Dave007

Directions for Avitech 1--use their spoon and correct amount of water. 2---after it's in mister, the bottle needs to be shaken much more than any other fluids are shaken. 3---After shaking, they'll be some small lumps floating round in the fluid so the bottle needs to be shaken some more until they dissolve. 4---In the evening any fluid left in bottle must be dumped. Then the bottle is filled with plain water and shaken until bottle is clean. After that, put the mister in the bottle with 1/2 full of water and spray it a few times so the fluid doesn't cake up in the mister.The ideal bottle to use is one that where a person can see the interior such as windex type bottles. It's easy to see those lumps floating around as you're shaking the bottle. Usually, for a heavily plucked bird the usuage is 2x a day

END OF THE WORLD was postoned---dental appt

Just remember to soak the skin thoroughly---don't dry him--don't use hair dryer---keep him away from drafty windows. Do it twice a day. Thwow out what remains in the sprayer each evening. If your bird squawks, don't get frightened. Many don't like spraying.

""""""I dont like how her leg is turned inward. Just seems wrong.""""" That's much better than the leg turning outward. Birds have no problems with legs turned inward.

AVITECH.COM Feather-In AntiPick Treatment USE 2 TIMES A DAY WITH ROOM TEMP WATER. Because your bird has seriously plucked himself, buy the 16 oz container. It's a special powder. Pluck No More isn't for your bird's situation

Also, water bottles create amounts of calcium at the ball end and surrounding area. Even when the more expensive bottles are used it can still happen because the ball is metal. My vote---water bottles are a no no.

There's many greys that don't talk. They will make loads of sounds and even imitate the everyday sounds of people in their own voice(parrotese). The trick is to learn what those sounds mean. In order to do that you need to study what she's doing when she's making those sounds. After a while you'll see that she makes the same sounds when those actions are taking place. I have greys that don't mimic human sounds or words yet I know every thing they say when they say it and what it means. Human talking is overrated. I can tell you that these parrot sounds/imitations that a bird will say won't show up as quickly when the bird is alone all day. The music won't do anything except keep her calm. Putting all sorts of toys in with a bird won't speed up the process because playing with toys has nothing to do with making sounds. The only way to relieve boredom is to be around the bird and interacting with the bird on an every day basis. Sometimes plucking can happen to a bird when left alone all the time but since it hasn't happened yet, that problem should be talked about if it does happen.

Very simple solution---teach them how to " stepup, stepdown" when birds are on the floor. That's the most common solution and lessons used to teaching the stepping up or down. After doing that a bird will rarely be resistant to doing those things no matter where they're at. The only resistance a bird may give is when a bird simply doesn't wanna do those commands but the bird will do that no mtter where it is.

If the animal is a bird then it'll go to the highest place that's possible. Stopping a bird from doing that is unnatural. People talk about the BS concerning ~Dominance~. Such nonsense! There's ways for getting a bird to come down but those ways have nothing to do with not allowing the bird to go up in the first place. A bird likes to stay high. It's just natural. What happens when people put toys on the top of cages? What about the cages that have roofs that open up? Going upward is simply natural. Remember, that animal is a bird.

I have to totally disagree with adding anything to a grey's diet during molting. If your bird has been eating the various foods that are beneficial all year long, a grey or any other parrot will still molt 1 or 2 times a year. It's a natural process. The old dead feathers are falling off with new feathers immediately replacing them. A grey loses feathers all year long. Nothing in their diet is causing this. Does a grey or other parrot lose interest in food? Yes but the main reason is because they're totally irritated and itchy and the skin is drier. More protein won't do anything concerning the time of molting. Does that grey get weak from not eating as much? No because the grey has been eating all the right foods before molting. Nothing bad is going on with the internal system. Do some greys act short tempered during molting? Yes because the irritated areas on the body can be more irritated if a person decides to pet their bird in the wrong direction so the chances of getting bitten is higher. The most common way of treating a bird during that molting time isn't internal, it's external. Humidity should be kept higher, bathing, spraying should be increased. But I should ssay this--even if you do these things, it won't make a grey any more interested in food but it will be comforting.

