Zazu Takes A Bath

Flash & Zazu

I would like to introduce you to my daughter's parakeet, Zazu.  He is a constant source of entertainment.  He makes the most wonderful sounds, sings while he's asleep, and talks to us when he wants something. He also prances and dances, clucking, clicking, and then singing, and when he is super happy, he does the happy bird dance.  

Zazu's Happy Dance

I've read that the happy bird dance is something that all parakeets do, but people have a lot of different ideas on the reason for the dance.  

Zazu grabs a bar on his playground, and holding on tightly, he rapidly flaps his wings.  He looks like he's trying to lift his playground to carry it away.  Some people say they do this when they are bored, or when they want attention, but a lot of people believe they do this when they are really happy.  After a year of watching him, I'm pretty sure he does this when he's happy, so we call it the happy dance.

Curious Zazu

Zazu used to live in a cage, but he quickly became part of the family, and we don't keep family in a cage, so for more than a year, Zazu has had free reign of the house.  He's got a playground upstairs and downstairs, and voluntarily stays on these.  Once in a while he ventures out, forages for food, or explores a new room, but most of the time, he's happy to hang out on his stand.  

One day, he was sitting on my shoulder just chattering away and nibbling on my necklace.  I grabbed a large tumbler and filled it with water.  As I raised it to my mouth to take a drink, Zazu flew from my shoulder to the lip of the cup.  I set the cup on the counter and watched Zazu dive in and out, sometimes drinking the water, and sometimes swimming in the water.  He looked like he was having so much fun.  When he was finished, he jumped down, shivered, and then flew back to his playground.

These days, we've figured out when he wants his cup bath, and every bath is still very entertaining.  We used our GoPro and put together a short movie of Zazu's cup bath.  Isn't he adorable!