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Marshmallow Blue posted:Dream Catchers! Do you have a pattern for this? I'd love to make a couple of them
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Jun 5, 2013 17:39
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I didn't recall any dreams (good or bad) when I had it up. and now that I've taken it down for a long while. I've been getting night terrors.
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Things I have learned about Alexis in the past few days: 1. If I put chunks of apples in his dinner bowl he will only eat those until they are gone to the exclusion of everything else 2. He prefers to eat next to me, preferably while I am also eating, yet mostly sticks with his own food 3. He still needs to learn that My Shoulders are a privilege and not a right. I've figured out that the best way to get him off is to just lay down on the floor 4. He's starting to learn how good scritches feel... especially since he seems to be molting right now 5. Really gonna have to work on his in-house separation anxiety. Part of it is he doesn't play with toys right now--he either eats or wants to be with me at all times. Clicker training should help with this, book and clickers are arriving in the mail in the next day or two. I'm also considering taking away his Happy Hut now that he's starting to get used to being in my house. Really don't want to be encouraging hormonal behavior, particularly since he is right around the age to hit puberty.
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Jun 5, 2013 18:29
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KillerChicken posted:Do you have a pattern for this? I'd love to make a couple of them I just googled that one. But there's tutorials online on how to do them. Part of the fun is putting your own spin on it. Might only work if you make it yourself, if you wanna get voodoo about it. Probably be hot on ETSY too.
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Jun 5, 2013 21:12
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Good to know, thanks! Maybe I'll have another use for my vast yarn and feather collections.
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Jun 6, 2013 01:53
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Jun 6, 2013 02:38
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Yay, Alexis actually started chewing on one of his new chew toys this evening, and we've also started clicker training. He's still scared of new things but we're working on it, and also on boundaries. He's doing a lot better about not biting as much, too. Still working on getting him to not be hostile about leaving my shoulders, so mostly I've been getting him to stay on my knee and work on letting me pet him and scritch him for extended periods. He's a lot quieter this evening too, which I think also means he's calming down.
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Jun 6, 2013 03:06
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More of that parrot here: http://vani-lla.tumblr.com/  Edit: link fixing. Stannum fucked around with this message at 16:21 on Jun 6, 2013 |
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Jun 6, 2013 16:19
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I love this thread. As a kid I had a couple of budgies and they were so much fun. I'd love to have another, or maybe a cockatiel, but I have two kitties. They're so old (15) and uninterested in most things not catnip or head scratches that they probably would completely ignore the bird but that whole predator/prey thing... I dunno. I guess I'll just live vicariously through all of you, so more pictures and videos please! I know there are lots already but more will not hurt 
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Jun 6, 2013 18:38
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Alexis-cam is back up. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/alexis-the-dusky-conure He's being boring right now. I'm hoping he'll start playing with his toys soon--he did a bit last night with one of them, so that was a positive sign that he's starting to be more comfortable with his big life change.
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Jun 6, 2013 18:51
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Okay, bird thread. I have a question for you. So I have this cockatiel who's pretty old. I don't know his precise age, but he definitely acts and sorta looks like an old curmudgeon. He was adopted from a friend by my sister. She attempted to train him-- he wasn't hand trained OR perch trained when she got him, and also quite bitey-- but gave up way too easily. She is also at work a lot of the time so didn't have as much time to spend with him. She's had him for about a year now, and now he's back at the main house with me and the rest of the family. I've been trying to perch-train him, but considering I have no prior experience with cockatiels or any other bigger bird, I'm not really sure what to do. I've been sort of slowly but surely inching a perch into his cage (He hisses at it... of course.) before slowly trying to bring it up to him. He just freaks out and screams at it. I've done this for like hours a day and I'm not seeing any sign of improvement or comfort with the perch at all. Considering how old he is, is it a lost cause? Or am I just doing things wrong? Or am I not doing enough? I love the old guy anyway but seeing all these tame whippersnappers makes me want to un-spoil him a bit.  PS-- I'd clip his wings, but he has one bum foot (Has no toes on it; I think he was just born that way), so he has a hard time getting around as it is. Should I clip his wings anyway, despite the fact that this would greatly limit his general mobility?
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Jun 6, 2013 21:27
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Kenshin posted:Alexis-cam is back up. I think I caught him making laser pew pew noises.
