kpflynn

My wife got a call from her friend at the commissary. She wanted to know what parrots eat. One of the employees went outside to smoke early this morning and the wayward parrot landed on their shoulder. They fed and watered it, then took it to a local vet who agreed to try and locate the owner.

Last night (2 Nov) my wife got a call from her friend saying that there was a small green parrot in a tree next to the building they work at. I grabbed a step ladder, flashlight, cage, and net. We drove there and found the bird. It was dark out so I'm not sure, but I think it was a conure. I set up the ladder and tried to talk the bird into coming to me. After a while I tried to catch it in the net. It flew to another tree. I tried the same tactic and failed again. We couldn't find it again but I'm sure it didn't go far. I think if it was daytime I would have had more luck. I looked for missing pets on Craig's List but didn't find any. This was next to the commissary on Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi. There are a lot of Cooper Hawks in the area. I might drive out there again during lunch break.

Thanks for all the comments. I'm glad I'm not alone in my crazy misadventures.

I lost Beautiful in the house! My perching finger was a little sore so I wrapped some white medical tape on it before getting Beautiful. She climbed onto my finger and when she saw the tape she freaked out and flew from her cage and took a right at the front door and flew down the hallway. I wasn't concerned because she always comes looking for me when she lands. I expected her to come walking down the hall asking to step up. I took the tape off my finger and called her. I went into the front dining room. She wasn't there. I went to the bedroom and she wasn't there. I checked the laundry room and bathroom. She wasn't in the den. I started to panic. I thought she might have fallen into a toilet. After searching for about ten more minutes I found her sitting motionless on a potted plant in the front dining room. I picked her up and she took flight again! Once again she had completely disappeared. I found her a little more quickly because I heard her moving behind a sofa in the den. I had to restrain her while walking to her cage. I'll never put tape on my finger again! She seems to be afraid of white things. She returned to normal after relaxing in her cage for about an hour.

My wife has rules about meal time. Beautiful has to be in her cage. As we eat Beautiful will say, "Want some please!" I will get up and feed her something. This will continue until we're done eating. I end up walking back and forth a dozen times.

My girl loves vegetables if they are cooked and still warm. She will almost swallow them whole. She will eat raw vegetables, but only as a last option.

The Llamas are also wearing flight harnesses. Very cool pictures!

My bird has two travel cages and her usual big cage. These three cages all have a variety of perches for her; however, when she sleeps she always roosts on the lip of a water dish. She only roosts there to sleep. This seems so uncomfortable to me. Is there a reason she does this, or is it just some strange behavior?

It did come with a DVD. I've also watched everything I could find on Youtube. I think most of them just show the highlites instead of the many hours of training it actually takes. We'll keep on working on it. Thanks.

What really lulled me into a false sense of security was her numerous feeble attempts to fly. She would always frantically flap and only fly a few short feet. There wasn't even a wind blowing the day she took off. It's almost like she was faking it until she decided to go. She isn't making a lot of progress with her harness training, but she is making some. I'm trying to walk the line between pushing her enough to make progress and not being so aggressive that she gets frightened of the harness. She's been putting her head through the loop long enough to grab a snack. I thought we would be farther along by this time.

Wow! They truly are like two-year-old children. If there's a way to get into trouble, they'll find it. I wonder how they ever survive in the wild. I suppose there aren't too many Adirondack chairs in the African jungle.

I should be receiving the harness sometime tomorrow.

I think back to all the times at the campground where I played with her on the picnic table next to the big lake. If she would have decided to fly she would probably have crashed half way across the lake.

