Dave007

More than likely it was. But consider yourself lucky because you now have the opportunity to tell all of the other women here how important the official guide really is. It'll help if you draw on personal experiences. Use the *if only I would have known* *I wish I could turn back the clock* *What was I thinking back then* lines when chatting with the other women here. They'll appreciate it and know the grief you went through simply because you didn't have the official guide list. Women DO understand other women. Good luck{Communicate-0002011B} Go for it gal!!!!!<br><br>Post edited by: MrSpock, at: 2007/10/13 05:06

Well, a genuine hockey fan Ok!!----{Feel-good-000200BB}

Hi Valerie Welcome to our society. It's good to know that Joe has at least one good supporter. He won't admit it but he's very involved with the scientific study of why spaghetti hangs down. Because of this he's very involved with the laws of gravity.

The Good Wife's Guide to Happiness ==================================== 1----Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal ready, on time for his return. This is a way of letting him know that you've been thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home and the prospect of a good meal (especially his favorite dish) is part of the warm welcome needed. 2----Prepare yourself. Take 15 min to rest so you'll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your makeup, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh looking. He's been with a lot of work weary people. 3----Be a little gay and a little more interesting for him. His boring day may need a lift and one of your duties is to provide it. 4----Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives. 5----Gather up schoolbooks, toys, paper etc and run a dust cloth over the tables. 6----Over the cooler months of the year you should prepare and light a fire for him to unwind by. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order and it will give you a lift too. After all, catering to his comfort will provide you with immense personal satisfaction. 7----Prepare the children. Take a few minutes to wash the children's hands and faces (if they're small), comb their hair and, if necessary, change their clothes. They are little treasures and he would like seeing them playing their part. Minimize all noise. At the time of his arrival, eliminate all sounds of the washer, dryer or vacuum. Try to encourage the children to be quiet. 8----Be happy to see him. 9----Great him with a warm smile and show sincerity in your desire to please him. 10---Listen to him. You may have a dozen important things to tell him but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first--remember, his topics of conversation are more important than yours. 11---Make the evening his. Never complain if he comes home late or goes out to dinner or other places of entertainment without you. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure and his real need to be home and relax. 12---Your goal: try to make sure that your home is a place of peace, order and tranquility where your husband can renew himself in body and spirit. 13---Don't greet him with complaints and problems. 14---Don't complain if he's late for dinner or even if he stays out all night. Count this as minor compared to what he might have gone through that day. 15---Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or have him lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him. 16---Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soothing and pleasant voice. 17---Ask him if there's any other special thing that you can do for him while he's resting in bed. A good wife should be ready to please her husband in whatever area he desires 18---Don't ask him questions about his actions or question his judgment or integrity. Remember, he is the master of the house and as such will always exercise his will with fairness and truthfulness. You have no right to question him. 19---A good wife knows her place. ==================================================[/b]Post edited by: Dave007, at: 2008/02/03 04:34 Post edited by: Dave007, at: 2009/04/06 02:58<br><br>Post edited by: Dave007, at: 2009/07/13 06:36

I'm not sure about ink used in hard or soft covered books but as far as newspaper goes, about 15 to 18 yrs ago, the ink that was used in newspaper was changed so that it wouldn't be toxic. That applies to black and white and colored newspaper. Most greys love to rip up all kinds of things including books and rarely do they swallow any of it. Rip it, drop it, rip it, drop it. They do the same to wood. My buddy intentionally his 2 greys phone books to destroy and he's never had a problem. His wife does though. She's gotta clean it all up cause the guy is the master of the house.Women here should use her experiences as a guide line to happiness and bliss in their homes.

Dan Your logic overwhelms me. Your thought processes are in overdrive. Care to share some of that good stuff you're smoking?

Well Dan Actually, I'm definitely considered the owner BUT I might change that to *being owned* when 1--The birds pay the mortgage. 2--provide me with a new car every 3 years 3--make sure that tax payments are kept up to date 4--do all of the food shopping each week and pay for it. 5--buy their own food and change their own water. 6--vacuum their own area of dust, debris 7--cover their cage areas with newspaper. 8--wash their own cages 9--listen to us when I tell them to shut up. 10--stop flying over to us when we're watching TV. 11-stop nipping when I tell them to. 12-stop flying over to my shoulder just to irritate me when I'm on the PC. 13--stop shi*ting on my clothes when they're sitting on me. 14--stop putting little holes in my clothes just to be annoying. There are other things too but as of right now, they have their work cut out for them.

