Muse

Cranberries (fresh) have been on sale for the holidays, so I bought, cleaned, very thoroughly washed and followed some instructions I found online. They said just pour boiling water over the berries in a bowl. You can sprinkle sugar on them if you want sweetened. I put a small amount (maybe 3/4 to 1 cup for two bags of berries) of turbinado sugar over the berries just before pouring the water. I think you are supposed to use the sugar after the water is drained but I did not want too much sugar to be on the berries. Don't cook the berries (as you would for homemade sauce) as it makes the flesh too soft. Leave them in the water until the skin pops (usually just a few minutes). It made the strangest sizzling, popping noises as I poured the boiling water from the kettle over the berries. Drain thoroughly. Then the article recommended putting them in a single layer on baking trays and putting in the freezer for two hours. I used the dehydrator trays themselves, with a baking tray underneath to catch drips. Then I just pulled the trays out of the freezer and popped them in the dehydrator. Mine are pretty tart before being dehydrated. Mar gave them the thumbs down at that point, but he is the one with a sweet-tooth. I sampled a few today, to see how well dehydrated they were (not enough) but they were tart but very tasty. I imagine they'd be real good in a scone! I got a bag of Harrison's millet and flax bird bread mix, maybe I will toss a few in when I bake it.

Yeah, I just showed Megan her organic pumpkin. She flew to the top of the fridge.... maybe if I cut it open and show her there is a messy inside... hehehe.

The more I see, the more I am convinced that selling animals should be very restrictive - with severe quotas and licenses and inspections to insure the animals' welfare. I know dog and cat selling was restricted in Austin - pet stores could offer ADOPTION but could not "sell" animals from breeders. Many people still buy on impulse. And don't even get me started on stores selling bunnies and chicks at Easter. People who do that should be flogged. A huge percentage end up tossed out when the aren't "cute" and "baby" enough, and they realize that there is work and expense in caring for that big rabbit or chicken. Humans can be so thoughtless and cruel to creatures they deem to be "less" than themselves. We have Aunalese because we kept seeing her in a tiny little enclosure in a chain pet store. She was not being socialized, and when I met her eyes I could almost hear her thinking "Please get me out!" After several months, I began to nudge my husband. "We should buy her. No one else seems to want her and she's been here for a long time." (I somehow knew she was going to turn out to be a she, and she did!) She is a very sweet but timid and shy little thing. She was a great mother to her babies. But the sad part is, all over the country, giant breeding farms and "bird brokers" are churning out birds who end up in tiny cages in chain pet stores where employees are so misinformed they don't care for them properly or sell them responsibly. They then go on to short, sad lives because they are purchased by people who haven't a clue what they are getting in to. Many end up in over-crowded rescues. We are seriously thinking of starting a small rescue here, since we are planning a huge aviary to give flight space large enough for our own Greybies. There are stores that seem to have good ethics. The store we got the Greybies (and the cockatiel) from definitely give the "talking you out of buying a bird" speech to all prospective owners. They were up-front about everything. Biting, chewing, loudness, how much vets cost, what kind of food they need, and how long they will live. They made sure we were aware of all of this, and agreed to it, before buying the birds. They even tried to warn us when they thought we were developing MBS. (Too late!) But even so, as with dogs and cats, breeders produce, stores sell, and people will buy with perhaps good intentions. Look at all the people who give birth to children then don't keep up the work necessary to raise them. Then there are those who see the problem and do whatever they can to help. It sounds like Delilah found someone who is going to love her and give her a forever home and it also sounds like she is going to richly reward them with her love!!

We don't, mine don't seem to like any kind of covering. We had one for the cockatiel when he was younger, but after reading a horrific story about a little bird getting caught up in a loose thread, it came out and didn't go back in. I'd just check and make sure there are no threads or anything that a toenail might get caught up in whatever kind of tent you get.

