SFsailor

Hehe. Its really neat when they stare at u in the morning. I wonder what they are thinking?

My CAG is also a fully cage free bird (except for when she goes into her travel carrier for a trip outside). The problems with this are that they will chew on stuff that you don't want them to (currently Bappy is destroying a 8 year old backpack of mine <but I'm letting her do this as a treat and diversion). But I just consider that a price I am willing to pay. Of course you need to get all dangerous things out of the area she is in. And I would replace all electrical sockets with GFI sockets, and put all electrical cords in metal sheaths along with armored plugs. The benefits of this free free environment I feel are substantial. It allows the bird freedom to "do their own thing" which really de-stresses them. You are also able to observe their real personality. For instance, my bird will choose new place to perch every now and then. She will also almost always choose to sleep as close as possible to my head, which I think is kinda neat and a showing of affection on her part. I could go on but I'm in a rush... And finally.... WHY cage the prettiest creatures?<br><br>Post edited by: SFsailor, at: 2008/07/24 17:56

Well, If your bird doesn't want a bath and is biting you... I suggest wrapping your hand/arm in a towel or shirt, put the bird on the hand/arm and then holding the bird under the shower. My bird loves showers but HATES getting misted with a spray bottle. I used the towel/shirt method only once when bappy started to make dinosaur sounds to express her desire not to take a shower at that moment, worked fine.

That could very well be. Delta was charging only $80, instead of $100, back in 10/2008.

I recently heard that a microchip is going to be coming out that is GPS enabled. Has anyone else heard of this? If so can you point me in the direction of the information on it?

Nice reply with a lot of information. Karma point for you!

There are a couple more airlines that will transport birds. Check on their websites. I have traveled with my CAG on Delta. THE WAY TO GO is with the AG as a carry-on. This avoids you having to get a health certificate (usually around $40), and you are in constant control of your beloved. As for the carrier.... Use a cat carrier that will fit under the seat. I got a soft one from Petsmart in their clearance bin for $7. I then lined and sowed the carrier with window screen, so the bird would chew through it. IMPORTANTLY, when going through security tell the 1st person you meet at the security station that you have a bird and would request that if they want to examine the carrier you need to take the bird into a closed room to take it out of the carrier. This will make it a lot smoother for you, the bird and the security.

I got my 9 year old CAG from a private party for $495 USD in Colorado.

Talon: Why are candles a NO? Are oil burning lamps OK?

I don't buy this list. 22 years for a dog is unheard of. I always thought AG had lifespans in the 30-40 year range. While birds like cockatoo can live to 90.

Yes, I was personal attacked. Someone called me "retarded" and other choice words. That is a personal attack, and has no place in civilized discussions. Yes, I am aware of the bird flu. I Even know where they come from. DO YOU??? For you information there are few places that are as disease free as a sailboat at sea, or even anchor. I actually do have a "cage" for her. Its just a chicken wire enclosure around windows that she can go in and out of, so she can go outside. This bird has not been full-flighted before, only for the last year. I DO NOT take her outside, except when we "peak" outside the hatch and I am holding her real close to my chest, OR after she has taken a shower and couldn't fly anyways because of being soaked. But like I said I WILL be taking her outside W/O harness (or maybe with) after the clipping. I have had a Cockatoo before that I did this with and never had a problem, infact it was one of the joys of her life to go riding with me. Finally, I am really dissapointed in all the close minded diatribe that has been shot at me. It seems not one person her realizes that being full flighted is what she needs to be. Because AGAIN, I live on the water. If she can not fly and escaped she would go into the ocean and SURELY drown, and drowning is not fun way to go. That would make me feel a million times worse than if she flew away. I will be writing a post on here to explain what I think should be done when your AG escapes, since I have so much experience with, and the only reason why I bother to visit this forum is to read the good advice and experiences that others have had with thier birds.

