Dave007

Only slightly smaller. Nothing unusual about 276

I think you should have chico weighed again. There was probably a mistake made. If a vet saw that a TAG weighed 150gms, he would immediately see that something was wrong with the bird and would tell the owner. A TAG's minimum weight is about 235 gms which makes the bird very tiny. The maximum weight is between 315 to 325 gms which makes the bird an average to slightly larger bird. PS---I just saw a picture of Chico that you posted in another area that you put it in. A TAG has a straw colored upper beak. I don't see that color in the photo. A CAG's upper and lower beak is black. He seems to looks like a CAG and as far as weight goes, A very small CAG is about 385 gms up to 550GMs which is a very large CAG. TAG means Timneh African Grey CAG means Congo African Grey

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Warm humidity or cool humidity doesn't ward off micro organisms. Humdifiers are used in bedrooms that infants live. The main reason they're used for infants is because the room is very dry. Even if there was any Teflon in any humidier, the temperature would never get never get hot enough to make the teflon active. Many products in a house have teflon in them but none are harmful unless heated to 350 degrees or more such as what happens when cooking with it. The main conversation about teflon always has to do with cooking with the pots and pans. Humidifiers have to do with dry areas and dry skin and ease of breathing. Nothing more, nothing less.

325 is a good average weight. He'll probably lose a few gms as he gets older and more active.

The model you're pointing out doesn't heat the room. No humidifier heats rooms. Humidifiers, depending upon their features, can humidify an area with cool air, warm air or both. The temp of the cool and warm mist appllies to the water in the machine. Room temp has to be set by a person but a humifier doesn't change that room temp. There's loads of humidifiers that have the warm mist feature and they're inexpensive.

First off-concerning Photobucket------only use the IMG link or the DIRECT link. It's actually great that they wanna share each other's cage during the whole day. Usually,quakers are not that friendly with other species. Somewhat aggressive at times. The most important thing is putting back in their own cages at night. If you can easily do that all the time, then let them out all day long. Many people wish their different species would get along that nicely. If you see extremely aggressive behavior towards each other ( seriose biting) then, they can't be left together. They will lightly nip at each other during the day but I'm talking about serious biting, not light nipping. One of my quakers will try to hurt my greys every chance she gets. All of them are very leery of her. As far as the cage, most will say that the bigger the better but your birds have taken to the present cages so just leave that alone. Eye color for TAGs---The final white color around the pupil will happen at at about 8 to 10 mts. Food----Just about every brand of pellet has artificial color. The color won't really be harmful but concentrate on giving different veggies. nuts and periodically some fruit. All parrots need food around in a bowl 24/7 because they eat all day long. There is no breakfast, lunch or dinner. So that all day food would be some parrot mix with some pellets. The important thing here is the other food. Veggies will go bad every 3 to 4 hrs so they must be replaced. my opinion concerning wetting the pellets---your bird at 4 mts old is quite able to break up pellets when they're dry but it s up to you about wetting them. Dry or wet pellets don't cause diarrhea. As far as water, birds should have water available all the time. it doesn't matter if it's in pellets. Parrot mix shouldn't be watered down. You need a bowl of water in the cage all the time. That applies to the quaker too. If your TAG will only eat the pellets if they're wet, slowly decrease the amount of water used in the pellets over a period of time. Pellets really don't cause kidney problems--the big debates concerning pellets are which ones have the most vitamin content. It doesn't matter though because a bird may like a pellet that doesn't have as much vitamin content. A bird can't be forced to eat what it doesn't like.

Their first major molt takes place at about 1 yr old. You'll know when it arrives. Have the vacuum ready and make sure the bag is empty. Before that, smaller molts happen--white fluff, tiny breast feathers, tiny vent feathers. ****just feathers that may have been knocked out during rough play or freak outs from the vaccuum****** very possible. birds lose some feathers from those actions all year long but they also lose the longer solid feathers because the feathers are dying and will be replaced with new ones.

Just lightly swat the bird off your shoulder. Constantly do this when she gets to your shoulder. The bird eventually get the ideaA person needs to show dissapline concerning a creature who can easily get the upper hand. ((((((Sorry, I accidenty removed your question. I hope that what I put in the quote covers what you asked)))))

That means that the bird has shown constant interest in biting cheeks, biting a nose, biting lips, neck areas, nipping at earlobes, pulling at neck jewelry, pulling hair. A bird can do all of these things or just one or two things above. No matter what, a bird that does this can't be trusted to be in an area where it's difficult for the owner to see the bird. Also, a bird like this eventually finds a way to avoid being stopped---example----the bird is on the shoulder, the owner wants to take it off the shoulder, the bird then scoots to the other shoulder behind the person. The more the person tries to catch the bird, the more the chance of getting bitten because the bird is quite happy up there and doesn't wanna be removed. A bird who does these types of things above is known as a no shoulder bird. Many people here have that type of bird and they've understood that shoulders are a no no.

