Dave007

No, it can't be thinned out with water or any other fluid. It's a gel that acts like a first aid cream and a moisturizer so leave it as is. If you need a fluid, get aloe juice.

I think you're confusing screaming with squawking. A 7 wk old grey doesn't have the vocal strength to scream. I don't know how many feedings you're giving but if you're feeding certain amounts each time because you read that it was the right thing to do, that may not apply because every bird is individual and has different needs. Add on one more feeding to the schedule. Add on a little more formula each time you feed and wait until your bird won't take anymore and spits it out. That's a full feeding. If the bird squawks when you're coming around, that means he's hungry. If he swawks for a 1/2 hr after you feeding, that means he hasn't gotten enough. Don't decrease the amounts of feeding a day untill your bird absolutely refuses one of them. How much time will this take depends upon your bird. Some need formula for short periods or long periods of time. That's the time to decrease the amount of feedings each day. A full bird won't squawk, he'll fall asleep afterward for about 2 hours. In general, a 7 wk old bird should be given 4 feedings a day with some very soft veggies laying around so they can be picked at if the bird chooses to do so.

It's nothing to worry about. Once in a while all parrots lose their wing and tail feathers because the feather has dried up and is ready to fall out so that a new fresh feather can replace it. It will happen at any time, a few times and at any time of the year. No, the bird isn't molting, just replacing old feathers. Sometimes you'll even see more than one feather at the same time.

Posssible names*****no *Rs* Sunny--- ---Paco---- Floyd--- Skye ---- Poncho--- Taz --- --- Ozzie--- Buffy --- ---Joey --Maxi ----Dusty ----Sammy---- Gumby ---- Cisco ----Paddy -----Buster---- Sunshine---- ---- Moonshine -------- Sweetie ---- Tazzy------ Petey---- Juan ----- -----Tweets ----Keiko---Cody---- Okie ----------Minnie ----- ----- ----Kiwi ----- Sunny ----- ----Tino----- Buddy---- Angel ------Yuska -------Zelda ----Tookie ----- Zoey -----Jax----- Ricky------Mokie-----Coco -----Penny----- Molly ------ Peaches -----Candy -----Ozzy------ Bandit -- ------Tango------ Sweet Pea ------ Hogan ------ Sophie-----Elvis ------ Sweet Pea -----Nibbles-----------Mickey---- ----- Dusty------ Belle

Yes, that's the harness I'm talking about. It's sold in many online bird companies. There's only one company that makes them. As far as all the other things you're saying, I'm just gonna say something about parrots--owning a parrot includes getting bitten. All parrots will bite for one reason or another. As time goes on,you may think that action stops but loads of people here will tell you that even because their bird has gotten older, once in a while their parrot bites. That video I posted was just to show you the usual method of putting it on. It had nothing to do with biting or friendliness. Once upon a time, that lady was bitten by the birds that she dealt with concerning harnesses. Almost all parrots get nippy when things like harnesses are first introduced and that includes all the other videos that you saw. Another thing about parrots--this isn't to insult you but greys have the amazing ability to sense fear, wariness, nervousness in a person and when the bird sees that it won't do all the things you want to happen. Luckily concerning greys, they will give off a warning sign before biting and that also applies to wanting to be left alone. Another important thing to know about parrots and I say this about the carrier but it applies to many other things that are happening-- Getting a parrot used to something takes repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition. As things are repeated, the bird will accept them. Befiore he accepts changes, there will be resistance and biting and squawking and growling. Look at all the people who put their birds in carriers and travel all over the place. You're putting to much emphisis on how the bird reacts and you're taking it personally and your bird knows it and will do it again and again until you get control of the situation. Not to insult you but this is your phrase in one of the earlier replies in this thread and it says alot of things ******But how to tart immediately when I don't know anything about it,to be honest, when I don't know much about anything..?***** Because of this you're gonna have to rely on people who do know about loads of subjects and those people won't tell you things that don't apply. The things that are said may be harsh to you but they went through it and they realize that giving advice, no matter what the subject is will help you. When I say that you're gonna get bitten, I speak for hundreds and hundreds of parrot owners who.ve gone through it. PS---I wanna add one more thing to this----- When you purchased that parrot, you bought a wild animal and that parrot will remain wild until the day it dies even if he/she has been a pet for years. A wild animal is totally different than a domestic animal. It's one of the reasons that if a parrot escapes from a house, it's very hard to get the parrot back because when it escapes because it's going into an environment that nature made for that parrot.

Find out if your friend's daughter wants the bird and if she does, just keep the bird with you and teach her how to handle it or just take the bird in and keep it and give it a home.