HEHE I knew there was some critism out there. But please leave personal attacks out. Everyone is unique. I as I stated, I am more worried about her drowning in the water then flying away. Yes I know Grey's are not "homing" (but you are very wrong if you think they are not capable of returning to their nest, i.e. in the wild they sure know what where there nest is. Birds have been shown to have some of the most developed cognitive maps. etc...) they just need retrained to be able to do it, Yes I know it is dangerous to have her flighted w/o a cage. The main reason for this is because they are one of the more easily startled birds. That being said, My CAG does/has stay in the neighborhood when "out on the lam" She also actively makes calls to find me. She is now actively chasing after me when she sees me (note the wall incident). As for the foriegn country thing. It is a necessacity. Should I just give up on something, just because others don't understand or not fully aware of my plan to train her? My next step in her training is to get her a severe wing clipping. After this I will take her out on my shoulder when I go out on my daily bike rides. Hopefully this will help her brain by her being better able to build a cognitive map of her surroundings. Gotta fly.<br><br>Post edited by: SFsailor, at: 2008/06/11 03:56

Hello, Thanks for the good advice. Aloe was the way to go. (Luckily for me, my CAG will let me play with his face/beak so I had no trouble put the liquid there). For those concerned about bird and her full-flight ability, I feel a longer explaination of what happened is due.... Me and my bird currently live on a sailboat. She does not have a cage, and had almost full run of the boat. Needless to say she loves this situation and has REALLY grow in it. I however am not so "hot" on it because..... These CAG's put out A LOT of parrot dander/dust. This dust gets everywhere, and I would really hate to think of all the parrot dust I am breathing because I am basically living right next to her...cough, cough. So, I have her full-flighted right now so that if she does escape (and she has) she will be able fly, instead of not flying and going into the ocean (which is about 55 degrees F) and drowning. I also want her to be able to fly away from the boat, and then return, when I am entering a foriegn country and they don't allow birds there. Finally as, for her flying into a wall... here's what happened. She got out and flew, (full power, always flapping) over to a tree. The branch she was on was really high up, so I tried to get her down with a long pole, she then flew off into the direction of the setting sun and I lost her in the glare. So I then spent the next 1-2 hours looking for her in the area she was last seen. Strangely I didn't hear a peep from her. (Because all the lasts times I found her was ONLY by her calling out) Well, anyway the sun was set and I was just about ready to call it off for the night, when I suddendly saw a bird that looked like her fly by me then take a hard left after it flew past me. ( I was right on the corner of a 3 story hotel at this time, and I remember thinking, "How could a bird make that turn without hitting the wall") Well, I went to investigate and there she was, she had hit the wall and fell to the ground in a fenced in area where the hotel kept some stuff outside. The "cut" that I orginally thought she had was actaully not a cut at all. It just rubbed the white off her skin. Eventually the skin scabbed over and now has returned to white, and Birdie seems none to worse for the wear. Gotta run. And again thanks for the good advice.<br><br>Post edited by: SFsailor, at: 2008/06/10 21:30

Old Bappy augered into a wall today (thats the short story of her 4th escape and subsequent recapture) and she recieved a little 1/4 inch gash between her beak and eye. It didn't bleed any or much at all. Tommorow morning I will take her to the shower and give her a good drenching shower.After the shower how should I treat the cut? disinfect it with Hydrogen peroxide? Iodine?, put petroleum jelly on it? I am a litte concern about the location because it is an area that gets "touched/rubbed" a lot when she preens herself. Post edited by: SFsailor, at: 2008/06/02 06:51<br><br>Post edited by: SFsailor, at: 2008/06/02 06:53

Just to chime in... My CAG's wings are full-flight and she is very capable of flying (and rather good at it now after the initial crashes). I plan on leaving her wings unclipped and teaching her to fly and return. If this ends up in me losing her someday... well I will be sad... but... I am in a unique situation... I plan on going around the world in my sailboat and in most countries you can't bring a bird. SO... my plan is for her to fly away (or fly up to a perch on top of the boat mast) while the border guards check-in my vessel. Does anyone here have an experience with Grey's free flying and returning to home???