It is important to be patient, gentle and considerate of your new grey. He doesn't know you. He is in a strange place with strangers. He will undergo a brief grieving period. He has lost all that was familiar and loved - the other babies he played with and his beloved and trusted caregiver. He may be cautious. He may be watchful. He will want to learn the lay of the land. He will need to adjust to other birds (if any) and other companion animals you may have. Because of careful early management by your thoughtfully chosen breeder, he will be inclined toward acceptance, but don't assume it. A bird is not a domesticated companion animal and his trust and love must be earned by all who wish to have a satisfactory relationship with him. The adjustment period should last about three weeks. Be patient. Don't rush him. He doesn't know how loved he is and how anxiously awaited he was. Hold down the excitement. Be calm. Allow him time. Let him explore the cage and become familiar with it. The toys will be new and exciting and he will want to check them out. Remember he is just a baby and will need more sleep and more food than an adult bird. If you have a sleep cage, use it so he will have undisturbed sleep. Give him all the food he will eat. He will not get fat. He has weight to put back on after weaning. He should have food available at all times.Don't invite the family or neighbors over to see him just yet. Let him come to know you. Be careful to avoid accidents - take your time. Try not to let any "bad" things happen. Once he knows and trusts you, he will be able to accept an accident as just that. Hold him securely. Don't let him fall or be off balance when on your hand or knee. No earthquakes! Don't push him into accepting intimate petting until he is ready.A parrot should be acclimated into the whole family. Allow the least amount of opportunities that will let any parrot become a one-person bird. The whole family has to be involved with the bird in all areas--feeding, treat giving, cage cleaning, adding toys and handfeeding certain types of food. Your grey should be in an area where your average daily constant habits, conversations, household chores, relaxation and guests are nearby. Putting any species of parrot in another room with no human contact or visuals accomplishes nothing. The bird has to learn to accept all different things and the owner needs to help that parrot do all of these things by putting the bird into the mix of things. Your grey needs a decent sized cage and eventually he/she will have to be let out of the cage every day for as much time as you can afford. Putting a playstand nearby helps a lot. The cage needs the type of toys that can handled roughly. A lot of scrap pieces of wood are necessary for chewing and destroying. It's either the wood or your furniture. The reason for this is really simple......The animal is a grey and they like to chew!!!! When you bring your grey home, although the temptation is great, it's not a good idea to be handling him a lot until he/she feels good about that new cage and it's contents. Everything else ahead of the bird is also going to be new and learning about them in a relaxed state is best accomplished from the security of it's own cage and no time limits should be placed on any parrot when anything should be accomplished. All greys are different from each other. It's a bad idea to allow your parrot on your shoulders because they have a bad habit of biting necks, ear lobes, nape and head hair, breaking jewelry and sometimes biting the face. Not all do but it's a habit that should be avoided. You never can tell what's going to happen to you when you can't see the bird up there. Many people differ about the shoulder thing. I'd rather say that it's better to be safe than sorry.

People can tell you about their personal experiences with their Too but the official description is that-----80% 1-They're naturallly very loud. When they talk it sounds like loud squawking. They're very high pitched and they're well known for screeching. They yell when they want something. They screech when they're in an area that they wanna leave such as a cage. TOOs don't like being caged. They're notorious feather pluckers. They're worse pluckers than greys. Except for the plucking/chewing, the same applies to Macaws. If you need good impartial but blunt opinions, go to the TOO board called MYTOOS.COM. They'll help you with rehoming information.

It's always great to hear people say that their greys don't like the huge majority of available fruits. Fruits don't have nutritional value, are acidic and most importantly, those types of fruits aren't eaten by greys in the wild. A casual piece once in a while is good but only look at that piece as a treat, not food. Just because a grey will eat things, it doesn't mean it's good for them. Parrots love chocolate.

Cool! Very talented engineering idea. It can be applied to many things. It's design is just like small robotic vacuums.

Congrats Dee, hope you have a good time. Enjoy your experience. You'll love it.

http://www.bing.com/search?mkt=en-US&FORM=IA10AR&pc=RTME&q=organic+parrot+food+in+Swedan BUT, I would recommend that you not put too much importance concerning organic parrot food. Parrots have survived for 100s of years without organic food. In the wild parrots eat all sorts of things including other bird's droppings, dusty toxic leaves, worms, insects and if it's around, garbage. Basically, all parrots are scavengers and will eat a variety of things without getting sick. Organic food for birds? It's a new wave thing. Remember that the famous pirate Captain Hook never worried about giving organic foods to his nasty parrot. He ate everthing that he could grab including Hook's dirty beard. The bird lasted a pretty long time. Feed your bird some human food. It's good for them. Go to the store and buy the regular veggies and wash them off very well. Think about the 1000s of places where organic parrot food isn't available. There doesn't seem to be any problems with the birds located there. Stop worrying so much.