I've read the warnings on the forums; "even a clipped parrot can fly if it really wants to." I wouldn't happen to me though. Even though I've only had my little girl since January, she loves me very much. She will let me hold her upside down. I handle her for hours every day. She always wants to be next to me. Also, my wife and I just clipped her wings two weeks ago. My parrot is only a year and a half old. She's never flown in her short life. Occasionally she will jump from her cage top and fly for about 7 feet. When she lands she immediately want to be picked up. She is entirely unmotivated and unable to fly. I take her out on our front porch about three or four times a week and let her take a bath in her cake pan. She never wants to fly away. This morning there was no wind blowing. I took her out the front door and she immediately took off and flew across the yard. She gained altitude quickly and kept flying away in the same direction. I frantically ran after her. She was higher than our two-story house. Our property has many tall pine and water oaks. She was above all the trees and flying away quickly. I didn't even think to shout out to her. She crossed the road and finally changed directions. She flew over the neighbor's pond and flushed their geese. She was making a big loop back to our property and I lost her in the sun. It took me a few seconds to find her again. She was very high and making another big loop around the neighborhood. After her third loop she started to descend. She made a landing in back of our property in the grass. All the local wild birds were going crazy. I tried not to run and frighten her. She was sitting in the grass waiting for me to come pick her up. Once I got her in my hands I restrained her and walked back to the house. She would have normally wiggled and complain about being restrained, but she didn't this time. I got her back in the house. We were both very sweaty. She was very quiet for the next four hours. It almost seems like she was faking her inability to fly all this time. It was a pretty good flight for her first time. She really did look beautiful flying overhead with her red tail. My wife always warns me about taking her outside. She's been outside hundereds of times before. I guess I should have been more aggressive with the clipping. We followed directions from a Youtube of an Austrailian vet clipping a cockateil. I think I'll get a harness instead.

We take our bird with us in our travel trailer when we camp. She doesn't care too much for the smaller cage but enjoys camping. She screams at all the wild birds flying around.

During the week I wake up about an hour before the sun comes up. I let my bird, Beautiful, out of her cage and let her take her morning poop. We play and talk for about a half hour. Then I change her water and give her some fruit and vegetables. I put her back in her cage and leave for work. My wife wakes up an hour after I leave and she keeps Beautiful in the cage but talks with her while getting ready for work. After my wife goes to work Beautiful stays home alone in her cage for about eight hours. As soon as we get home we let Beautiful out of her cage and we all eat. I usually take her out to the front porch and let her take a bath after our meal. She stays out of her cage until we go to bed. I interact with her most during the evening hours. On weekends we don't have a routine at all.

My girl, Beautiful, is a 15 months old CAG. She is very active and climbs all over her cage while talking and making funny noises. She loves to play rough and loves to be chased. She's never bitten me hard, only play-bites. She does have quiet times where she prefers a face massage and head scratches. I'm sure she will change as she gets older, but I hope not too much. She loves to snuggle.

I am a male and have a female CAG. She loves me very much and allows me to hold her upside down. She is a very sweet bird to me. She only tollerates my wife. She will accept snacks from my wife but will not step up for her or allow her to touch her cage.

My bird seems fascinated by the human ability to jump off the ground. I will jump up and down while saying Jump, Jump, Jump. She really seems to enjoy watching me do this. Several times a day she will make an up-and-down motion with her head while saying Jump, Jump. If I don't do it right away she will say, come on! My wife thinks it's funny that the bird taught me to do a trick.

I have a female grey. I'm a male. She loves me and tolerates my wife. I can play with her like she is a puppy. I will tickle her under her wings and she'll run away giggling. She'll then run right back and lift her wings to be tickled again. She will let me hold her on her back and rock her like a baby. She is very active. She plays and talks almost non-stop. Although I've only had her since January I've never been bitten. I don't know if this is normal for a female. She is 13 months old.

If you want to get him to step up or get off your shoulder and he refuses, you might try and bribe him. If I need to put my bird back in her cage and she's not in the mood to go I'll show her a sunflower seed and she'll do whatever I want her to.

Maybe I'm just anthropomorphizing, but I think my bird misses being a baby. She's 13 months old seems happy and very well adjusted. She doesn't care much for raw vegetables but if they're cooked and slightly warm she almost swallows them whole. It's the same with oatmeal. I wonder if she can remember being fed warm food as a baby? Also, we were watching some video of African greys on TV. She seemed very disinterested until we watched one of some baby greys making baby noises. She was fixated to the TV. Maybe it's just instinctual but it almost seems like she has memories of being a little fledgling.

I bought an eight month old grey from a pet store two months ago. One of the greys the pet store had for sale had a band, one didn't. They both had a "hatch certificate" and a DNA printout. I bought the one without the band. I took her to a vet and he said the band isn't as important as it once was when wild-caught greys were being imported to the US. I wouldn't want a band unless you were planning on taking the bird outside the country.

You're so right. I'm very glad I was forced into getting the large cage. It's so fun to watch my little girl playing in there. She climbs around like a squirrel.

That's all good to hear. I've only had our parrot for about eight weeks. My wife and I go camping a lot and I was a little worried about how our little grey would handle the trip. It was really fun having her with us.