I agree with SterlingSL - crate or confine the dog. Dogs often like to 'den up' when stressed so the dog may actually be better off. Is the son going to be staying there with the dog during the recovery, so that he could give the dog some "out" time, like walks, as permitted following the surgery, of course? Has the dog ever been around birds (or any other small animals)?

Nancy, I try to be firm on discipline with doses of rule-bending where common sense allows the rules to bend. Sometimes I have to ask myself, am I making this rule for THEIR safety or for my convenience. Generally if there isn't a safety concern, I lean towards listening to what they want. There really isn't much they can do in the living/dining room that could hurt them with the exception of minding them around the lamp because it has a cord and I don't leave them in that room without me right there. Their room has no electrical cords, only a flush-mount ceiling light and lots of bird-safe plants as well as cages and play stands. Eventually there will be no carpet in the house. I have dust/mold allergies (not to bird dander, thankfully) and have found hard floors alleviate the problem. Plus with birds, it just makes life easier. I have a really nice carpet shampooer that is not much bigger than my vacuum cleaner, so I don't mind shampooing the rugs (for now...hehe...soon... they will be gone). I have a steam mop for the hard floors that I LOVE, and am begging for a professional grade steam cleaner for Christmas. We will see how that goes. I have a tiny consumer grade one that goes about 15 minutes then it has to be cooled down and refilled. No fun when cleaning five cages, two of which are 'duplexes'. They are actually pretty good about when I am working. Mar sometimes gets impatient and "digs to China" in his cage. He will beak onto a bar and use one foot to "dig"at the floor of the cage. I try my best to ignore the behavior but sometimes can't resist picking him up. They are also pretty good about keeping it down when I am on the phone. I usually only need to say "Mommy's on the phone, inside voices!" and they pipe down. Megan does like to try to mimic my phone calls, but once I tell her inside voices, she does it very quietly. They are very patient birds most of the time, though. Usually once I get off the phone we have what I call "Birdy Fun time" (the polar opposite of "Birdy Quiet Time" where we put on either Marnie the Ringneck parrot videos (from YouTube) or wild bird sounds. We turn them up very loud and we all make lots of loud noises. Mar loves to fly laps and just screech at the top of his lungs. About fifteen minutes of this and everyone is wound down and ready for "Birdy Quiet time" again! Mar and Meg fight "going back" but the little birds often put themselves up with the exception of Maks who likes to think he's going to spend the night on the top of the trim around the windows and thus he poops on the drapes. We are having a little war over this behavior and so far I am losing. Heh. He's the headstrong one of the bunch. I got them a "young coconut" the day before yesterday, and found that is a GREAT pacifier. Both birds spent over an hour gleefully shredding the husk from the shell. This one is a bit OLDER than it should be, as the shell had already gotten somewhat hard - if they truly are YOUNG, they can usually bust through and then the real mess begins. Shredded plus wet and sticky. I got a lot of stuff done while they were enjoying this fun treat though, and it only took me a minute to sweep up the shredded husk.

Both our Greys have had their moments. I had some papers from a training class, and an evaluation paper that I had to have my charge nurse complete after I'd been there a few weeks, that were lovingly perforated by a naughty little parrot beak. They were in my nurse bag, on the sofa. He climbed on the back of the sofa and reached down in and put darling little beak marks all up and down the papers. I photocopied the evaluation, so it would not have beak marks, but the training papers were bound together in a booklet and I didn't want to take it all apart so I had to explain that my parrot was investigating it. Both Greybies assaulted daddy's keyboard. We have matching bluetooth lighted keyboards. Mine is on a tray that slides under the desk. The birds were in the office when we were sharing one room, and both of us were in and out doing things. I heard a commotion and ran back to find both birds pulling keys off the keyboard. The Z key seems to be very popular with parrots. They'd only popped a couple off when he caught them. So he orders a new one. This was one of those times when he thought I was keeping an eye on them and I thought he was... he returned to the room to find Mar sitting on the monitor (he learned from the last time, evidently) and Megan gleefully ripping the NEW keyboard to shreds. He said she looked up as he walked in and took the key she had in her mouth and tossed it in his direction. No shame, that girl! He walked out of the room for a minute, but came back in and said "I can't be mad at them. This is what they do." Luckily he did manage to salvage the Z key from the destroyed keyboard (which was the only permanently damaged key from the first keyboard, and put it back on the first keyboard. The cockatiel is probably the worst. He destroyed several picture frames. He is famous for landing on curtain rods and chewing the blinds and curtains (surprisingly, NOT in the new house - yet!). He is far more sneaky and less obedient than the Greybies and being smaller so he is harder to catch at making mischief because he gets into places the big birds won't fit. I was at the vet (with the budgie AGAIN) and while they were doing x-rays, I was reading some pamphlets they had for pet owners. One was about cockatiels. The first line was "Cockatiels are relatively quiet, non-destructive birds...." I had to laugh.

