neoow

Hi all, It's a bit quiet around these parts recently! Just checking in. How are you all? How are all your birds doing? Hope you're all looking after yourselves (and your flock, of course!)

Alfie has had four cages over his lifetime (he's 18 next month). Only one of them developed a defect (one of the bars came loose and I was worried he could pull it about and injure himself on it). His original cage (the one that developed the fault) was replaced by a corner cage, because I moved him from my bedroom to the dining room in my parents house and the corner cage fitted the space better. I kept the original cage though and used that again when I moved out, as it fitted the space in my rented house better. Alfie also prefers horizontal space to vertical space, so the original cage was better suited to that as well. When my housemates moved out and I had the whole house to play with I upgraded him to the biggest cage I could find... which was also when the cage bar on his original cage became a problem anyway. I then bought my own house and he's still in that big cage now. Recently I bought him another cage (not quite as big as his regular cage) so that he can join me upstairs when I work from home. This will also be his 'holiday home' if he ever needs to stay at my parents house or elsewhere.

Ah that sucks. I'm thankful that Alfie doesn't pick the paint off his cage because the alternatives are SO much more expensive. However, if I did find any rust or defects, he'd be getting a replacement. Good news that you have one to hand... and that it's identical.

Ah poor thing, unfortunately they are quite susceptible to stress and can be quite change adverse. I think you're doing all the right things, just trying to keep her calm and away from all the noise. It may be a case of just monitoring her and seeing how she goes for the time being. Ive not really had an issue with Alfie barbering his own feathers before so can't help on that one unfortunately.

I have a variety of perches in Alfie's cage with different shapes, sizes and materials but I still recently had to have Alfie's nails blunted at the vets. He only had one nail that was a little on the long side but they were all needle sharp. Fortunately my vet was very reasonably priced!

I've never really bought special furniture to account for Alfie. He lives in the living room/dining room so I have sofas, TV, dining table, chairs etc. I throw an old blanket over the sofa when he's out because there are two shelves above it that he hangs out of and drops things off. So the blanket protects the sofa from any shredding cardboard/toys or a stray poop. He likes to try and chew on the cat tree because it has some wicker baskets on it (bad choice, in hindsight) so I pop a few cushions over the bits he's most likely to land on to try and deter him. When he decies to hang upsides off the side of a cushion to chew the cat tree, I ask him to step up on a perch and remove him (presenting my arm at that stage is likely to earn me a chomp... and he is more reliable with stepping up on a perch than me (even though I'm attached to the perch... go figure...!) He has started top land on the TV lately, which I don't encourage, so I get him to step up straight away and remove him somewhere safer. The TV will eventually be wall mounted anyway as I'm planning to redecorate and reorganise the space sometime soon.

Yep pretty sure bamboo is safe

I always go into the room with Alfie. The vet will let him out of his cage whilst he talks to me about any issues or what he's there for. Alfie will inevitably fly around the room and seek a hiding spot away from the vet. The vet will wait for him to settle somewhere, scoop him up in a towel and and take him away into the back room and I'm left to wait in the initial exam room. When Alfie comes back I get to 'rescue' him from the big bad vet. He's usually quite glad to see me!

Really good to hear from you Shanlung- I always enjoyed reading your adventures. Hope you are keeping well!

Wow 6 months has gone quick! I'm so glad she's doing so well.

Wow 35! And you've had him all those years! Amazing. Alfie used to have an odd little red feather on his back above his tail in amongst his grey feathers but it moulted out years ago. He now has a teeny tiny little red feather on the back of his leg. When I first spotted it I thought it was blood until I got a closer look. It's a really cute one... if a feather can be cute haha. I think you just have a special bird. 😄 I would love to see some photos and I'm sure others would too!

