I'm doing some summer cleaning and came across a pair of wood sandals/clogs painted with something approaching a Major Mitchell's Cockatoo which I thought this comm might appreciate. :)



The one thing that's really a shame about them is you can't actually see the cockatoo while wearing them.



More photos in my journal.

My sister's African Grey's water bottle has broken!

The old one is a small and made of green plastic, it hangs from a long spring and has a small indentation on the top as part of the plastic where the spring attaches.

We got a new water bottle which attaches to the side of the cage, and it became a toy which the water loving Grey gleefully detached from the side of the cage.

Afterwords, we managed to come up with a contraption that got the bottle to hang from the old spring. The bird was fascinated with it, but in a fit of rage today he managed to get it down and now it is at the bottom of the cage. He has been fascinated with it, and we think that if we manage to hang it back up, he will just take it down again.

Yes, we do have a water dish for him, but he has a bad habit of dipping toys in the water, floating things in the water, and at times splashing it everywhere and playing with it.

Any suggestions as to where we can get one exactly like the one we used to have?

Here's a cute little video of Kappa and I dancing and singing to a familiar tune. Be warned, your birds may attempt to sing along too! :)

The past couple times I have taken my Sennie, Stewie, out of the cage and put him on his perch, he has pooped on command.
It may be that he is getting into the habit of doing that first thing once he is out on his perch, but I have been praising him and giving him an almond treat when he does it.  Yay!  Now I will move to head scritches instead of food, and then just verbal praise and see if it keeps working.  Got a nice long weekend to spend quality time with him, and his bald spot on the back of his head is slowly feathering back up.  And they were good healthy hunker down poops.  And any other forum on this would be TMI, but you understand, right? ;-)

Dr. Ferguson called me back with the results from the necropsy. Tarma died of a heart attack. She evidently had a heart condition that we didn't know about, and she was genetically predisposed to which we also didn't know. I can't remember if she said it was a valve or a main artery leading to the heart but it was 80% blocked by plaque. Evidently White Faced 'tiels are predisposed to blockages and laying eggs makes it even worse. Dr. Ferguson said that she probably did take a fright like we thought but between the sudden rush of blood and the adrenaline it triggered a heart attack. I understand it was one of those ticking time bomb conditions that would have caught up with her eventually (she never showed any signs that we could see of having problems) but I feel so horrible. It might have been quick but it was probably painful and we weren't here to help her or even try to comfort her in her last few minutes of life. I couldn't have known it was going to happen but I feel like a horrible parrot person because I wasn't here for her when she needed me.

Rob is taking it even harder than I am. He evidently had a minor heart attack a few years before we met so he actually understands how much it hurts and he's completely devastated. Even before we found out the results he was asking me throughout the day if he treated her well, and if he was a bad parrot person or if he showed her enough that he loved her. I know he was so much more patient with her than I was that its heartbreaking.

Sorry for the drama I just needed a sympathetic ear and this is the only place I know where people will understand how hard this is. We did finally find a cremation place we can afford. I was worried that we wouldn't be able to afford it due to the cost of a necropsy but evidently Dr. Ferguson (bless her heart!) does them for free as long as she doesn't have to do legal paperwork or send out samples. Its going to run us $75 to get it done and the place we found is willing to let us send her eggs with her. We thought it was fitting since she was so proud of those things. We're still going to bring her home and plant her in a pot with a pretty flower afterwards.

Now my practical part asserts itself. I have a Pied 'tiel who is a layer too. They are prone to genetic defects too. So now that I know about it I'm looking at switching her diet around. We had discontinued mush for a while trying to keep down on hormonal triggers but we're going to re-start that ASAP. I'm worried about her pellets now though. Roudybush evidently has a high fat content (via this website http://www.artemisaviary.com/pellet.html). We had been thinking of mixing pellet brands for a more balanced diet but should I (gradually) discontinue using Roudybush at all now???

