Inara

Grief is never something that needs an apology. You have such a big heart, and your feelings of loss and sadness at Oliver's passing are not going to diminish for quite some time, if ever. They will just slowly transform until the ache lessens and the warm memories become more forward. You have so much on your plate right now and I admire your strength! Perhaps as you go about the hustle of preparing for your move, you can think a wee bit ahead and start imagining a little tribute space to Oliver in your new "Paradise." I truly wish I lived near you, I would be putting on my jeans and rolling up my sleeves and coming over to lend a hand! I wonder if there are any members of our Forum Flock near you who will read your post and come pitch in? Beak smooches from me and HRH

Happy Hatchday Dorian! Wishing you many many more!

Once that fear cycle gets started, it is really hard to move past it and to retrain yourself and Brutus. I am wondering how things would go if you go completely back to square one and both begin over as if Brutus is a new to you bird? By this I mean put him in his cage and then leave him there except for daily cleaning and dish changing. Using a mobile perch to move him. Only give him a nut when he is back in his cage and only allow your boyfriend to give him a nut when Brutus is in the cage. Spend time near the cage consistently and give him lots of in cage head rubs and relaxed friendship building talks. Build up the rapport while Brutus is not roaming around and while you are safe from any attacks. It is not b oing to hurt Brutus to spend a lot of time in his cage for a few weeks. Some birds actually prefer their cage time because after all it u s their home and nest. HRH Inara only likes to be out for about 2 hours max a couple times a day and prefers to putter around in, play in, and nap in her home the rest of the time. It is not punishing Brutus to have him spend more cage time, look at it as a reboot and an opportunity for the two of y I u to bond and start anew as you would if you adopted a rehomed bird. We are all here to help and are cheering you on.

We had a quiet few days. Spent time with friends, spoiled HRH with tidbits of cranberry orange sauce and sweet potatoes, watched the final F1 grand prix of the season and just relaxed. The snow is supposed to fly big time up here today so will be setting up the Xmas decorations and giving HRH the grand tour so that she remembers that they are not deadly intruders!

Too cool for school! It would be great if you would set up a Sterling Ranch Etsy shop so we could buy some of your GreycieMae specials. Love this one!

What very sad news. Ollie was blessed in his life with you, and I know has left indelible beak prints on your hearts. I envision him spreading strong and beautiful wings as his spirit flies over the rainbow. ((Hugs))

Welcome to you and your adorable Dooble! We can be like a gaggle of Aunties and Uncles here, so jump in and don't be shy about posting more pics and stories, we love them!

Great vid, as usual Sterling! Tried clicker training with HRH Inara early on, and in typical Grey style she figured it out ASAP and in a short amount of time, she would (for example) fly over to me or spin around on her perch, or hang upsidedown, then she'd make the clicker sound herself, and would then would demand, "Cheese!" Classic anticipatory response. Needless to say, we tabled clicker training. She's more motivated by face to beak time and affection -- although she always gets a teensy piece of cheese every single time she goes home to the perch on her cage door, after the door is shut. So she never puts up a fuss about going home. Clicker training *is* and can be a very effective training method, if a creature is highly food motivated and if done before regular feeding times. Food is a powerful motivator for all eating creatures including toddlers and grown up hoomans. (Eat your peas, and then you can have dessert....) You can shape the behavior in small stages, and in the case of Brutus, you might begin with a click and reward for him just hanging at the door without making any move toward you. Then follow Dave's advice and use a stick perch to engage him off the doorway -- click and reward when he moves to the perch. Walk with him toward his home, click and reward part way there. Take him home for bed, click and reward *after* he is in the cage and the door is shut. (so that you are safe). Insert as many intermediate steps in between the doorway to perch and to bed as needed as long as Brutus is calm and not making moves toward you, don't rush the process. Personally, I would begin this process *not* at bedtime, but at various times of the day, and immediately let him out afterward so that Brutus has going home as a "game" where it is fun, he gets attention and rewarded and is not always put to bed when you use the stick perch, for example. When his home/sleeping area becomes a place of consistent rewards, and is not just where he has to go to go to bed, then it can be a more welcome retreat for him. Behavior shaping takes small steps, lots of rewards, and lots of patience. It also takes a lot of accuracy with the click, so that you are shaping the correct behavior and not something completely offbase. It's well worth getting a good DVD or book. I really would encourage you to check out Barbara Heidenreich's information: http://www.goodbirdinc.com/ She is an ethical and excellent behaviorist. I have no freaking idea why cutting back on fruits, etc. was even brought up by the consultant. Personally, I'm not one for wing clipping as a means of control either. Brutus has likely noticed that things have changed around you and your home, with the introduction of the new guy, and it is hard to determine the motive behind his behavior. It could even be one of wanting to protect you, by staying out where he can observe everything that is going on rather than going away to bed. Who knows? We cannot ever know what their thought processes are unless they actually tell us verbally, we can only guess and often wind up ascribing our behaviors to them and can be totally off base. Wishing you much success, Brutus is telling you something, and he is a lucky fellow to have someone like you who is "listening" to him. You will get this sorted out. There are no bad birds, there's just the classic Cool Hand Luke "What we have here, is a failure to communicate." :D