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Jun 6, 2013 22:25
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Hahaha oh my god he is DEFINITELY shooting down rebel starfighters. edit to add: Lovebird https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDOKboG5OSA LITERALLY A BIRD fucked around with this message at 22:42 on Jun 6, 2013 |
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Jun 6, 2013 22:40
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SquadronROE posted:I think I caught him making laser pew pew noises. Yeah, he's been making cute and varied sounds to himself for about 45 minutes now. Those of you with conures will notice how amazingly quiet he is for a conure. Don't worry, he's sure to scream in my ear at the most startling times each morning. EDIT: oh my god he full on cuddled with me this evening.
Kenshin fucked around with this message at 02:58 on Jun 7, 2013 |
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Jun 6, 2013 22:45
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Joe Don Baker posted:
I missed this before somehow; I love his expression, it's so full of benign interest in whatever it was you were doing at that moment. I think a full crop makes for a mellow grey. I've noticed that Pookie is particularly mellow when she gets a cropful of something warm, like camomile tea - its like she has an internal hot water bottle
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Jun 6, 2013 22:46
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Captain Clown posted:I've been trying to perch-train him, but considering I have no prior experience with cockatiels or any other bigger bird, I'm not really sure what to do. I've been sort of slowly but surely inching a perch into his cage (He hisses at it... of course.) before slowly trying to bring it up to him. He just freaks out and screams at it. I've done this for like hours a day and I'm not seeing any sign of improvement or comfort with the perch at all. Birds that have mobility problems compensate with wings and their beaks. Clipping really would impact his mobility and stress him out. If he's caged in a secure, safe room (no windows to smack into, mirrors, etc), just open the cage door and let him come out on his own terms. Grab a book, sit down next to the cage, and let his grumpy rear end make the overtures of interaction. Birds are social creatures and despite that all-consuming hatred he's displaying, little derpbutt enjoys your company.
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Jun 7, 2013 02:07
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Official Bizness posted:Birds are social creatures and despite that all-consuming hatred he's displaying, little derpbutt enjoys your company. Think of it this way: he could be sitting all by himself, completely bored.... or he could have a mammal to glare at and hate!! Way better to have the entertainment of disgruntlement, yes?
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Jun 7, 2013 02:33
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Pookah posted:I missed this before somehow; I love his expression, it's so full of benign interest in whatever it was you were doing at that moment. I think a full crop makes for a mellow grey. I've noticed that Pookie is particularly mellow when she gets a cropful of something warm, like camomile tea - its like she has an internal hot water bottle They definitely enjoy a warm meal. When my mom takes him she feeds him warm baby food. He gags it down like when he was a baby. It puts him in a good mood. I also tried to setup a Hannah Cam but it didn't come out very good. I need a real webcam or something to make it viewable.
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Jun 7, 2013 03:28
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-OaO-HWTDY Cockatiel and budgie gold https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkSvE42zhLU Whoever said budgies dont kill lied https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv2mVg36rAc Rounding it out with creepy talking budgie masturbation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBgJjMVKKRk im dying guys guys birds dancing to dubstep compilation The cockatoo at 1:20 SO PRO ..and the cockatiel right after I think Im spending the rest of the night watching bird youtube vids
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Jun 7, 2013 03:53
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Malalol posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv2mVg36rAc This video started off with the budgie so close to the camera that it made me feel like he turned the camera on as if to show the entire world his sick video
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Jun 7, 2013 04:10
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Malalol posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBgJjMVKKRk It's a known fact that all members of family Cacatuidae have sick nasty moves  My favorite is the tiel strutting atop the desk, bobbing up and down. It is so perfect for the music, the bird is like, yes, I am a badass, deal with it.
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Jun 7, 2013 05:32
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So, I posted about poop on Ritz's vent a couple days ago and it was decided that he's just a messy bird... Oh, that's nothing.. just wearing a big chunk of raspberry as a hat 
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Jun 7, 2013 08:28
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0Iqx1WIjz8 Here's a video of some sweet fiddle shredding and an adorable derp. Sekkira fucked around with this message at 03:40 on Jun 8, 2013 |
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Jun 7, 2013 17:05
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This video does not exist. 
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Jun 7, 2013 17:39
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So ever since Leeloo realized that the kitchen sink=water she goes nutso whenever I do the dishes. I generally don't let her drown herself also one time she fell into the soapy dishwater and wasn't happy. But today she stood on my shoulders while I washed the dishes and did all her 'I'm taking a bath!' posturing, but this time she did it in my wet hair . Bird.
