VStar Mama

Or maybe it is a unintended slip up on the part of the African Grey coalition to take over the planet. It could be evidence that they are monitoring our communication....

Grey parrots have somehow or another gotten the reputation for being inflexible when changes occur in their lives. I wonder if this maybe has something to do with inherent human narcissism. Don't take that the wrong way!!!!!! I am not calling you a narcissist. I am attributing the tendency to all humankind as we (the species) tend to make ourselves more important in our minds than we really are in the scope of the universe. Considering the challenges (predation, weather, drought, natural and human-instigated habitat loss) that parrots face in the natural environment, if they were inflexible they would have been extinct a long time ago. From everything I've read, there will be an adjustment period for him. He will likely grieve for a while but with time, and a new parront who understands that Charlie is going to need some space to adjust, and the good home he had with you, Charlie will probably make someone a very loving companion.

Considering some of the advances in automobiles that have been coming out.... i.e. automatic braking, rear view camera ad auto sensor, auto park, blind spot detection, collision avoidance technology...... We may not be too far away from a time when our parrots can actually drive our cars..... How frightening.....

Sewing party at Katana's house!!

Can you cover the stump with gauze so that it isn't flesh on flesh contact?

Where is it located? I am interested although I do not yet have a bird.

Wish I lived closer to Tennessee...

If there is a parrot rescue organization near by, maybe consider volunteering on a regular basis for a while to get some experience handling parrots. Not only can you get hand on experience with the birds, but you'll have experienced parrot caretakers to give you advice and such. You may even find that one of the parrots picks you for his/her new owner.

The suspense is going to make me start plucking soon......

Is that a caique?

Well...I don't know about anyone else...but I think some of the posts of Miss Gilbert's progress are too short......

I have only one thing to say about it: 2014 through 2020......Don't vote incumbent!

You are making me wish you had a webcam on her so we could all watch!

Got a full face helmet? Sounds like you are going to have to start wearing the motorcycle gear whenever you're home. Maybe a set of racing leathers?

Uh oh....looks like Dayo got to the computer while danmcq's back was turned. Or did Dayo tie dan up and put him in a closet?

The last one should be captioned : I am African Grey!!! Hear me ROAR!

Well, just out of curiosity I searched for African Grey mating dance and came across this video. Looks exactly like what Rebel is doing!

If you have a laptop with a built in camera and the bird is already used to seeing you on the computer, maybe orient yourself while you are on the computer so that the camera is pointing to the bird......

Pintrest is your friend!!! This first one is a post from a woman who has birds! http://www.lewisvillelove.blogspot.com/2012/09/non-toxic-oven-cleaning.html?m=1 Others: http://www.chachingqueen.com/2013/06/how-to-clean-your-oven-without-chemicals/ http://cleverlyinspired.blogspot.com/2011/01/dirty-ovenso-sad.html

She may be trying a quiet way of soliciting your attention and interaction. It may be that she is seeing something casting a reflection or shadow on the ceiling that she isn't sure is "safe" and so is making ready to flee from it. Maybe she isn't always 100% sure about taking a flight around the house and is just getting ready for it. From the reading up I've been doing on body language and behavior it is hard to say exactly as there are so many little things one has to be aware of in a parrot. Where and how feathers are fluffed, eye dilation, leg stance, head positioning...etcetera.

Honestly, one of my biggest regrets was not purchasing a baby CAG in an Okinawan pet store that immediately "took" to me. It was one of my favorite stores to visit and on this afternoon the owner had just gotten a baby CAG in and of course I had to have a pet. The little sweetie snuggled up to me and cuddled and for one of those small brief moments in time everything was right in the world. The price was a bit staggering. I would have had to empty my bank account with nothing left over for purchasing anything else except food (i.e. cage, toys,etc) until next payday (two weeks at least). I was too responsible to do that and regretfully put my little soul baby back in the tank and watched a nice Japanese couple step in to pet the bird. I'll be damned if that little minx totally ignored them and did his/her level best to get back to me, risking injury by flinging itself out of their hands and plopping with a thud onto the floor. I can't describe the feeling. It was gut-wrenching to walk away knowing this bird wanted me. I held out for 24 hours before changing my mind. Next business day, I went to the bank, took out my money and went back to the store only to find that the little grey had been purchased only that morning. Maybe it was ultimately for the best but I'll never really know since that one decision could have changed the entire course of my life and who knows for what, good or ill. I did resolve never to ignore that "feeling" again however. Just haven't had it for a bird since. It seems that the universe is throwing African Grey adoption opportunities in my direction as there have been a couple of ads in local craiglist's and the Macaw and Cockatoo Rescue of New Mexico just took in four new Greys......maybe I should stay away from Albuquerque for the foreseeable future LOL

