Pepper-Squeaks Toys

10/02/2023

**Foodie Friday**
How do you keep your produce fresh?

Not a sponsor! I saw an ad for these Rubbermaid Freshworks boxes and decided to try a couple. After a year of using them, I’m hooked!

I don’t know if it’s just my fridge or if these boxes are truly superior, but all the fruits and veggies I store in them last twice as long! Berries have been a big problem for me molding really quickly, but now my birds and I can enjoy them!
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08/02/2023

**Two Toy Tuesday **
Better late than never!
This weeks toys are finally ready, and I couldn’t be more happy with how they turned out! The shop will be open very soon; I’m hoping for early March!
Don’t forget to stay tuned for the giveaway coming up to celebrate!

03/02/2023

**Foodie Friday**
Let’s talk frozen vegetables!
While I personally lean toward as much fresh/never cooked as possible, sometimes it’s just not possible! I’m my area, there’s definitely a lack of quality ingredients year round. So, with frozen vegetables, we can mix it up a little. In order to maintain as much nutrition as possible, I always thaw my veggies either in the fridge or in warm water.

How do your birds like frozen veggies? Do they like them? Love them? Hate them? Let me know!

27/01/2023

**Foodie Friday** This weeks fresh for Fern and the gang is baby spring mix, red radish wheels, yellow squash wheels, shredded carrots, alfalfa sprouts, and to absorb moisture chia seed, caraway, flax, anise seed, powdered celery, and rosemary!

26/01/2023

How is everyone today? What’s new with you?

18/01/2023

**Why Wednesday** Why are the colors blue and white so special in birds?

Most colors seen in animals are created through amino acid pigments in the skin, feathers, scales, etc. Most of us are familiar with how different levels of the amino acid melanin cause different shades of brown. Birds use a combination of melanins, carotenoids, and porphyrins to pigment their feathers, eyes, and skin. These 3 amino acids can produce many colors and tones including red, orange, yellow, green, and brown.

So how is it that there are bird with bright blue and white feathers if there are no pigments that produce them? This is due to something called “Structural Colors”. If you remember back to science class, you may remember talking about how light can be refracted or bent, scattered, reflected.

Blue and white are visually produced with special structures in the feather that scatter the light in just the right way to change the color! If you were to take a red feather and grind it up, it will still look red. If you grind up a blue feather, it will look tan!

The structural colors will also change when the feathers are wet because the water refracts the scattered light and disrupts how the structures work!

Have you noticed your birds looking drab after a good soaking bath?

Structural color image photo credit to Andrew Leach
🐤 🐦🐦🐦🐦💜

17/01/2023

**Two Toy Tuesday**
Two new items this week! Nothing is officially for sale just yet, but we’re getting so close to to launching the store! More information to come plus stay tuned for a celebratory grand opening toy giveaway!
🐦

16/01/2023

**Mental Health Monday**
Let’s talk about mirrors.

Mirrors have been common in bird toys for ages, and thankfully this is starting to change.

Parrots of all species are very smart creatures. One thing I feel that defines them more than their smarts, is their social proclivity.

While there are exceptions to every rule, the instinct for birds to bond, whether it be to a flock or exclusively to a mate, is very strong. I would argue for every bird that doesn’t understand the bird in the mirror is themself, there is another bird that does, but is so socially in need they do not care.

Mirrors can seem like a great short term fix for boredom, but they almost always lead to long term problems. They can become an item of obsession, which can lead to protection of the item and then aggression. The bonding desire for the figment in the mirror can cause a bird to become stuck in pair bonding rituals that are never completed, causing frustration and unnecessarily increasing hormones.

Another issue that arises with this increase of hormones is messy breeding behaviors. Many birds regurgitate on the mirrors, toys etc. leaving crusts of food for you to clean up, plus a health risk from rotting food in their cage.

What can be done?

For new birds, it’s always best to avoid mirrors from the start. Giving your bird adequate time to be social with you is paramount to filling this need.

For birds who have had them a while, it can be very difficult to balance focusing on getting the mirror out and avoiding the distress a sudden loss of the mirror can cause.

If the end goal is a bird that is bonded with you, then work will be required to bring them back around. If this is not the case, it will likely be best for the bird to find them a companion and remove the mirror when you are able.