Yeah- I try eating it in front of him and making a big fuss about how delicious it is... he's just not interested. I rearranged the room a bit after my housemate moved out last April- my PC and desk went upstairs and I now having a dining table. Alfie sometimes comes and sits with me whilst I eat but he has no interest in what I'm eating. He would prefer to fling the coasters off the table and cause chaos. 😂 I have tried cooked, uncooked, chop, whole/big chunks, dried/dehydrated, hanging it in his cage, skewers, birdie bread... everything I can think of. Unless it's banana or the occasional grape, he's not interested. The only veg he will eat is mashed potatoes... especially when my mum makes them. So whenever I go round my parents for dinner he gets a bowl of mashed potatoes. We try and hide other veggies in there and he picks them out and flings them! He did eat some sweet potato mash for the first time the other day as well... which I believe is better for him than regular potatoes? So I think I'm going to try and make him some mashed potatoes and finely chop some other veg and mix it in, so it's harder for him to pick out. I'm sure it'll end up on the floors and walls like all the other veg... but I'm willing to risk it! 😄 I might also try it at my mum's house- as he does seem to prefer her mash (no idea why.. probably showing off for his granny). Then at least she's the one that will get in trouble if he notices! I went round a couple of weeks ago and we didn't have mashed potatoes so he got a bowl of peas and sweetcorn... you should have seen his face... he was all excited, waiting for his mash... if he could have picked the bowl up and flung it in my face he would have done! He did dig around a bit but the peas ended up at the bottom of his travel cage or in his water bowl! I did offer him a piece of raw carrot earlier and he actually took a bite... but held it in his beak for ages then just chewed it up without actually swallowing any! I'm sure I have the world's fussiest parrot. He's always been like it!

Wow, poor Matilda! And poor you! But at least you were looking out for her and willing to take her to the vet. I'm sure it was stressful for you both but hopefully she's now much more comfortable and on the mend. Hopefully it will resolve the problem as well. Wishing her a speedy recovery!

Oh Alfie ALWAYS eats it... which is gross. He regurgitates and then immediately swallows it again. 🤢 He does the same when he regurgitates for his toy.

I try not to encourage him regurgitating for me as I don't want him to get frustrated. He had a particularly hormonal time just before he decided to take a disliking to me nearly two years back- I couldn't even say hello to him without him getting worked up. So I am trying not to encourage that kind of behaviour with me. We're doing good with our trust and relationship and have been working hard to build bridges again so I'm trying not to do anything to rock the boat and set things back. I wasn't sure on the toy though as he's not really regurgitated for a toy before, so it was a new one on me after 17 years! It is one of his favourites and he does normally get a lot of exercise by hanging upside and beating the snot out of it - so I was reluctant to remove it but obviously didn't want to potentially cause any issues if I left it there either. I'll leave it in place and just keep an eye on things. The only toy I've ever removed were some jingle ball toys which were foot toys. He started trying to treat them like eggs and tried to sit on them whilst drooping his wings and making his clucking noise. I removed them as I didn't want to encourage any egg related behaviours... just on the off chance that he is actually female and starts to lay eggs! 😂

I second everything greytness said. Hopefully it's just a one off because she accidentally damaged it. Alfie had a feather hanging out of his wing the other day and he just reached round and pulled it out... it was ready to go though so it was a complete feather and wasn't damaged like this one. But it clearly annoyed him that it was so out of place! Just try and stay calm around her- I know how hard it is to worry about whether or not they are plucking but they feed off your mood and stresses- they are very empathetic. So if they pick up that you're worrying or stressing then that can make them start to stress and if she is prone to plucking then it could make her resort to that. They're sensitive little buggers underneath that sharp beak! 😂

I don't have much advice but just wanted to say hope all goes ok with the vet. If she's not eating as much as normal then the weight loss makes sense.

Well I guess it's that time of year again. Alfie is starting to show some hormonal behaviours- he regurgitated for my big toe the other day and often starts drooping his wings and making his baby clucking noises which usually mean he's getting a little excitable. I've noticed a new behaviour though- he has a toy hanging in his cage at the bottom of his boing which he usually loves to beat the snot out of whilst hanging upside down and bouncing around on his boing. Recently he's decided that instead of trying to beat it up that it's now his best friend and keeps trying to feed it... I've caught him a few times hanging upside and regurgitating for it... I don't make a big deal of the behaviour and tend to just walk on by so I don't make things worse. Should I remove the toy from his cage for now so I don't encourage the behaviour? Or is that likely to upset him more than just leaving it there? Not sure what he sees in it really... it's just a plastic toy with a bell in it... but he sure does love that thing... uh, more so than usual now I guess! 😂

I've not been in a similar situation before but it sounds like you did everything you could. You cleaned off his feet and it doesn't sound like he had chance to ingest any, so hopefully all is ok! Alfie doesn't like going on the floor very often so I always move anything breakable or destructible on to the floor. If he does end up on the floor he's normally quite cautious and moves around slowly enough that I can move anything out of harms way.

