So many changes since the last post

I cannot believe our last post was May of 2010. I swear there is a time warp at the resort and time flies by at such so fast.
We have had so much growth in the past 6 months. For cats we have added more ramps to many of the rooms, an aquarium for the Under the Sea room and welcomed many new guest over the summertime and holidays.
The bird area has been even busier with Patrick building more stands for bird clients, new toys, cooked mixes such as a Tropical blend, Ginger curry blend and an Italian pasta blend. One of our new breads are some multigrain muffins made with honey dates and our cooked grains.
We are also cutting and coloring our own wood and our customers love the funky shapes. Our bulk toy making section has grown quite a bit too.
Some of our goals for 2011 are a 2nd web cam in the Aviary, more bird recipes as well as toys. Getting our food products analyzed. Building frames around the window rooms so we can remove the wiring. More room connections and redesigning for optimum kitty comfort. Our own line of cat trees and loads of marketing with a PDF catalog and start up wholesale to get our products more well known. A video tour of the resort and more vacation videos as well as a photo album.
We also want to stress that we use local producers for 100% of all our bird food products and about 75% for all of our other products. Most everything we have or sell is made in the USA.
All of our updates we have done couldn't have happened without the support of our clients, their cats, birds and trusting us to care for them. We would like to thank everyone that has had an opportunity to experience The Purring Parrot and hope they keep on coming in and be part of our continued growth for 2011.
Lastly, I will try and do monthly updates and if that fails will try really hard at quarterly updates.

New on line store up and Parrot stands being made

So we redesigned our on-line store to get more visability and the new link is http://thepurringparrot.com/resortpages/parrottoyscatsupplies.html
It is intergrated into our website so looks pretty smooth. The shooping cart is ecwid.com and it was very easy to implement. We are almost full for the Memorial weekend which is great.
We have also expanded out bulk toy making section, set up a basic facebook page and Patrick has started making his own stands from manzanita with stainless steel hardware. I will be loading a photo of one of the larger stands on the store soon.
We have also decided that it would be worth it to start cutting and selling our own parrot wood for toys or refills. We do order our wood from bird safe companies but it does take a long time to get it, usually a month or longer. I have been researching different types of saws and found a great wood workers forum http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/ Very helpful and friendly folks there. We need a bandsaw and an electric sander. The coloring for the wood will be vitacritter.

Spring Break!

We have been very busy for the first week of spring break. Lots of kitty bookings and alot of regular bird clients seem to be following suit. We have had a lot of happy new clients and keep the word of mouth going. We have even began getting some Xmas bookings. The Liberty Station farmers market has been going well for us on Sundays. The birdie webcam is also starting to get a following with 1 fan as far away as Poland! We have started stocking some new bird toys from Cage n Queen which seem to be a big hit and we have been expanding our toy making section which can save bird owners a lot on toy refills for their birds.

New Bird Mixes

I have come with 2 types of dry mixes for the birds that can be cooked or served dry. One is a tropical mix called Sunny's Yummy. It has bananas, grains, and other fruits in it as well as almonds. The second one is SodaPop's Pasta which is has big and little organic pasta, grains, pistachos and italian seasonings. Both went through very strict tastings from our bird guests and both were approved with flying colors. We are also trying to get into the Farmer's Market in Little Italy but there is a long waiting list. The Liberty Station market has been good for us regarding cat products so we will continue doing that on Sundays from 9:30-2:30. Patrick has finished his first manzanita bird stand and it looks great! We may also try and get a booth up in Pomona for the bird mart. I started a Facebook page but it is a little bare, I'm still learning

Farmer's Market

We did our first Farmer's Market at Liberty Station this past Sun, Jan 10. We didn't sell that much but we did do a lot of advertising for the resort. It is waaay cheaper then running an ad in a local paper plus people can put a face to the name and it helps us brand our business by having our logo visible.
The birdie breads have been doing very well and we have some regular customers that ask for it as well as the sprout mix.
I am also working on some easier cat grass kits that can come with a blend of grasses or gluten free with Chia seed, which has even better properties then flax. We did slow down just a bit after the holidays but are bookings are up from last year. The slower times has allowed us to get ready for the Farmer's market though and work on more and better toys.
Our birdie webcam is up and running everyday now and our bird clients are very happy that they can watch their fids all day.
I have also updated the website with employee photos and need to get a quick photo of our human employee, Sue, who has done a great job with the guests and clients.

bird cam up and running

Patrick has hooked up our first bird cam in the aviary. We will try and have it on everyday. We have also gotten in a new shipment of bird toys and our first aluminum cages from King's cages. The cages are very nice but expensive. They will never rust and there is no paint that can be chipped off so it is a worth while investment and they are cheaper then stainless which will eventually rust. They are also super easy to put together without any tools needed and since they are made from aluminum they are very light. We have also been trying to work on our own toys line and have come up with some cute and cheaper box toys that are great for foraging for birds. Our Christmas bookings are full for cats but we still have some openings for birds

New Toys

We have reorganized our store website for retail items and have loaded more new bird toys. I am inn the process of taking photos of birds next to the toys so it is easy to tell how big the toy is. Here is a link http://www.thepurringparrot.com/0003dp30blg0076/categories.asp?cat=26
We have also sold 2 vacation videos and have samples on them on our youtube channel
http://www.youtube.com/Merlin0404
Patrick has been working on establishing petcams so people can log in to see their fids while away. we just have one camera up now and hope to have more up soon but he has to figure out the whole encoding thing so it isn't publicly viewed.
Our birdie breads are starting to get some followers as well as our seed mix.
Bookings have been a little quiet before the holidays but we just see this as an opportunity to improve our services and work on more of the retail end. We are booked in the aviary and almost booked for cat rooms for Thanksgiving. We still have openings in the aviary for birds over Christmas but cat rooms are booked with a waiting list.
Still trying to start a facebook page, maybe by this weekend or after Turkey day.
We also applied to try and get on ABC's Sharktank show.