Wow! That looked like a lot of fun. It is good to see a family having fun together like that. The teenager appears to be more of a handful than Greycie is, hehe. Good luck with that!

Okay, one of Mar beaking my nose, and one of me without him attached to my face.

Yes, I am a nurse also. I worked in a psychiatric hospital and I can tell you that things always got busy during the full moon. As for the birds? The full moon passed and none were much different. A bit sleep deprived as mommy had a lot of work and tended to work late into the night. These birds don't settle down if they can hear me anywhere in the house. Taking them to their sleeping cages doesn't work well if I am making any noise at all, because they will just call for me. They do settle down and roost if I put them in the room I am working in. I finally gave up (after Megan's disciplinary bite) and moved the kitchen stand into the living-dining room. After all, shampooing carpet is good exercise for mommy, right? We have one combined room for a very small seating area and our dining room set, because what was the last homeowners' dining room has become one of the bird rooms. They have that and cage space in my office (because heaven knows that is where they MUST be!). So while I worked on the living-dining room, the bird stand stayed in there, and so did Marden and Megan. Unfortunately, this means work goes very slow - constantly interrupted by "NO, Megan, don't chew that. NOT YOURS!" or "Mar! Get DOWN from there. Don't poop on the china cabinet!" and a lot of doing work (glass cleaning and sweeping) repeatedly instead of once and done. We finally got through it all, and the room is done and everything in its place. The table is wearing a nice scar where Megan decided to taste-test a corner of it. For a brief moment I considered taking a picture of her with the piece she bit off in her beak and using it to make one of those "And this is why we can't have nice things" pictures for the rogues' gallery on the fridge....hehe. I can't blame it on the full moon, though. That is just what Megan does. She's very destructive. I think the only one who really ramped up for the full moon was me, but BOY did I get a lot done!

Antibiotics in the water are never a good idea. You cannot control the dose because you cannot be assured that the bird will drink all the water. For antibiotics to be the most effective, they must maintain a constant level in the blood and varying dosages will not do this. Antibiotic doses should be very consistent and at very regular intervals. Also, giving low levels, what is referred to as sub-therapeutic doses, can actually do more harm that good by giving the bacteria a taste but not killing them. This allows them to build resistance. There are many new antibiotics on the market. The one Little Budgie is on is a once a day (Oh thank you, Lord!) for 14 days ordeal, making it easier on both of us. Disclaimer: I'm not a vet (I'm a nurse for humans) but just from the glance at the picture it does appear to possibly be a cyst that has opened. This can cause problems because if not treated properly the infection can remain in the little pocket that is left and eventually cause complications. I agree with the others that an avian vet needs to be consulted. They can give a thorough exam and see things that a picture won't show, and give you an accurate diagnosis and proper treatment. Best of luck with your bird.

That is good thinking. So the change won't be as much of a shock. I am not retired but am currently not working and am spending all my time with them. Maybe I'd better do this a bit in preparation for getting a new job.

