birdhouse

...what Judy said. Thanks for taking the time to decode this, Penny.

It could actually be really helpful if this was more than a one time thing for Gus. One of my dogs used to police the birds for me. He was super protective & would come "tell" me immediately if they were doing anything that worried him. He managed to derail more than a few disasters. Especially w/the teil chicks. That's one thing that's a no no here, though. The house is too small for anyone to stake more than a temporary claim to any acreage o/t their cage. I've always felt lucky that I haven't had to do more than ref some dust ups after all this time. Everyone has managed to work out their their disputes surprisingly well ...eventually. When the birds bicker w/each other (vs my other critters) the physical aggression is almost always bluffing & posturing. It's never really taken m/t a couple of weeks for any particular battle ground to return to neutral territory & I think I'm usually more traumatized afterwards than they are. For the fids it seems done is done & they just move on (lucky them). It is so hard to know when to actually step in & rescue someone from their own bad behavior. I usually grit my teeth & let them work it out unless I really am afraid anyone is going to get hurt. And I wouldn't have any idea how to suggest how to tell the difference, especailly because it could be bad if anything goes really wrong. But I've learned & gotten better at it over time because I finally realized as often as not I may have actually made bad matters worse by "taking sides". You have the macaws, though. I'm often in awe when I read your posts because I keep thinking how their sheer size must complicate so many things. I can just imagine what it would be like to try to run interference between 2 macaws & a grey in brat mode! Also, there are 2 of them against 1 of her. I'm very glad I only have to sit back & watch. But I'm very interested to hear how this eventually plays out. Good luck

lol thanks for simplifying that for me Dan

^^^Think it's safe to say both. But the entire breed has contributed hugely towards understanding more about this phenomenon & are probably responsible for saving so many lives. Particularly Tim Samaras, which makes this even sadder. The meteorologist was saying that those storms had such extreme rain that it blinded weather equipment from seeing where the tornadoes were. He said that it was quite possible to drive right into a funnel & never see it coming. Adding yet another horrifying fact to what I've learned about tornadoes in the past month.

LOL Garbonzo was where I officially lost it. Don't think anyone would have complained if you'd posted the entire 17mins. Always a pleasure to hear from Biscotti. Thanks!

Just how fat is the rule book on this, anyway...? Got back to back neutral reps (also new to me). Both members were just hatched & I'm guessing the rep rules don't allow them to contribute to members' overall points...? But that just doesn't make sense. Hatchlings are people too. lol Is there actually something to read to decipher all this, or can someone maybe make a sticky or should we (I) keep finding silly questions to ask?

Yes, this is the flip side of getting your wish for Gilbert's independence. All of my birds have had a driven need to dominate any other pet in the house. Mostly, they've succeeded, too. Sometimes it takes the wisdom of Solomon to know where to intervene & where to let them work things out. But some interesting relationships develop if you can get past that little hurdle. Good Luck...! lol

Absolutely second that!! Happy Hatchday Biscotti! You are loved by people around the world & we all wish you very many more

Seriously! It was awful to watch the live feed again last night. It's got to be so hard to live in Tornado Alley.

I don't think so. I've rescued abused animals all my life & trust me, that's relatively tame compared to some of the things I've dreamt up along the way. It makes me crazy that so many people don't know &/or don't care what harm they've done to something so innocent. I also know from experience what it's like to wish "they" didn't have my number. But the lifetime of torture & suffering for one abused animal compared to the relatively small amount of heartbreak required to drive anyone to rescue them is, in the greater scheme of things, an incredible trade. It's kind of hard to want to opt out when you look at it that way. Murfchick, you guys are doing an incredibly hard but amazing job & you're incredible at it. By all means come here & preach to the choir whenever you need. But remember, there WERE 9 miserable birds & counting who you are not only responsible for saving, but actually gave wonderful lives. And there are probably a WHOLE lot more that you will never know about, simply because you've published the story of your motley crew.

So The Machine had to cough up a few more bars! Not a bad day's work at all! Bet we can still pry a few more out of it, though. That seems good & bad all at the same time. This is a curious system! I think Dan said you could only rep twice a day.

Hahaha Videos coming soon...?!?