13/01/2023

**Foodie Friday**
Fresh round of chop today!

Cranberries, green grapes, spinach, daikon radish, ground cinnamon, black sesame seeds, soaked walnuts, carrot, dill, cabbage, and chia microgreens! Believe it or not, I feed this to my aviary finches too, but I will chop things more finely for them. The favorite is always anything leafy green!

12/01/2023

Meet Jade! She is a Java Rice Finch that lives in my aviary. Sometimes Java Rice finches can be a little aggressive (mostly when there is a breeding pair), but she gets along wonderfully with my other littles. She may be large and intimidating with her heavy beak but she’s an absolute sweetie!

11/01/2023

**Why Wednesday** Why do pet birds come in so many colors?

If you remember back to science class, you may remember talking about hair color, eye color etc and how genetics can affect how you look. Many colors of birds that you would not see in the wild come about through mutations or errors in copying the genes from the parents.

Normally, bird with these colors in the wild stand out and are easy for predators to spot, eliminating the color from the gene pool. When we breed birds for pets, the interesting and unique colors are selectively bred to get more bird with that color. While birds express colors from their genes, they have a much more complicated way that they do so when compared with humans.

The article below does a good job of explaining some of the basics in pidgins if you’re interested in more detail! https://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/pigeons/color

Stay tuned for next weeks Why Wednesday where we will discuss what makes blue birds and white birds so special!

Some color mutations have really fun names, what color mutations do your birds have?

🐤 🐦

10/01/2023

**Two Toy Tuesday**

I don’t have any fully made toys to preview for you this week, but here is a sneak peek of 2 parts I picked up to work with!

Nothing is for sale yet, but stay tuned for the grand opening in the coming weeks, with a giveaway!

07/01/2023

**Silly Saturday**
This cutie was playing peekaboo with me, what a sweetheart! (Not my bird)
😍 😍 🐦 🐦🐦🕊️ ♥️

06/01/2023

**FOODIE FRIDAY**
This week for my birds fresh food we have Arugula, Bee pollen, Cabbage, Carrots, Caraway seeds, Chia seeds, Flax seeds, sprouted Lentils, Oats, Red lettuce, Radish roots and tops, dried Raspberry leaf, Red pepper flakes, Spinach, Thyme, and Quinoa.

If you noticed, I haven’t included any fruits this week. This is something we’re struggling with! Fern will eat a little bit of dried fruit, and my finches will nibble blueberries, but they really don’t eat much fruit otherwise (yet).

How is your bird doing with eating fresh fruits and veggies?

05/01/2023

Meet Fern! This is my little Red Rumped parakeet, who is very nearly 4 years old! She’s my little buddy who is a little flighty like most parakeets. She doesn’t whistle much and hasn’t picked up any words, but she has her very own special call for us!
🐦

04/01/2023

**WHY WEDNESDAY**
Why does my bird dump food in its water?
The current popular thought of why many species of birds drop their food is based on physiology. Since don’t have teeth, much of what they swallow goes down in chunks with minimal saliva to aid in pre-digestion. Many bird will leave hard or fibrous foods soaking in their water to soften them before eating. Does your bird do this? Do you think they’re softening their food, or just playing, I’d love to know what you think!

03/01/2023

**TWO TOY TUESDAY**
Welcome to the first Two Toy Tuesday! I will be posting sneak peaks of upcoming toys on Tuesdays. The shop isn’t open just yet, but stay tuned for the grand opening which includes a toy giveaway!

02/01/2023

**MENTAL HEALTH MONDAY**

As we enter another new year full of resolution and good intentions, its a good time to think about how often your birds cage is rearranged. Much like how we enjoy a change of scenery, our feathered friends of all sizes benefit greatly from having all the items in their cage moved around.

Many recommend that once a month, you take all items in your birds cage and move where they sit. "Perch potatoes" will especially need their favorite perch moved and rotated to help avoid a case of bumble foot.

If you have extra toys and perches, try to swap them out month to month to keep things extra fresh! This can be especially important for species prone to cage aggression/possession, as it can help disrupt the "nest" feeling, which in turn reduces hormones which can reduce biting, plucking and other behavior disorders!

How does your bird act when you move it’s toys and perches? Does it do anything funny or weird?

Stay tuned for upcoming information about the store launch giveaway!

01/01/2023

Looking forward to an exciting new year! Toys will be for sale soon!

01/12/2022

01/12/2022

29/11/2022

More information to follow!