Dan - We seem to be a lot alike in our thinking. Our birds, too, are the center of our world. We have a little less routine that your household, with some spontaneity that is sometimes led by the birds and what they want to do. We have no children to pass them on to. We are hoping to find someone who we can integrate into their lives that will carry on when we are gone. We are already looking into setting up a trust, where the caretaker will get everything with the stipulation that the birds are well cared for. I know somewhere out there is a young person who would love these birds as if they were their children and care for them as such. But all I can do is pray for our paths to cross in this life. Our birds are not 'trained' either. They don't do cute tricks. They are children, and sometimes they act just like that - spoiled, headstrong toddlers. Toddlers with big, sharp beaks and talons, that can fly. No one likes to think about dying. But I know I am no spring chicken and I want these babies to be cared for as I do now. I just have to have faith that I will find the person to carry on my job as mommy to this flock when my time comes. I did tell my husband, if I go before he does, and Mar suddenly begins speaking in a perfect sentence, asking to go fly outside for a little bit, let him out. I promised we'd come back.

Maybe we should start a "Bombs away!" club like the "Bite Me" club. For owners who have been 'blessed.' Megan is so intelligent she immediately figured out that we did not like being pooped on. She rarely does, and at times I swear it's retaliatory. One time they were on daddy's shoulder and he was playing a video game. She was on one side, and Mar on the other. She actually leaned back to look at Mar around daddy's head, and said "Go potty, Mar. Come on, do it, do it! Hahahahaha (evil chuckle)." Mar on the other hand, was very slow to potty train. He's a BIG boy, who loves to eat, and thus always has pretty awesome poops. He has gotten to the point where he will back WAY up, to try to miss you, which usually does but leaves a slight wet trail, especially on my behind, which umm...let's say it extends a bit further than he can back up on my shoulder. Maks just goes where ever and does not care, Alex actually learned on his own to fly to the stand, go and fly back. I honestly cannot remember the last time he pooped on me. And the Green Cheeks were always good about it - as soon as they could move, they would fly off me to poop. Little budgie? That bird is a pooping machine and goes WHEREVER (and EVERY WHERE) despite all efforts to discourage. At least they are tiny! I do let the fids know I am not happy about being used as a poop station. I use a firm voice and say something like "Aww. You made mommy get the not-happy face! Look at this mess I have to clean up. We don't poop here. We poop on the stand!" All the birds (even the budgie) know the "not-happy face" and actively avoid it, lol.

Yeah. Found it. Tried to watch it all. Didn't make it all the way through before the flood. It's been a very rough week and my emotions may be a bit too raw, but I couldn't get past the sorrow (and rage) at some of those stories. There are times I am ashamed for the way some humans behave towards God's helpless creatures. My only solace is in the firm belief that those who fail the test of being caretakers of this world and all the creatures in it will some day answer for their actions. May they all be rewarded according to their deeds.

We had an 'unplanned parrontcy' that ended up with adding three baby birds to our flock. We did a modified "Shared parronting" and it went pretty well. We held, cuddled and loved them but did not do any feeding. We did offer treats when they started to eat on their own but didn't do any formula or hand feeding. We did not band nor did we clip the babies. Ever. We did find a really good home for all of them - ours. But I have to say the experience of seeing the miracle of their hatching, and watching them grow from tiny helpless naked chicks to full sized feathered adults was worth every bit of work in caring for them. I wanted to find them homes, but as my husband said "You'll never find anyone who will live up to your standards." He was right. But they are out flying around their room right now, on the other side of french doors from this desk. They have a big crock of water and are all soaking wet and having a blast. I feel I made the right decision. I love every moment. We even had a 'nest cam' on Ustream. It still brings tears to my eyes to watch their baby videos. They aren't perfect, trick-doing, command-obeying birds but they are beautiful intelligent members of my flock and I don't regret their arrival at all.

I will have to look into that. Perhaps when the fids wind down and go to bed. They think they are a bunch of owls. Mommy worked the 3-11 pm shift for a long time, so night time, when I got home, was always play time. Not so fun when I am trying to stay on daytime hours now. Hehehe. We looked into net, but it seemed to fragile, and I was afraid they'd chew a hole in it and escape. We used GAW wire, I cannot remember what gauge but it was like, 1/2 inch by 2 inch spacing. I am working on a 3D model/plan but in between unpacking/settling in (which is going SLOW with nine birds, three cats and a dog). Hopefully I can post pics when I get it done.