After all the discussion about rep, how it works & all, I learned today that Judy is just too damned supportive for her own good. Don't know who thunk this up, but just because there's been 42,638 & counting purple posts (as far as Vbulletin knows), Judy doesn't get any more little green bars unless some ridiculous number of people rep her. :confused: Yupp, that's apparently how this system works. So I think it might be fun to start a marathon. No limits on how long or how many. Just encouraging anyone else who likes the idea to find any purple posts they'd like, since they do have a few to chose from lol & rep Judygram until the crazy system finally gives her the green we all know she deserves! Thought it might be a nice way to say thank you for all the support Judy's given so many of us along the way, too.

Thanks Dan! Since you're explaining how this works, I've never quite figured out how many points per bar. Seemed like I got 1 per 100 pts until about 700. Then it just stuck there until 1000. Also, are all members' rep's worth a set point value, but mods can give more if they chose?

Good point, Dave. I think I set the tone there because of how I read OP. Chris said the male was talking & good at it. So I read that to mean over 1-1/2 yo. At least a tweener. But I shouldn't necessarily have made any assumptions about the female based on that. My bad.

Welcome to GF Chris. Any grey adoption is always a big decision. But rehoming an adult & it's baggage, a little bigger still. So I really want to say how great it is that you're really making the effort to try to figure out what's best before you sign up, here. First, easiest part is that any new bird, young or old should be vet checked asap. If you can make an appointment before you even pick them up so much the better. Any arrangement you make w/the previous owner should be w/the understanding that you can return the bird, if there are surprises at that point. It would also be good to get any available medical history/documentation you can from the current owner. Now the harder part. What motivates a plucker can often be a complete mystery, unfortunately. It's very possible that the female is plucking because of the male. It's also very possible that the current owner thinks that, but is completely wrong. And it's possible that she's become a chronic plucker. So even if the reason she's been plucking doesn't exist anymore, she could continue out of habit. Also, those feathers might not come back, or might partially come back depending on if she's done permanent damage by now. Now, the hardest part. Realizing that you're about to make a decision based on who these fids are in their current home. Once they're rehomed, that can totally change. It might not be obvious currently, but they might be too strongly bonded to a previous owner to be happily separated from them. They may be bonded to each other or even the B&G no matter how it may seem on the surface. Maybe the male is, in fact a sweet heart. He's just acting out vs say plucking because something in his current environment is making him a little nuts. Almost all greys are very much their own birds who only grace worthy humans w/their special form of affection. Many adults don't tend to be traditionally sweet & cuddly. And even the best & worst tempered of the bunch have good & bad phases. So if you commit to adopting a grey, you've committed to loving an amazing little personality who will certainly surprise you in any number of ways. Not the other way around. How the fid's going to relate to & bond w/the humans in their life is, in all honesty a total crap shoot which is subject to change w/o notice at any time. Greys are endlessly surprising. Greys are amazingly intelligent. Greys are wonderful. But greys can be deeply emotional & on average, aren't easy. So the real question is can you wait patiently (big word around here!) for months or even a year to find out who you brought home & then be happy to love & respect them no matter who (s)he turns out to be after they've unpack their baggage? ...and that's kind of huge. But the answer to that one question will pretty much answer all the rest.

Ah. Alrighty then. Moving on. Thanks Judy. Never noticed that.

I didn't know before this that a) you could unthank anyone or b) whole threads could disappear. Thought we could only delete posts?

Ok, think I might have figured this out. A thread that I posted to, multiple times, is gone. It was there last night. But I can't open the address now. Thinking there might be others gone as well. Multiple users' stats would change if threads were removed. So it could account for Ray's numbers changing as well.

Second time this month in this general area. They were worried again w/ last night's storms. This happened a couple of weeks ago, about 1/2 hr away. vv language was a little excited vv http://wbsm.com/confirmed-tornado-touches-down-in-stoughton-mass/ They don't even count on the EF(?) scale. But "we just don't have" anything like tornadoes anywhere near here. So I don't know what's going on but I hope it stops immediately! I have to admit, tornadoes kind of horrify me! But glad to hear you didn't get anything more than a good drill, Penny.

...like Ray who posted while I was s-l-o-w-l-y typing my response. lol

I didn't know you could remove thanks. Appreciate your offer. Thanks. But I wasn't worried about that. Post count is down, too. Was more wondering if there might be something going on w/the forum software. So I thought I'd mention it on the open forum in case someone else noticed the same thing.

Not really. Thanked was 1500+ which is what caught my eye. My post count seems less, but I don't know what that was.

between late last nite & just now

Just wondering why the number of my posts, thanks etc would have dropped by kind of a lot?