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Jun 8, 2013 01:33
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oq_PA2Rgaws Oh my god he is so snuggly now that he trusts me.
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Jun 8, 2013 01:39
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I bought Hannah some toys from that safebirdstore site. I got him some sort of wheel that he has to turn a thing to get treats out of. Took him about two seconds to figure it out. I also bought a chew toy. It's just some wood slats hung together with a leather string. Hannah chewed up one piece of wood and then decided it was more fun just to un-knot the leather and let it fall to the bottom of his perch. I'll redo the knot and hang it back up only for him to undo it a few minutes later. What a jerk.
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Jun 8, 2013 02:02
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Kenshin: Cuddly bird is adorable!!  So this is the weekend where Bird and I get to have wild parties all by ourselves! We're going to eat lots of veggies and go to bed really early! Wooo!!! When I got home from work, I saw that my roommate had re-arranged Bird's cage. That's the third time in 2 weeks, which seems like too much, but it's all good because I spent a bunch of time playing with Bird with her toys so she could see where everything is now and how to get to it. Then she went for some walks (where I stick my fingers through the bars and she climbs and hops across them). She goes nuts for walks! It's to the point now where if I say "Want walk?" she will run to the perch we usually start our walks from. Very cute! After playtime, we had some dinner! Bird ate a wee bit of tofu, tonnes of kale, broccoli, and spinach, and had a bit of roasted carrot and pineapple. She wanted nothing to do with red bell pepper or mango today. I left the cage door open while we ate, and she ended up flying out and onto my plate (BIRD STOP THINKING YOU ARE FOOD!). I don't like to take her out of the cage but she clearly wanted to come out this time, so I had her come up onto my hand and I put her and her food up at the top of the cage. She ate for a bit from my hand. She sometimes likes to stand on my hand while she eats, which is cute but weird. Here's us having a kale party, after she had eaten the leaves and was murdering some stems:  A pretty little green girl eating some pineapple while standing in her pellets:  She got bored of eating and decided I am a playground. Her favourite human perches seem to be my shoulder, my wrist, and my... errrr... chest. I was wearing a big baggy robe so she was playing around in all the folds in it. Too cute! Also, I figured out what was up with the mouth thing. I thought she had been trying to get into my mouth, but it was always through the bars, so it's clear now that I was wrong. It turns out she was trying to gently nibble on my lips. I can't even guess what that means, or if it's something I should even be letting her do (?). I tried to get a picture of her standing on my chest. She decided to eat the camera:  I successfully got a picture of her standing on my wrist. The picture's blurry because she was just about to bite the camera again:  Bird got way too wound up so I put her back in her house, but left the door open. We then had a broccoli party:  We then had a bit more playtime, then some pats. I turned off a few lights and closed the blinds to let her wind down. I'll go back out in about 20 minutes to give her some bedtime pats, and then it's sleepytime for her. Bird far prefers to eat food if it's from your hand. Food from her dish is okay, but she's way more into it if you're holding it for her. My roommate says not to feed her from my hand because it's spoiling her and she needs to learn to eat from her dish. Is it a bad idea to feed her from my hand?
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Jun 8, 2013 02:21
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No, hand feed her all you like. Birds aren't dumb, she'll eat from her bowl if she's hungry and has no other food. Hand feeding builds trust and keeps a bird hand tame as life goes on. You aren't feeding anything she shouldn't have- it's all super good for her and the interaction will strengthen her feeling of "flock" and keep her mentally healthy too. Your roommate is dumb- if people insist on imprinting birds on people they could at least shift their asses to interact with the creatures. Lenswork fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Jun 8, 2013 |
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Jun 8, 2013 02:26
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electricgoat posted:
I dont think its a bad thing that the cage is rearranged either. Keeps things new and fresh for the bird, especially if they are shut in there for long amounts of time.