Looks pretty cool from what I could see. I don't have an account so I couldn't see the big pictures. We are in the planning stages now. I know I want a few things: large - big enough for large wings to stretch and fly, and high enough to encourage up and down flight. My idea was to use one of those carport type structures, the taller ones they make for RVs, and cover it in wire panels. I'd build a brick or concrete knee wall to discourage predator animals from sniffing around as well as have wire inside and out to prevent reach through. I want to put planters in it for small trees and other plants as well as building structures for them to climb and play on. What I thought about was getting one kind of like this: http://garagebuildings.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Red-Barn-Roof-only-300x183.jpg and making one 'room' sectioned off for the cockatiel and Sun Conure. The GCCs do not have problems with the Greys and vice versa but they DO dislike Maks and Alex. We'd also build a 'run' connected to their room, which would shorten when we build the house out during the remodel (adding to kitchen and bird room). It's still in the planning stage right now, unfortunately. Our old aviary was a 10x10 foot one built of PVC. We knew we were moving in a couple years and wanted something that could be taken down at that time. We did, and donated it to a lady who does rescue and wildlife rehab. I will dig up some pictures and post them later if I get the chance. Right now I am being paged. The Greybies want their evening snack.

I am very sorry to hear of your loss. As others have said, it is good that you were able to share this here to help others understand how dangerous this stuff really is.

Going to have to find it online. We don't have a TV. Sounds like a good program, though I am not sure I'd watch it with the birds. It seems to upset them when I cry and these type of shows usually make me do that.

LOVE this! Hehehe, such a CUTE picture for such a painful subject!

"Awww" factor of 10! What an adorable little bird. I am going to have to play that for Maks later... AFTER 'birdy quiet time' (aka nap) is over!

Some days when Maks is on my shoulder and he does his contact call or the "come here" or "wolf" whistle in my ear, I wish he'd have been a quiet little girl... hehe.

Our cockatiel was a sort of 'surrender' - my husband's mother is one of those people who sees someone else get something and immediately wants it as well. When we took her to the bird store to meet Marden before he was weaned (we were staying with her taking care of her at that point), she immediately said "I want a bird!" and of course my husband obliged by getting her a cockatiel with all the accessories (cage, play stand, etc.). Maks was older than Mar by several months and long since weaned so he got to come home after a couple days of "cage training." I don't know if this made him territorial or what, but since then he's been VERY aggressive towards the Greys. I keep wishing we'd have left him at the store and brought them all home together but of course I cannot change the past. Of course, once the newness wore off, and once she realized birds are a lot of WORK (unlike her pet rats that got left in a cage until she felt like playing with them) she told me "I'm just not a bird person." Maks had already decided that being ignored on a perch while she played on the computer was less fun that riding my shoulder while I worked, so he'd bonded to me anyway. I've come to love him as much as any of the other babies. Recently, we have all moved to a new home (in another state) and they all arrived at the same time. I thought perhaps this would be an end to the 'territorial' thing, but no such luck. I think it is too late now for that to have an effect on his attitude. I am not talking just hissing and posturing. He will fly clear across a room to swoop down and literally attack them when they are minding their own business. They are many times his size - especially Mar, who is nearly 500g. I don't know if he's got some kind of death wish or what. Does anyone else have a cockatiel with this kind of attitude? Is this normal? I have tried every animal (and child) technique to modify this behavior with no success. Any suggestions? Tips? We are planning a very large aviary for the birds to allow them to fly somewhat freely, while still remaining protected from aerial predators. I am not sure how this will work if he's going to chase down the Greys and pounce on them. I welcome any advice!

Congratulations on the new Greybie! I hope yours makes you as happy as ours have made us!