Try to shrink or expand pic with a smartsaver such as PhotoImpact. Resave it in the same file but before it comes time to resave, there's an area that gives you a choice of file classifications. Pick Jpeg Or, open a free account with PhotoBucket which is an online storage service. You put pics in it and anytime you want to place them somewhere. just click on the IMAGE link located in PhotoBucket. I really don't know whether using a photo altering program has the capablity of changing a file catagory.<br><br>Post edited by: MrSpock, at: 2007/10/11 21:13

"""""I am keen to find a young grey like this. Are his/her parents still producing babies. Thanks once again for the info."""""""""" If you're referring to the grey that has many multi colored feathers, no I have no idea whether the parents are still breeding but even if they were there's no guarantee nor is it likely that the offspring will look anywhere near like that. More likely, the chicks will be regulation color or have a few red feathers. The parents of the pictured bird weren't bred so that the bird would look like that. It's a mutation that can happen or not happen and the people breeding the parents won't have any idea what will emerge. Maybe it won't happen again at all. It all has to do with the past history of the birds that existed. Other birds that can be intentionally bred for different colors are macaws which I don't agree with at all. Those people are just looking to line their pockets. They should be bred with monkeys and see how they like it.

Notice that so many people say that they're *owned* by their parrots so I thought this would be a good idea...... 1--Each person should tell how much the bird paid for them. 2--Whether you were purchased by the bird from a private breeder or purchased from a pet shop. 3--Whether you were in a rescue and when the bird adopted you 4--The age you were when your bird decided to let you live with him/her. 5--Whether you are being fed good food by the bird. 6--Whether you feel that the bird has spoiled you. 7--Whether you feel that the bird has treated you with respect. 8--Whether you think that the bird was overcharged when you were purchased. Post edited by: MrSpock, at: 2007/10/11 06:19<br><br>Post edited by: Dave007, at: 2009/10/18 01:09

She was bred in captivity. Parents showed no unusual visible excessive coloring. Other chicks ( 2 others) in the clutch were regulation looking greys. Grandparents and great great grandparents all had excessive gene pigmentation but not as much as this bird.

She said that she had a quaker for 18 yrs and it died. Any way, a quaker's bite is worse than a grey because when a quaker bites it holds on and pushes the beak in deeper. % of drawing blood from a quaker vs a grey 10 bites Quaker-------draws blood 70 % of the time grey---------draws blood 25 % of the time

""""""""is it normal for a grey (timneh, if that makes a difference) to have a hole--more like a tunnel-- in the lower mandible where it attaches to the throat? """" Absolutely normal{Feel-good-000200BB}. All grey, CAGs and TAGs have that opening. there would be a problem if they didn't have it.

If it's only 4 -5 hrs a day, there's nothing to worry about. They're constantly talking to themselves in parrot language. They have a huge array of natural sounds and whistles which they do whether the person is at home or not. If you're really worried about the bird being lonely with no sounds available, you can try putting on the TV, preferably a kid's station like NICKOLOEDAN or a cartoon channel or an Animal PLanet showthat has the sounds of different animals all day. Many times, those shows feature areas in the wild that have lots of bird sounds but they also like other animal's sounds too.. They don't have to be just parrot sounds. The highs and lows of children's cartoon channels attract greys. They'll be curious because there's loads of different sounds to listen to. Don't expect your grey to learn or imitate anything from the TV shows though. The TV shows are only to offset his posible boredom. PS--If you're still interested in getting CDs, try these out---no words, just parrot sounds from the amazon and africa both done in their natural habitat Post edited by: MrSpock, at: 2007/10/08 22:38<br><br>Post edited by: MrSpock, at: 2007/10/08 23:05

Most greys don't really have the ability to talk at 4 mts old( there are very rare exceptions) BUT lets say that your grey is 10 to 18 mts old which is the time that the ability to talk really kicks in. CDs that have words or phrases on them are created as stream tracks. For example lets use the words *how are you*. A CD will quickly and constantly repeat the phrase over and over and over. If a grey eventually starts to learn those words on that particular track, it will repeat those exact words over and over and over at the same speed and pitch as the track because a grey hears the track as one sentence or bunch of words. Also, the pitch and sound of the voice coming out of the bird will be the same as what he's heard on the track, not yours. Also, if that track happens to have a scratch on it that can be heard by the bird, that scratch which is in track mixed in with the words will also be repeated by the bird simply because it's part of the track. He doesn't know that there's a fault in the track nor does he have the ability to know that there's space between the set of words. As far as the bird is concerned, that dead silent space is simply part of the track. if that space is 5 seconds, he'll space his repeating with 5 second intervals, not 3, not 6, not 9 seconds. A better alternative is to let a bird pick up what a person says naturally when that person is actually with the bird. After a grey starts showing it's ability to talk, you'll be surprised at all the things he starts to imitate in the house. A person won't even be aware of these things because they're so used to them that the sound doesn't even register. A squeek in the door, a dog moaning to go out to take a leak, a microwave going off, the beeps on a phone, a car alsrm when parking, language( even off color) between 2 people,dishes making noise when putting them in shelves, other bird's sounds etc etc. Save your money.