You're dealing w ith a situation and practice that's no good in the first place. As a bird gets more and more used to things, behavior can change towards many different things. These behavior changes don't have to occur when a bird first comes home. These types of habits occur after the bird completely fits into the family. No one complains when those changes are for the better but they do complain when things aren't so good. Letting a bird follow people around so that nibbling and biting on feet happen is very unnatural. People's feet have germs and residue from walking around other places on the floor. You may say that you and the wife have the cleanest feet in the world but that can't be true as far as what's on them. Giving treats, seeds doesn't do any good here because feet are an area that you can't watch all the time when the bird is around. The same applies to shoes. What your bird is doing is the same thing that a no shoulder bird is doing. A bird who's allowed on a shoulder where it starts nipping and biting on facial areas or neck areas or jewelry or clothes collars is immediately classified as a no shoulder bird. The bird means no harm. It simply enjoys biting upper facial areas. It applies pain, draws blood and damage. A person can't stop that behavior because the bird isn't doing anything wrong. The end result is no more shoulders. In your case it's no more feet. Your bird may not have any ill effects from biting on bare feet or shoes but you can't know what tommorow brings. It may take a while to stop the bird from biting, nipping, injuring feet and shoes but it needs to be done.

Almost all chat boards require that you use an online storage area in order to post pictures. Photobucket is the easiest to use. You would first open a free account with photobucket. Then, you would copy/upload your pictures to photobucket. Your original picture will still remain in your private file. Each picture is assigned 4 links. You would then copy the proper link and go to a board and paste the link wherever you want. IMG link is the one that's used the most. Also, when uploading to photobucket the pictures can be resized to whatever you like. You can upload as many pics as you want.

The PM situation seems to have been resolved.

http://www.greyforums.net/forums/showthread.php?157511-UVB-LIGHTING-IT-S-IMPORTANCE Read the whole thread

Problems with PM area is usually fixed by the administrator if she knows the problem exists. Since the PM doesn't work, it may take a while for the problem to be corrected.

No matter what filter you pick, just remember that all filter information from the company is aimed at human use, not avian use. All of these air filters will take in the dust that constantly stays afloat and slowly moves around. In certain light in the room, you can see this dust floating around. All homes or apartments have this type of dust whether a parrot lives there or not. Eventually it settles on things. Any air filter works on the principle of taking in that dust when it gets close to the suction areas. The suction functions on air filters aren't strong and the way they work is by the dust eventually floating around those suction areas and being pulled in. When a person buys an air filter, there's usually information on the box concerning the smallest dust size that it will pull in. Rarely do any of these machines talk about Parrot Dander which is the heaviest type of pet dander that exists. The 2 species that have the worse dander are cockatoos and greys. Parrot dander doesn't float around because it's too heavy and very messy. It goes downward and lands on surrounding articles such as furniture, their own cages, electronic equipment. That's why many people buy extremely strong exhaust fans, position them by windows which are located near cages so that the parrot dander gets sucked in the exhaust fan. Even doing that doesn't really strongly lessen the amount of dusting or vaccuming that needs to be done. The exhaust fan works on the same principle as when it's used in a freshly painted room to suck out the paint odor. An air purifier can't do that. And as far as NY dust is concerned, it's no different or more strong or less strong then other places. I lived in the Village, Chelsea, 76th street and Throggs Neck in the bronx for more than 50 yrs so I know the quality of the air.

Fortunately, you won't be able to fatten him. That's his natural weight and if the vet gave you the size description of your TAG, then that's the permanent weight. Your bird is at a very healthy weight.

I/m not trying to put a damper here. Just a fact. Just keep in mind that once a bird does that, the next time is easier for the bird to do that. The bird had to be in the shoulder area to bite the ear. So remember that this TOO is in the classification of a No Shoulder bird. The next time could be the neck or lips or cheek. A TOO can deliver a nasty bite. The bird means no harm. It's just that body parts are attractive to that bird. This subject has been talked about many times on this board.