These stories are just awesome ! When I was growing up, we had parakeets, and we would bring them out to play in the evening . Mom had a whole little playground for them that was made out of wood and dowels, and they loved to climb all over and around on it. We had six of them, and invariably, one or two of them would decide to make a flying tour of the house.
After one landed in the toilet bowl before we could catch him; she clipped their wings, for fear that one would hurt them-self somehow, or manage to land in something hot. We always kept a pan of water on the oil stove which helped add humidity in the winter, and it would have killed them probably if one of the birds accidentally landed in that bowl.
We didn't know that birds would eat anything but birdseed, and that is what we fed them, and there was something that I think had little bits of fruits and veggies in it. She also got them a cuttlebone to chew on and take the edge off of their beak.
One thing that they all seemed to like was having a small mirror in the cage. They would always be talking to the bird in the mirror and trying to make friends.