And lastly, does anyone have suggestions of what do to with her cage? We're not going to move or change anything until we've brought her ashes home but we already know we're not going to get another flock member for a long time but we don't know what to do with her things.....

( Pictures of our Special Girl )

I just wanted to share the news somewhere that people would actually understand. My white faced 'tiel Tarma died today. We found her shortly after we got home from our trip. We left all the animals in the hands of a responsible pet sitter, and we're sure it wasn't her fault, but when we came home Tarma was dead on the bottom of her cage. I'm really upset and I don't know exactly what to do now and could really use advice.

From the way her body was positioned it looks like she took a fright from something and either fell and broke her neck, or was throwing a fit on the bottom of her cage and her heart gave out. There is no trama to her body that we can see and I palpated her abdomen and it doesn't feel like she was trying to lay. We were so happy too because we thought we'd finally broken her laying cycle. But now we're not sure what to do with her body. We don't know whether we need to do a necropsy on her or not. Everything just happened so sudden but she wasn't showing any signs of being sick at all.

And does anyone know where to get a pet cremated and how to go about doing it and how much it costs? We could always take her down to my parents house and bury her with the rest of the family pets but she never lived there and they don't love her like we do and its probably silly because she's gone and all that's left is her body but I don't know that we want her so far away from us.

At least the sitter could tell us that when she stopped by to check on them this morning she looked happy and she was up on her perches like normal and eating. And I'm really glad it was sunny the last couple days before she died because she liked to be wheeled outside in her cage and sit on the porch in the sunshine. As long as there was food involved for her to pig out on at the same time. She was our smart little special needs piggy bird. Ugh. Now I think I need to go to the store and find a nice casket for her. I can't stand the idea of just putting her little body in a throw away cardboard box.

Edit: I finally got someone at the vet to get ahold of Dr. Ferguson. We're taking her body up in a few min to drop her off and Dr. Ferguson is going to do the necropsy in the morning. So we may know as early as tomorrow evening what happened to her. Its probably pretty silly but we went out this morning and found her a really pretty box that we're putting some of her favorite things in and we're transporting her that way.

I can't remember who originally posted the suggestion and I'm too upset to look but thanks to whoever suggested planting her. We absolutely cannot afford cremation around our area ($150-200?!?!?!) so when we get her back we're going to go down to the store and pick out a nice big pot and probably a rose to plant her in/under. Kinda suits her personality since she was a beautiful bird but she always did have a thorny personality.

I saw this posted by my friend on Tumblr (link) and had to share! This is at Best Friends Animal Society's Parrot Garden



"Even though I’m not in this video at all [and I haven’t actually been back for a long time] I’m sharing it anyways because it features two of my bird-friends - King O (or just O) the bald DuCorps cockatoo, and Elvis my Goffin cockatoo friend that I worked with almost immediately after he arrived at the sanctuary. He’s the one standing on the open cage door and providing most of those screechy vocals. The one standing on top of the cage and dancing is Buddy. Elvis hasn’t ever been one to dance very much, but he sure does love to vocalize. Especially when he thinks you’re leaving the room for anything.

And the lady flapping her arms around is the vet-tech Wendy. She’s also the resident bird-whisperer and taught O that thing where he throws his wings in the air and his head back.

Oh, and I guess I should explain why the African grey in the background is still in her cage. Her name is Ruby and she has deformed feet from her previous owners feeding her a very poor diet, and she has trouble hanging on to things and could fall and hurt herself if let out to clamber around like the other birds. She does get some waddle-around-outside-time during the day, though."

I was watching cute parrot videos on Youtube with my fiance, and we ended up with a debate. You see, my fiance's dream bird is a blue and gold macaw. While I wouldn't mind keeping a large macaw, my dream bird list includes instead a large cockatoo, such as an umbrella or Moluccan. We know we won't be able to have any large bird for quite some time -- our parrot resources are currently limited to our mini-macaw and budgies -- so this is still in the purely hypothetical stages.

The question is whether a large macaw and a large cockatoo would get along.