When I say *start immediately*, I'm talking about getting your bird used to having the Aviator on him. That has nothing to do with training. It's much easier for a young bird to accept that type of item as opposed to an older bird. The harness is used to take the bird outside and to do some training in the house AFTER he's used to the Aviator being on. Treats? All types of nuts, shelled or unshelled. If you're gonna use peanuts, make sure you buy them at a food store because those peanuts are cooked and ready for human consumption. Nutriberries? They're very tiny different seeds that are put in thin molasses and rolled into a ball shape. **He is timid towards new stuff** All greys are, especially Congo greys. It takes quite a while for congos to accept new things. Sometimes, that also includes food, toys, new surroundings, new cages, new people etc.

****-harness (but just to be look at for a time being. I want for him too look at it even if it means for a year.. and when will are ready, to be around. I figured it is a medium size but what would you recommend. Emphasis is on safety and comfort)**** Start it off immediately. The older the bird gets, the more obstinate he/she becomes--get Aviator Flight type, no regular type harness. The medium size is for CAGs The small size is for TAGs

I didn't realize that you were in the UK. That would be a bit too much money to spend for avitech. But I can tell you that a 16 oz jar which is a concentrate will last for about 2 to 3 yrs ( for one bird) Although I'm not familar with the above product I checked your product and it seems okay although I don't know the ingredients like I do with the Avitech. You need to remember that any treatment you use will take about 3 to 6 mts to help your bird so if it's possible to get it in concentrated form will be better. Understand that the skin must be soaked and it should be repeated often so I really don't know how long it will last. That's the same reason I told you to ignore the *premixed bottle that Avitech sells. It's for short term use. If your bird has sores or raw bald stops, it would be a good idea to go to a pharmacy and buy 100% Aloe Vera Gel. Not Juice. A small amount is rubbed on the raw/sore/itching dry spots. The skin absorbs it and soothes and heals the itching dry areas. When the itching and pinching eases up, the bird slows down with picking that area. I'm not sure of the price in the UK but here in the US it's about $5 for 16 oz.

Diane What you have there is a more serious problem than the thread starter has. You'll need a different product to try out. It's different than water, aloe juice. First off, when a bird gets bathed with water, juice or any other product, the most important thing is that the bird's skin gets soaked. Spraying the outer feathers doesn't help with chewing/plucking. Water just runs off their back. Many times, it's a problem to soak down a bird but it must be done especially with chewer/plucker. Growling and nippiness and squawking is something that many greys do when bathing and it's not something that should concern you. You have to put up with it and you shouldn't be worried that you're upstting the bird. The bird needs to be bathed. After any type of bathing, the bird should never be dried by a person. The wetter the skin over a long period of time, the better. All feathers will eventually dry off and it allows the skin to become less dry and the skin becomes softer.It allows the bird to properly preen itself. Type in AVITEC.COM On the left, look for PLUCKING/SCREAMING---click on it Third picture from left ( spray and jar in picture) click on it there's 3 choices 1---premixed bottle 2--small jar, powder in it (8 oz) 3--large jar, powder in it (16 oz) ------- Get either 8 oz or 16 oz jar with powder in it. Stay away from premixed bottle item and also forget about what it says about screaming. All parrots scream. They're parrots. 4 rounded scoops of powder( special tiny scoop is in jar) to 8 oz room temp water in a sprayer/ mister. Shake very well until clumpy pieces in mister are gone. Heavily soak your bird down once a day. If any remains in the sprayer, discard what remains at the end of the day. Repeat this whole thing daily. This is a heavier duty item used for feather problems and it's worked for many problem birds. Remember that the bird needs to be thoroughly soaked daily. There is no set time when you should stop the procedure. It can't hurt the bird

It's difficult to answer about distance without knowing what kind of bulb it is, it's strength but in general, any avian bulb should be about 3 ft or more away from the bird, should be over the bird so it's not directly hitting the bird's face. Wioth some lights, the distance may be farther away.

There's very few diseases that parrots can have that don't show themselves. These diseases are extremely serious and death can occur. Most of these birds need long term treatment with avian DRs. Some will get sick and it'll be obvious. Others will get sick but never show any symptoms. They're know as carriers. Most of the diseases that I'm thinking about will usually kill a small parrot. The reason for quarantine of a new bird is to make sure that the new bird is healthy and can be mixed in with other healthy birds. I don't know where you heard that lovebirds are carriers of any diseases. If the lovebird was a carrier, the first bird to get sick from it would be another lovebird. If the lovebird is a carrier, it would have gotten it from the original parents and others in the clutch may have also been affected. You say all the birds were well including the parents. A carrier of a disease will more than likely infect other species besides greys ( For instance, your amazon, not just greys ). Any of those avian diseases won't affect 4-legged animals. Personally, I think what you heard or read is wrong. Thousands of people have lovebirds mixed in with other species of parrots and have no problems. The birds that are considered high risk carriers of diseases are the wild birds outside ( birds that can't be pets) such as chickadees, titmice, sparrows, robins, crows, juncos, orioles and more. They're known as natural carriers Many deers are also carriers of disease ( deer ticks). Many rodent type animals in the wild are also carriers ( rabbits, squirrels, rats, mice) Your best bet would be to stay with a bird board such as this one so that you can actually see specific problems concerning greys and other species. About the biggest compaint concerning lovebirds is that they're very loud and a small amount of greys will imitate it. Disease? I don't think so but if a vet check will make you feel better, go for it. ***I understand his name should be something easy for him to pronounce. Can you give me some general guidelines about what makes a word easy to pronounce? Should I avoid certain letters? Only use one or two syllables?*** A grey will pick up just about any name or sound that's appealing. Not all greys like the same thing. It's an individual thing. As far as actual talking, it's not a good idea to only use one word. Greys are well known for imitating sentences and those sentences should have highs and lows in it. Understand that some greys may never talk in the human language at all so don't get the bird because of talking abilities.