Awww....*loved* seeing your beautiful, sweet, mischievous Alfie! Brilliant idea to give Alfie something he loves to chew and now he has the bonus of another cool place in the house to do it. Lucky sweetiebird!

Am hoping that Ollie will continue to improve and that your vet will have more information for you. How scary and nerve-wracking this is. Sending prayers for Ollie and wish there was more I could do. ((Hugs))

Dee, you always crack me up! Am commiserating with you and Gilgirl...my Joe is back to work after his latest shoulder surgery, and finally has the huge Herman Munster looking sling off. However, he is not quite back on his usual schedule, and HRH has begun saying, "OK byebye go to work!" Psychic?....I do believe they read our minds... :rolleyes: at least in this case. bwhaha. Hope Dave has a speedy recovery, and if he touches your cup, well tell you are filing a complaint with HR.

Good on Poppy, and good on you for just being nonchalant about the whole thing. We had our roof done many years ago before HRH, and it was such a racket! I feel for you all! This week, we are being treated to total window replacements for the entire house. Lots of recipricating saw noise, and tons of drill sounds. HRH not only has been taking it in stride, but she has fallen in love with one of the window installers!! She kept saying, "Hi Sweetie," to him, and then later asked him, "Do you want a cookie?" then later, "Do you like Squirrels?" It was so funny -- I told him that if she asked him if he likes Kenny G and walks in the rain, he'd better tell her that he's married! :D As far as remaining calm through it all, like many of our other fids here, she takes her cues from me and/or my Joe and since all was well with me, she has been fine. However, she was not too crazy about being rolled into the kitchen to go "night-night," but there were lingering hints of calk scent near her usual space, so I didn't want her to breathe them in. They are very faint, but one never knows. Poppy and HRH Inara really are fortunate to have had such easy going starts to their lives, and to be cool as cucumbers through the new things life throws their way. My (RIP) wild caught rescued CAG awoke me one morning 30 some years ago screeching, "WHY??!! WHY???!!! WHY???!!!!" at the top of his lungs as I heard this horrible scratching and pounding sound on the outside of the house. My landlord had neglected to tell me that he was going to have the trim on my house painted and apparently the painters had shown up bright and early, and were scraping and preparing the trim. Needless to say, Lestat was *not* a happy camper! His thoughts on the matter echoed my own, as did the salty language he piped up with as the day wore on -- I think he may have even given Miss Gilbert a run for her money!! LOL Hope this note finds your roofers gone, your modification of decree settled favorably, and Poppy unruffled. xo

(\___/) /0\ /0\ \ \__v__/ /|:. .\ \\:::::// --`"" ""`--- Happy Birdday GreycieMae!! How cool to be born on Halloween. We see that you had a swingin' time, and hope that you got lots of treats among all the tricks your Daddy likes to play! xoxo

Sterling, no big surprise that GreycieMae makes a game out of bed time.... I mean seriously, look who she lives with!!! :D !! Giannine I think your sense of it feeling "cozy" is spot on. Our fids' homes are their nests after all and if they look for holes in hollow trees, etc. then having a cozy/covered area in which to retreat at night does seem to be a good move. Acappella, Dorian is such a lucky fellow. And why do I conjure up a mental image of him in there after lights out writing poems by the light of the moon? Timbersmom, I agree that part of the bedtime resistance can just be a fun game. I love how playful our fids can be and how they even invent their own games! Loveparrots, I can just picture the morning scene with Ana Grey calmly taking delight in knowing that no matter what antics Sterling Gris attempts that *she* is indeed Queen of the bird room. Kya, it definitely was a surprise at how easily HRH Inara adjusted and then embraced. That first morning I did have trepidation about what we would find when we uncovered her. I think her life is so secure here, and she is pretty intrepid by nature, that she sailed through it all. Also, once she had gone to sleep (prior to being covered) if we walked into the kitchen (open floor plan) and turned on the light to get something, she would give us her "crazy clacking sound" to show her displeasure. Now, she will give a little whistle or say, "hi sweetie," from under her cover, and we'll answer her so that she knows it is just one of us. Judy, I agree that covered or uncovered doesn't really matter as long as our companions are happy, and healthy about it all. Now that HRH has decided that she loves her "night night," we'll keep it up from here on out. Dee, I will hold out good thoughts that Miss Gilbert will adjust with aplomb. HRH has a curved top cage, and a queen sized black fitted sheet fits perfectly over the top, two sides, and front -- leaving the back open toward the wall. I also pull it to one side a bit so that she can peek out of one of her external clear feeder covers. She could shred the living daylights out of it if she ever took a notion to do so, but apparently that is not and likely won't be an issue. So maybe try a plain colored fitted sheet first to see how Miss GG responds before putting your sewing talents to good use. Keep us posted