I had this problem of getting my CAG back into his cage. 1 way that worked for me was to put her favorite food in the cage and wait for her to go get it The other way was to simply chase her around the outside of the cage until she went into the door.

I am also experiencing this behavior (reguritating, whimpering, beak rubbing) with my CAG, except that she will raise her wings... At first I thought something was wrong with her But from what I have read she is only showing signs of affection and possible mating behaviors. What are the disadvantages to this behavior?

I have owned a Citron Crested Cockatoo and a CAG.... And I would say that the CAG is more noisy than the Cockatoo. The CAG starts singing/chirping 1st think in the morning, while my Cockatoo wouldn't say much more than Good morning, in the morning. THe CAG also sings right before bed.

I am moving back to California this Halloween with my CAG. We are flying on Delta because they allow you to carry on the bird ($80 extra, but no Health certifcate needed... If you ship the bird as cargo on Delta they cahrge $150 and u need a health certificate issued by a Vet no more than 10 days before the travel date), but the carry-on cage can only be 8" tall if its hard sided and 12" tall if its soft sided ( I have both just in case). I am leaving his old cage in Colorado and plan on getting a new cage in CA because the size of the cage makes shipping not worth the expense. Let you guys know how it turns out.

I to also plan on taking my CAG on a airline within a month or so. I am flying from Denver to San Francisco/Oakland. Has anyone on here actaully flown with a African Grey on any of the Airline carriers in the United States? If so were you allowed to take the bird in the cabin with you? Did you have to take the bird out of the carrier while going through the security check point? What type of pet carrier did you use?

Well I do have a Bird Dog (Black Lab) and a Birdie (CAG) and they get along just fine. Never any issues between them. Bird Dog knows we like Birdie so she doesn't bother him and Birdie knows to give the Dog room. Bird Dog started eating peanuts after she saw that we were giving them to Birdie. (its pretty funny... the dog will actually shell the peanut before it attempts to eat it) And Birdie tries to play with the golfballs that Bird Dog is always playing with

There are 3 major types of air cleaners. Filter, ionizer and Ozone. I already explained the latter two. Filter air cleaners pass air through a filter (obviously) that traps molecules larger than a certain size, and if you have a bird I could see these as not being the ideal choice because they would tend to clog up with all the dander and stuff. The filters can also be pretty expensive when you have to replace them. Anyone else know more about filter air cleaners?

Yeah, I 100% positive about this. Ozone generators are bad and ionizers are not. Also Ionizers will only ionize in the close proximity around them, because the "ionized" molecules quickly attach to something else and settle. While Ozone can float anywhere and has the potential to create even more "free oxygen radicals" where ever it goes. Which is bad. Ionizers are relatively cheap. You can get one that will take care of a bathroom sized room for around $10 USD. The ones from Sharper Image are hi end, and probably worth the extra money if u can afford it because they use the negatively charged plate and this makes for easy cleaning of the "ionized" molecules that you have taken out of the air. Without these plates the ionized particles will collect around the ionizer and after awhile you will see a light brown muck which is all of the ionized particles.<br><br>Post edited by: SFsailor, at: 2007/08/10 16:30

WOAH!!! Ionizers ARE NOT BAD. Ozone generators are bad. Quick chem lesson. Ionizers create/put a negative charge on a molecule. The molecule is then attracted to other negatives (like the ground or a negatively charged plate). There is nothing exotic or harmful about this. In fact most molecules carry either a negative or positive charge. Ozone on the other hand is bad because it is a "radical" oxygen molecule. oxygen is the most reactive atom there is in normal chemistry. But ozone is an more reactive type of oxygen because it will break down and has "free electrons" these free electrons will easily "attack" other molecules and causes a change in that molecule usually bad. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone Hope that helps clear up your misunderstanding!

HEHE.... thats funny. Lately I have been going to Utube and finding parrot videos and then turning up the sound and aiming the speakers at my bird. Its SO funny. The bird knows its a bird sound but doesn't quite understand it...