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Jun 8, 2013 02:59
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Lenswork: I'm not at all a fan of people keeping birds (or other exotic animals) as pets, so I definitely agree that if people are going to do it, they should at least give their birds the love and attention they need. I'm glad I'm not screwing her up by feeding her from my hands. Frogmanv2: My roommate does try to take her out daily, though it usually ends up only being 3-4 times a week, and not for long periods of time. He's kind of a jerk to her when she's out, so she tends to spend her time out of the cage flying away from him and crashing into stuff. I'm quite concerned she'll hurt herself. I am not allowed to take her out of her cage, or even open the cage door, but my roommate's not around to stop me this weekend. I was very worried she'd freak out when she was out with me, but she was pretty chill. She definitely prefers to be in her cage, though. I'm glad it's okay for her cage to be re-arranged so often. I was worried she wasn't getting enough time to get used to it, but I'm glad that's not an issue! Food question: Tomorrow's breakfast is oatmeal with raisins, cinnamon, and toasted almonds, followed by a banana. Is that all okay for her? Dinner will be spinach, oranges, almonds, black beans, green beans, chickpeas, beets, sweet potato, kale, and brown rice. Are any of those not okay for her to eat? I was going to cook the brown rice up in some veggie broth, but would that be too salty for her?
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Jun 8, 2013 03:58
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electricgoat posted:Food question: Tomorrow's breakfast is oatmeal with raisins, cinnamon, and toasted almonds, followed by a banana. Is that all okay for her? Dinner will be spinach, oranges, almonds, black beans, green beans, chickpeas, beets, sweet potato, kale, and brown rice. Are any of those not okay for her to eat? I was going to cook the brown rice up in some veggie broth, but would that be too salty for her?
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Jun 8, 2013 04:00
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SaNChEzZ posted:This video does not exist. I fixed it up. I keep leaving off the last letter.
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Jun 8, 2013 04:02
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Kenshin posted:All of those are great, just give her very little of the brown rice due to the salt content. Also she doesn't need much of the banana or almonds. Would corn be a better choice than the brown rice? And would an apple be better than the banana? (And thanks as always for your advice!)
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Jun 8, 2013 04:19
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electricgoat posted:Would corn be a better choice than the brown rice? And would an apple be better than the banana? (And thanks as always for your advice!) Make sure its lukewarm throughout. Hot foods are bad for birdy crops!
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Jun 8, 2013 05:08
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Unsurprisingly the birds don't seem to miss me while I'm away, though I think I miss them. It's so weird not having to plan mornings around waking them up and getting their breakfast, and being able to walk wherever I want without something screaming or flying after me.electricgoat posted:Would corn be a better choice than the brown rice? And would an apple be better than the banana? (And thanks as always for your advice!) It seems hard to find a parrot that doesn't like apple, give her everything and see what she'll have. It's nice to see she isn't completely broken, and will still happily interact with people if all is well. She's so tiny and looks adorable stood on your hand there!
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Jun 8, 2013 08:22
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Does anybody else's bird talk in their sleep? Last night Ritz was having a full on conversation of honks and squeaks with himself. I lifted his cover to see if he was awake, only to be greeted with a fluffy ball inside his hut (this woke him up). So I told him goodnight again and dropped the cover, girlfriend started laughing quietly, and so did Ritz
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Jun 8, 2013 17:22
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Zeke puts himself to sleep by grumbling "pretty bird" to himself. These are the only words he knows. Despite hating my mother, he learned them from her and refuses to be taught WAY cooler stuff like "poop bomb." 
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Jun 8, 2013 17:38
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So I'm having some trouble in bird paradise. For some reason Marshall and the other birds have been getting into deafeningly loud screaming matches at the asscrack of dawn. Normally, Finn and Marceline are extremely quiet and well behaved, and Marshall on his own is really good as well but together it seems like he just makes them angry, as soon as he's removed from the room the screaming stops. I'm contemplating removing his cage from their room for a while but I feel like it may make the problem worse - yesterday Marceline bit him (he had been preening her) and ripped out a whole beak full of feathers. His cage is currently across the room from the other two. I understand that maybe the three of them will never get along - but I'm drat determined to try to make it work. Only uh. I really would like to be able to sleep in the morning and we have the possibility of needing to move into an apartment for a few months by the end of the school year so i'm a bit nervous about that as well. Advice?
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Jun 8, 2013 17:48
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SaNChEzZ posted:Does anybody else's bird talk in their sleep? Sometimes my budgie will be doing the normal budgie chatter, and I'll realize he's been noisy for a really long time, and when I turn around, he has his head tucked into his back and is fast asleep while he continues with the constant peeping. His body will be shaking with the force of his peeps. I have no idea how he can sleep like that.
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Jun 8, 2013 18:13
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| # ? Jun 8, 2024 06:27 |
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My lovebird chatters, whirrs, screeches and beeps all day and all night, the main difference is when she's asleep and doing it is that it's a bit quieter than while awake. She even says her version of "step up"
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Jun 8, 2013 19:23
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