We're not talking about sharing a cage, but interacting during play. I think it would depend on the individual personalities of the birds -- a more reserved than average cockatoo and a more playful than average macaw -- but that ultimately they'd be similarly sized and able to work out their differences and arrive at some kind of understanding without killing each other. My fiance thinks that the trends in behavior would strongly work against this arrangement and the macaw would very much dislike a cockatoo as a companion. He thinks the only appropriate companion for a blue and gold is another large macaw, like a scarlet or greenwing. I'll admit that's a more ideal arrangement, but I don't think that means a cockatoo couldn't work.

Does anyone have practical experience with an arrangement involving a macaw and a cockatoo interacting? How did it go?

My fiance was also surprised to hear me say that I'd want a large cockatoo and not a Goffin's. "I thought they were the clever ones," he said. "All cockatoos are clever," I said, "but Goffin's come across to me as distinctly sociopathic." "You also want an African grey," he said; "are you going to tell me that they don't have sociopathic tendencies?" "It's like the difference between Holmes and Moriarty," I said. "Holmes was addicted to cocaine and regularly shot holes in the walls of his apartment," my fiance reminded me. So let me amend my statement here: Goffin's = Moriarty, umbrellas = Sherlock, African greys = Mycroft. All of them are geniuses, but Moriarty deliberately sets out to make trouble, Sherlock doesn't so much mean to make trouble as he can't be bothered to not make trouble, and Mycroft just doesn't see the point of leaving his club when he can arrange everything he wants to be brought to him.

One of my cockatiels has been sitting at the bottom of the cage in the corner lately, which is unusual for her. Everything else is fine, as she still comes out of the cage to play, still makes noise, still eats, and so on. Sitting at the bottom of the cage (in the morning only) is the only problem. I thought that maybe it's because I recently got a new cage and she may not like the new perches.

I was wondering if I should take her to the vet anyway, or if I should just keep careful watch over her for the time being. Any help would be appreciated.

Not parrots, but for anyone who's interested, my local university has set up a live streaming video feed of the peregrine falcons nesting on the roof of their library. The three chicks are getting pretty big!

Here's the link. Enjoy!

Hello guys!

I'm starting to train my cockatiels and I was wondering if anyone had any experience or advice. My ultimate goal is come-when-called and go-to-perch but that'll be a long ways away. (I'm also trying to get Gideon to combine head bob with kissing noise but that's mimicry). It's funny because Gid knows how to say "come here" but not what to do.

I know the basics of clicker training and that it'll most likely just take a long time to get results, which is fine.

The problem comes that my two birds don't want anything shoved in their faces, even a treat, let alone a target stick! So I've been rewarding them for even tolerating a stick a little bit but then I try and give them a treat and they scurry away.

They're only kind of afraid of my hands, since they step up just fine and let me pet them a ton. But when they think I'm going to put them back in their cage they stay just out of reach.

I know they want the treats I have, I see Gideon thinking reeeally hard whether he wants to come over to where the millet is or not.

(  Anyway, here's pictures! )

He's settling in well and getting along with myself and my two sons, and my cockatiel.

He is adapting to rowdybush pellets, and fresh veggies, and we have figured out that unsalted organic almonds are his favorite treat, so that will be the ongoing training tool.  He likes taking showers with me and whistles happily as the spray bounces off me and onto him.   He is still scratching the back of his head but often now will just raise a claw as if to gesture to me as he cranes his head around, "hey how about a head scritch please".   I see some little downy feathers trying to grow back, but this next Friday I will be taking him to the vet to make sure he doesn't have a skin rash and to see if there is some sort of balm that can be put on the back of his head.  Its not red or irritated looking, it appears to be healthy grey parrot skin,    His poop is of pefect consistency and I try to say "pooped" every time I catch him doing it, and praise him so he eventually will learn to poop on command.  