Completely agree with both Judy and Kya. I have the luxury of being home most of the time with HRH Inara, my companion TAG. Both of her predecessors (RIP, wild caught Amazon and wild caught CAG) lived with me in the 1st half of my adult life when I was raising kids, working full time, and going to school and grad school. Times were busy, wild, and *everyone* adapted and adjusted well, oh, including the 2-legged kids. I've known companion birds whose people are home all the time, and who were neglected, ignored, and have lived in filth and worse. So time is not everything! A good balance is. It's all about the good care, and the love, Baby.

Well, typical -- our companions are always full of surprises. When HRH Inara first came to live with us over 3 years ago at the ripe old age of 2, with her came a large, dark sheet that her former hoomans had used to cover her cage. They said that she hated it. When asked what time they would cover her, the reply was, "When we can't stand the noise!" Translate: at any time of day without predictability or routine, no wonder she hated it. Fast forward to living with us. I never used it to cover her, as after nearly half a lifetime of living with kids, dogs, parrots -- I have selective hearing and just "tune out the noise." Noise is not an issue for me. (OK, unless it is a tantrum throwing, whining human being -- then, I would love to be able to throw a cover over *them*!! hahaha) Not to mention, that since she had negative experiences with it, I didn't want to recapitulate those for her. But I digress (no surprise there!). My Joe aka BigBird, has had three surgeries in less than 7 months. Resting was critical to healing, and HRH's getting up at the crack of dawn to wake up the house, as is her duty and prerogative, was taking its toll by considerably shortening Joe's sleep as he was getting very little, suffering from major bouts of pain all through the night. After talking about it (he was not complaining, but I could see that he needed that extra time in the morning to sleep), I suggested that we try covering HRH at bedtime, and seeing if that would help her sleep in a bit in the mornings. We both agreed that if she showed any signs of distress at being covered, (since in her past it appeared to be used as 'punishment' when she was being her usual, busybody whistling, chatty, R2D2 noisemaking self) we would immediately cease covering her. Well, spin me around and call me Susan, because she *LOVES* her "night night!" As with most things with her, I talk her through it, and set up a routine so that it is predictable. This was no exception. Every night we always tell her, "Night night," before we go to bed, and she replies with her "message received" sound followed with her "bedroom floor squeaking boards" sound. So in getting ready to cover her cage for the first time a few weeks ago, I said, "Hey! Look at this! It is a "night night" here! You are going to go night night, Big Bird is going to go night night, and I am going to go night night." Then I gave her a beak rub, and said, "Are you ready to go night night? OK. One, two, three......(insert putting the sheet over her cage)...night night!" Then gave her my usual night night whistle, she gave back her message received and squeaky floor boards sound, and that was that. We awoke the next morning at 7 rather than 5. I walked over to her home, said, "Good morning, time to wake up," and took the sheet off. She was happy as a little clam, came off her sleeping perch over to the one on her door, and said, "Good morning." It does not cover her home completely, it covers three sides, and she can see out the back of her home that faces the wall, as well as being able to peek out one of her food dish outer clear shells. Each night we would go through the same routine. After night number 3, when she would see me walking over with The Night Night, she would do a happy little wings up bow, and super tail wag in anticipation. Fast forward to now (several weeks after the 1st night) -- she has on her own decided that instead of our usual 9-10PM bedtime, that right around 6PM as the sun out the window she looks out of starts to sink low on the mountains, is *her* night night time. She had let me know this by heading to the perch on her door around that time, giving a new whistle (that now is her regular go to bed whistle), saying, "come come," and then doing her happy wings up bow and tail feather wags. She *loves it.* 1) it is the only time she is covered, and 2) whenever we walk past her, we always let her know it is one of us by saying, "It's just me, going to the kitchen," or what have you, so that she doesn't have to be on alert for "predators." How do I know that she loves it and is not just clamming up because she is covered? Because I know *her*, I know her body language, and most of all because she now "asks" for it. She is the first and only feathered companion I have ever covered, as for some reason I always felt that doing so just didn't "feel" right. Also, knowing the amount of sleep most parrots need, I was never worried too much about that as they often doze/nap during the day. So who out there in Greyceland covers or does not cover? There is no right or wrong -- (well unless you're being an @ssh0le about it and just using it willy nilly at any time of day to shut up what you already knew was going to be a noisy roommate when you insisted that they come to live with you...) Tell all....