Yes, that's what he was doing. That'll happen many times because the bird is normally with the parents at that age. So, expect to see it periodically.

There's nothing wrong that he's doing that should worry you. Some like doing that to test the texture and hardness of things. Sometimes, it can lead to biting the item if he knows what he's about to bite on. Some other birds like doing the same thing to food/water bowls. Others like to do it to the bars on the cage. Don't get worried.

If she ontinually bites, you need to put her back in her cage adding on * thats no* and leave her alone. When she tries it again, same procedure. Many times, it has to be done over and over before they get the message. Flicking her beak hard or soft won't work at all. It'll only get her angrier the next time she's on you. By the way, how long have you had this bird? If you just got her, it may be that she has lots more to get used to before bathing PLUS bathing isn't very important right now. Don't believe everything you read. A small trick---if she's on your hand or arm and she bites, slightly move your hand or arm. She'll pay lots more attention to losing her tight grip on you and will settle down.

Yes, biting is normal when a grey gets to that young age of wanting to test the waters and see what he/she can get away with. It's also the time for people to show bad reactions to getting bitten. The bird needs to know that biting isn't the way to achieve anything. We have a section on the board called Body Language which you should look at if you're a first time owner. That lets you see what a bird will do before he actually does it. It stops a lot of biting incidents. Showering is simply taking your bird to a shower and letting him/her see what's going on without putting the bird in the shower. After a while a bird will get used to seeing that area and what's going on. My method before trying to put a bird on a shower perch is to simply put the bird on the bottom of the tub and letting him get used to feeling the water splash around. Next step--try to lightly mist the bird so he/she gets used to getting wet. After that is done for a while, the next step is to have your bird on your arm to get used to getting wet with the owner. Next step by some people is to perch a special perch that suctions onto the wall of the shower and putting your bird on it. If the bird wants to get wet, he/she will open his wings. You can repeat this many times until your bird gets used to it. On the other hand, many won't tolerate any type of shower or even getting bathed. Many greys are like that.In that case, misting is the best thing to do. If a bird is anti water, it will show displeasure with any type of getting wet. In that case the person needs to manually soak the bird and than let the bird drip dry. They may squawk or growl but when it's over, a bird will proceed to preen itself and there won't be any attitudes.

********If you have detailed content of the Nekton S please do write. ******** There's no way to give you the exact ingredients in the nekton products but if you open the link below, you'll see all of the Nekton products and the descriptions of each. That's the best I can do. http://www.centralah.com/NektonProd.htm

Hi, welcome to the board. If you ever wanna sex your bird, there's 2 ways of doing it so in the future you decide to, we'll tell you how to go about it. A vet can do it or you just need to mail out a tiny blood sample or a couple of feathers to a specific place and you'll get the results in the mail. As far as advice, there's loads of that on the board. Lots of other people have just gotten their bird too. Check out our Nursery Room.

Well, I gave you a list of things that have natural calcium. I told you about calcium blocks which may not work and you said they don't work. I'm not surprised. You say that you've failed with veggies but that's gonna take a long time to convince your bird to eat them. Patience. As far as poultry and protein bones, they must be cleaned thoroughly after you eat them and if possible they should not be fried. Since your vet has definitely diagnosed your bird with calcium deficieny, I would follow his instructions concerning what to give. We're not vets here so we don't like overriding the vet's suggestions. I'm just surprised that he hasn't given you that calcium supplement yet because he already knows the problem exists but all vets are different. If you wanna use tinkerbell mash, then do that. If it doesn't work, there's other recipes that can be used. A long time ago, Dan invented one that worked very well and if he's around, he'll give you his recipe. There are others. As far as your lamp, if I'm not mistaken it's a screw in type. About 6/7 inches long. Your bulb like many other avian bulbs are fine to use as long as the light isn't aimed at the bird's face. It needs to be above the bird ( about 2 ft). How much time? Some people keep them on for 1 or 2 or 3 hrs. Others keep them on all day. Some birds benefit from the light and others don't. It's a personal choice. I have 3 greys in one large room and have never used any type of avian bulb and throughout the past years, they're perfectly fine. Again, a personal choice. I'm not a big fan of vitamins that are put in water because greys don't drink a lot of so the water gets messed up. Wanna use them, fine. Again, your choice. Ask your vet about these things.

