Tina Kirmis volunteers at Greyhaven Exotic Bird Sanctuary, and when she first met Bruce, she knew she had to adopt him.

” Bruce will certainly be 15 years of ages this year,” Kirmis informed The Dodo. “I adopted him 6 years earlier when he was 9 … I thought he was simply also little to be there, and he seemed like a character hanging upside down in his cage.”

Kirmis has 5 other rescue birds at home, too, and even though he’s the smallest, Bruce certainly has the greatest personality of them all.

” He’s a huge personality in a tiny package,” Kirmis claimed. “Bruce is a Pacific parrotlet and is around 36 grams. He loves me however has little to no interest in my other birds other than to steal their food. He thinks nothing of going into Poppy’s cage and stealing her food, and she’s a cockatoo! He’s very quick when he flies and loves to hide in little places, so I must know where he goes to all times. He takes pleasure in sleeping on the dish rack and the lampshade in the kitchen home window.”

Food has actually always been one of Bruce’s favored things, and mealtime is extremely important to him. Unfortunately, Kirmis quickly realized that Bruce is a extremely messy eater, and after he’s completed eating, there’s a lot to tidy up. When he’s snacking on vegetables, it’s not a huge deal as those are quite easy to clean up. It’s the berries that pose a real problem.

” When I took Bruce for his first checkup, his avian veterinarian recommended I feed Bruce berries for antioxidants,” Kirmis said. “So I did and he flung them all over! I really did not want that to deter me from feeding him what benefited him, however. Even though I really didn’t like cleaning dried berries from the furniture, appliances, etc! After he eats his berries, he often flies over to my head or shoulder and cleans his berry beak on me. I don’t know how many times I’ve been out and touched my hair to find dried raspberries!”

Kirmis intended to locate a way to for Bruce to appreciate his berries without needing to clean up a massive mess every single time, so she chose to make him an eating dome. At first, she used a Tupperware container, however that was a little too small. So, she got creative and gave the dome an upgrade.

” I remembered something that I got from the dollar store,” Kirmis claimed. “It was a plant protector, so I thought that would be perfect. So I cut a door out and it’s worked completely. I simply run water over it and it cleans up quickly.”

Now, Bruce starts every morning by flying right into his eating dome for his berry morning meal. It’s the first thing he does when he wakes up, and his mother is so glad she had the ability to find a method for him to enjoy his berries without ruining the house.

Bruce may be little, but he’s mighty, and his eating dome guarantees that he can make as big a mess as he desires every single early morning. He truly is living his best life.