I agree with nevjoe when he says """"""I think you need to understand that birds do bit. It does not feel good but it is part of there makeup. """"" We have two legs, two arms. Every thing we do besides walking is started by using our arms, hands. Any parrot's beak is their arm. He first explores with his beak, bites easily or bites hard. Eats hard seed with a certain power, eats bananas with a certain power. With a grey, that's a trait that will stay with him/her for the rest of it's life, not just as a baby. When a grey gets much older, they become aloof and sometimes distant even though it has nothing to do with it's feelings for you. An adult grey will not remain that cuddly little bird that was cuddly when it was a baby. It really doesn't sound like he's doing anything unusual in a pet store environment.Some days, he'll stay away, sometimes he'll be coming rushing over. In a pet store, there's a million other things going on which can easily distract him. He's just a baby and shows interest in these things in different ways and that includes new things which might affect his attitude on your visiting day. If I may say 2 things, one of which is personality--a grey can't be compared to a quaker in any shape or form. They're two entirely different birds with totally different personalities. Each species has to be dealt with according to it's natural personality and traits. Expect to be bitten by a grey in the future. That's the way they are. The second thing is the art of socializing. Hoping that the bird will take to you as opposed to your husband can only cause problems in the future. Immediate socializing with your bird, you and your hubby is very important. Socializing should be on the top of your list. Hoping that the bird will take to only one of you will definely create a *one person* bird which most people hope will not happen in their household.<br><br>Post edited by: MrSpock, at: 2007/10/07 19:06

""""""""the greys have the red factor gene and they were not bred that way in captivity, they were wild caught. What does it mean?"""""" Not really sure I understand what you're asking but I'll try to answer based on what I think you're asking. Greys breeding in the wild or in the home has no effect on their color gene excess or lack of excess. The gene is simply there. How far back that development of the special gene occured is anyone's guess. In the wild, greys who will breed don't look upon other greys as being inferior if that coloring is visible. They simply take care of business as usual. The same applies to greys who are being bred in a home environment. If you're asking about what the chicks will look like color wise, that's up to nature. Maybe they will have visible excess coloring, maybe not. The only thing for sure is that the excess color gene will be in the chicks. If they were to breed in the future, that doesn't mean that their offspring will definitely show excess color. It might take 20 yrs to show up again or it might take 1 yr to show up again or any number of years in between. It's all up to nature. In 1992, A federal law was created which banned all species of parrots from being imported into the US from any country but before that, the savages who were doing the capturing tried to avoid nabbing any grey who visibly had that red excess color at the time of capture but for only one reason...they felt that they wouldn't get as much money because the bird wasn't identical looking as the others. What they didn't know was that many normal looking greys already had that gene even though it wasn't visible. Post edited by: MrSpock, at: 2007/10/07 17:48<br><br>Post edited by: MrSpock, at: 2007/10/07 17:56

I think that you should go back to feeding 4 x a day. A person, breeder or otherwise can never tell how long it's gonna take for a bird to wanna decrease it's intake of formula. Saying that a bird is always hungry is a sign that the bird isn't getting enough. Formula is the most filling food that there is. As opposed to a weaned bird, a baby's crop fills up to a golf ball with formula. The bird won't show enthusiam as the feeding nears it's end. Some of the formula will dribble out of the mouth. That's quitting time and usually, the bird wants to rest or sleep. That's usually done by the bird when he starts to refuse the amount of a feeding. There's no set time in which a bird will wean or decide to decrease a feeding. Some can take as long as 4 mts and others can do it in shorter amounts of time. Many times, the breeder won't say anything and that's why I'm against the sale of unweaned birds. There are too many unknowns. There might be one clutch and it's not unusual for each chick to decrease feedings at different times. Let the bird make that important decision. Longer hand feeding makes for heathier and calmer birds. Dave<br><br>Post edited by: MrSpock, at: 2007/10/06 17:52

<br><br>Post edited by: MrSpock, at: 2007/10/05 02:41

The more hours the better. It's up to what you can do. What I said was the minimum amount of time. If you can do more hours, that's great. Dave

2 to 4 hours a day. Some people let their birds out more than that but not everyone has the ideal solution available. It can be a straight time or it can be broken up. The parrot will eventually get used to your schedule. Just make sure that the cage is large in case the parrot has to stay in the cage all day long. They amuse themselves in a spacious cage with different toys you put in and that'll prevent boredom. """ how much time, generally, do Greys need/like outside the cage? """" Well, if you were to ask your parrot the same question he/she would definitely tell you that they don't wanna stay in the cage until bedtime. The same applies to most other medium/large species of parrots. You're the one that sets the rules though. Dave<br><br>Post edited by: MrSpock, at: 2007/10/02 00:33