Nekson S, Nekton Bio, Nekton E All are general all purpose multi-vitamins that are used for small parrots plus softbills such as canaries and finches , none of which come from Africa. Greys get their calcium from different foods. If a person's grey is eating a varierty of foods such as very green veggies and good quality parrot mix and other human foods, their calcium levels remain good. A grey will benefit from items such as chicken and turkey bones which are pure calcium. Red meat bones provide proteins. There's other items that can add calcium to the bird such as oyster chips mixed in solid food and large mineral blocks. Again, many parrots won't eat mineral blocks or cuttle bone . Oyster chips have a better chance of being eaten. Many greys use mineral blocks and cuttle bone to file or rub their beaks to file them. Adding multi vitamins to a bird that doesn't need them is a waste of money and a grey doesn't benefit from those types of items. The 3 most important vitamins that greys need are Vit A, Vit E and Vit D3. The first 2 can be had with palm oil. The third comes from natural unfiltered sunlight or from special Avian lamps. Many times, the lamps don't really work for some people because they don't use them correctly because there's a variety of bulb strengths available. Do you think your grey is calcium deficient? Only a vet can determine that and suggest what to do.

*****its just her poo's are normally rather promonant green and splodgy along with clear and white....sometimes she just does clear fluid (which i presume is a wee) so when they changed colour late yesterday and all day today i just started getting in a complete tizz about it****** Everything you now describe is perfectly normal. When a bird defecates solid matter, there's usually a white or clear fluid or both surrounding it. That's urine. The biggest dump of the day takes place in the morning. Some days it's soft and mushy, other days it hard like and looks like a worm like green dropping. The rest of the day your bird will be urinating so it will look clear or white and not very big. Very little fecal matter will come out. Color wise, fecal matter isn't the same color 24/7. It varies. If there was a medical problem, it would be digestive and your bird wouldn't eat, play or be very active. PS--I would stop that multi-vitamin mixed in water. They don't need that type of thing. Parrots don't drink alot. Liquid vitamins can messs up the water and if you have hard water, that can happen even quicker. Medium to large sized parrots don't need liquid vitamins. They get their vitamins from food

Welcome to our perch. Enjoy yourself and talk about whatever you like. People here like to see pictures if you have any. Take care.

The most common reason that happens ( if illness isn't involved) is a change of diet or different amounts or percentages of the diet that's given. It can also happen when certain fruits are given because fruit is acidic. It can happen when a feeding routine is changed such as only giving the bird meals at certain times of the day. Solid food should be available for the bird to eat all day long. Soft stool can also occur when the water isn't clean or has too much chlorine in it. You need to worry when no color is spotted and all of it is liquid. Seed diets cause green stool. Various colored pellets cause orange, red, dark red, brown stools. The clear or white fluids you see are urates ( urine) which come out all day with very little solid stool. The largest amount of stool coming out occurs in the morning. Some will be solid, some will be gooey and soupy and will include urine. Long lasting problems should be checked by a vet. He'll want a stool sample.

This type of illness causes much weight loss. Getting back to normal ( weight wise) will take a long time especially because your bird is a grey. In general, Greys aren't known to gain weight even if they're fed fatty foods. They can however lose weight easily and it takes different amounts of time for the weight to return depending upon what the weight loss was caused by. A grey may get the weight back if what caused it was a minor problem. What your bird has isn't minor. It requires different medications and most important, antibiotics which can prohibit weight gain. Different vets deal with the problem in a variety of ways but no matter what method is used, it will involve antibiotics and other anti-fungal medications. The main thing the vet is probably doing is trying to prevent further spreading of the illness to other organs. This type of illness will take quite a while to calm down and there's a good chance that when your bird gets well, not all the weight that was lost will fully return. That doesn't mean that your bird will be sick, it's only because the drugs that are used will prevent full weight gain. There's also a possibility that the illness may reacur and drugs will need to be given again. Human example---a person may have internal growths and the problem is treated with medication and removal of those growths. But that person will have to get reexamined periodically to see if the growths reappear and if they do, the healing process( including medications and growth removal) needs to be done over again. Many women here will understand exactly what I'm talking about concerning growths. Reopen the Health Room area. I put in a big post explaining this illness in more detail. It'll show you the whole process of diagnosis and treatment methods and lengths of time that treatment is used.