Anything for you. Put the worries aside. You can now get a good night's sleep.

The ears are located at the upper end of the legs near the keel bone behind each wing.

Your bird isn't a shoulder bird. Many birds do that and many don't. When they do that, it's time to eliminate the attractive areas (shoulders, ears, cheeks, face, neck) All these areas can be easily reached by a bird and it's hard to stop them from doing it. ***does anyone have any advice on why she could be acting like this*** ------Mother Nature.

Just to reassure you, parrots have no effect on cardi problems. About the only problems people have with greys concerns already existing any COPD *(Asthyma--chronical broncial diseases) which is affected by a bird's dander. If your child has no breathing diseases, keeping the bird should be no problem. Another thing----people who have COPD and decide to get a bird, espeially greys---with some people the breathing problems will show up quickly.

Yes, this is perfectly normal bird anatomy. Many first time owners think there's a "hole" there and panic, but it's not a hole, it's closed and it's not much different from what WE have! There's no feathers there. Go ahead and push your finger into the area just beneath your chin. Other than the skin there - you can almost feel directly into your mouth, to under your tongue. Our 'gap' looks different because our "beak" (upper mandible) is shaped differently to allow for these pesky teeth. Birds don't have teeth. BUT - the upper inside of their beak has a graded 'grinding' surface that helps them break things up - very much like what we do with teeth.

'' That's correct. Unfortunately, most parrot mixes contain raw unshelled peanuts. There's a huge difference between human grade nuts and nuts in the parrot mix. If a person want's to see the difference all they have to do is get one from the mix and eat it. You'll see a major difference between the two. They taste terrible. The rawness is obvious but those peanuts don't bother birds. It's always a good idea to remove them and dump them. That goes for all the peanuts found in the bag. Remember that many times, the shell has broken in the bag and the nuts are just moving around. The whole bag doesn't have to be done all at once, just take them out as you use up the parrot mix. They're easy to see and many of them wind up in the bottom of the bag of parrot mix. Roasted human grade nuts don't cause problems and if a person can't figure that out just remembr that a human can contract the same disease so the nuts are cooked and bacteria is killed off. There's never problems with them.

Good. Those so called *dead bird* ads on Ebay have to do with taxidermy which has been used for hundreds of years. Historic museums such a the Smithsonian and Museum of Natural history display taxidermed animals. People have their dead animals done in order to visually remember them. Ah well, just another petition done by an extremist group.

I'm not so quick to sign any petitions since I signed one a long time ago which had to do with PETA which is actually the biggest BS organization concerning animals. The petition I signed was pro PETA and I'm very sorry I did that. Lots of these so called petions are invented by extremeists. As a matter of fact, when a person visits many of these petition sites, there's instructions on how YOU can invent a petition whether it's legit or not. I'm starting a petition soon *Save THe Cockroaches who are cruelly sprayed with pesticides throughout The World*

First show me any ads that have to do with sale of dead animals or dead animal pelts that's on EBAY before I sign any petition.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh4XVF5rGvM&feature=related

They're fine as long as they're human grade roasted nuts bought in food stores( supermarkets, grocery stores) that have nothing to do with parrots. Don't feed every day plus try out unshelled almonds and unshelled walnuts. They're good for the beak. Different nuts are part of a grey's diet in the wild.

Well, if that's the name you wanna give it, that's fine. Personally, I've never bothered to find out what the scientific name is. It doesn't matter what it's called. I just know that it happens with different birds and there's nothing to worry about. I've seen it happen countless times. A vet also told me that it periodically happens to males. One of my friend's TAG has done this in the past and the bird is a successful breeder. He was 15 when this happened.

The test is accurate. Rarely, a male can lay an egg. Most of the time the male is a very mature adult bird. The male usually ignores the egg and won't lay another one. Mother nature and excess hormones can cause this. It's noything to worry about and more than likely, it won't happen again. This subject has been brought up a few times before on this board because others have gone through the same experience but that was quite a while ago. Had the bird been a female, this type of thing would have happened a long time ago when the female was just starting to mature (5, 6 yrs old) Excessive hormones during breeding season can cause a hen to do that. The bird that this type of thing happens to very often are cockatiels (males and females) PS--also, usually the male that it happens to was never a breeder but it can happen to breeding males once in a great while.

I assume you first put your photo in Photobucket before posting it here. When you put a photo in Photobucket it gives you the option to turn the photo to whatever angle you want before entering it there.

Even a 15 or 25 watt bulb is good. Put it in a small light fixture and put it away from your bird. Lights don't hurt birds. They'll sleep through anything plus, they'll see things quickly when they fall off their perch. Greys are clumbsy birds This a lamp that's about 13 inches high. There's a 25 watt bulb in it. The only reason that the small towel is around it is because the lamp is butt up next to the quaker's cage. It lights the whole room and when I put it on, the birds go to their cages to sleep. I've used it for years. I don't like keeping my greys in total darkness http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v50/DaveVP/DSCN0004.jpg