My sons know not to acknowlege bad behaviors and just wait until he does something nice before praising or transferring him to his cage or a perch. He takes head scritches from anyone.  The other day we were having a staring contest and he bobbed his head a little, so I mimiced him and now when I do it and say "dance dance dance" he bobs and rocks back and forth for a treat.

After his morning bath today I caught him playing with his newly installed toy so that was a win, and I am teaching him to climb the ladder to get back into his cage.  Eventually I will be able to set him down and tell him and he will walk to his cage and climb back inside.

The other day, I offered him a piece of bananna and he acted like he had never seen/tasted it but when he saw me eating it he took a tentative nibble, and then nom'd a several enthusiastic mouthfuls.

He has not shown any hostility toward my female cockatiel Sweet-Pea, just mild curiousity.  She wants nothing to do with him so she flys back to her cage.  Stewie is not flighted, and his tailfeathers, and flight feathers have not grown out yet.    He has muttered hello a couple times, but has been more of a chirper and whistler.   That will come with time.

Hello,
I'm concerned about my bird's drinking.
At first it was just 1 or 2 drinks to unwind at the end of the day.
But now he's always hammered, and falls off his perch.
Is this normal? I thought about a 12 step program for him,
but that would be stupid because he is a bird.
Thoughts?

Can anyone give me info on what its like to live with caiques?

I met the most precious caique today at work and I fell in love. Since the end of my shift, I've been googling and reading back on caiques. I mainly want to inhale information about caiques right now.

I don't currently have any birds of my own, nor do I plan to get one anytime soon. I know that sometime in my life I would love to own a parrot of some sort. Caiques are the only bird in my mind that hold competition with conures as favorite species.

Also, would a caique be less than ideal for a first time bird owner? I have lots of experience with handling small birds (mostly small parrots; cockatiels, budgies, conures, and the occasional parrotlet) and caring for them, but no experience actually OWNING birds. I do have a LITTLE experience with large parrots, but not much. Again, I don't plan on getting a bird any time soon. I'm just constantly trying to find a bird that might best suit me for when the time comes for me own a bird.

I adopted a new bird, who were were going to name Chewie in honor of the day we got him (May the Fourth) but as my son and I were heading home, my son Lars convinced me he should be called Stewie.  We're going to teach him how to say "Victory is Mine!"

He was adopted from a foster family that already had 6 happy healthy birds.  The poor guy was bored and neglected and picked all the feathers off the back of his head.  I was not looking for a bird, (I actually was there to buy a perch for my Cockatiel, Swet-Pea.

But he took an immediate liking to me, and 2 weeks later he is here in his new home.  My son loves him too, and we have both been giving him lots of head rubs and attention.  We were warned he was a hard biter, but he has not so much as nipped either of us.  He is whistling and happy, and mutterring.   Here are a couple pictures under the cut.

( Read more... )

My GCC, Dizzy, has her hatch day coming up (she will be three years old!) and I wanted to get her something special - but my go-to toy place, Birdy Booty, is closed at the moment.  Does anyone have sites/stores that they go to regularly for great, safe toys?  Thanks!

Does anybody else have a bird who likes to - very gently - scratch your skin with their beak?

You know how, if you scratch yourself or trace your nail over your skin, it sometimes leaves a white mark? Well, Molly, my YSGCC has discovered that if she gently traces the tip of her beak over my skin, she leaves little white lines. They fade after a minute, but she is utterly mesmerized! She's like a little painter. :D She's so gentle, too, it's adorable.

Ah, the funny things birds notice.

this pillow cover is cracking me up....IRN + Cockatiel? IRN + Cockatoo + Cockatiel + Dove?

My little Princess!  She's been feeling neglected since I started my apprenticeship at the shop; poor baby.  Her gram spends a lot of time with my flock while I'm working.  But after I get home, it is SERIOUS SNUGGLES time.

Hello hello! Long time no post.

This is just a video of my little Green Cheek, Fremont, breaking cardamon pods open for me. It takes far less time with his help than it does when I use a spoon. Thank you, Fremont. Stop eating the cardamom, Fremont.



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