Similar with toys- you spend loads of money on expensive parrot toys... and they want to chew the box they were delivered in!!

Hi all, Many apologies for being absent from the forums for a while. It's been a bit of a rollercoaster year and that's even without the pandemic. However, I'm pleased to report that Alfie has been doing REALLY well. For those of you that have read my previous posts you may remember that Alfie suddenly took a disliking to me around March/April last year. I think this was caused by a lot of upheaval due to decorating other parts of the house and having lots of people coming and going to help decorate the upstairs rooms plus two different flooring fitters and all the noise/commotion that comes with it. The cats had to share the living room with Alfie for a while (to keep them out of the paint cans!) so it meant his time out of the cage was reduced for a few weeks. I also decided to have my hair cut a heck of a lot shorter around the same time plus he had been particularly hormonal earlier that year too. So lots of changes in a short space of time. He became really wary of me and on a couple of occasions he would fly to the back of my head and bite me, which he has never done before. He also kept lunging at my hands and wouldn't accept his favourite treats from me or offer his head for scritches anymore. Fast forward to now and I believe things are heading in a much better direction for Alfie and I. We have been working hard to improve our relationship and the trust between us and it is paying off. I have been trying to do some structured training with him, so some recall training, teaching him to wave and also trying to learn some colours (red, blue, green, yellow). This has REALLY helped him get over whatever fear/anger he held towards my hands. In the space of about two weeks- maybe three- I was able to start giving him treats by hand again. He will land on my hand/wrist but still shimmies up my arm given half a chance. But he no longer lunges at my hand as soon as it's anywhere near him and will happily take treats without trying to bite me first. I have even managed to give him some head scritches a couple of times now too- although we're still not back to where we were on that one. Alfie will also fly to me to come and sit with me again - whereas for the last few months he hasn't been interested. I've really enjoyed watching how he's progressed over the last couple of months or so and how keen he is to train. I'll have to come up with some more things to teach him at this rate because he's absolutely smashing the recall training and waving. He's still working on his colours but he's keen to give it a good go.

I discovered birdtricks quite recently and I don't know if they've changed/improved their methods...? However, I have watched a lot of their free content on youtube and it has helped me with Alfie. I've never done any structured training with him before but their videos helped me learn how to start some structured training with him and honestly, it's really turned things around for me and Alfie. He went from lunging to my hands (even when I had to treat) to flying to me and accepting a treat within weeks. I appreciate these are tips and tricks that many other trainers offer, but I've only used their free resources on youtube and that was good enough to get me going. The masterclasses and in home visitations they do have been really interesting to watch. I don't think I've ever seen them recommending to starve your bird (but I haven't watched ALL of their videos) and a lot of the complaints I've seen seem to be quite dated and seem to involve a Chet Womach (who I think might be the brother of Dave Womach?). I've not seen any videos with him involved so I wonder if he dropped out of the birdtricks scene or hides in the background these days? Like anything on the internet, it definitely pays to do your research and double check your sources of information. There are lots of recipes and guides available about feeding birds and similarly lots of resources for training etc. I have read lots of different books, watched loads of different videos and read lots of guides/information on the internet- I'm always learning, even after 17 years of living with Alfie.

Glad to hear Sukei is making good progress! I've also had some breakthroughs with Alfie in the last few weeks. I will have to post an update of my own soon.

Welcome to the forums! I really enjoyed reading about you and your flock/family. You seem to be doing all the right things and I'm glad Ruby is settling in so well!

I am so so sorry to hear this happened to you/your bird.