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Thanks! I needed that laugh today!

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am SO thrilled to hear this! Have thought of you and Sukie often and am so delighted that you both shall be home safe and sound. Such great, great news, you made my day! :cool::cool: <3 <3 <3 !!!

Welcome to you and Dwight. You'd be amazed at how easily our feathered companions can settle in if we allow them plenty of time to just adjust. Since Dwight already knows you, this process should wind up pretty smooth along the line. Let Dwight be Dwight, and you just be you, and go about your business while chatting with him, and wait for him to make the overtures. My general tip for people who have never lived with birds as companions (unlike yourself) is to not think of them like dogs and cats whom we can go up to and pet, play with, etc. right away. But to remember that they are like the flighted creatures inhabiting the skies and we are fortunate when they want to alight near us and upon us. So glad you are here, and can't wait to see pics and hear stories as your friendship continues to grow!

HRH Inara is 5 now, and her weight since age 2 has been consistently between 282 grams empty in the morning up to 287 after eating during the day. This is why I call her my "sports model" compared to my (RIP) wild caught CAG who weighed a whopping 600 grams, consistently. So literally over twice her size. She weighed beteen 287 and 290 when I adopted her and she arrived at age 2 but did not know how to fly and spent all of her time as a perch potato. After I taught her to fly, she is very active and gets a lot of flight time and exercise. She also had been on a diet of hooman comfort food prior to arrival..... My assumption is that she is and has been fully grown since about age 2 at least since her weight and size has stayed consistent. I weigh her every other day and she enjoys "getting her numbers."

Loved the video!! Alvin is just such a little lovebug! Agree on the transferring him to the larger cage now so that he has plenty of room to spread his wings, and to climb and stretch. You can always position his perches lower down in the cage so that if he falls, he does not drop very far... then move them up as he continues to grow and gain balance and confidence. As for food, I give my bird mashed, cooked sweet potato, mashed cooked pumpkin, cooked oatmeal, chopped up steamed broccoli, steamed peas, slivered raw carrots, slivered raw purple cabbage, raw swiss chard leaf, raw kale leaf. She also is supplemented with a couple of Nutriberries a day, one walnut in the shell a day, a couple tiny bits of cheddar cheese, a few tidbits of eggs scrambled until dry, and a good seed/nut mixture, and either one grape or one apple slice a day. She prefers some veggies cooked, and some raw. According to her Avian Vet, she is healthy as a little horse. I have never paid much attention to fat content (from nuts and good seed mix) with my birds because they need it for healthy skin, feathers, and beak just like we do for hair and skin, and none have ever had fatty liver issues, etc. She also gets red palm oil skimmed across a chia seed and berry multigrain little waffle every morning. Each person has to decide what is a good mix for their bird based on activity level, advice from their Veterinarian, what their bird will and will not eat, and good old common sense. However, she is now 5 years old. I have never raised a bird from infancy --- so definitely pay attention to those who have more expertise with your guy's age group! Alvin is a lucky fellow and can't wait to see more videos, and hear all about him as he continues to grow and develop!

Kya sounds like such a hoot! Love your relationship with him, and his sense of humor!! For anyone who has never lived with our feathered conversationalists, it's hard to have them believe it until they hear it themselves! :cool:

Best news!

She is beautiful and looks like Congo to me. Take a good look at HRH'S beak in particular in her photo below and you can see the difference. Also with Maggie, there is no mistaking the flash of those bright tail feathers of a Congo. Having had a Congo and currently living with a Timneh, my money is on Congo all the way. Welcome to you and your new sweetiebird!

Hi Devin, just now seeing this. How is Korra Doing? It can be scary when they startle like that and fly into a wall/window/mirror. If it happens again, look for any spots of blood, observe whether she looks and acts stunned/groggy, and is she chirping and moving as usual, do her wings appear to be OK and moving normally, and when in doubt, a phone call with questions to your vet never hurts. If anything it can and often does put your mind at ease. Others may have more things to watch for.