I understand about the predatory advertising techniques and I read Barbara Heidenrich's scathing article about what she termed "inforprenuers" and the blatant use and repackaging for profit of other people's techniques and ideas without due credit (or renumeration) to the original ideas. One of the things I took away from Heidenrich's article is that most of what the BirdTricks people provide is already available for free on the internet from other people. I understand the dislike but apart from the emotional aspect, the relevant question that should be asked is do the techniques that the Womach brothers employ actually work? If I purchased the training techniques program for abused and rehomed birds in a parrot rescue situation, would I be successful at rehabilitating those birds so they could find forever homes? They utilized applied behavioral analysis, operant conditioning, and classical conditioning in their training regimens. There are plenty of books and internet websites that go in-depth on explaining behavioral analysis and behavior conditioning. It would just take some time to translate the knowledge for use with parrots. But the third person product reviews that the website don't control visibility or content of do tell you a lot, and a common theme complaint was there seems to be a lot of telling you how great the "system" works but markedly less time explaining the system itself. I think that one of the things that goes unsaid is that parrots are individuals and the basic techniques they sell are meant build understanding between the bird and its owner instead of parrots (in general) and people. I enjoyed reading the stories about Dave's wife and the Amazon Stormy that they worked with and it was telling that in several of her blogs she says that she "didn't feel comfortable" interpreting Stormy's body language to permit Stormy the same level of physical intimacy she uses with her own birds. I think that part of the allure to companion parrot owners is that the Womach brothers have a way of translating their expertise into novice terminology that is less intimidating. For a quick synopsis on the difference between novices and experts read this article http://duke.edu/arc/faculty_staff/student_learning/experts_vs_novices.php. When listening to professionals like Barbara Heidenrich and Dr. Pepperberg, it can be intimidating because we subconsciously recognize that these people are true experts. They process and intuit at a level we have not achieved and it can be incredibly difficult for experts to explain things in a way for novices to grasp. Which is part of the reason people seek a step-by-step system to problem solve a situation they have little or no experience with. As far as the value of the bird feeding system; it is kind of analogous to a regular cookbook.....you can get the same recipes from any cookbook somewhere on the internet, but when you buy the cookbook you are paying to get them all in one place. And like the cookbook-internet analogy, somewhere someone has created a variation that is going to be better than the cookbook. I am confident that all of the information you can get from the Birdtricks system (any of them) is located somewhere on the internet for free.

An Emma video is an excellent way to begin my day!

Look, as I am going through a nasty contentious divorce myself, I can tell you from recent experience that you need everything possible around you to keep yourself moving forward. You may find yourself crawling or even going side to side but as long as you keep moving you ARE going to get through this and come out stronger on the other side. I don't remember reading in any book, article or advice column about parrot care that requires the human half to be 100% compos mentis. Those parrots are making you continue to function through the depression. Your sense of responsibility and commitment to them will ensure that they continue to be cared for....and that you'll be continuing to care for yourself even if it is in a limited fashion. And I'm going to remind you of one very important fact that I still have trouble with. You are NOT alone. You have your parrots in the house. Friends and family just waiting for the go ahead to help. You even have people in places like this who will do what they can to support you. You know people who have dealt with this and there are thousands of people dealing with a similar situation right now. YOU ARE NOT ALONE. After the divorce bomb was dropped into my world I tried to continue living and it just wasn't happening. The failure to "live" then made my depression worse. During a meeting with a local COPE counselor, I was advised to give myself permission to just be. It made sense to me so for several months I was just being. Being was whatever I was at that moment. In the beginning I was just being in shock. Sometimes I was being angry. Sometimes I was being sad and sobbing randomly and uncontrollably. I was being a parent and mother because that was my job and they kids needed me to continue to be a parent and mother. I was being student when required although I lost the heart for it. At some point I decided to start learning how to be me; or the person who was supposed to be me instead of the person the future ex wanted me to be. This is probably going to take me the rest of my life but self-expression has already become easier. Ultimately you have to do what is best for yourself and your situation. But also realize that the extreme emotional state you are in does not lend itself to thinking logically and rationally. Don't make emotionally based decisions whose consequences may contribute to depression or long-term guilt down the road if you realize you made a mistake that can't be unmade. If you need to talk or anything, feel free to give me a message and we can exchange numbers.

Think of food on walls as the Greys expressing the artistic sides of their personalities in the form of abstract art....