
	    sounds.  Twiggy says  several words  and expressions.  Her favorite  is
	    "what are you doing?" but  she calls the dogs  and talks to  the  other
	    birds.  She  has  several greetings  and farewells.  She  says  a  very
	    enthusiastic "HI!"  I have some  food puzzle toys that I put a few sun-
	    flower seeds in. The parrots have to move circles to open  compartments
	    to get at the seeds. Twiggy is  clever enough to  have every seed eaten
	    before the  other birds have even  gotten to one  of them.  One of  her
	    favorite  ways to play is  something I have not  observed in most other
	    birds. She pulls several hanging toys over to her and then hunkers down
	    on her flat platform perch. Then she arranges her body so that the toys
	    are  resting on her or even places  her wings over one or two of  them.
	    She will  stay in this position  for a few minutes until she decides to
	    rearrange everything.

		Twiggy is much  like Spike, my caique,  in the sense that she seems
	    to view  much of life as her  personal amusement park.  Twiggy loves to
	    swing and be thrown (gently) in the  air to circle around  the room and
	    come back to me like a boomarang. I bring her out in the office and put
	    her on  a chair that rotates.  Her favorite  game is for me to spin the
	    chair around with her  on the back. When she comes  around close to me,
	    she  exclaims, "Peekaboo."  One  of her irritating habits  was flapping
	    her wings furiously while she would grab on to my finger and pinch it -
	    this hurt.  Since I let her fly, she stopped doing that because she can
	    get enough wing exercise without grabbing on to me.

		She is a pig and will eat anything I give her (in over abundance if
	    she  is allowed  to). I have  also heard they  can have a  tendency  to
	    become overweight  and I can  see why because  she was getting that way
	    until I started to let her fly.

		She takes awhile to trust and be comfortable with new people in the
	    house  and prefers to  spend her time  with me.  If I leave  her in the
	    office on a gym, she will fly into  the kitchen and living room looking
	    for me rather than  stay with either of my  employees who are  actually
	    quite wonderful to her."

	    	Here is  a drawing done by  Sally Blanchard that she was so kind to
	    share with me.

			

           Eddie B. Horvath, Owner/Breeder