""""""As parrot owners, do you just surrender yourself that you will never be a cat owner, do you isolate them each to different parts of the house, or do you do something else? I'd imagine dogs aren't really a concern (at least I'm sure they wouldn't be for me,""" No one usually surrenders. The love of a cat or dog is the same as the love for a bird. Many people who own birds have other species of animals in their houses--dogs, cats and some others too. As a matter of fact, most do. Each type of animal has to be under supervision when they're all together. It's a fact of life. What you should also realize is that the same applies to 2 parrots. There's no guarantees that 2 parrots will like each other. Many times, people do isolate one type of animal from another especially if one animal has a propensity for going after another type of animal. BUT, concerning isolation--who will really lose most of the space in a house? Keep a cat or a dog isolated from a bird and the cat or dog has the rest of the house to live in. The same can't be said about a bird so you really shouldn't feel bad about keeping your cat or dog away from the bird/birds. Eclectus are a pretty quiet roosting bird. They would rather relax in one place all day. In a way, that also applies to greys. They go from one spot to another only when they have to. """""I'd imagine dogs aren't really a concern""" That's not necessarily true. Some dogs don't like other animals around the house. Some don't care. It really depends upon that particular animal. It's an individual--personality situation. """"I can't imagine life without having at least one cat around, so should I just give up on ever having a parrot?""""" Let me put it this way, if you had come here and you were asking about adding a second parrot to your house, you would be getting a very similar response. You need to be on guard, watchful and never take anything for granted. One other thing....as opposed to a budgie, greys, Eclectus, amazons, cockatoos, all types of macaws need a certain amont of freedom from their cage daily which is all the more reason to isolate other pets. Good luck in whatever you decide. Dave

Rhonda Congrats on your new family member that will shortly arrive. Judy says that you'll be very happy and I totally agree. You've asked a lot questions and you're preparing yourself. Everyone in your family is about to have a true thrill. Good luck Dave

Hi Maunaolu Actually, no they're not *must haves* These are items that greatly benefit parrots internally and externally. But you shouldn't feel that you *must* get them. Lots of info has been given concerning it's benefits. Yes, it would be wise for a person to *consider* getting these items. Both items are inexpensive. One of these items is a bit harder to get but people can tell other people where and how to get it. Some people here will say that those items are very good; others will say that they're not important. What a person should focus on concerning those items is the lack of detrimental problems and bad remarks in the posts when using these items. People seem to be happy with the results. Some are extremely happy, some are just happy and some feel that it's okay not to use them. It's up to individual owner to decide. Just remember that most items that're suggested will not hurt a bird. Many people who don't use these items have birds that're fine. Dave

Hey Dan, Come on,I had to leave a few for you to talk about. After all, didn't you say that all of us should contribute? Well, that goes for you too and don't try to weasle out of your tasks. Got that??? Ok So, ya wanna know some more specifics?? Well, this is the scenario..the greys are in the trees yapping and in the morning they sh**t on the ground to grow dense tall weeds which eventually happens. Actually,various parrots all do it together in order to have a variety of weeds. In the parrot world this is commonly known as a communal dump. Then, in the afternoon, They'r very quiet.They sh**t harder pellets. What they're doing is fine tuning their aim so that they can eventually hit all the mice on their heads which will obviously daze them. It's called the element of surprise. Then the mice who've just eaten some insects and tiny frogs will scatter and run into those new tall weeds where the snakes are salivating and are waiting eagerly. The snakes eat those wonderful mice, relax for a while and eventually sh**t out a big turd. It lays there and hardens and eventually the dung beetles come around and roll it over to an area where they've been buiding a nest. After the dung beetles are finished, they then find an ant hill and feast on the delicious ants, especially the queen. Whatever ants are left, leave that area and take a long trip and look for special leaves and also tarantulas which they kill and carry back to their nest. Then, a new queen is established because she's the only one that can eat the poisonous tarantula without getting sick. The males then have their way with the queen over and over and over and over and she eventually pops out small eggs which contain maggots. The ants leave the nest exposed and soon, the honey bees fly in for a maggot brunch. Then the bees go back to their hives and create delicious nectar which is eventually purchased by human beings so that they can pour it on pancakes and waffles. So, greys do serve a purpose. Just remember how many creatures were involved in the making of that honey, how it was created and you'll have a greater respect for the original creator of your yummy honey. Let us all thank the AFRICAN GREY PARROT Dave Post edited by: MrSpock, at: 2007/09/30 00:43 Post edited by: MrSpock, at: 2007/09/30 00:56<br><br>Post edited by: MrSpock, at: 2007/09/30 02:57